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Are you still on the gear matching game?
I guess for most of us, the answer is still yes...It is probably to different extent and towards different musical objectives. But one thing I do notice is people, including myself, tend to give all the credits to the last component / cable added to the system and put the blame to the one replaced out...or more interestingly vice versa.
To many, it is not easy to find a reference point on what is really 'neutral' in whatever hi-fi terminology that we use. Is this gear too fast? Is this cable too bright? Where is the reference point where one could put a 'zero' mark so that on the right hand of the scale, it is over and on the left hand side, it is under? For me, in many past occasions, I need to fix the cable, swap using it with different gears and fix the gear and swap using different brands of cable in order to tell the relativity...of course, this also involves certain level of subjectivity and my own understanding of the genuine musical performance. The more combinations that I could try, the more certain that I am about on the characteristics of the particular component or cable.
Whilst I cannot safely conclude the Argento cables are absolutely neutral in all sense, I am fairly confident to say that of the many cables that I have used, Argento exhibits the least coloration and produces the highest level of clarity and details that I have ever experienced. Be it SMR, SMR SE, SMR EE and the latest Flow. Sounds like I am turning this forum topic into an advertisement for Argento. May be I am and may be I am not as it all up to people's interpretation. What I want to say about Argento cable is it is closest to my 'zero' mark in many sacles that I use to evaluate it. I still remember when I debated this with Ho Sxm if a suite of cable would be good or bad for a system. Ho Sxm's view is it would magnify the strength of the cable but at the same time expose the weakness of the cable in multiple fold is one uses the same brand of cable. At that time, I was already using a whole suite of SMR EE cable , end-to-end when he did the home visit. He may have lot of experience on cables to draw this observation and I would have readily agreed with him on many brands of cable in the market. So the argument is whether Argento cable is on the 'zero mark' of other's own scale or it is their own system which they have marked a 'zero mark' on before replacing a cable with another one.
The reason why I said the above is I was on the phone with a friend who asked me if he should try Argeno cable on his gear. I asked him what gear he is using and whether he thinks his gear is neutral enough. My analogy to him was, if his gear is '-1' on say speed, and he has a cable of '+1' on speed, he may already have achieved an equilibrium of 'zero' on speed from a total system perspective. Replacing the cable by Argento which to me is '0' would yield a total performance of '-1' on speed and one may easily draw a conclusion that Argento is too slow...I heard exactly the same dilemma where 2 of my friends have drawn an opposite assessment to the same cable on their own system.
What do I want to say, oher than attempting to make an advertisement? Whilst we are having fun with all the gear matching game, we should always give the component / cable concerned at least 2 chances to exhibit its characteristics. There are so many factors that would cause significant diversion from truth, human psychology, room acoustics, neutrality of the system beofre the component / cable is installed...
I am known to this forum / net as a full house Argento user so many friends tend to seek my views on the cable but honestly I believe no cable would meet the needs / expectations of all, that is why we have such a big market and big diversity. Great fun and I continue to look for 'super power' to emerge. I heard JenaLab has got a new flagship called 'Awakening'. A friend of mine in Taiwan may try and I hope he could share more after comparing it with SMR EE on many of his systems to let us know objectively how these 2 great species are compared.
Marvel
To many, it is not easy to find a reference point on what is really 'neutral' in whatever hi-fi terminology that we use. Is this gear too fast? Is this cable too bright? Where is the reference point where one could put a 'zero' mark so that on the right hand of the scale, it is over and on the left hand side, it is under? For me, in many past occasions, I need to fix the cable, swap using it with different gears and fix the gear and swap using different brands of cable in order to tell the relativity...of course, this also involves certain level of subjectivity and my own understanding of the genuine musical performance. The more combinations that I could try, the more certain that I am about on the characteristics of the particular component or cable.
Whilst I cannot safely conclude the Argento cables are absolutely neutral in all sense, I am fairly confident to say that of the many cables that I have used, Argento exhibits the least coloration and produces the highest level of clarity and details that I have ever experienced. Be it SMR, SMR SE, SMR EE and the latest Flow. Sounds like I am turning this forum topic into an advertisement for Argento. May be I am and may be I am not as it all up to people's interpretation. What I want to say about Argento cable is it is closest to my 'zero' mark in many sacles that I use to evaluate it. I still remember when I debated this with Ho Sxm if a suite of cable would be good or bad for a system. Ho Sxm's view is it would magnify the strength of the cable but at the same time expose the weakness of the cable in multiple fold is one uses the same brand of cable. At that time, I was already using a whole suite of SMR EE cable , end-to-end when he did the home visit. He may have lot of experience on cables to draw this observation and I would have readily agreed with him on many brands of cable in the market. So the argument is whether Argento cable is on the 'zero mark' of other's own scale or it is their own system which they have marked a 'zero mark' on before replacing a cable with another one.
The reason why I said the above is I was on the phone with a friend who asked me if he should try Argeno cable on his gear. I asked him what gear he is using and whether he thinks his gear is neutral enough. My analogy to him was, if his gear is '-1' on say speed, and he has a cable of '+1' on speed, he may already have achieved an equilibrium of 'zero' on speed from a total system perspective. Replacing the cable by Argento which to me is '0' would yield a total performance of '-1' on speed and one may easily draw a conclusion that Argento is too slow...I heard exactly the same dilemma where 2 of my friends have drawn an opposite assessment to the same cable on their own system.
What do I want to say, oher than attempting to make an advertisement? Whilst we are having fun with all the gear matching game, we should always give the component / cable concerned at least 2 chances to exhibit its characteristics. There are so many factors that would cause significant diversion from truth, human psychology, room acoustics, neutrality of the system beofre the component / cable is installed...
I am known to this forum / net as a full house Argento user so many friends tend to seek my views on the cable but honestly I believe no cable would meet the needs / expectations of all, that is why we have such a big market and big diversity. Great fun and I continue to look for 'super power' to emerge. I heard JenaLab has got a new flagship called 'Awakening'. A friend of mine in Taiwan may try and I hope he could share more after comparing it with SMR EE on many of his systems to let us know objectively how these 2 great species are compared.
Marvel
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Comments
Mr.Zanden wrote many good article here about room acoustics. The room and the electronics together may determine 70% of system performance. If hi end is about plug and play, I am afraid it cannot be called high end. Maybe, B & O is more convenient.
Say, if you change a powercord that has a lot of energy, if you use it without changing speaker position, then people may say the cable is no good, but if he spend some time to pull the speaker out or reduce toe-in angle, the result is very different. I am no expert in this as Mr.Zanden is far more advanced than me on the relationship amongst different parameters affecting the final sound.
The best is the product that we buy have instant improvement but I doubt even in this case, are we getting the best out of the product if we do not alter other parameters and jump to fast conclusion.