@crozbo you are dead right that cables make a difference in your sonics. I also had a revelation recently about the sonic benefits of a high quality power cord on my monoblock amplifiers. I truly think some of the cable deniers either have not carefully auditioned them or the simply can't hear the differences. I just laugh heartily at the notion that cables don't sound different or that I can't hear the impact of supertweeters in my system.
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.
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Thank you for going through the process and reporting the results, which did not surprise me. The rule of thumb is to judge by their capacitance specs between conductors (see below). Mogami 2549 (standard dual conductors) has substantially lower capacitance than the rest. I can attest to the experience of using Mogami 2549 as an interconnect cable in the past years, and it has been quite satisfactory. The reason behind this is that the combination of the cable’s capacitance and the output impedance of the source could form a low-pass filter that affects higher-end signal frequencies. Mogami 2549 also has much lower capacitance than its quad-conductor peer, 2534 (97 pF/m), and the somehow popular Canare L-4E65 (also quad) cable (150 pF/m). The user feedback among these three was similar: Mogami 2549 is the outperformer. (Cable brand/model - capacitance, pF/m) Mogami 2549 - 11 Grimm TPR - 33 Gotham Gac-3 - 150 Vovox Excelsus - 100
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Years ago in the WBF forum, engineers and scientists were debating the claims on the Masterbuilt Cables website. The Masterbuilt were designed by the same government scientists working on superconductors (no, Masterbuilt is not a superconductor, merely that the government scientists are at the cutting edge of this field). After back and forth debate, a Masterbuilt scientist finally entered the fray with an answer that went way over my head. This silence the debate. I come to realize that even great scientists or engineers knowledge/reasoning pales in comparison to experts in the field. |
@kennyc @dave_b Other than the qualitative description of removing undesirable capacitance, resistance, etc., Masterbuilt and/or Transparent cable manufactures seem not being transparent about the technical specifications. While it is not uncommon for high-end or boutique cable manufacturers to emphasize qualitative descriptions and subjective evaluations in their marketing, rather than providing detailed technical specifications, the omission of such transparency impedes customers from making informed decisions when acquiring expensive products like these. It is advisable to reach out directly to the manufacturers to obtain these details before making a substantial investment, however.
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