the great cable debate

high-end cables - a boon or a bane?

despite my self-imposed zen status (snigger, snigger), i feel compelled to debate on the merits of high-end cables cos it is fun to debate on this issue.

people who value the contribution of cables (hence people who pay top bucks for expensive cables) are normally fussy-pots PERFECTIONISTS who value top-quality, exquisite tonal colour and tonal quality. (i think the word 'tonality' is often misused here. tonality is a musical term, it describes the use of a particular key, especially as the basis of a melody or composition)

tonal colour, or timbre, is YUM SIK in cantonese. whereas tonal quality is YUM CHAT in cantonese.both are different but overlapping.

a good cable can let you manipulate both the tonal colour and tonal quality. normally system which use cheap cables have poor tonal colour and tonal quality. i said "normally". i find it funny when people call cables as "tone controls" or "seasoning". they are not. they are part of the ingredients to make a great system. good cable is integral to any great system.

to me, like some highly regarded audiophile sifu i know (wong tat yew and lau eng teik are but two), these two qualities ranks top of my list. much more than soundstaging, imaging etc. etc. the reason why ongaku commands such astronomical price is because it has the most exquisite YUM SIK in the world. you can be drown in that kind of YUM SIK forever.

sadly, most audiophiles don't even come close to understand what YUM SIK and YUM CHAT really means. when my young friend kc said his stealth cloude 9 power cords improves the midrange density, that means in cantonese, MUT DOU, it also implies that it improves the YUM CHAT of the system. i recently listend to a RM400K system using 3 runs of top-of-the-line stage III vacuum gold reference interconnect and was astounded by the midrange density of the system. the vocals are rounded, almost spherical in 3-d space and the density is very very high. it is to die for. there is NO WAY you can get this level of YUM CHAT with cheap cables.

when you have the hang of playing (mix and match) with cables, you are not unlike the master chef, being able to cook any AURAL dishes of your liking. it is so fun because everything is under your control. people who don't play cables will never understand or appreciate the fun.

true, it is not always that top-notch cables are suitable for top-notch system but show me a high-end system with DIY cables that sings like nightingale and i will show you a man who doesn't like sex.

mixing and matching of cables is a skill that requires highly discerning listening skills. and highly discerning listening skills is as rare as a man who doesn't like sex. so what if you buy the top models of transparent, audioquest and nordost, it still does not guarantee good sound. for example, siltech is known to be not suitable for SS gear. nordost sound is clean and a tad cool. cardas is coloured and woolly and thick. transparent is thick of the mids but no lows nor highs. why i am so thrilled with stage III is because stage III gives me both exquisite YUM SIK and YUM CHAT that i can't find in other cables.

generally, malaysian audiophiles don't believe in cables. if you want to segregate, i find that ipoh audiophiles invest the most on cables because (1) the dealers there promote high-end cables aggressively hence education is important (2) ipoh audiophiles are older retirees who have plenty of money and time to play hifi (3) ipoh audiophiles who listen to more vocals value YUM SIK and YUM CHAT more than anything else. you also find audiophiles that emphasize on bang-wham-thank-you-mam kind of sound don't play cables as much as those who listen to vocals.

seriously, not until you understand what is truly meant by YUM SIK (tonal color) and YUM CHAT (tonal quality), you will never understand why people are ever so willing to spend top dollars on good cables.