Stereophile and Audio Cables

[mhardy6647]

Mogami (w2552 and w2314, 27awg) or Canare wire with Neutrik NYSxxx RCAs for me. 12awg Belden for speakers, bare wire connections. Stock power cords. My power grid is an extension cord from True Value.

Ahh, but you haven't experienced the rich depth and resonance (EDIT: not to mention gobsmackingly-improved PRaT) of an extension cord from Lowes. Wisdom will come, my son, in due time.

Spoiler

The above is satire, just to be really clear.

 

[wadude]

Ahh, but you haven't experienced the rich depth and resonance (EDIT: not to mention gobsmackingly-improved PRaT) of an extension cord from Lowes. Wisdom will come, my son, in due time.

Spoiler

The above is satire, just to be really clear.

Aye, satire. Most of my excess spending on audio was on buying issues of Stereophile magazine in the nineties. They had some entertaining writers. Thankfully I couldn’t afford to buy the items they reviewed. The cable talk always sent my BS’o’Meter into redline.
Any of my extremely limited understanding of audio wire has been gained from pursuing my interest in passive level controls. And learning about speaker wire.

 

[Rocky Maine]

I stopped reading the article at "LSD-spiderweb"

 

[wadude]

I stopped reading the article at "LSD-spiderweb"

View attachment 426058

Reminds me of the old poster with the fried egg. “This is your brain on drugs!” And it’s satirical follow-up, “This is your brain on drugs…with a side of bacon,”

 

[mhardy6647]

I stopped reading the article at "LSD-spiderweb"

View attachment 426058

Wait, I am confused -- are you suggesting that spaced out spiders' webs geometry be employed for audiophile cabling?

 

[wadude]

I noticed that webs created on alcohol were missing, so:

The Effects of Alcohol on Spiders: What Happens to Web Construction after Spiders Consume Alcohol?

This study determines the effects of alcohol on spiders. The variable in question is web spinning abilities while influenced by alcohol. Consequently, other characteristics of behavior were also in…

animalbehavior2015.wordpress.com

 

[flightops]

Are those real WBT connectors? If so -- one could buy a very respectable complete hifi for what a quad of them costs!

Nope. Bought off ebay so 99% that they're knock offs.

Although, if they are, they are very close to the origs. Right down to them all having different and sequential serial numbers.

The other tip off is the price I paid. As mentioned, including the cabling, I've got about 320-350 into it all. No way in heck your getting 40 WBT's for anything close to that.

I was just after the locking barrel feature anyways. That the rest of it worked out so well is just a happy occurrence.

 

[flightops]

I had a cable with those. They look nice and are well made, but I found them really annoying to use. They have a "clutch" mechanism and you're supposed to tighten them onto the RCA socket, but they are quite bulky and can be really fiddly to fit if the sockets on the back of the equipment are close together.

I prefer Neutrik, or Amphenol:

View attachment 426010 View attachment 426011

I find these ones quite easy and simple to use on even my closest RCA inputs. I did have to use a set of needle nose pliers to do the final little "tweak" o nthe ones that are close together. That's a minor issue as far as I'm concerned.

I also 3d printed cable holder/spacers, which helps hold them apart where gravity wants to pull them down. That was an easy little printing project.

No "clutch" in these, so you must have been using a different model line of WBT's. They have several options/levels.

You just tighten the barrel down on the taper (screw thread) and the neg "fingers" tighten down on the RCA neg outer shell.

It's the same for genuine WBT-0144 "midline" connectors:

which is what these ones seem to be copying.

Doesn't matter to me either way as they were capable of taking the 8mm OD mic line (they are 9mm ID) and the "locking" feature was a nice little bonus. That they look "cool" was also a nice gimme....

 

[Snarfie]

Just for fun an by coincedent a comparison between a reference silver shielded costly JK acoustic interlink cable connected to a quality Topping D10 used as a s/pdif converter (positive tested by Amirm) an a TASCAM DA-30 DAT recorder with ordinairy cable and a around 34 years old legacy DAC to compare any difference in sound quality. Before testing i thought if there is a difference it will be the quality difference between both DAC's if not probably the difference between interlink cables used by the TASCAM ordinairy interlink cables (see picture few euro) used for s/pdif in an analog out to amp versus the expensive silver shielded JK acoustic reference cable will/could make definitive a difference.
Did record it serieus despite fancy interlink cable an recent Topping DAC zero difference. My hearing is not bad an listen for some hours now (sound level matched) aswell by my IMF close monitors an farfield Vandersteen speakers i realy can't here any difference despite......see above

https://imgur.com/sVPHu5l

 

[wadude]

It’s easy to dis the high end and all, but reading Stereophile in the ‘90s was useful in many ways. Just to have a sense of community around hifi, and again, they had some entertaining writers. Tellig, with his Lars stories and his recognition that there were less financially encumbered folks out there attempting to engage in good sound, the graphs, the album reviews, and that guy Corey who, in his equipment reviews, used music I could relate to, specifically his gushing over Professor Longhair and the album Louisiana Gumbo! What a great record! So, gotta give credit where credit is due, although I think the cable thing has really bitten the hobby in the butt.

 

[egellings]

I used to read Stereophile and similar high end mags with a subjectivist bent just for entertainment, but never based any of my equipment buying decisions on their opinions. They did at least expose me to equipment I never would have seen locally, so there was some good in that.

 

[Audiofire]

My power grid is an extension cord from True Value.

Just wait until you buy an audio power plant from BS Audio, the sound will sound more powerful.

 

[wadude]

I used to read Stereophile and similar high end mags with a subjectivist bent just for entertainment, but never based any of my equipment buying decisions on their opinions. They did at least expose me to equipment I never would have seen locally, so there was some good in that.

Boy, I really wanted a pair of those VTL Tiny Triode amps! In the end I stuck with the Dynas, a four decade affair.
As far as power grids, a simple industrial looking quad box with a couple of feet of cord is in my future.

 

[MattHooper]

I used to read Stereophile and similar high end mags with a subjectivist bent just for entertainment, but never based any of my equipment buying decisions on their opinions. They did at least expose me to equipment I never would have seen locally, so there was some good in that.

I read Stereophile for entertainment too, but some of their reviews also helped lead me to some of my most satisfying audio purchases, such as my Conrad Johnson amplifiers which have been in my system for almost 25 years, my meridian CD player that I owned for a long time, and also to some wonderful speakers like the audio physic Virgo (Fremer’s review had me seek those out) and other loudspeakers I really enjoyed.

 

[Audiofire]

Boy, I really wanted a pair of those VTL Tiny Triode amps! In the end I stuck with the Dynas, a four decade affair.

Keep on rockin' in the free world!

 

[wadude]

Keep on rockin' in the free world!

Thanks to ASR I've moved into a Buckeye amp and a WiiM Pro+. I still haven't settled on speakers to replace my Advents. As others have mentioned, speaker shopping is not an easy task these days, and to top it off, not really even very fun. The Wharfedale Lintons, and Ascend Acoustics Sierra LX are contenders, but pretty impossible to hear in person, let alone AB. On my financially confident days the JBL L82s seem like an end of game choice. We'll see how things workout in the next few months. One thing is for sure: I won't be dedicating ten percent of my total system cost to cables!

 

[Sal1950]

I used to read Stereophile and similar high end mags with a subjectivist bent just for entertainment, but never based any of my equipment buying decisions on their opinions. They did at least expose me to equipment I never would have seen locally, so there was some good in that.

I've read just about every Hi Fi mag that was easily available the US since the early 1970s and learned a lot from all, both the good and bad.
It's a sad comment on the industry that none of the reasonably objective tilted ones survived.
Audio, High Fidelity, Stereo Review, Audio Critic, etc, where are you when we need you?
Thankfully in recent years a couple websites like ASR emerged to clear a bit of the BS smoke that had started to dominate the scene.
No need to further bash the Hi End, they all belong to a little club designed simply to enrich the pockets of many and BS the gullible.
If anyone with a bit of common sense believes there is audible value in a $500, let alone $34,000 power cord, be my guest.
I guess if having visually 'real silver' conductors in your cables and cords impresses your luxury goods friend, have at it. LOL

 

[wadude]

I've read just about every Hi Fi mag that was easily available the US since the early 1970s and learned a lot from all, both the good and bad.
It's a sad comment on the industry that none of the reasonably objective tilted ones survived.
Audio, High Fidelity, Stereo Review, Audio Critic, etc, where are you when we need you?
Thankfully in recent years a couple websites like ASR emerged to clear a bit of the BS smoke that had started to dominate the scene.
No need to further bash the Hi End, they all belong to a little club designed simply to enrich the pockets of many and BS the gullible.
If anyone with a bit of common sense believes there is audible value in a $500, let alone $34,000 power cord, be my guest.
I guess if having visually 'real silver' conductors in your cables and cords impresses your luxury goods friend, have at it. LOL

In a strange way it may be the cable BS that exposed the con and perhaps led to the ever elevating recognition of sites like ASR and Archimago's.

 

[egellings]

The difficulty on all forums and this is the web limit, is that everyone can give their opinion. What is acceptable and necessary. For tastes and colors or the soft sciences also called "human" (which is stupid), there is no need to react or even argue. It just doesn't matter.
In the technical field, it's different. Because there are numbers that we cannot escape and here we are going to handle words. The rule would be not to participate in a discussion where I am in unknown territory. For example, I would not be able to question the Nyquist-Shannon theorem. But many do.
What is astonishing are these endless discussions on audio, almost nothing on video. If we admit that we listen well with our brain and not with our ears, does that mean that we believe our eyes more? There is also the optical illusion...

Well, this is an audio-centered site, so I'd expect video topics to be less discussed here.

 

[egellings]

I've read just about every Hi Fi mag that was easily available the US since the early 1970s and learned a lot from all, both the good and bad.
It's a sad comment on the industry that none of the reasonably objective tilted ones survived.
Audio, High Fidelity, Stereo Review, Audio Critic, etc, where are you when we need you?
Thankfully in recent years a couple websites like ASR emerged to clear a bit of the BS smoke that had started to dominate the scene.
No need to further bash the Hi End, they all belong to a little club designed simply to enrich the pockets of many and BS the gullible.
If anyone with a bit of common sense believes there is audible value in a $500, let alone $34,000 power cord, be my guest.
I guess if having visually 'real silver' conductors in your cables and cords impresses your luxury goods friend, have at it. LOL

Peter Aczel (sp?) of The Audio Critic took no prisoners! If he saw a product as BS, woe to that product. Good for him.