Pro vs Audiophile Obssession

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Anyone who thinks that (at least good) pro audio engineers are not as obsessive about sound as audiophiles needs to read this:

 

https://www.soundonsound.com/people/mike-shipley-recording-alison-krauss-paper-airplane?fbclid=IwAR28nr87p1rT4AyUwMSLj-JiwX55RgmoTBZ8ny4qTqNwlvp-anaJxo6WwNg

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2 hours ago, kirkmc said:

I have a friend who has run a number of small record labels, mostly classical. I went to a recording session in a cathedral in the UK, where a choir was being recorded by Abbey Road Remote for a new album. The friend and I have similar feelings about expensive cables, and before the recording, he pointed at the floor, and said, "See, miles of plain copper cables." 

 

Imagine if, at least outside the studio, producers bought expensive cables, or those thingies to keep the cables off the floor? In this case, there were dozens of mics set up - for stereo and surround sound - with cables overlapping, looped, etc; the resulting album sounded perfect.

 

Did you read the linked article?  Clearly those recording engineers who care about good sound do pay attention to cabling, within reason.  Of course cable elevators and such are not going to be used, that would be entirely inconvenient, and untenable in a recording environment.  But, take a look over at gearslutz, there are endless forums discussions amongst recording engineers regarding which cables are better amongst the usual pro audio brands of bulk cabling, Belden vs. Mogami, vs. Canara-not much different than what we see from audiophiles.

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Yes Brad, I am aware of that.  And I have also met Michael Bishop (Telarc) many years back at CES.  By no means am I suggesting that recording studios are building in wiring from audiophile suppliers!  All I am saying is that there are indeed, respected, recording engineers who do consider the quality and sonics of the wire which they specify, whether it is the first ten feet, or the wire built into the studio.  I think we actually agree here!

And the state of the music industry is sad.  My GF is a performing musician, who also records occasionally, she used to make a considerable portion of her income from CD sales, now those sales have mostly dried up, and this reduces her motivation to record (although she is, slowly, working on a new album anyway).

 

As to the emphasis that a recording engineer might put on cabling, well yes I understand that would be low down on the list of concerns (if at all).  To me this is analogous to an audio designer like Nelson Pass.  Nelson's primary focus is on choice of active devices, and circuit design, as that is what he does, and those things make the largest differences in  the performance of the products he develops.  For this reason, he does not concern himself much with the choices of passive parts used in his designs: he usually specifies good quality, reliable, industrial parts, and not things like highly specialized resistors or capacitors.  I would say it is similar for recording engineers, who would put much more emphasis on first order concerns like microphone placement, rather than more subtle things like cable choice.