Steve H

there are quite a few reasons why I decided to stay as-is with cables. In no particular order:-

-I was overdue on the loan pairs and rather than make a rush decision I sent them back (Thanks to Missing Link should they read this)
-there was no clear winner even though the sound did change very subtly
-the degree of change wasn't worth (to me) �400 either in absolute terms or relative to the cost of the DSP's especially as I could be definitive about the sound I preferred
-I was mulling over many of the responses here (thanks for all of those, esp george M...they were very helpful if challenging at times)
-the perception of the degree of change in cables did vary day by day....depending on what was in my belly, daily stresses in my head and also what type CD I was playing amongst many other variables I'd guess
-I was beginning to subscribe to the chrislayeruk school of thought and wanted to get back to enjoying the music (cheers Chris wink )
-actually all the cords sounded good, or should I say the 8k's sounded good regardless. Was I worrying about the thickness of the souls of my shoes stood on top of Mt Everest ???
-thinking about the live switching of two rigs (as per Mark H's comments) I just tested the setup I'd done a week or so before whereby 598 goes straight into D1 and also via G68/MRC into D2 of the 8k's. Pressing CD or DVD toggles between them whilst a disc is playing. Doing this makes an enourmous difference (for many reasons) which put the scale of changes I was trying to track down into some sort of persepctive (a little voice in the back of my head had had enough and was telling me to get a life wink ).
-Other tweaks, like speaker placement, toe-in etc, make for much greater changes too (in my system).

Incidentally, I chatted with Mark at Missing Link a while ago and indeed he does not make any claims about what his cables will actually do. He indicated a purely technical approach to what each cable can do electrically including measurments. It was possibly that approach which triggered my original question.


So, this leaves me much where I started. I believe that power cables can alter sound. I am still curious about why this is and exactly what is going on with all of the above tech-talk. Some people will no doubt hear enough beneficial change to make it absolutely worthwhile (not me on this occasion). Some people will also have bought them regardless, hear nothing yet feel great about what they have. Nothing wrong with any of that I reckon.

Cheers all.

PS keep the tech-talk coming if you have it...

Rgds,
Nick