Experiences With Costly Balanced XLR Interconnects Above $3,000

+1 czarivy I agree with the comment about conducting a blind comparison with generic cables vs whatever cable you’re thinking of buying and if you can tell the difference make your purchase. Above all else have fun! 👍

Blind testing is useful for a panel of jurists. It keeps everyone honest. If you only think you hear a difference then you likely don’t. Save your money. On the other hand if you find you can’t live without the new component then you have my sympathies. We’ve all been there.

For me buying cables is not much fun.  The only thing worse is buying insurance.  Cables just aren’t sexy like a good looking amp, or speaker.  And worse of all is the uncertainty that I found the best possible combination/synergy for my system.  Maybe the same goes for amplifiers and speakers but it just seems easier to decide on those components.

+1 @tomic601 on Audioquest Pegasus ICs.

I had an experience at HiFi Buys in Atlanta recently that made me curse out aloud.

Brought in my Berkeley Reference 2 DAC to audition just for kicks. (HiFi Buys does not carry the BAD DAC Ref 2.) Connected my BAD DAC to Vandersteen pre-amp feeding Vandersteen top-of-line amps driving Vandersteen Kentos. (Richard Vandersteen was in town showcasing his new pre-amp,) At first, I substituted my Audioquest Earth XLRs from home for Pegasus XLRs that were connecting reference DAC to pre-amp. The Earths are no slouch. Sound was coarse compared to what was emitted by reference DAC just before. Might even say BAD DAC Ref 2 sounded broken in comparison. On whim, asked Ed of HiFi Buys to swap Pegasus ICs back in. Night and day. Now my BAD DAC Ref 2 sounded as sweet, refined, and precise, as the reference DAC, if not more so.

#$%@! Now I have to replace my carefully assembled loom of Earth ICs with Pegasus ICs.

G 

Blind testing is a great idea because when one pays a fortune for a cable one expects some marvelous change in sound that doesn't exist. That's psychology, and these cable tweaks are a fetish. When I read some reviewer of a component saying he hears different responses when using different cables I become skeptical because that is pure nonsense. Go to ASR and read Amir's excellent review of some crazy Nordost cable and also the one on a Wireworld USB cable. The Wireworld, despite extravagant manufacturer claims, sounds no different than an Amazon basic USB. I can see where people like certain badly rated speakers or prefer tubes to Class D or whatever because they like the sound they are getting which is certainly different. But this cable business is absolute rubbish, unless you are manufacturing and selling them. Some of these cables look very cool. but I'd rather enjoy the music and leave neurosis behind. 

If you can’t trust your hearing then you are in the wrong hobby. 

Have had some great results from AntiCable and some of the higher end Cardas options.  

The funniest thing is that the “Box” cables like Transparent and MIT are frequently bashed as being snake oil.  Those are precisely the only cables that actually offer a musically significant increase in performance.  Otherwise, I agree with fact that wire is wire.

I am very happy to find there is a person who is really sensibly correct. The person is "rtorchia". I wish everybody should be like him!

Therefore, unnecessarily-expensive audio components will be perished from the Earth!

My Cardas Clear Beyond XLR smoked Clarus Crimson XLR in a direct shootout yesterday.

The difference was huge.

I just bought the Acrolink DA6300 after comparing with Jorma, Vertere, Argento Flow and MIT. The DA6300 was the quietest and had more depth and separation. Vertere was also very good the others smooth but homogenous sound in my system. The DA6300 was a no brainer beautiful cable very involving and transparent. Tight bass, crisp highs with out being bright, and smooth mid range.

@presmara thanks for the post. Is your Acrolink the latest DA6300IV? I’m seriously considering this but need some time to recuperate from my recent spending. It’s a very costly cable where the price is higher than some of my components, but it’s still slightly cheaper than the WW Platinum Eclipse 8 XLR.

Hi Ryder I am in Australia and access to a large range of second hand cables is limited. The ones I bought were the DA6300II, but I was happy to go with these as the performance jump was in no doubt. I did not “think” I heard a difference - it was night and day transformation. I do not buy HiFi unless there is a significant no brainer improvement.

I assume the DA6300IV will be better again but I would have to buy brand new. I saw there were some DA6300IV ( not many) for sale via HiFi Shark, but I did not want to take the risk of fake cables which has happened to a few of my buddies. 

I am running the DA6300 between an Antipodes K50 and Mola Mola Makua DAC/Preamp. The change to the DA6300 this weekend transformed the sound to a whole new level and I am no longer analyzing the sound, it is so sublime, relaxing and non fatiguing, but still very transparent and detailed.

I have a fully fleshed out sound field, with very solid deep bass, lightning fast dynamics with more space between performers and a very wide and deep soundstage. I am using DA6300II interconnects from the Makua into a Vitus SS101 power amp and synergistic research UEF atmos level 4 speaker cables into Gauder RC7 Mk2 diamond tweeter speakers. 
 

I feel sorry for people who want to attack others here, saying wire is wire. Because that is not true - I am a scientist and know we cannot measure everything, but still do value what we can measure. And in the end it is all about synergy, what is best in one system is not the best in another. What I do like about Acrolink is they are very transparent with what is in their cables, they are beautifully constructed and they give you a lot of measurements which show significant measurable differences. And yes there is a lot of snake oil out there where the secret sauce is hidden. I do trust Acrolink based over many decades of experience and their scientific approach. I would have liked to try the Cardas beyond probably very nice also. 
 

Hope this helps. Trust your ears! 
cheers

mark
 

I am waiting on Jeff Smith of Silversmith Cables for his new XLR cables.

They should be out in a few weeks. I have had great success with his Fidelium speaker cables. Very reasonably priced at about $1200 for an 8’ pair. They absolutely creamed my $6K former cables that are now, relatively, junk.

I mentioned my long standing debate with Ralph about the AES standard saying that if that standard is followed by manufacturers of gear used that expensive XLR cables are not needed. I have followed Ralph’s advise while using his Atma-Sphere MP-1 preamp. I use Mogamis. But am copying Jeff on this thread since he insists that good cables are, in fact, very important.

I do now lean toward buying Jeff’s new XLRs. Like his great Fideliums, his XLRs will also be reasonably priced are around $1K for a metered pair. All Jeff’s cables are fully refundable for 30 days. 

For a supposedly high tech company, Acrolink’s website is absolutely horrible and offers nothing but meandering bloviation regarding Japanese tech leadership and metal purity circa 1999…hilarious!  I read some of the cable construction pages 😳

Hot mess comes to mind …best of luck 🍀 

I agree the Acrolink website is difficult to Navigate. But if you have ever booked an air ticket direct with JAL from Japan then you will get an insight into the Japanese website complexities. I work with a $5billion high tech Japanese company that does work on the space station and it is the same thing. It is just a different mindset complex to us normal to them. 
 

Here is a brochure from Esoteric who relabel Acrolink cables which has a nice summary of the higher end Mexcel series cables.  
 

Here's where I call BS:  If a top line Amp manufacturer (Let's day $50,000 plus) isn't using the snake oil cables why should I?  I  bought the kick ass amp why do I need to upgrade BS external components? Didn't Dan or Mark or Bill include the best cables with this uber expensive demonstration of their best amp?  Of course they did!!

Hi Mark, thanks for the comprehensive response, appreciated. After reading about your experiences, the DA6300 will likely be my final cable upgrade before I call it a day. Your components and speakers are all top-notch so the system deserves the Acrolink DA6300 Mexcel. I rotate between a Chord QBD76 and Luxman DA-06 DAC on the Luxman L-590AXII integrated. Speakers are Marten Duke 2.

I share the same sentiment regarding the transparency of the company (Acrolink) and the high quality construction of the cables. I currently own the Acrolink 7N-PC9700 and 8N-8100 mains power cables and 8N-A2080III Evo XLR and all these cables are very well made. They are inherently stiff cables and the weight of the A2080 XLR is higher than the Wireworld Silver Eclipse 8 apart from looking more solid.

It’s useful to note that you are an open-minded scientist. I am an engineer and agree that measurements although important aren’t everything. The only issue with me is on my bad habit of overspending on cables.

I knew Robert Fulton back in the late 1970s. He pretty much founded the entire high end audio cable industry. Back then, people thought he was nuts, with his Fulton Gold 8ga speaker cable and his Fulton interconnects. We (my audiophile friends and I) were listening to differences in audio cables way back then.

But I also played in various orchestras and those got recorded. I was able to listen to the direct mic feeds on several occasions, and the thing that really stood out was how amazing they sounded, through cables that were clearly a lot longer and lot older than Fulton’s cables.

The recording stuff was balanced. Fulton’s cables were single-ended.

So from as far back as 1973, I had this lesson that balanced line cables worked and that was why when it came time to design a preamp, I designed what turned out to be the first balanced line tube preamp ever made. The first units were sold in 1989.

Of course we played with a lot of cables back then. Before we had a line stage going that supported the balanced line standard, we built a passive balanced volume control. Running 30 foot cables, the difference in sound between them was nothing short of dramatic. The old mic cables I had on hand sounded broken next to the Kimber and Purist.

Finally we swapped in the line stage. All the cables sounded better. But the funny thing was the old studio cables sounded every bit as good as the others and they all sounded the same.

And that is why we’ve pushed balanced operation ever since.

I don’t like the idea that you can hear differences between cables- because it means that all the cables are wrong. Everyone reading this knows this is so: next year the manufacturer of the ’best’ cable will have a better one and if he doesn’t, someone else will. So that means the cables you have now aren’t right.

Now I’ve often been accused of being nuts but I don’t get why you have to spend thousands of dollars on a cable and then watch it turn into something you can’t really sell- like used underwear. Its a bad investment. I always thought that audiophiles would love the ability to ditch all that if they knew they could get better sound while using a cable they could run for decades.

Turns out some do.

But-

This thread exists...

Well since all the cables sounded the same, that begs the question why the preamp couldn’t discern the differences.  Power supplies sound different, types of connectors sound different…silver vs copper, insulation material, grounding, shielding etc….  But hey, great job making them all sound the same 👍

ryder

I am looking forward in reading more about Acrolink v. Wireworld XLR cables in your system. Iam also considering Acrolink 8100/9700 PC as well.

Happy Listening!

bosssound

I enjoyed the "Kento" room at Hifi Buys Atlanta as well.  Your ears do not decieve.

Good to read that you had an excellent experience.

Happy Listening!

Next year most audio manufacturers will have a better preamp, better amp, better DAC, and better speakers.

Well since all the cables sounded the same, that begs the question why the preamp couldn’t discern the differences.

@dave_b 

No, it doesn't and that's not a thing... Let's put it another way? Its good you have the resolution to hear cable differences. Its bad that you actually do.

Next year most audio manufacturers will have a better preamp, better amp, better DAC, and better speakers.

Yes. But as we all know, cables can cost as much or more than a component. One customer of mine had balanced interconnect that cost $1000/foot ten years ago and he had 24 feet.

Wouldn't it be nice to just not to ever have to worry about what the cable is doing in your system; to have it reliably always be completely neutral, without it being an investment?

To understand how balanced lines are supposed to work, look at it this way:

With RCA cables, the sound of the cable is dependent on its construction, which might cost quite a lot.

With balanced line, if the standard is supported, the equipment is doing the heavy lifting rather than the cable. This results in plug and play.

The wonderful thing about cables is that they’re incredibly easy to buy and sell used.

Yes easy to buy new then easy to sell for a significant loss. I see so many pricey second hand wires on hifi sites these days!  It would seem there is an abundance of bad investments accumulating out there over time.   Wires do tend to be relatively durable compared to electronics over time so there is that.

Maybe many of us learned folks here chase “better ” cables because our hearing is declining? Maybe we get used to one kind of sonic signature and trade it for another? There are so many other variables too; least of all many folks just plain like to tinker or buy/try something else. How many here are collectors of watches, records, stamps, tools just to name a few? My psychic powers say many. Hope this is beyond clear. 

I am neither an engineer or a cable expert. I, however, am an expert in determining the quality and admissibility of expert opinions in court. See Fed. R. Evid. 702.  Most of the ASR guys do not follow any scientific methodology, have zero experience in cable design or construction, and refuse to test their hypotheses.  If you claim a $50 cable is as good as a $1500 cable, test it:  swap them out and listen. ASR guys will not do that.  Courts would call their approach “junk science.”