Taking the test
AudioQuest Columbia XLR Balanced Interconnects Some of the things people talk about in high end audio are actually very subtle and hard to even experience unless everything in your system is set up right. Things like P.R.A.T. (Pace, Rhythm, And Timing), musicality, soundstage depth, tonal truth, and more. Maybe the only hifi buzzword you can experience without a proper setup would be the stereotypical “black background.” Turn off your stereo, and there you go. Nyuk, nyuk. Wise guy eh? When folks get all up in arms about hifi snake oil, and they claim, red-faced, that no one can tell the difference between $10K speaker cables and a coat hanger, one has to assume that these people A) have never heard the cables they deride, and B) have not set up a proper test for themselves to compare cables more closely related than say a set of Wireworlds and a strip of tin foil. Number one step in the process to hear and contemplate the contribution that cables make to the overall prese...