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Yes, cables do make a difference -- regardless of price...

I thought you may find this interesting…or not.  I know, another "cable post".  Disclaimer up front — I am a believer that cables can make a difference in the sound that you hear from your system.  With my speakers, like most high(er) efficiency speakers, I can hear large and small changes made to the system components — and cables are part of that system.

What I want to share is an exercise that I went through with my better half in setting up her recording equipment that she will be using to record audio books.  The hardware part of the system is simple:  Audio Technica Cardioid Condenser Microphone AT2035 connected with a XLR cable to the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 preamp.

We started with the XLR cable that came with the microphone and recorded the short introduction of the book she has been contracted to record.  Then she recorded the same section using each of the our XLR cables I have on hand:  Vovox Excelsus, Mogami 2549, Gotham GAC-3, and Grimm TPR. Each of the cables have the same Neutrik connector and are very good studio cables that I have used in my system at one time.

Listening through headphones via the Scarlett 2i2, it was super easy to hear distinct differences in these cables.  The differences were not small and very apparent.  In the end, the Mogami cable was the winner — it seemed more open and warmer than the other cables and suited the tone of her voice the best. I have heard similar differences from these cables in my stereo system but not to the significant degree borne out by this exercise. 

To keep going, today I replaced the $10 USB C to C cable that I bought as an “upgrade” from the Scarlett 2i2 to a MacBook Air with a $70 Audioquest Forest cable. We were more than surprised that with the AQ cable in the system the drop of the noise floor was very significant and the blackness of background made the sound even more crystal clear.

The purpose of this post is not to promote or compares cables, just a public service posting for those of you who do not believe cables make a difference.  They really do affect how your system sounds (positive or negative) and if you cannot hear a difference then maybe looking at the transparency of your system is a place you should examine.

Imagine peace everyone.

crozbo

Showing 1 response by kraftwerkturbo

kraftwerkturbo
310 posts
 

Cables make a difference.

Anecdotal evidence/example: 40+ years ago when our small group of young enthusiasts/future engineers/tinkerers dabble heavily in audio (and the first CD came out, yeah!), we soon found ’thicker’ is better (instead of 0.7mm2 lamp cord, we splurged on 4mm2). We built our own active crossovers (found very quiet op amps, one of us was an electrical engineer), bi and tripe amped various speakers.

In our quest for better sound, we tried lots of different cables that were within out ’student budget’. One of our acquaintances family owned an electric supply company. One day, we grabbed a length of phat coax cable they use to wire up multi family and large appartment buildings for cable TV (I think RG59, but need to verify), and used them on our reference system. WE WERE BLOWN AWAY. We unlimited supply at super low price (we paid 10 cents per ft), we started to sell the cables to our network (making the connections was a bit of work).

Years later, we found that cable tested and listed in the top audiophile magazine (Stereoplay) in almost highest category of speaker cables. There was no cable NEAR that category that did not cost at least one hundred times as much (the magazine used 50 cents/ft). I actually still have a (uneven length unfortunately) section here, need to give it some serious ’re listening’. If I can’t hear the difference to my selection of roughly $3-$10/ft cables, it only means I need to get a new set of ears ;-).

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