Battle of RCA Cables: Mogami, Amazon, Monoprice

[Trdat]

When 12 Gauge Wire is Not 12 Gauge

Introduction Why test 12 gauge (AWG) wire? 12 AWG speaker wire is a “safe bet” from performance point of view because anything thinner may interact with the low impedance of your speakers and cause the frequency response to vary beyond threshold of hearing (-0.5 dB). That change can “color”...

www.audiosciencereview.com

I scour this forum daily to look for things I haven't seen before and it always ceases to amaze me what finds I come across weekly.

 

[audio2design]

They only work because the roll-off effects happen below 20KHz

[rant] The manufacturers of "high-end" gear seem to love to pretend that they are designing complicated RF devices. The idea that audio reproduction is an exotic and mysterious thing speaks to a lot of people. We love the thought of "secret sauce". But the reality of audio electronics is much more mundane.

When you design GHz electronics, the reactance of individual traces on a PCB can be enough to cause major headaches. Sub 20KHz? Nearly no concern at all needed. Of course RF effects can still cause havoc in audio cicuits, but the audibe spectrum itself is so close to DC that the frequency dependant behavior of the signal becomes a footnote. [/rant]

Having done design work at audio frequencies up to a few GHz, while I agree that RF takes a much different skill set, pushing the state of the art, while not required from an audibility standpoint, is not the trivial exercise you claim it to be. If that was true, all amplifiers would have 110db+ SINAD, but many struggle to hit 90db, especially when they integrate other circuits in chassis. Noise is either much more prevalent (certainly in chassis) at audio frequencies or near enough to down modulate, and typically much harder to shield from. Like most engineering pursuits the specs tend to compete with each other. Decrease noise by lowering resistances = decrease in linearity from higher currents (in a given stage). I have ran into inductance issues on a low value resistor at 1Mhz ... no need to get up to the GHz to find unexpected results. The frequency dependent behavior is most certainly not a foot note below 20Hz, hence why THD rise with frequency in most amps ... limited gain bandwidth versus feedback needed. Audible? ...perhaps not.

None of which to say that "High end" gear does not pretend to be something it is not. However, it is not the high end gear that tends to be pushing "state of the art" at least from a measurement standpoint. That seems to happen more at the upper end of the middle, bottom of the high end.

 

[Killingbeans]

Yeah, I know it didn't hold a huge amount of water. Hence why I put the 'rant' brackets on it.

High quality audio gear definitely doesn't just take a monkey with a hammer to design. My main point of discontent is the constant flow of claims from snake-oil cable producers about how a normal interconnect attenuates different parts of the audible spectrum while basic knowledge about filters proves them wrong.

 

[imagidominc]

Oh man, you could got some Canare instead......

Just kidding, those Mogami Gold should serve you well.

They better, they were expensive as hell lmao

 

[audio2design]

Yeah, I know it didn't hold a huge amount of water. Hence why I put the 'rant' brackets on it.

High quality audio gear definitely doesn't just take a monkey with a hammer to design. My main point of discontent is the constant flow of claims from snake-oil cable producers about how a normal interconnect attenuates different parts of the audible spectrum while basic knowledge about filters proves them wrong.

It is likely how doctors feel about homeopathy.

 

[Nango]

What about testing of pure silver > silvered > copper 6N and regular "Amazon range" cooper often seen on cable for headphones?

 

[Lambda]

What about testing of pure silver > silvered > copper 6N and regular "Amazon range" cooper often seen on cable for headphones?

Wat do you expect? This test already can’t reliably resolve the difference an normal cable makes.

 

[audio2design]

What about testing of pure silver > silvered > copper 6N and regular "Amazon range" cooper often seen on cable for headphones?

You could just bang your head against a wall and save time.

 

[krabapple]

Do people spend a lot of time feeling their cables?

 

[Robin L]

Do people spend a lot of time feeling their cables?

Audio pros do, can't help it, it's part of their job. They are the ones most concerned with cable construction, the ones who have to be sure of strain relief, the ones most likely to use balanced connectors. They are also the group least likely to buy/use $1,000 + a foot interconnects terminated with RCA plugs, and most likely to make their own interconnects.

 

[Nango]

Wat do you expect? This test already can’t reliably resolve the difference an normal cable makes.

Excuse me but silver is always said to be way better conductor dur to it's cristalline molecular structure. Silver atoms are all aligned into same direction once under current. This could be the trigger. Let's check it out @amirm.

 

[Robin L]

Excuse me but silver is always said to be way better conductor dur to it's cristalline molecular structure. Silver atoms are all aligned into same direction once under current. This could be the trigger.

Or it could be snake oil.

 

[Nango]

Or it could be snake oil.

Yes, let's find out.

 

[audio2design]

Excuse me but silver is always said to be way better conductor dur to it's cristalline molecular structure. Silver atoms are all aligned into same direction once under current. This could be the trigger. Let's check it out @amirm.

A lot of things are said. A lot of things are not true, or at least relevant. This would be one of them.

 

[Killingbeans]

Excuse me but silver is always said to be way better conductor dur to it's cristalline molecular structure. Silver atoms are all aligned into same direction once under current.

It's not said to be. A cross section of silver is roughly 6% more conductive than an equal cross section of copper, because of better electron mobility. But there's really not much else to it? Make the copper cross section 6% bigger, and there's no difference?

This could be the trigger.

The trigger to what?

 

[audio2design]

It's not said to be. A cross section of silver is roughly 6% more conductive than an equal cross section of copper, because of better electron mobility. But there's really not much else to it? Make the copper cross section 6% bigger, and there's no difference?

Why must cross-sectional area be "The" measurement even. Maybe conduction to weight is more relevant in which case aluminum is best. It is simply something that ignophiles (copyright) latch onto. I bet is silver and copper colors were reversed, ignophiles would call silver warm and copper cool.

 

[Nango]

It's not said to be. A cross section of silver is roughly 6% more conductive than an equal cross section of copper, because of better electron mobility. But there's really not much else to it? Make the copper cross section 6% bigger, and there's no difference?



The trigger to what?

To better audio performance.

 

[Robin L]

To better audio performance.

Or to trigger subjectivists who want to hear a change. I suspect there are audible changes interconnects can induce due to impedance mismatch, the kind of thing that happens when older electronics are joined up with newer.

 

[Bacchusoo7]

I read this review yesterday but had to come back and comment. @amirm I think you were a little harsh on the Monoprice cables given they seem to perform as well as the others and aren't overly expensive. I take your point about their feel but a headless panther and a "no" recommendation seems a incongruent relative to their performance and value.

 

[Lambda]

Excuse me but silver is always said to be way better conductor dur to it's cristalline molecular structure. Silver atoms are all aligned into same direction once under current. This could be the trigger. Let's check it out

This is no answer to the Question.
Did you read the test? Do you understand whats tested?

Here are the measurements of all the cables. None showed any change in noise spectrum, distortion, etc. (some run to run variation is there with is immaterial):

To better audio performance.

So how can you improve on this?