Guest davidness Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 Okay, another cable thread, with a teaser subject line. First off, I am of the belief that cables offer marginal benefits. Shoot me. I love Monoprice. I use bare 12 gauge stranded copper cable for my speaker wire, and swear by it. But I recently purchased one of NOSValve's VRD45ST tube amps, and decided to treat it (and myself) to some 'pretty' interconnect (RCA) cables. I bought them to look cool without any expectation of hearing any difference. I replaced some standard Monoprice RCA cables. I might be crazy (and I believe that Craig will second that opinion), but I think I'm actually hearing an improvement! I mean, it's not the biggest improvement in the world, but it's there. I bought a 1.5meter set of Chinese YYW H4022A RCA cables from the Canadian supplier on eBay for about $100. Because I didn't expect an interconnect cable to make a noticeable improvement, yet believe it did, I thought I'd share. It surprised me. Review: Nice improvement in detail. RCA's are very large and may not fit if RCA jack spacing is tight. "Locking" feature doesn't work great. The RCA's are reasonably tight to begin with, and the 'clasp' probably will keep the RCA's from loosening up, but it doesn't result in an 'iron grip' as I'd hoped. Very pretty, large, and heavy. Heavy enough to make you worry about the strain it might make on your equipment's RCA jacks. Center pin is 'split' style which provides good center pin contact. Overall I'm happy enough with these to want to share my experience. (YMMV). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tube fanatic Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 Have a friend come over to do a blind listening test (i.e. you won't know which cables you are listening to) and see if you can still tell a difference between them. Usually, obvious differences in the sound of shielded cables can be traced to the capacitance of the cables. However, in my experience with hundreds of blind listening tests, very few people can tell any difference unless the cable capacitances are hugely different. In the shop, when such differences were found, we could duplicate the sound of the higher capacitance cable by simply adding the needed capacitance to the input of the amp or preamp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennie Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 I love these threads! Dennie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LarryC Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 Have a friend come over to do a blind listening test (i.e. you won't know which cables you are listening to) and see if you can still tell a difference between them. Is that how people evaluate listening to music? [] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldenough Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 I love these threads! Dennie D'yer mind if I join you Dennie? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennie Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 I love these threads! Dennie D'yer mind if I join you Dennie? Heck No OE! You're always welcome to hang out with me and watch a good "Cable" Thread! Don't tell my Doctor, but pass the Salt! BTW, they are rarely boring, don't you think? [] Dennie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest " " Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 the boutique cables are not really designed to make sound improved or better...just different. This is done thru the manipulation of capacitance, resistance, and inductance. I recently tested with instruments some popular high end (about 350 a pair for 8ft lenths) cables......I expected to find significant inductance and capacitance manipulation...but what I found was some capacitance and some inductance, but major resistance manipulation.....almost 6 ohms of added resistance....don't want to say which cable brand since the company is big on going after folks for trade name related issues.....and if you guess it...please do not post the name. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennie Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 the boutique cables are not really designed to make sound improved or better...just different. This is done thru the manipulation of capacitance, resistance, and inductance. I recently tested with instruments some popular high end (about 350 a pair for 8ft lenths) cables......I expected to find significant inductance and capacitance manipulation...but what I found was some capacitance and some inductance, but major resistance manipulation.....almost 6 ohms of added resistance....don't want to say which cable brand since the company is big on going after folks for trade name related issues.....and if you guess it...please do not post the name. Sounds like a MONSTER of a company!!! I'm glad you didn't mention who it is and from what I've read, we would both be in the middle of a huge lawsuit by now! Dennie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Turner Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 About 5 years ago I got the speaker cable/interconnect bug and decided to build some DIY speaker cables and interconnects using Belden 89259 coax cable. I replaced home depot 12 guage speaker wire and some $10 RS interconnects. I did notice a difference, which I considered an improvement, especially with the speaker cables. It could have resulted from the new cables or it could have resulted from simply cleaning the connections in the process. I enjoyed building the cables and perceived I got a high end product for a reasonable cost. I would recommend this process for anyone who can do simple soldering and is curious about "upgrading" these components. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcmusic Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 As far as cables go I have tried a few from cheap to pretty expensive. Bottom line I ended up with a pretty cheap cable that is absolutely neutral!!! As a matter of fact most of the music you have heard in your life was probably made using these cables, since 99 out of 100 recording studios used them for all their recording. Mogami Microphone Cable, I use two different type one I use in very sensitive areas to keep out RFI and the other is a standard cable. Jay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 Mogami Microphone Cable, I use two different type one I use in very sensitive areas to keep out RFI and the other is a standard cable. Anything Mogami is the best and least expensive. Anything more expensive costs more. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest " " Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 Here are some measurements.....but maybe...the wrong measurements...for example....you weight exactly the same regardless if you are thinking happy thoughts or sad thoughts....so body weight would not be a good measurement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacksonbart Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 Do you bedazzle your clothes? It makes then wear better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacksonbart Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 I also have some measurements; 8 1/2 inches long, 4 inches in circumference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angusruler Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 D***...your ears are bigger than Obamers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacksonbart Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 D***...your ears are bigger than Obamers! What? That makes no sense. Those are the measurements to my Bedazzler Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
russ69 Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 Anything more expensive costs more. I'm going to assume you meant to word this differently? Mr. Obvious? Thanx, Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Richard Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 Anything more expensive costs more. Channelling Yogi Berra? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Richard Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 Here are some measurements.....but maybe...the wrong measurements...for example....you weight exactly the same regardless if you are thinking happy thoughts or sad thoughts....so body weight would not be a good measurement. The scope traces seem to show the effect of terminating wires with Zobel networks of various component values. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wuzzzer Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 For me its an issue of: Are the cables improving the sound or simply altering it? Are they truly bringing out extra detail, lowering the noise floor or making other improvements that only a cable could improve? I feel a cable's job is to transfer things from point A to point B. Be it data, electrons, whatever. I want as little being changed by cables as I can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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