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I agree with 99.9% of what you say BUT there is a Deminishing Return after a Certain System cost,  when you talk about Cables for sure but the difference between a Accuphase E5000 Integrated and a boutique Brand Integrated is a Perfect Example of where to Improve Sound will cost Double or more and Will Not Get you Double the Sound Quality is what I mean with Deminishing returns.   Cables, switches, etc can be a different story!  Thanks for being Honest!

I feel that people need to hear what great sound system can sound like.
If you really love the sound that you've heard, it's up to audiophile to understand the science put into it or you figure out yourself.

It took me 6 years for perfection.

Switch of what ?

Nice rack, however most audiophiles eschew placing microphonic equipment on large resonant furniture. No wonder you need expensive damped feet to fix that faux-pas !

M, Yes! I have always had faith, in my gear choices. " My Cables" were the bottle neck. Best, D.

I’m interested in the Aqua La Scala.  Based on your journey, why have you kept that DAC?  At almost 9k, it’s expensive but does it punch above its weight and a bargain in some way compared to other more expensive DACs?

Stop wasting money on high end prices. Have speakers of 360 euro per pair. Elac debut 6 speakers. Very good. 8 euro per mtr AudioQuest and Yahama new 500 euro set and Cambridge 400 euro. Great sound. And streaming you better have a very good cd player.

Setup and room corrections are the biggest hard hitters. It will be good when stereo receiver will be able to correct like home cinema receivers.I have had my Amazon HD, Echo Link, Marantz PM6006, 2.1 Arcam Muso + Logo, I enjoy the music,

I have a friend who uses comercial speakers and amps because he likes the live concert sound.

Law of diminishing returns. I'm a musician, music lover and recovering audiophile. It's a never-ending spiral of spend if you're not careful.

Ironically, in my experience, the better the system I've owned, the least I've enjoyed my music collection as a whole. Well produced albums sound great, not-so-well produced albums sound worse.

I now own a pair of Ruark MR1 speakers, connected optically to my TV. I stream Amazon Music, play CDs from my Bluray player and watch YouTube music videos.

Honestly, I've never enjoyed a set-up as much across a wide range of genres, with varied recording quality!

My generalized experience in order of impact on sound: Speakers, Room, Amplification, Sources, Cables.

The most natural rack I have heard is torlite sold by Russ Andrews from the UK. It's a wood honeycomb type construction but a specific type of wood is used, nothing else seems to work as well.

For me, the Stack Audio Auva 100 speaker feet drastically improved the presentation to an extent that I have not experienced since I upgraded my preamp. I was also surprised by the improvement that I was able to achieve by swapping out my interconnects and power cables from two reputable brands for cables from the German manufacturer InAkustik. Unfortunately, these are by no means cheap, but I think that I would have had to invest even more to get the same improvement by upgrading my source, amplifier or speakers.

I just finished watching this video and, honestly, it struck a chord with me. I've experienced exactly what was described in the video: diminishing returns and the sometimes controversial role that cables can play in sound quality.

Full disclosure—I’m currently diving into the world of extreme high-end audio gear, though some purists might call my approach "blasphemous." Why? Because I’ve been experimenting with clones of 5-figure+ audio components, many of which are manufactured in China. I'm talking about amps that are copies of high-end Dartzeel models and clones of top-tier Accuphase preamps.

Recently, I bought a pair of 3-meter speaker cables that are a clone of the $23,000 Nordost Valhalla 2 Reference Speaker Cables—for only $230. When I first hooked them up, my reaction mirrored exactly what was described in the video with the Stealth USB cables.

Holly COW! The difference in musicality, subtle detail, and imaging was like stepping into an entirely different audio system—a whole new level of performance. I couldn’t believe my ears!

At first, I thought I might be losing it—like it was all in my head. But after watching this video, I feel reassured knowing that the improvement in sound quality I heard with these cables was real. It’s an amazing reminder of how, even in the pursuit of better sound, you need to stay grounded and avoid falling into the "audiophile trap."

Thanks for putting it out there!

You are talking about the clowns on ANA (short for naysayers for high end audio). You have a great YT channel, don’t go down to the low fi level of the users of the ANA circus. ANA is the audiophiles of North America, owners of the best that Best Buy sells (pioneer, denon, Sony).

Agree with your conclusions here based upon my own experience. However one thing I am curious about - have you found the equipment rack still influences sound quality even when all components are placed on quality isolation platforms?

It's really interesting that I started out my personal hifi journey just like you described thinking that you focus on speakers, room and electronics and just top it off with some cables. It took me a while to realize that I you are throwing away so much performance when you don't address all the aspects of your system accordingly (adequate to the level of your gear). Blocking EMI inference, using very high quality anti vibration feet (not just a rack but alone) and using a custom power outlet have been my biggest revelations so far.

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I use blue jean speaker bananas only to quick switch, however the sound is no better than using straight 14 guage wire hook.