Subjective Review – 4 Sets of Single Ended Interconnects

[avanti1960]

1) ART “POP” (Mogami 2947) 1.0 M, $14.00/ pair.
2) Chord Company C-Line, 1.0 M, $60.00 / pair
3) Audience OHNO 1.0 M, $229.00 / pair
4) Nordost Blue Heaven, 1.0 M, $393.99 / pair

Audio is my favorite hobby and I really enjoy the sound of music that my system provides. I have built it up over the years and and basically finished buying major components.
Trying different interconnect cables has been a big part of the hobby and I thought I would share my subjective thoughts on (4) sets of cables. I am very familiar with the sound of each and have lived with all of them in and out for at least 5 years or so.
I am not a fan of the audiophile cable industry. To my knowledge they have not established a direct link between electrical properties, material properties, cost and sound quality that would enable one to shop and compare by specification to be able to predict the results. You basically buy by word of mouth, review or dealer demo and hope for the best- making sure of a liberal return policy.
I truly wish there was some kind of predictor of sound quality by specification. Price is not a reliable predictor !
ART POP ($14.00). My second set of quality interconnects based on word of mouth review that Mogami makes very good wire and is used by many recording studios. They served me very well over the years and have delivered a capable, quality sound.

Chord Company C-Line ($60.00). I bought these based on a glowing review in a British HiFi publication. Upon installing them I noticed more midbass, less midrange and a sort of warmth to the overall sound that degraded clarity and transparency. I gave them some time and promptly switched back to the ARTs.

Audience OHNO ($229.00). I bought these on the recommendation of a friend I trust. They add a slight sweetness to the sound in the midrange and treble, sort of a polishing or burnishing without changing the tonal balance. Sweet, smooth and clean treble. Improved sound stage vs. the ART studio cables. Slightly improved dynamics. Treble just sounds amazing with these cables. These were my main cables for several years.

Nordost Blue Heaven ($393.99). I bought these after repeated visits to a nearby dealer and noticing that all of their systems sound so good and that they use Nordost cables almost exclusively. Deep bass is stronger, midbass is slightly less emphasized, midrange is slightly more forward and has much improved clarity. Treble is slightly elevated and occasionally too much so, which is the only downside. Sound stage is much larger- individual instruments tend to separate and “pop” energetically and dimensionally to a much greater extent, micro dynamics are much improved. I lived with one set of these on my main source (a Sony HAP digital player) and have since moved on to use them for all of my sources- CD player and Vinyl. The cost for me puts them in luxury category but the benefits to the sound are ovious by comparison.

I have tried a variety of slightly more and slightly less expensive cables including other Nordost cables as well as Kimber, Cardas, Blue Jeans, Wireworld, VanDen Hul and Audioquest. I no longer own any of them.

 

[BDWoody]

To my knowledge they have not established a direct link between electrical properties, material properties, cost and sound quality that would enable one to shop and compare by specification to be able to predict the results.

Have you done much reading here?

First of all, as in almost everything 'Hi-Fi,' cost is very loosely related to competence.

The impact of cables can definitely be measured, and almost never makes a difference in SQ, unless they aren't fundamentally suited for the job.

This may not be the place for uncontrolled subjective cable reviews...

 

[Katji]

That's what DSP is for. ...Cables should be hi-fi - high fidelity. ...If the source is deficient, attend to that.

 

[Killingbeans]

I truly wish there was some kind of predictor of sound quality by specification.

There is. Resistance, reactance and lack of shielding. The good news is that not even a stupidly cheap RCA cable has enough of either of those to affect anything in the audible frequency band, if it's well constructed.

Price is not a reliable predictor !

I agree. But I have a feeling it's not for the same reasons as the ones that anguishes you

There's nothing in the world of physics that would make your ART POP cable sound any different than the Nordost, unless one of them is terribly constructed. If I had to bet on what is the cause of your perceived differences, my money would be on psychological factors.

 

[mhardy6647]

Nordost Blue Heaven ($393.99)... Deep bass is stronger, midbass is slightly less emphasized, midrange is slightly more forward and has much improved clarity. Treble is slightly elevated

EDIT: With the disclaimer that I am a bit more amenable to the relative importance of the subjective/qualitative vs. the quantitative in this hobby than the average (or even median or mode!) around this particular forum, I've gotta offer the following observation:

All of these subjective and qualitative observations (with the possible exception of much improved clarity), I would think(!), relate to relative frequency responses, and thus should be readily quantifiable, with a level of measurement resolution (fraction of a decibel) that would be more than adequate to detect "stronger", "slightly less emphasized", "slightly more forward" and "slightly elevated". EDIT: I would reckon that any of these would represent a change of, at the least, several tenths of a decibel in some frequency range, which should be easy-peasy to measure by comparison of input to output voltage as a function of frequency across a length of the cable under test.

EDIT: See, here's the thing, I am a scientist (not an engineer) by training and by disposition. It is, I would argue, imprudent for a scientist to reject any data, even anecdotal, out of hand. There are myriad profound discoveries that would not have been sussed out if chance didn't "favor the prepared mind". The question with an anecdotal observation is whether it is rigorously repeatable*. That said, any anecdotal data that lead to testable hypotheses are particularly useful to a scientist, and - I would opine - we've got a testable hypothesis here, at least for this particular cable.

https://xkcd.com/242/

 

[Helicopter]

1) ART “POP” (Mogami 2947) 1.0 M, $14.00/ pair.
2) Chord Company C-Line, 1.0 M, $60.00 / pair
3) Audience OHNO 1.0 M, $229.00 / pair
4) Nordost Blue Heaven, 1.0 M, $393.99 / pair

Audio is my favorite hobby and I really enjoy the sound of music that my system provides. I have built it up over the years and and basically finished buying major components.
Trying different interconnect cables has been a big part of the hobby and I thought I would share my subjective thoughts on (4) sets of cables. I am very familiar with the sound of each and have lived with all of them in and out for at least 5 years or so.
I am not a fan of the audiophile cable industry. To my knowledge they have not established a direct link between electrical properties, material properties, cost and sound quality that would enable one to shop and compare by specification to be able to predict the results. You basically buy by word of mouth, review or dealer demo and hope for the best- making sure of a liberal return policy.
I truly wish there was some kind of predictor of sound quality by specification. Price is not a reliable predictor !
ART POP ($14.00). My second set of quality interconnects based on word of mouth review that Mogami makes very good wire and is used by many recording studios. They served me very well over the years and have delivered a capable, quality sound.

Chord Company C-Line ($60.00). I bought these based on a glowing review in a British HiFi publication. Upon installing them I noticed more midbass, less midrange and a sort of warmth to the overall sound that degraded clarity and transparency. I gave them some time and promptly switched back to the ARTs.

Audience OHNO ($229.00). I bought these on the recommendation of a friend I trust. They add a slight sweetness to the sound in the midrange and treble, sort of a polishing or burnishing without changing the tonal balance. Sweet, smooth and clean treble. Improved sound stage vs. the ART studio cables. Slightly improved dynamics. Treble just sounds amazing with these cables. These were my main cables for several years.

Nordost Blue Heaven ($393.99). I bought these after repeated visits to a nearby dealer and noticing that all of their systems sound so good and that they use Nordost cables almost exclusively. Deep bass is stronger, midbass is slightly less emphasized, midrange is slightly more forward and has much improved clarity. Treble is slightly elevated and occasionally too much so, which is the only downside. Sound stage is much larger- individual instruments tend to separate and “pop” energetically and dimensionally to a much greater extent, micro dynamics are much improved. I lived with one set of these on my main source (a Sony HAP digital player) and have since moved on to use them for all of my sources- CD player and Vinyl. The cost for me puts them in luxury category but the benefits to the sound are ovious by comparison.

I have tried a variety of slightly more and slightly less expensive cables including other Nordost cables as well as Kimber, Cardas, Blue Jeans, Wireworld, VanDen Hul and Audioquest. I no longer own any of them.

I would love to see measurements of these. I wonder how their performance stacks up.

 

[pma]

Most differences one can measure between SE link cables is how much HF EMI signals they pick up. It is measurable with a scope and spectrum analyzer. Then, it is about influence to audio amplifiers. However, in my experience, members in this forum are not much interested in this kind of measurements and investigations. Important parameters are shield resistance and inductance.

 

[pads]

Me thinks you've submitted to the wrong forum mate.