good cables for the money with warm revealing sound
Harmonic Technology Pro 9 or 11
Harmonic Tech Pro Silway II
Cardas Golden Cross
buy them used on audiogon! |
I use Radio Shack cables when I,m between cables and there TERRIBLE,TERRIBLE,TERRIBLE
No sound stage,transparency and mushy bass. Better than nothing,BUT NOT MUCH.
Tekunda is spot on with this one.
Steve |
I use all one brand cable from end to end. I think its the best way to start. Then you can mix and match and know if its better or worse because you have a refrence point. |
Anybody here a fan of using one makers products for the whole food chain? IE, source to speaker? I am considering acquiring Audio Note interconnects (not the pure silver; too damn expensive) to mate up my other audio note stuff. I've used all Linn systems before and was pleased with results; but now I am in the tube world.
Anybody with experience with audio note systems?
Thanks
Carl |
Pbb, my only suggestion is to NOT use Energizer batteries. That damn rabbit's constant drumming is never on beat with the software in play. |
I sure hope we're talking real boom box here. What is the best boom box/high end cable combination? I am dissatisfied with my current set-up as it takes an inordinate amount of space in my home. The boom box being portable could also be used outside the home, on my shoulder. Besides providing me with great sound, it would be a fashion statement. Does anyone know which batteries are best sound wise? Once I hit the road with my boom box and (sorry I didn't get the name, is that Nordost?) cable, I will be on battery power, my worry is that the juice out of those batteries being somewhat suspect DC, maybe it should be changed to AC and back to DC, so that it really is pure battery DC, know what I mean? I sure hope the manufacturers of line conditioners are listening. I don't want to lose out on the inner detail while out on outer detail. |
Perfectimage - I have read that at CES, Nordost used its cable on a cheap "boom box" gradually working their way up the line from Flatline to Valhalla. With every step in their product line, those in the audience heard better sound from the boom box. When the Valhalla finally met the boom box, people stood, cheered and applauded with joy.
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Although cables vary in sound based on manufacturer I think the benefit is basically more about allowing your equipment to perform at its best then adding anything themselves. A four thousand dollar set of speaker cables will do nothing for the cheaper systems but it will make an over the top system shine by allowing you to hear more of the equipment.
I recently added a high end digital cable to my system and it didnt do anything for my DVD player but the same cable put on my transport made a huge difference. The DVD player was already topped out but it allowed the transport to show me more of what it had.
Cables are probably the most marked up product there is in high end audio but I also beleive they are one of the biggest bangs for the buck. Yes you can over do it to the point where it makes no difference but matching the quality and signature sound of cables is as important as matching a dac to a transport.
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Sean...sounds about right, but it's not a musically relevant rule. Sort of like saying socks should only cost about 10% of the shoes you're wearing...or 1% of your best suit. Who cares? The cable market is wildly non-linear and non-correlated with performance, so yeah it's helpful to cite a guideline to keep us from totally irrational lopsidedness, but I can imagine a scenario where a detailed, linear, resolving affordable 2 way monitor that's relatively cheap, used with a low-powered affordable amp and a good source benefiting from one of the better ICs that itself might cost as much as one of the components.
OTOH you could make your own excellent IC for $50 and it'd sound great on $15k speakers, and the 10% rule would similarly be only cognitive dissonance.
Pick your transducers, then power them, then voice em with cables. Sorry to be so pedantic. Good night. |
Perhaps you misunderstood me. I would never state that cables do not make a difference when I have clearly heard that they make a major difference.
However I have found that their difference only justifies about 10% of the system cost being spent on cables. So if you have a 100k system then spend 10k on cables (I have no experience at this stratospheric price point), but if you have a $3k system (like mine) then spend about $300 on cables. Putting a $1k cable in a $3k system will not make a $1k difference, but putting a $100 cable in a $3k system could well make a $100 difference.
See what I'm saying ? What I really wanted to know was whether people think my 10% figure is about right, or too high or too low. |
Then I must be a fool or deaf.
I am doing this little cable shoot-out here, as you all know and why is it, that I hear huge differences in sound.
And I do not say, that all expensive cables sound better than the cheap stuff.
But certainly there are differences in sound and yes, a few of the expensive cables have indeed performed better than their cheaper counterparts.
I really believe that people, who state that you can go to Radio Shack and get cables there, probably have never heard quality cables and do not have a system with enough resolution. If you have such a systen, then every cable will just sound the same. It is like trying to look at electrons with an ordinary microscope . You will see nothing and claim that electrons do not exist.
But wait, the guy with a raster-electronic microscope, he will see electrons. So who is right then? The guy with the better mikroscope of course. In order to take advantage of the resolution of some high-end cables, you will need a high end system. It is so obvious to see, that I can't understand how some people miss this line of reasoning. |
Any cable which costs more (or equivalent to) the cost of the main components. I have seen postings with people asking for details on cables which cost as much as their amps or speakers. Whilst cables do make a big difference I think that they should take a smaller share of the money, say no more than 10% of the entire system cost. This is just my opinion and I'd welcome any feedback from anyone who thinks I have got this balance seriously wrong.
Personally I make all of my own ICs. It's not difficult, and in my experience it has given substantially better sound, at substantial savings compared to going with the cable manufacturers. I haven't yet used this route for speaker cables, but I'm very tempted. |
Almost all of the lower priced Monster interconnects and
speaker wires are just pure crap! And I rarely see any
positive remarks posted about their upper end offering,
either.
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When I heard that the WAMM speaker system now sells for $350k then $12k is cheap for cables. Will the insanity ever end? |
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This reminds me of some reports of audiophile spending, see what percentage folks spend on amps, speakers, pre-amps, cables....etc, then factor in the most of over looked software. Starts getting fairly scary when you have to add EVERYTHING up and then figure out percentages. If anyone can figure out an easy way to do it let me know I would be interested for my own personal knowledge. |
I think that cables' task is to make a fair adjustment to your setup. There will be some point when you'll make another upgrade on your speaker cable which wouldn't make any difference in your system setup and you'll ask yourself: why didn't I upgrade my CD-player or DAC or Phono or Amplifier for the samp amount of money?
Imagine: what kind of adjustment you need if you spend $12K just on your speaker cables?
Analyze it with any amount "available" for "fair adjustment" |
Harm Tech ProSilway and Pro-9 Great
Siltech $10k way too expensive |
It's all balance in the end. You gotta justify the cost vs. performance, etc. cables indeed make a difference, and you should spend some time finding some ones that match best, with in monetary reason.
However, anyone who states that cables make no difference, and pay not credibility to their importance, ALL HAVE BAD SOUNDING SYSTEMS, THAT YOU WOULDN'T WANT TO LISTEN TO ANYWAY!!!!..my experiences.
I once paid a visit to Dunlavy audio in Colorado, taking a little tour. John Dunlavy(respected award winning speaker designer) believes cables make no difference either! Do I need to tell you how his set-up's sounded???!!
Right!!!...THEY SOUNDED REALLY BAD!!! I've heard his speakers sound much better elsewhere...but not so in his place!...but that's to be expected in my opinion! Cables don't make a difference...yeah righ!!!!! |
Cables, heck P.T. Barnum is turning in his grave. Bell and Edison are looking the other way. Right on Snook2! Give'em hell! Platinum, I hear is even better. Why not bring the room down to zero Kelvin, I hear conductivity takes on another meaning down there. At least some intelligent discourse on the moving mass of tweeters would be a change. |
Cables the Ultra ripoff. Its good to know everyone knows this. I wonder if anyone has purchased the $12,000 transparent cable. Why not put a bar of gold as a replacement you will also get a better trade on it down the road |
i have the straight wire serenede and fim cables . i love them. monster is the biggist rippoff in audio. my buddy in florida did the radio shack to very good results. |
Kirk930 I do not have to go to Radio Shack -- instead I can go to Sam-Ash Music and get pro RCA or balanced cables, change connnectors to the quality gold plated (Cadras or Ausioquest) and It'll sing! I'll be in $40 range for a single pair.
Audioquest Midnight is much better and closer to music than Monster M2.4 and costs 1/4x much for the same lengh. My favorite is Analysis + Oval that I've many times seen on $30k equipment. |
IMHO Gthrush1 is correct in his praise of the Cardas Crosslink. It is much better than the overly hyped Kimber PBJ for the same price. However, the Cardas Neutral Reference is worth the extra money. It lets more of the music through. The only interconnect I found better is from Marigo Audio. |
go to radio shack. buy the orange digatal cables. use them for audio cables . let me know if 30 bucks sounds good. |
I agree with Gthrush1 to a certain extent.... I woulds much rather have a serious software collection, and OK cables. But rationality does not go hand and hand with this hobby, as we all know or we would not be here. One man's sane is another's insane and vice versa. I feel the limit(for me) is speaker cables: $1500 Interconnects: $700(per pair) Power cable $700(each). That is by no means cheap or too out of hand. With my budget in mind I like used cables, I mean why take such a loss when some one else is willing to. So answering your question I think most new high-end cables make no sense, I am a patient person and can wait to get things cheap used. |
Anything that costs more than $200 for a 1.0 meter set of interconnects, or more than $500 for a 2.5 meter set of speaker cables makes no sense to me.
Remember, you don't always get what you pay for...
I recommend the Cardas Crosslink, which is an affordable, quality cable. The money you save by NOT purchasing expensive wires can be put towards what REALLY matters -- a fat stack of records ;-) |
