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RCA Cables


CapZark

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I'm using stock or "cheapo" RCA cables that came with my components. Will I notice any improvment in sound if I go with something more high end? I saw RCAs at Best Buy in the sound room for $60 a piece for a 6 foot cable. I nearly passed out. Will it really make that much difference using a $60 cable verses a $6 cable to hook up my components?

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If the sight of $60 cable made you nearly pass out, we'd better not tell you about high-end cable that costs as much as a new car... [:o]

It's not necessary to spend a fortune on interconnect cables, but the $6 cables will not give you the best sound, since the shielding will likely be inadequate, so they're more likely to pick up hum and other noise from nearby components and cables, and likely have poor-quality connectors on them, which doesn't help either.

Klipsch speakers resolve the information on recordings really well, so cheap cables will not allow them to sound their best and let you hear all the music.

You can get good cables at fair prices from knukonceptz, blue jeans cable or monoprice. You can easily find their sites on the Net. Forum members have recommended all three brands as being both good quality and good value for money.

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A friend of mine was bored while laid off, and he built dozens of different cables to audition.

Extended listening showed the connectors were the key, not the wire.

The best sounding cables were constructed with el-cheapo Radio Shack ends with plastic grips, $1.79 for a package of four.

All the fancy gold ends and garden-hose cable didn't make the grade.

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Fancy cables are nice to look at and fun to brag about to your friends about so spare no expence and head over to Radio Shack and get the house brand cables or order on line from Parts Express, the Dayton brand audio cables built very well.

http://www.parts-express.com/wizards/searchResults.cfm?searchFilter=&srchExt=CAT&perPage=27&sortBy=1&layout=grid&page=1&srchPrice=&srchCat=861&srchMfg=301&srchPromo=&srchAttr=

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There's absolutely no need to spend much money on fancy cables. Differences in sound between cables is directly related to slight differences in the cable capacitance. If you're fairly handy with a soldering iron you can make fabulous cables with inexpensive coaxial cable such as RG-58, RG-8X, etc, and cheap RCA plugs. They will rival the performance of cables which cost thousands of dollars!

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Will I notice any improvment in sound if I go with something more high end?

Using the right cable will make a sonic difference. Sometimes the 6 buck cable is the right cable sometimes it's not. There are not many advanced cable users here but some of us use cables to fine tune our systems.

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Will I notice any improvment in sound if I go with something more high end?


Using the right cable will make a sonic difference. Sometimes the 6 buck cable is the right cable sometimes it's not. There are not many advanced cable users here but some of us use cables to fine tune our systems.

Very true, the most important thing is quality build, proper fit, good insulation, correct size and sometimes shielding. While there is a lot of cable wire snake oil, different cables can also make slight sonic differences.

You can do fine with inexpensive quality made cables they work excellent. You can also spend a little more and make your cables a little more attractive or you can experiment with cables and their sonic differences, this really is just a matter of personal taste so do what you want. But you don't need to spend a lot of money on cables and any sonic differences in working cables is always very subtle.

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You gotta see for yourself how it works for you and your system.

I notice that people will either say they don't make a difference or they will say they do.

Most people who say they don't make a difference don't seem to indicate that they experimented with various cables in a resolving system with several people listening. They also don't usually say which cables they evaluated.

Most people who say they do make a difference don't usually indicate that they did blind tests to confirm what they believe they heard (the human brain is very very tricky, fascinating even, when it comes to what we believe we perceive - See, hear, taste, etc.).

My experience is that "good" cables (in the $100 range, which is all I've taken the time and $$ to look at) do make a slight difference on some recordings to my tin ears on my system. Before I spend big bucks on cables, I'll be spending on more room treatments.

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If i spent hundreds or thousands of dollars on fancy wire i would tell everybody it made a difference in sound too.

Lets say i just went out and spent $250 on a gold plated, silver wire, diamond encrusted main power cable to run my amp with, Think of all the miles of cable, splices, transformers, electric meter, circuit breaker, household circuit & outlet the same current passes through, you think by adding 4-6 feet of expensive cable makes any difference ? Maybe its just my electrical experience speaking but wire is wire, as long as its built correctly there should not be a problem.

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There was a heated thread last summer abouth interconnects and speaker wires. It is a highly subjective topic. I have not had the pleasure of listening to anything in the ultra high bracket. However I have compared the wal-mart variety against blue jean and Nordost Blue Heaven.

I would aviod the cheapie stuff at all costs- too many chances for a bad connection between the wire na the rca connector. Monster is pure overated garbage IMHO. I have a box full of them that I will sell at a yard sale or give them to my kid.

Blue jean is stand up stuff- the minimum IMHO and an excellent choice for HT which is much more forgiving than 2 CH.

For 2 ch I prefer Nordost Blue Heaven- I have them all around- this is the entry level Nordost model. My system is dead quiet at idle and gin clear in sonic character. My system has a wellplaced set of K horns with bass that will knock you from your chair. The Nordost is very treble specific- almost shrill- but it works quite well to compliment the bass of the VRD tubes. There is a active used market for them- figure about 100-150 per set depending on length on e-bay or AG.

I think that good interconnects are extremely important particulary in a 2 ch tube setup. They do make a difference IMHO. I dont buy off on 10 k speaker/interconnect wires but I dont buy off on cheap stuff either due to quality issues. Somewhere in the middle for me.

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1...Quality of the cable (capacitance, impedance)

2...Quality of the assembly of the braid to the connector (must be fanned out perfectly)

3...Quality of the soldering

4...Quality of the connector (material, tolerances, design)

5...Quality of the jack that the connector is plugged into.

6...Impedance of the sending unit.

7...Impedance of the recieving unit.

8...Cable length

9...Ground loop anomolies

JJK

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1...Quality of the cable (capacitance, impedance)

2...Quality of the assembly of the braid to the connector (must be fanned out perfectly)

3...Quality of the soldering

4...Quality of the connector (material, tolerances, design)

5...Quality of the jack that the connector is plugged into.

6...Impedance of the sending unit.

7...Impedance of the recieving unit.

8...Cable length

9...Ground loop anomolies


That covers most of the bases, but you overlooked the most basic requirement of a cable: it must be long enough... [8-|]
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I have building my own cables for some time and find them on par with the higher prices cables. I use the Radio Shack gold plated RCA plugs, and cut some long sub woofer specific wire to the lengths I need. This way I can control the quality and the materials of construction, ( such as use of silver solder and good solder joints).

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1...Quality of the cable (capacitance, impedance)

2...Quality of the assembly of the braid to the connector (must be fanned out perfectly)

3...Quality of the soldering

4...Quality of the connector (material, tolerances, design)

5...Quality of the jack that the connector is plugged into.

6...Impedance of the sending unit.

7...Impedance of the recieving unit.

8...Cable length

9...Ground loop anomolies

JJK

All my hi-fi gear including cables is judged solely by how it sounds. Some electrical engineers may have other criteria and valid reasons for the criteria but I'm listen to my system not measuring it.

Thanx, Russ

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HI,

If you are handy with a soldering iron go and buy a good pair of connectors such as Eichmann and make some up yourself. Don't use multiple strands use a couple of thick (1mm) strands weave, solder and you will have something that defies expensive, ove-the-top BS!

Cheers

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As a semi-reformed "hot patcher", I've found the Neutrik NF2C-B/2 RCA plugs hard to beat. The outer ground shell is spring loaded and it connects the ground before the hot when plugging it in and disconnects the hot before the ground when removing it. They come with two sizes of cable grips or chucks so you can use any cable size from .12" to .29".

Here's a link to the Parts Express listing: http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=092-114

Lee

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