TIL that guy in the guitar shop who said expensive cables make you sound better had never even blind-tested them

I brought my $15 Monoprice cable in for a setup and he spent 10 minutes lecturing me about signal loss, so I asked him to do a double blind test with his $80 Mogami and he couldn't tell the difference once, has anyone else run into this kind of audio snobbery?

3 comments

3 Comments

emma_garcia3d ago

I actually watched a pretty good video by a sound engineer who tested all kinds of cables blind and the expensive ones failed the test just as much as the cheap ones. He used a proper blind setup with a switcher box so nobody could cheat. The biggest difference he found was just build quality, like the connectors felt sturdier and the outer jacket was thicker, not any magic in the sound. That shop guy probably just got used to his fancy cord and convinced himself it made everything better. Placebo is a strong thing when you drop $80 on a wire, you know?

emma_baker613d ago

Oh come on, is this REALLY something we need to take THAT seriously? Like, yeah, blind tests are cool and all, but let's be real here - if someone wants to drop $80 on a cable because it makes them FEEL good about their setup, who cares? It's not like they're buying a car or a house based on this stuff. I mean, I get the point about placebo and build quality, but the whole "exposed" tone of this feels a bit much. It's a wire, not a life decision, you know? If the guy at the shop likes his fancy cable, let him have his fun - it's not hurting anybody.

evan5433d ago

Haha, yeah, that "dropping $80 on a wire" part hit close to home. I once bought a "premium" HDMI cable for my TV thinking it would make Netflix look like I was staring out a window or something (it didn't). You're totally right about the placebo thing - I've definitely convinced myself a cheap cable sounded "muddy" before, then swapped it with the expensive one and couldn't tell the difference in a blind test I did with my buddy. The build quality part makes sense though, because I've had cheap cables just fall apart at the connector after a few months. But yeah, unless you're recording in a studio where a cable snaps mid-take, save your money and just get the decent mid-range ones, you know?