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Interconnect Cables Fail

cjmustang69

cjmustang69

Well-Known Member
I have a pair of Audioquest Interconnect Cables which I have been using between a Marantz Universal Player and a Bel Canto Preamp. Last evening, I attempted to listen to the Marantz, but the sound quality was very poor. In particular, the vocals of music sounded muffled and distant. I checked all my connections to ensure nothing had become loose. Everything checked out fine. I then replaced the Interconnect Cables with a set of Signal Cables - and the sound was "back to normal". It would appear the issue is my Audioquest cables. Has anyone had an experience such as this? Do Interconnect Cables "go bad"? Is there a way to check interconnect cables to verify they will perform properly?
 
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cjmustang69 said:
I have a pair of Audioquest Interconnect Cables which I have been using between a Marantz Universal Player and a Bel Canto Preamp. Last evening, I attempted to listen to the Marantz, but the sound quality was very poor. In particular, the vocals of music sounded muffled and distant. I checked all my connections to ensure nothing had become loose. Everything checked out fine. I then replaced the Interconnect Cables with a set of Signal Cables - and the sound was "back to normal". It would appear the issue is my Audioquest cables. Has anyone had an experience such as this? Do Interconnect Cables "go bad"? Is there a way to check interconnect cables to verify they will perform properly?
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Have you tried cleaning with contact cleaner? Oxidation and muck are the only ways that cables can deteriorate, other than the damage that you've checked for.
 
cjmustang69 said:
Is there a way to check interconnect cables to verify they will perform properly?
Click to expand...


Unless you have some fairly high tech gear, about all you can do is check for basic continuity end to end from pin to pin and from shell to shell, then for short between pins to shells.

Pin to pin and shell to shell should present very low resistance, essentially 0 ohms but multimeter may show a very low reading due to contact resistances. Pin to shell should be open circuit.
 
thank you for replies. I don't have a multimeter at this point in time - so I'm going to try cleaning with contact cleaner and see whether it helps. Thanks again.
 
I have had Audioquest cables go bad to the point that they shorted out, causing a severe hum that fried my tweeters. I returned them to the dealer who repaired them. I'm now using one of them as a sub cable. Your problem does sound like a dirty connection though.
 
Your experience of cables shorting out is similar to another experience I had recently. I was changing out a Forte amp with a B&K amp - running to a Bel Canto Preamp 1. I wasn't thinking too much regarding the I/Cs which I was using as I made this change. Once I changed to the B&K amp - I immediately had a loud hum (like you hear with a bad ground - only quite loud). I immediately changed back to the Forte amp (again not paying particular attention to which IC cables I was using. Son of a gun, if I didn't have the same loud hum. At this point, I thought I had done something to the Bel Canto preamp. I then changed to a Coda preamp. Son of a gun - I had the same loud hum. Finally, at this point, I began changing out my IC cables. The issue was another set of Audioquest cables. Once I pulled them out of system, both amps and preamps work fine. I would never have suspected the cables could have caused such a problem.
 
Neither did I. It took a while to figure out the problem, but only a few seconds to fry my tweets. It ended up costing me $180 for new tweeters.
 
I feel fortunate I didn't do any damage to my speakers. Once I realized the hum wasn't consistently connected with a piece of equipment - I used a pair of Realistic Model 77 speakers I have to troubleshoot the issue.
 
It's been awhile since I've seen how the AudioQuest's were/are constructed. I remember they were all hog wild about larger gauge solid conductors. With those, they fatigue more easily then break. Losing a shield connection is not good. Those particular cables are better left alone after connecting them and try not to bend them too sharply.
 
I had a set of Audioquest cables that had a poor shield connection after a couple of years. I replaced the stock connectors with Bullet Plugs and didn't have any more problems.
I finally replaced them with Harmonic Technology ICs. Much better sound.
YMMV - not intended as a slag at AQ.
 
FWIW I recently picked up a pair of Audioquest Sidewinders on ebay & both were bad. Nasty nasty hum! One had a short on the positive pin, the other had a lack of continuity on negative. Luckily I had a good seller who refunded purchase price.
 
AudioQuest SideWinder

Hi There,

I just bought a pair of the Sidewinder interconnects and they sound very nice.
But what you guys are saying now have me some what worried about the cables going bad. Is there any preventive maintenance that should be done to keep the cables lasting longer?

One last thing, should the speaker cables and interconnects be cleaned once in awhile to keep a clean current? And if so what should or can be used to do this?

Cheers
Marty
 
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