wwshull,

i guess the main difference in our opinions on cables comes down to philosophy. i would prefer that the signal coming from my source is changed as little as possible before it comes out of my speakers. the whole point of cables, to me, is to transmit information with as little change as possible. to that end, the simpler the better. i'm in pursuit of getting the sound out of my media and reproducing it as closely as possible to what the engineer wanted me to hear.

i know a couple of studio engineers, and i know that they don't use fancy, expensive cables for their mics, their rack equipment, their studio monitors, or their home stereos.

by saying all that, i certainly don't want to dissuade you from pursuing your own stereo goals. by all means, if you want the sound a cable gives you, buy it! i just don't necessary see my system in the same light, i guess.

benk October 04, 2007 16:06

very nice looking cabels. you are right about them being expensive, but the snake oil thing in my opinion is a false statement. cables can make a big or huge difference, but im sure yours sound find. when you get some extra time you should find a dealer that will let you borrow some then you will see that they do make a difference. no snake oil involved.

wwshull October 04, 2007 02:23

Thanks for the suggestions for my system, very nice system as well love the Epos speakers how do they sound? Also I've owned the Cambridge 640c player and I was impressed it sounded fabulous, it comes with a double woflson DAC. The only reason I sold it is because I found a good deal on a Musical Fidelity A3 cd player that matched my existing A3 integrated amp. Have you looked into the Rega line of cd players? The Apollo has received rave reviews. Anyhow, I don't think you could go wrong with either one of them. The P3 is also a great turntable first time I see it with another arm other than the RB 300! I also owned this table but only kept the RB 300 I kind of miss it now hehe.

decapg October 02, 2007 18:44

Samgupta,

Thanks for the review. It's good to have someone say something a little negative about that thing for once, sure seemed a little too good to be true... luckily I don't have to worry about auditioning anything for awhile, as school just started and I'm officially broke until next summer, hah.

benk October 02, 2007 16:05

Hi Ben,

I haven't heard the 8001, but I did hear the Cambridge 640c about 2 years ago. A buddy had one and we did an A/B against a cheap Samsung dvd player. The Cambridge was marginally better. No joke. The Cambridge unit is way overhyped.

Just my opinion, but I wanted to put it out there for you since you are looking at the same piece...

samgupta101 October 01, 2007 04:22

Classikaudio, I looked into the SA8260 awhile back, but found that a huge number of people were having tracking issues with their piece and were having to return it to Marantz to get them resolved. Since I'll be buying it used, I probably won't be ending up with a warranty. I have been looking at the Marantz SA8001, however, which is essentially an updated version of the 8260, and doesn't have the same basic tracking flaw.

I wonder if anyone has heard the 8001? I'd love some thoughts.

benk September 30, 2007 21:48

Ben,
Very nice system for a college student, as I am one myself. I love the epos 15.2 and rega planar 3. As for upgrading the cd playback I would recommend either the Marantz SA8260 or try the Denon 2900, or the cambridge player should be fine. If you want to save some real money try going with the playstation 1 as a cd player, its a real giant killer!

classikaudio September 30, 2007 06:00