||$300 Brand X will produce more detail than say $60 Mogami Gold||
so blunt man... so blunt.
Inter Connects - What I know and don't know
I've been researching Balanced Cables in anticipation of adding a new pair of mono-blocks (Atma Sphere Class - D) to my system. I'm hoping some of you who know a thing or two about cables might help me (us) clarify or demystify certain assumptions.
My assumptions:
- You get what you pay for ($300 Brand X will produce more detail than say $60 Mogami Gold).
- The larger the gauge the better.
- Crimped and soldered connectors are better than screw tightened.
- Two or more large braided strands are better than several smaller gauge braided strands (all things being equal).
- Silver conductors are better sounding and measuring than Copper conductors.
- Rhodium, Gold, Silver, Copper, & Brass, connectors objectively sound different. (as opposed to in your system).
Remember, the more objective your responses are the more helpful they'll be to a majority of readers.
Thanks in advance for your "feedback"
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- 52 posts total
@williewonka Thank you for taking the time to post. There's a lot of great information in your share. I'm hoping others benefit from the experience of those like yourself that have taken the time to actually test various cable typologies.
I've decided to start off with Zafino Arcadia OCC (XLR) cables: DAC to PRE and PRE to Mono Blocks. I've enjoyed their RCA version and have heard there are benefits to building out your loom with the same make/model if possible. Again that may just be marketing speak, I'm not knowledgeable enough to refute that claim.
I also came across these guys from the Netherlands for AC cables. Their pricing to build quality seem almost too good to be true. I wish there were more reviews to go by, but will probably give them a try.
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fyi, here is a portion of a followup response from T+A regarding AES48 compliance. I tried to parse the diagram in the draft AES doc but this is now officially way over my head :) The analog signal circuitry of the DAC200 is referenced to the analog signal ground. This conforms to AES48 (see "REF" ground in figure_3 of draft AES48-20XX). The generation of the balanced audio signal is already done in digital domain - not in analog domain. So this balanced signal is not generated relative to any (analog) ground. [edit - another point of contention is that AES48 is concerned with the connectors, not the cable between them] |
@nquery this might be easier to understand: Its from the Rane website- they are a manufacturer of studio equipment. The reason ground is ignored (whereas in a single-ended connection the ground is part of the signal) is because ground loops are endemic. So rather than trying to prevent them, the balanced line system simply doesn't use ground. In a recording studio where you might have an enormous amount of equipment, this makes it easy to hook things up with confidence; hunting down errant buzzes is much more rare. An advantage of not using the ground is that the cable itself becomes more neutral. So much of what we hear as differences in cables has to do with how the shielding is constructed since a signal (at ground potential) is being passed through it. When that issue is removed the cable becomes more neutral.
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- 52 posts total