The Daily / No. 151 / Opinion
The free cables that were not cheap
The Vincent cables thrown in with my B&Ws beat my QEDs at once; only later did I learn they cost 10% of the speakers.
When I bought my B&W Diamonds, I asked the dealer to include whatever cables he thought fit. He threw in a pair of Vincent Audio cables for free. They looked like two massive anacondas: fat, heavy, sturdy, meaty.
At home I compared them with my QEDs, and for the first time I heard the difference immediately. Better clarity, more detail, tighter bass. I assumed they were cheap, a little dearer than the QEDs at most, because they had been free.
It was much later that I found out they cost about 10% of what I paid for the speakers. That changed the price, not what I had heard. The listening happened before I knew the number, so no price tag was whispering in my ear.
Let me be clear about what I still claim: were they better? That is subjective. Were they different, though? Absolutely, and different is the part nobody could talk me out of.
Free is a price, not a sound. I heard the sound long before anyone told me the price.
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