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Cables making a difference

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Zitro said:
I know most of the posts in this threat have related to speaker cable and interconnect, but what about power cords? I snagged up a mint Jolida FX-10 for only $300 and have been thoroughly enjoying it so far. One thing I noticed is that while build quality is superb, he stock power cord looks like it belongs on a beard trimmer. It is a detachable cable, though, so I can upgrade if I wanted to. Any positive feedback on power chords, and would they make a difference on such a low-wattage (10 wpc) tube amp?
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I haven't heard it for myself (with your specific amp) but, I'm sure a good mains cable would help as, it's not about the wattage, it's about the filtering and reducing the noise floor that is gleaned from an upgraded mains supply. Often, digital disc players or DAC are greatly improved with attention to the mains.

Happy Listening!:beatnik:
 
Power cords

I was talking power cords with my favorite stereo shop and they made a point that I had never thought of.

While you can most certainly improve your connection from the wall and/or power supply to your piece of equipment, what about the other part? That is, from the breaker panel to your receptacle? That is where the weak link is he pointed out. In most houses, the circuit are shared with devices and equipment producing electrical noise . Even the most expensive cables cannot get rid of this noise.

Needless to say, I went and rewired my music room to a dedicated circuit with a surge suppressor. Now I can think about power cable improvements.
 
That's right; you can also upgrade your electrical junction box, and house wiring.

* Some audiophile people even move to brand new suburbs of younger cities, just for the newer copper cables installed and power transformers and main power grid.
Then they build their hi-fi stereo rig from there. ...With the very best cables all around.
 
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Yes BUT, a huge part of what makes a mains cord do wonders in the first three feet from your audio component, has little to do with current flow and everything to do with filtering and isolation. Not that improving current flow is without merit, it's just that counter intuitively, isolation and filtering improves much more. Two things that improve your sound but the later works on every single component, CDP, DAC, tuner, power supply, amp, whatever, more significantly. I noticed a substantial improvement without doing anything to the duplex on back to the power pole. I've heard countless examples.

Happy Listening! :beatnik:
 
You can upgrade your AC wall plates. You can buy AC power cords without any filtering, and after two weeks of burning or so you should hear a substantial improvement. You can knock yourself real good by investing a lot of dough ($50,000 to $100,000) on cables alone and it's like adding two or three brand new audio components to your hi-fi stereo rig.
 
My power control is fairly simple

First, my power goes to an APC 120v regulator. I was getting 127vac at the outlet which my tube amp hated. The APC gives me steady 120vac, measured.

From there, it goes to a Thurman PST-8D power unit. Amazing unit

http://www.amazon.com/Furman-Advanc...&qid=1394856673&sr=1-1&keywords=furman+pst-8d

Total of the two about $170 ...my power is CLEAN...and then the Pangea cable for the power amp...As Nelson Pass told me, a good system starts with clean power.
 
For what it's worth, just last week I tried a pair of 6' video composite cables that came in the box with a few satellite receivers as ic's. Grey un-branded ones. Not even gold plated. As far as cheap cables go, these sound very good. I wish I had the gear to do some RCL tests of them.
 
I'm not particularly surprised. "Video" cables are typically well-shielded and low capacitance. Usually a good mix for fine conveyance of a signal.
 
That seems to be no secret, but still not all that well known of a fact. I've seen manufactures suggest them for audio signals before. Seems logical enough, and can be had for about $3 on the net... The identical-looking audio cable was much more expensive, by the way. I'd love to see how they compare to a big-buck or average name-brand ic. I have a feeling what the result would be though.
 
They do...

I've been a member of this site since '06 but never got involved in cable related threads because I just didn't have any point of comparison, so I just read them.

I guess I just felt that the gear I ran, be it vintage or newer, just didn't justify spending that kind of money on cables, I was satisfied with what I had; my Yamaha RX-596, Yamaha 5 disc CDP and Paradigms M9v6 performed perfectly, to my limited knowledge...

Things have since changed... A month or so ago, I bought a pair of 2005 Sonus Faber Grand Piano Home to replace the Paradigms. At the same time, I "dusted off" an Atoll IN80 and CD50 I had bought used some years ago but never got around to properly setup because of "family" requirements and hooked everything up, with my cheap old interconnects and original/generic power cables for the Atoll gear.

This new setup was certainly a step up from the previous one but it sure didn't do justice to what I'd heard when I went auditioning the Sonus before buying them. "What am I doing wrong?" I asked myself. Was it only speaker placement, associated gear (I auditioned them connected to a NAD Master Series M3), room treatment, all of the above or something else?

Fast forward this afternoon; I decide, for the first time of my life (I'm 50), to visit the Montreal's Salon Son & Image (Sound & Vision Show), and out of the blue, I end up buying a high end power cord and interconnect, to give it a try since I can return them if not satisfied. Well, guess what, you think I'll be returning them?

Negative! I'm floored at the results... Call me crazy but I've been trying the ICs on my CDP and phono pre and the PC on both the CDP and amplifier. I am amazed at what difference those cables make in term of overall performance. For a while, I thought I'd have to go and buy a subwoofer for the SFs, well not anymore; bass is back and fast and tight, soundstage has widened and deepened and noise floor is another notch down. I even had some piano recordings (CD and LP) that made the tweeters distort a bit, well it seems to have corrected that too... I'm really amazed. Even my wife said it sounded "clearer", who am I to argue???

So, I went from being unsure of the effects they would have on a system to completely sold, just because I finally gave it a try and was able to compare for myself. Quite enlightening.

These are what I got and planning on getting some more:

http://audiosensibility.com/blog/products-2/interconnects/#!/~/product/category=2595836&id=21454544

http://audiosensibility.com/blog/products-2/power-cables-2/#!/~/product/category=2595837&id=11455990
 
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I am really happy when I read these threads

NOt that someone HAS to buy better cables, but willing to TRY something beyond what they had previously thought...and netting a positive experience. Its sort of like having MM carts all your life and taking the plunge on an MC cart ...and going ..wow...it does make a difference....KUDO's on tweaking to your liking !!!
 
I had a roomate that worked in the electronic instrument section at guitar center before travelling the country with a band doing their sound setup. I remember he used to always say that cables are 30% of your sound.
 
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Luckytiger said:
I was in the camp of the non-believers until last weekend. I have upgraded previously without any audible (to me) difference. Last time was a pair of Audioquest Sidewinders and a pair of Atlas Equators. Recently I got a new set of speakers and had friends over to listen. After about 3 hours one of the guys asked if I wanted to try some cables he had brought over. The difference was night and day. (FYI - these were DIY's) It was like a blanket had been lifted off the midrange, a midrange we had all agreed was pretty awesome. Spent the next 2 hours re-listening to most of the tracks we had just heard to make sure we hearing what we thought we were hearing. Maybe I just didn't have the proper associated equipment before. Hearing is believing, and for me, that's the only test there is.
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Yep, the only test that counts!

Happy Listening! :beatnik:
 
I purchased some nice Analysis Plus Oval cables a couple of weeks ago. I had tried Kimber cables a long time ago and found they made no difference, so was interested to try these newer up market cables.

Alas, no difference. It sounds the same as the stock generic interconnects. The biggest difference I noticed was a lighter wallet. I was a bit bummed off as I would of liked to hear a difference.

I know these sorts of threads get a lot of arguments and heated debate, and I guess while there are those of us who realise a difference in up market cables, there are those that observe no difference what so ever, and as such this debate will no doubt continue for quite some time.
 
I don't get into the "Do cables make a difference?" thing because I find virtually all of them go nowhere logically.

First: Every cable in an audio system is different if you buy different gear. I don't know what your system is but if you have an amp/sources/speakers/interconnect/speaker cable all from different companies then all of the cables will be different.

Therefore, logically, your system is as good as the worst cable in the system - which is likely inside the speakers/amp/source. Sticking an expensive IC onto an amp using $.02 per foot wire puzzles me.

Second: Just because a cable might work at making one system better doesn't mean that it will universally better.

I have a power conditioner that improves the sound of my CD player quite a lot. Perhaps because of the noise suppression of the CD player and that the device is more sensitive to noise. On my Audio Note OTO it really doesn't make a difference. At first I felt there was but that was because I was running both units through the conditioner - when I put the amp on it's own outlet it in fact sounds better without the conditioner. So I use it now only for the CD player.

Lastly I experienced a "meh" moment with my Audio Note AN V interconnects. I didn't immediately notice much difference over my Tara Labs cables. But I left the Audio Note cables in. A year goes by and I accidentally broke the interconnect by twisting and pulling them out of the jacks. So I pulled a solder joint out. Anyway, I plugged my Tara Labs IC back in and was shocked at how truly horrible they sounded. They were so bad in factt hat I put the AN V back in even with the intermittent cutting out because I could not stand the Tara Labs. Got the cables repaired and dumped the TL cables.

Remember this was a cable that did nothing "positive" for me when I first put them in against the Tara Labs. Some cable guys will say it is break-in. (MAYBE) but it could also just be a factor of getting used to the sound of the new. My only suggestion here is to use the new cables for a few months (if you can't return them) and then switch back to the old ones and check to see if at that time you notice a difference.

Still I always go back to point one. Very few people buy stereos that are in sync with each other. With my Audio Note system I know that the same wires that are used in the amp/CD player/Turntable/Tone arm wires/cartridge wires/DACs/Transports/IC/Speaker cable/wires inside the speakers/wires in the driver voice coils right down to the soldering material is cut from the same sonic cloth. That coupled with the fact that the turntable is designed for their phono stage which is designed for their preamp which is designed for their amp which is designed to be a mirror image of the loudspeaker load means that everything is speaking with one voice.


Most people for some reason that I have always found odd will buy a CD player from company A that uses who knows what parts inside and then a Tube preamplifier from a designer that hates SS and doesn't design his preamp for SS, into a SS amplifier whose maker hates tubes and doesn't design for tubes - both use totally different wires into a loudspeaker that both amp makers wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole which again uses a completely different set of cables.

Remember you're not buying a cable - you are buying "one part of a long cable chain"

This is why I understand why people never hear any differences in cables - drop a gallon of fresh water into a 58million gallon drum of filthy well water and you're not getting a clean well at the end of the process.
 
This is why I understand why people never hear any differences in cables - drop a gallon of fresh water into a 58million gallon drum of filthy well water and you're not getting a clean well at the end of the process.[/QUOTE]


very well said ......:yes:
 
I've owned a lot of audio cables cheap, medium, and high priced from DIY concoctions to AudioQuest, Audio Research, Transparent Audio, Monster, Harmonic Tech., VooDoo Cable, Nordost, XLO, VdH, MIT, Belden, Synergistic Research, Tara Labs, and a few I may have forgotten.

The only ones I use now are Morrow Audio or Wireworld because they actually sound better, and aren't just expensive tone controls.

YMMV, trust your ears, batteries not included, etc....
 
river25 said:
I purchased some nice Analysis Plus Oval cables a couple of weeks ago. I had tried Kimber cables a long time ago and found they made no difference, so was interested to try these newer up market cables.

Alas, no difference. It sounds the same as the stock generic interconnects. The biggest difference I noticed was a lighter wallet. I was a bit bummed off as I would of liked to hear a difference.

I know these sorts of threads get a lot of arguments and heated debate, and I guess while there are those of us who realise a difference in up market cables, there are those that observe no difference what so ever, and as such this debate will no doubt continue for quite some time.
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Now this is very strange! You've tried Kimber and Analysis Plus and cant hear a difference? I've not tried Kimber, but I have used Analysis Plus Oval Ones which are a very good entry level and because the cable at $99 per meter was such a great bag for buck, I've jumped up to the Analysis Plus Solo Crystal Copper Cable which are outstanding! I've even used them in the system of a friend and we heard them compared to other cables he was using. I've told a friend who post regularly on this message board about them and he purchased one of their power cords as well as speaker cable and he can hear the difference. But you say you cant? That is very strange. No matter what cable I put in my system I can hear the difference and what that cable is doing or not doing. May I suggest, you may have some gear in you system that's not allowing you to hear these changes? And the fault may not be in the cables at all? I've seen times when older vintage gear simply wont pass the sonics and detail of good cables.
 
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RGA said:
Most people for some reason that I have always found odd will buy a CD player from company A that uses who knows what parts inside and then a Tube preamplifier from a designer that hates SS and doesn't design his preamp for SS, into a SS amplifier whose maker hates tubes and doesn't design for tubes - both use totally different wires into a loudspeaker that both amp makers wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole which again uses a completely different set of cables.

Remember you're not buying a cable - you are buying "one part of a long cable chain"

This is why I understand why people never hear any differences in cables - drop a gallon of fresh water into a 58million gallon drum of filthy well water and you're not getting a clean well at the end of the process.
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I'd have to disagree here! Lots of guys don't buy the matching source or amp/preamp and are still able to hear the difference in cable. Some guys have two or three different brand interconnect wires as well as a totally different speaker wire and are able to get great sonics and dynamics to their liking. Thats totally different than not being able to HEAR a difference in stock cable versus expensive cable which is the guys problem. In situations as such, I've found the problem is not in the interconnect or speaker cable, but in the quality of the gear. Some entry level gear as well as lots of vintage gear simply wont pass the sonics of some modern interconnect and speaker wire.
 
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