McKinney article: more audiophile b.s.

[Miles]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the "Behind the Gear" article about Danny McKinney in the May/June issue. There is an appalling amount of audiophile goofiness: tube power supplies sound "lush and beautiful", audio cables need to "break in" to sound good, and (my favorite) he thinks the hyperexpensive power cables he installed in a studio a year earlier sound "amazing". It's pissing me off that this kind of audiophile b.s. is starting to show up unchallenged in my beloved Tapeop.

[dokushoka]

Maybe its not BS?

The fact is, the better your monitoring gets, the more you start to notice how these seemingly "small" things do make a difference.

[Randy]

I have heard the difference between a weak power supply and a strong power supply on the same piece of gear, so I imagine a nice fat wire bringing the power to the power supply will make a difference. How much of a difference? who knows. If you need to have a mastering setup to detect the differences when most folks are listening through computer speakers and iPod earbuds, I'd say the difference is less than negligible.

[spankenstein]

I take a big issue with the power cables, the ones that go from the wall outlet to the gear. Of the hundreds of miles of high voltage lines, the transformers, the breakers, the hundreds of feet of romex connected with wire nuts... that last 1m of cable is going to make a difference?

[Miles]

When Danny McK. demonstrates his ability to "hear" the differences among power cables and correctly identify "broken in" cables in controlled blind ABX tests, I'll stop ridiculing him. Until he or anybody believes him is willing to do that, his claims are unsubstantiated bullshit.

Miles

[dokushoka]

I take a big issue with the power cables, the ones that go from the wall outlet to the gear. Of the hundreds of miles of high voltage lines, the transformers, the breakers, the hundreds of feet of romex connected with wire nuts... that last 1m of cable is going to make a difference?

If the power is transformer isolated from the street, it could.

[dokushoka]

When Danny McK. demonstrates his ability to "hear" the differences among power cables and correctly identify "broken in" cables in controlled blind ABX tests, I'll stop ridiculing him. Until he or anybody believes him is willing to do that, his claims are unsubstantiated bullshit.

Miles

Better yet, one could record two identical sources with it, then flip the phase on one of the tracks to see if you get perfect cancelation...

To play devil's advocate, have you done any testing?

[nestle]

well I didn't want to believe that cable could make a big difference but someone gave me one of those BLUE cables as a gift. All of a sudden I really noticed a leap in the quality of my mics. I didn't want to face up to it becuase it was expensive and unsexy to recable my set-up. But after making the leap and redoing all the critical chains with top shelf cable it made a huge difference in noise and fidelity.
Now PSU I cannot say and I ain't going there, but my eyes/ears were opened with the audio cable shit...it was worth it ($300)
the artical that chapped my ass most was the David gilmour fat rockstar barge, what a wanker...too much money, wonder what syd records on

[jmiller]

When Danny McK. demonstrates his ability to "hear" the differences among power cables and correctly identify "broken in" cables in controlled blind ABX tests, I'll stop ridiculing him. Until he or anybody believes him is willing to do that, his claims are unsubstantiated bullshit.

Miles

Well, you haven't yet proven them to be bullshit, so they are merely like uh, his opinion, man.

[TapeOpLarry]

"It's pissing me off that this kind of audiophile b.s. is starting to show up unchallenged in my beloved Tapeop."

If we run an interview with someone, the invariably have opinions. It doesn't mean I agree 100% with an opinion when we run it - Tape Op is a forum for creative music recording and whatever means people find needed to record are valid. I find it interesting that there are so many opinions and ways to make a recording, and that's why we keep talking to all these people.

it'd be nice for someone to notice that we frequently do Behind the Gear interviews with folks who DO NOT advertise with us by the way...

[sirbergersworth]

I know this for sure. my PC is a lot more creamy sounding and has a lower noise floor when no power cable is plugged in

I was reading that article yesterday and I actually thought it sounded logical. At least the part about the tube rectifier sounding different than the solid state.

[Randy]

it'd be nice for someone to notice that we frequently do Behind the Gear interviews with folks who DO NOT advertise with us by the way...

Yes! and also on that note, there are tons of gear reviews on stuff that is not advertised in the magazine, and reviews on stuff that is no longer made but obtainable used. Also, there are reviews on useful stuff that isn't even *made* for recording- companies that would never have TapeOp on their marketing radar.

Also, it is a good thing that the people who make the gear are that deep into the sound of their work that they can tell such subtle differences. It doesn't mean we have to go that deep into it, but we can use the gear knowing attention has been paid.

It's funny none of this flack came up after the Pink Floyd interview. They were talking about the direction of current through the cable.

[JGriffin]

It's funny none of this flack came up after the Pink Floyd interview. They were talking about the direction of current through the cable.

It came up...just not here.


But I agree with Larry. It's the dude's opinion. We don't need a response from the loyal opposition every time someone makes a statement about gear in TapeOp. If somebody thinks SM57s suck or tube power supplies are the bee's knees, and he makes good records, he should say so...and the reader can decide whether he agrees, and whether to apply that philosophy in his own recordings.

[Randy]

...and the reader can decide whether he agrees, and whether to apply that philosophy in his own recordings.

Well said!

[xpulsar]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the "Behind the Gear" article about Danny McKinney in the May/June issue. There is an appalling amount of audiophile goofiness: tube power supplies sound "lush and beautiful", audio cables need to "break in" to sound good, and (my favorite) he thinks the hyperexpensive power cables he installed in a studio a year earlier sound "amazing". It's pissing me off that this kind of audiophile b.s. is starting to show up unchallenged in my beloved Tapeop.

I don't really agree with most of the audiofile nonsense. But i will say that when it comes to Power supplies,they deffinately affect how an audio circuit is functioning. A tube rectifier over a solidstate one is very different. Have you ever sat down and changed out tubes in a Guitar amp or Mic pre and listen to how it changes the sound?

What about trying out different mic cables Canari, Mogami,Beldin,Monster,Blue....$
Some mic cables have a french braid sheilding that deffinately cuts down on RF which in turn affects the High frequency response of a source. This is a proven fact.
What about microphonics in a cable,have you ever experienced that? It exsists.

I would say that what works for that person is more important to their music than what other people think is important.

I have seen all kinds of methods used and I go back to the ones that work for me. Besides why not let someone else spend all their money on expensive speaker cables and ceramic triangles to keep that expensive speaker cable off of the ground.

HA