Hello Everyone, this is a quick review and detailed measurements of the Cordial CFU and Ceon cables, and a little more.
A friend of mine asked me what are the cables I use for my (analog) measurements. And I went Cordial cables simply because my preferred local shop is selling them. This question, together with the recent review of Amir about some Kimber Cables, made me want to go a bit deeper, and perform some measurements, of course
The above photo shows all cables I included for this quick review, to make a bit more interesting.
There are the two Cordial cables (those with the TS end) that I regularly use:
Measurements
I followed the review of the Kimber Cables from Amir, and so I went only for few measurements, including the standard "SINAD" dashboard, bandwidth, jitter and square.
My setup is very simple, the computer (REW Software) drives a Topping D50III converter (used as the generator) and the RCA output of the Topping is measured by my usual Cosmos combo Scaler + ADCiso Grade 0. All of these items run on batteries.
So it is: REW Software (generator) -> Topping D50II (DAC) -> RCA Cable Under Test -> Cosmos combo (ADC) -> REW (FFT analyzis)
I set the D50III to output 2Vrms.
Let's start by measuring with my usual Cordial Ceon, as it is the one I prefer using. The below is a 1kHz sine @0dBFS:
As you can see, the calculated SINAD (opposite of THD+N in the above dashboard) is identical to what Amir measured in his review of the Topping D50III (121.4dB), the only difference is that I get the same results from the Left or Right channel of the Topping (0.1dB difference only).
For this measurements, I set the Topping to 48kHz sampling rate, FFT length was 32k and I used 4 averages, and that is to replicate the setup of Amir's AudioPrecision (3 averages instead of 4, though, as I can't select 3).
The unweighted SNR calculated in presence of that Full Scale (0dBFS) test tone is a crazy low 122.3dBr. This is state of the art and if a cable would make a difference, that level of precision would allow us to easily spot that.
And as a matter of facts, at that level of precision, almost anything makes a difference. For instance I got better results when the battery pack powering the ADC was at least 50cm away from it, while I usually just put it below...
Let's run the same measurement switching to the Cordial CFU:
The THD+N remains -121.4dB (meaning a SINAD of 121.4dB). The measurement is therefore nearly the same, maybe that 50Hz little spike went down from -145dbr to below what can be measured with that FFT length.
During my measurements and attempts to reach the lowest level of noise, I noticed that the Ceon was more likely to pick up noise than the CFU, but never to the point of reaching an audible level, only something I don't want in the context of high precision measurements.
Let's continue with the basic 1m RCA cable that has golden connectors:
Nice, even a little better than the two Cordial cables. This is 0.1dB better of SINAD, not relevant and likely due to the shorter length of the cable.
It is anyways good to see that a standard RCA does the job perfectly well, and does not get in the way of the highly resolved Topping DAC.
Next is the other very basic 3m RCA cable from probably 20+ years ago:
Hey, very nice too, same as the Cordial. That probably means I lose 0.1dB of SINAD with 3m cable instead of 1m.
Let's continue with the pseudo McIntosh cable from Ali:
This is the same result as the Cordial Ceon. Note that this cable is stiff and heavy, everything but practical to use.
Last is the cheap one I got from France:
Finally we get to see something!
This one is picking up some mains (50Hz) and harmonics from I don't know where since all devices run on batteries. There was nothing I could do to reduce this and I tried a lot of potential solutions (disconnecting all other surrounding devices, using an additional USB isolator, placing the cable differently, etc...).
Anyways, the SINAD degrades a little to a still extremely good 120.7dB which would keep the DAC in the "Excellent" category of Amir's chart. At least we have one cable that shows a little difference, yet of no importance...
----
As @amirm did with the Kimber cable test, let's continue with the bandwidth up to 200kHz. The below is an overlay of all cables:
Despite my usual zoom, they are the same. I did zoom much more and saw a very little 0.01dB difference between the "best" and "worst" cables at 200kHz.
Same in time domain, with a 20kHz square as Amir did with the Kimber test (but bandwidth is limited to 384kHz in my case). Results are identical between the best and the worst cable. For that reason, I show only one measurement, since all are exactly the same:
The ringing is due to the filter of the Topping (I'm not using a super resolved Generator as Amir with the AP) and a bandwidth limited to 384kHz (my maximum) instead of 500kHz.
----
Let me add a quick standard Jitter Test between the worst and best cable (FFT extended to 512k and 32 averages to visually lower the random noise):
I zoomed to better see potential side bands. The two traces overlay nearly perfectly, i.e. no difference.
Conclusion
Nothing new under the sun, I know.
Cables would make a difference if one had a massive issue, being incorrectly built, or of an extremely high length, placed next to a switching power, ...
In the end, buy what pleases you, for the convenience, the look, the price, ... and enjoy your music.
Have a nice WE!
A friend of mine asked me what are the cables I use for my (analog) measurements. And I went Cordial cables simply because my preferred local shop is selling them. This question, together with the recent review of Amir about some Kimber Cables, made me want to go a bit deeper, and perform some measurements, of course
The above photo shows all cables I included for this quick review, to make a bit more interesting.
There are the two Cordial cables (those with the TS end) that I regularly use:
- Cordial CFU labeled as a "pro audio low noise cable" (the black one).
- Cordial Ceon which is "DJ" cable, meaning flashy for the ease of identification, and very flexible. It is my default cable.
- Standard RCA cable (1m) with golden connectors (the one with the white ends)
- Very basic RCA cable (3m) probably very old too
- An AliExpress cable said to resemble an old McIntosh interconnect, included as a gift by the seller when I bought a genuine McIntosh amplifier
Measurements
I followed the review of the Kimber Cables from Amir, and so I went only for few measurements, including the standard "SINAD" dashboard, bandwidth, jitter and square.
My setup is very simple, the computer (REW Software) drives a Topping D50III converter (used as the generator) and the RCA output of the Topping is measured by my usual Cosmos combo Scaler + ADCiso Grade 0. All of these items run on batteries.
So it is: REW Software (generator) -> Topping D50II (DAC) -> RCA Cable Under Test -> Cosmos combo (ADC) -> REW (FFT analyzis)
I set the D50III to output 2Vrms.
Let's start by measuring with my usual Cordial Ceon, as it is the one I prefer using. The below is a 1kHz sine @0dBFS:
As you can see, the calculated SINAD (opposite of THD+N in the above dashboard) is identical to what Amir measured in his review of the Topping D50III (121.4dB), the only difference is that I get the same results from the Left or Right channel of the Topping (0.1dB difference only).
For this measurements, I set the Topping to 48kHz sampling rate, FFT length was 32k and I used 4 averages, and that is to replicate the setup of Amir's AudioPrecision (3 averages instead of 4, though, as I can't select 3).
The unweighted SNR calculated in presence of that Full Scale (0dBFS) test tone is a crazy low 122.3dBr. This is state of the art and if a cable would make a difference, that level of precision would allow us to easily spot that.
And as a matter of facts, at that level of precision, almost anything makes a difference. For instance I got better results when the battery pack powering the ADC was at least 50cm away from it, while I usually just put it below...
Let's run the same measurement switching to the Cordial CFU:
The THD+N remains -121.4dB (meaning a SINAD of 121.4dB). The measurement is therefore nearly the same, maybe that 50Hz little spike went down from -145dbr to below what can be measured with that FFT length.
During my measurements and attempts to reach the lowest level of noise, I noticed that the Ceon was more likely to pick up noise than the CFU, but never to the point of reaching an audible level, only something I don't want in the context of high precision measurements.
Let's continue with the basic 1m RCA cable that has golden connectors:
Nice, even a little better than the two Cordial cables. This is 0.1dB better of SINAD, not relevant and likely due to the shorter length of the cable.
It is anyways good to see that a standard RCA does the job perfectly well, and does not get in the way of the highly resolved Topping DAC.
Next is the other very basic 3m RCA cable from probably 20+ years ago:
Hey, very nice too, same as the Cordial. That probably means I lose 0.1dB of SINAD with 3m cable instead of 1m.
Let's continue with the pseudo McIntosh cable from Ali:
This is the same result as the Cordial Ceon. Note that this cable is stiff and heavy, everything but practical to use.
Last is the cheap one I got from France:
Finally we get to see something!
This one is picking up some mains (50Hz) and harmonics from I don't know where since all devices run on batteries. There was nothing I could do to reduce this and I tried a lot of potential solutions (disconnecting all other surrounding devices, using an additional USB isolator, placing the cable differently, etc...).
Anyways, the SINAD degrades a little to a still extremely good 120.7dB which would keep the DAC in the "Excellent" category of Amir's chart. At least we have one cable that shows a little difference, yet of no importance...
----
As @amirm did with the Kimber cable test, let's continue with the bandwidth up to 200kHz. The below is an overlay of all cables:
Despite my usual zoom, they are the same. I did zoom much more and saw a very little 0.01dB difference between the "best" and "worst" cables at 200kHz.
Same in time domain, with a 20kHz square as Amir did with the Kimber test (but bandwidth is limited to 384kHz in my case). Results are identical between the best and the worst cable. For that reason, I show only one measurement, since all are exactly the same:
The ringing is due to the filter of the Topping (I'm not using a super resolved Generator as Amir with the AP) and a bandwidth limited to 384kHz (my maximum) instead of 500kHz.
----
Let me add a quick standard Jitter Test between the worst and best cable (FFT extended to 512k and 32 averages to visually lower the random noise):
I zoomed to better see potential side bands. The two traces overlay nearly perfectly, i.e. no difference.
Conclusion
Nothing new under the sun, I know.
Cables would make a difference if one had a massive issue, being incorrectly built, or of an extremely high length, placed next to a switching power, ...
In the end, buy what pleases you, for the convenience, the look, the price, ... and enjoy your music.
Have a nice WE!
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