Interconnects

[djk]

"save your money for those little tweaks that actually mean something."

I always wonder why people that can't hear brag about it, it seems like an insult to those of us that can hear.

For those of you that can hear, and know how to solder, the RCA plugs seem to affect the sound more so than the wire. The less metal in the RCA plugs, the better they seem to sound. The cheap Radio Shack ones with the plastic handles sound better than the big fancy metal ones, despite the lack of gold-plating.

A couple of people that could hear the difference ended up replacing their expensive brand-name cables with budget home-made ones, and used the proceeds to up-grade other equipment. One fellow pocketed the $400 he was able to sell his audiophile-approved cables for. It might cost you as much as $5 to try for yourself.

Your mileage may vary (YMMV), and I don't want to hear about it if you can't hear.

[sunnysal]

Religion, politics, cables. three debates only a fool enters into. It is strange to me that the same people who wring their hands over the specifications of DACs, roll tubes, "upgrade" caps and resistors in their components buy multi thousand dollar vynl rigs, etc. often are the same folk insulting people who work on the wire portions of their systems. sad really. if you hear or imagine differences in any aspects of your system that gets you closer to your music in your home then I say MORE POWER TO YOU! enjoy the music, anything that floats your boat. I am open to accept ANY difference someone claims to hear just as I expect them to let me decide for myself whether I hear anything. buy cables, try them out, use them or not, use coat hangers. blah, blah, blah, ymmv, imho...trying to claim that different wires cannot cause a system to sound different because it is "impossible" (or stupid as some imply) is just plain foolish. to those people I say; your subjective opinion is valid and I fully accept you cannot hear any differences in wires, however your claim that objectively there can be no audible effects via wire is ridiculous in the extreme and lowers your credibility in general. I exhort you to throw out your magic caps, expensive resistors, special tubes and upsampling DACS. Plenty of people on both sides of this issue. I say, give up the sides, you are all right, peace out. LMAO in sunny El Salvador, T

[mark1101]

"save your money for those little tweaks that actually mean something."

I always wonder why people that can't hear brag about it, it seems like an insult to those of us that can hear.

For those of you that can hear, and know how to solder, the RCA plugs seem to affect the sound more so than the wire. The less metal in the RCA plugs, the better they seem to sound. The cheap Radio Shack ones with the plastic handles sound better than the big fancy metal ones, despite the lack of gold-plating.

A couple of people that could hear the difference ended up replacing their expensive brand-name cables with budget home-made ones, and used the proceeds to up-grade other equipment. One fellow pocketed the $400 he was able to sell his audiophile-approved cables for. It might cost you as much as $5 to try for yourself.

Your mileage may vary (YMMV), and I don't want to hear about it if you can't hear.

If your hearing is so good and Radio Shack stuff sounds best to you............why not just buy an entire Radio Shack system..........and save even MORE money? They sell speakers too............Have you done any tests to determine the best sounding phone jacks?[]

[jacksonbart]

I can hear a difference between music that I like and music that I don't like. Personally I would rather listen to music than dick around with wires all day.

[bracurrie]

I just had my ears cleaned and wow what a difference! I can't wait the ear wax builds back up so I can AB the difference.

[Don Richard]

I counted the responses to the OPs question and found that, if I didn't double count anybody:

4 people heard a difference and thought it was a positive difference

12 people heard differences that were either negative or too small to matter to them

11 people heard no difference

Remember, the only thing wire can do to an audio signal is damage it. Any difference heard between interconnect cables indicates that at least one of those cables is damaging the signal.

[djk]

True.

I was quite surprised to hear difference in cables and wire, I didn't want to. Fortunately, I found the cheapest connectors sounded the best, and that the actual wire was not as important. It saved a lot of anguish, and a lot of money.

The differences are small, and I wouldn't mess with them until the rest of your system is in order.

[RT FAN]

I buy middle of the road interconnects & speaker wire in the hope that they sound better than the cheap RCA cables that used to be thrown in with your tape deck in the 70's & 80's. The rest of my money I spend on MUSIC. Thank you.

[thebes]

"save your money for those little tweaks that actually mean something."

I always wonder why people that can't hear brag about it, it seems like an insult to those of us that can hear.

Your mileage may vary (YMMV), and I don't want to hear about it if you can't hear.

Hey Sunnysal, based on the above I'm kinda thinking it's the believers who are doing the insulting here. I've never accused someone here of being crazy for dropping big bucks on cables, or playing around with them for small bucks. What I do believe is that a properly built rca should meet the specs, doesn't cause a skin affect, and anything else above a modest price point is a deliberate manipulation of the signal.

Yes I have heard slight differences in different cables, mostly to the detriment to the sound. Any small improvements I noticed are more likely the simple act of switching the cable has made for a better, or cleaner contact.

I've consistently tried to make the point that over a modest amount cables are a colossal waste of dough. According to the audio industry and their fellow travelers like Stereophille, there are but four major building blocks to a stereo system:

Speakers

Amplification

Source

Cables

I can think of at least a dozen other aspects that are more critical to creating a quality system.

Finally it's hardly a debate if you simply state that anyone who disagrees with your viewpoint can't hear. Lacking any scientific viewpoint to your position, you simply shout "nanner, nanner", and clap your hands over your ears.

Besides.....

Oh drat ! That fly buzzing up against a window three doors down is driving me crazy. Gotta go attend to that and tell that kid out in the street to quit tying his shoelaces so loudly.

[Cut-Throat]

True.

I was quite surprised to hear difference in cables and wire, I didn't want to. Fortunately, I found the cheapest connectors sounded the best, and that the actual wire was not as important. It saved a lot of anguish, and a lot of money.

The differences are small, and I wouldn't mess with them until the rest of your system is in order.

Cheap Connectors ?.............. I have talked to WBT (Mfgr of Expensive Connectors) and even they admitted that the best Connector was no Connector at all.

So, Now we are down to simple wire......Copper, Silver what's your pleasure?....... The outside sheath, the Panty Hose Covering, the cables presented in the Rosewood Display Case are all marketing materials.....What makes a Good Wire?.....Forget the connector, it's useless as far as sound goes.. Let's put some science into this discussion....Ears are too subjective, and vary depending on mood, Health etc.

What material makes a good, great wire?....Once we know this...We'll just buy it and hook it up. .......Or do you have to constantly vary your wire depending on mood, Type of Music, atomospheric pressure or a review that you read in High-End Audio Magazine?

"Listening" to wires is far too subjective and a meaningless exercise. Are you listening to the Connector or the Wire? A 100% oxygen free copper wire should sound the same as another, despite the sheathing or packaging or price...... Let's get back to science....Yes, the earth is round despite what you see out your back door.

[Boxx]

Face it... What would we do if this subject didn't come up every now and then... lol.. Strong arguments never cause Amy to lock the thread.

[A1UC]

I purchased a pair of Audioquest Colorado XLR's Dac to Amp and I am very happy with them , for HT bypass and LCR

I run the King Cobra cables which is more than enough.

http://youtu.be/Cv3dn0sWMlI

[Marvel]

I still have some of those cables... and use them every so often. Works for me.[]

[sunnysal]

"save your money for those little tweaks that actually mean something."

I always wonder why people that can't hear brag about it, it seems like an insult to those of us that can hear.

Your mileage may vary (YMMV), and I don't want to hear about it if you can't hear.

Hey Sunnysal, based on the above I'm kinda thinking it's the believers who are doing the insulting here. I've never accused someone here of being crazy for dropping big bucks on cables, or playing around with them for small bucks. What I do believe is that a properly built rca should meet the specs, doesn't cause a skin affect, and anything else above a modest price point is a deliberate manipulation of the signal.

Yes I have heard slight differences in different cables, mostly to the detriment to the sound. Any small improvements I noticed are more likely the simple act of switching the cable has made for a better, or cleaner contact.

I've consistently tried to make the point that over a modest amount cables are a colossal waste of dough. According to the audio industry and their fellow travelers like Stereophille, there are but four major building blocks to a stereo system:

Speakers

Amplification

Source

Cables

I can think of at least a dozen other aspects that are more critical to creating a quality system.

Finally it's hardly a debate if you simply state that anyone who disagrees with your viewpoint can't hear. Lacking any scientific viewpoint to your position, you simply shout "nanner, nanner", and clap your hands over your ears.

Besides.....

Oh drat ! That fly buzzing up against a window three doors down is driving me crazy. Gotta go attend to that and tell that kid out in the street to quit tying his shoelaces so loudly.

thebes, not aimed at you. the "tinfoil hat" and "snake oil" crowd are the ones who get my goat. as I said I have no horse in the race other than I love the music my system makes and have played around with every part of the reproduction chain, sometimes wasting money, other times not. to get to my current state of audio bliss. bought well built interconnects after hearing them in my system versus my cheaper ones, bought some used speaker wires after auditioning them in my system. had a tube amp made for me after hearing a wide variety of tube and SS amps in my system and liking the 2A3 PP sound best (and posting about some of those amp shoot outs here in years past). if that makes me a tin foil wearing, brooklyn brdige buyer to half the posters on this board so be it. As I pointed out the hypocracy of the haters here is what sets me off. its all good, enjoy the music! btw I love the squeezebox touch I have in my system now playing some FLAC (I am still trying to rip my entire musci collection...) and AAC files from my laptop. I am sure that will attract some snide comments from some black analog disk spinner here as well...LOL. warm regards, from sunny El Salvador. tony

[A1UC]

Interconnects/speaker wire has always been a bad topic and gets heated real quick , every person has their own beliefs which they

are entitled to. []

[andyo5]

I believe that speaker cables have alot more of an effect than interconnects.

I auditioned about 5 different speaker cable pairs a few years ago, courtesy of The Cable Company. I ended up purchasing a pair of Nordost Blue Heaven cables. I did hear significant differences between the various cables. Speaker cables are required to handle higher current levels than intercommects.

Regarding interconnects, I originally started with all Kimber Heros. But after several months of use; and considering the level of hum that I was hearing in my system (the Heros are not shielded at all), I began to question my choice. I tried switching a couple of them to Radio Shack's best shielded interconnects with gold plated connectors. The result was WAY better sound quality, with NO hum at all. At a cost of $12 per 3M pair.

Perhaps I could get better sound by purchasing a $1000 per pair set of Golden Dragon interconects. But I am not going to do so.