Koss 76 hi fi fo fum, Odds, The Goods, Arcam Creek Crimson, Ringmat, Royd, Toronto, Visonik

ADVICEDBACKEEF

FR

Arcam Creek Crimson

DNM	“The only way to get rid of a temptation is to
	yield to it.”
	Oscar Wilde

LFD	hi fi fo fum
Neat	The Goods	!	The
Naim	Are		Odds
	Odd,		Are
Isoblue	But		Good
	935 Mount Pleasant Road
	Toronto 416-421-7552
	Ringmat	Royd	Visonik

10 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine

Cyrus Castle Eichmann Epos ATC

there’s the question of speaker cable and the connections between the CD/amp. Is my little system worth the really good stuff? I don’t want to spend more than I can afford, yet I want to get the best results and sound I can. Everybody I talk to has an opinion, they’re just all different!

Arlan Sanford

SANTA FE, NM Of course we have an opinion too, Arlan, and one more opinion on top of the ones you’ve already heard is pos- sibly not what you hoped for. Still, if we explain why we think what we do, you’ll be in a better position to make sense of

the other advice you’ve received. Perhaps we can begin with a light

bulb joke that ran in our pages some years ago:

Q:How many hi-fi gurus does it take to change a light bulb?

A:None, because there’s no point in changing the bulb until you’ve installed the right cables.

Sound familiar?

The truth is that all of these upgrades, if they’re done right, will make your system sound better, and if you can afford them all, then do them all, no question. If you can’t reasonably do that, then spend the money in the order that will give you the biggest audible differ- ence for each upgrade.

The cheapest upgrade is not even on your list: changing the duplex outlet in the wall. Hardware store outlets have been getting worse and worse with the years because despite inflation their price keeps dropping. The connection they give you is dreadful. The reason hospi- tals don’t have those is that a poor con- nection can result in arcing and sparks, and sparks are what you don’t want in a ward where there’s oxygen flowing. You also don’t want a dodgy connection on a piece of medical gear that cost a couple of million bucks. We suggest you settle for nothing less.

With that done, let’s have a look at what a better power cable can do for you. The upscale connectors on a good cord will, like the better outlet, give you a tighter connection with less noise gener- ated by the connection itself, and with less loss of voltage too. What’s more, a power cable that’s any good will be shielded. That prevents it from picking