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What cables do you use in your systems?

SIY

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Hmmm, time for a bit of a giggle.;)
I make my own cables. I've tried a few configurations with various cable types.
Now this cable, absolutely night and day difference. It was like someone had cleaned a window and I could see much deeper into the music.
I changed the mains fuses while I was at it; a small but significant improvement, particularly in the very high notes.Strangely the speaker stands I made for the loudspeakers which have gone from heavy, to very heavy, over the years did make a huge difference because all the cheap ones I had tried before collapsed under the weight. Of course, I could have bought something similar from one of the Pro audio outlets for around $1000.00.:oops:
Not to be seen in the picture clearly is the hand built distribution box which utilizes the fabled non fused 15 amp round pin plugs and sockets.
Yet a further significant and audible improvement in sound quality; I could almost hear the music now.
...
I have read with increasing incredulity over the years the audiophiles claims of 'small but significant improvements' when one thing after another got changed from cables to fuses. Well I would have thought such changes would be cumulative and given enough changes I can only assume that these systems must have been shockingly bad at the outset.

If you haven't bypassed your fuses with silver solid core wire, then you really don't care about sound.
 

GeekyBastard

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Yes, I know it's a converted tea trolley!
Hey, don't look down on the tea trolley, as all we know, tea has a calming effect, the tea aroma left on the tea trolley would cause your equipment sounds more calm and soothing, but you might want to sprinkle some jalapeno when you listening to rock music.
 

daftcombo

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Cables... the cheaper the better. And save for a Topping D10. Oh only 70$ wait... Save for another hobby!
 

GeekyBastard

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Hmmm, time for a bit of a giggle.;)
I make my own cables. I've tried a few configurations with various cable types.
Now this cable, absolutely night and day difference. It was like someone had cleaned a window and I could see much deeper into the music.
I changed the mains fuses while I was at it; a small but significant improvement, particularly in the very high notes.View attachment 23052:)

Of course the purchasing of the right Hi Fi rack is an absolute must. I was stunned when I listened to my stereo once I had the units in place. Listening to my favorite audiophile test file, Chic-the best of ripped by itunes at 128, I could almost believe I was listening to a redbook version.
Yet another night and day difference.
Yes, I know it's a converted tea trolley!:rolleyes::p
The changes in interconnects, way too many to mention, all made significant improvements to the sound, particularly when I plugged them in.;)
View attachment 23053

Strangely the speaker stands I made for the loudspeakers which have gone from heavy, to very heavy, over the years did make a huge difference because all the cheap ones I had tried before collapsed under the weight. Of course, I could have bought something similar from one of the Pro audio outlets for around $1000.00.:oops:
Not to be seen in the picture clearly is the hand built distribution box which utilizes the fabled non fused 15 amp round pin plugs and sockets.
Yet a further significant and audible improvement in sound quality; I could almost hear the music now.
I've tried out loads of tweaks, from 'special' capacitors to balanced mains transformers and the thing I found that really made the system shine was remembering to switch the power on.
So I wonder having read on various forums that you should budget for cables as a percentage of the system cost how much should I have spent.
Those bass drivers in those tatty looking boxes cost a bit over $300.00 each; there are two more in the back of those enclosures. The mid range and high frequency units must be at least $150.00 each and the hand built crossover around $350.00 each and none of the above includes the woodwork or the dealer mark up.
The truth is, none of the things I've tried out over the years made an audible difference that I could reliably pick out, except perhaps the speaker stand which stopped the bloody things wobbling about when they got fed a decent amount of watts.
I have read with increasing incredulity over the years the audiophiles claims of 'small but significant improvements' when one thing after another got changed from cables to fuses. Well I would have thought such changes would be cumulative and given enough changes I can only assume that these systems must have been shockingly bad at the outset.
The only speaker stand I could hear a huge difference are the IsoAcoustics one, changed from normal isolation pads, the bass suddenly became tighter and punchy, and the imaging became more pin-point accurate, I wonder what caused that, still don't have a clue, also the build quality are so cheap and bad that I'm mad when I opened the package, lol.
 

Killingbeans

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Interconnects: Hand-me-downs from my farther. Have no idea about the brands or quality. But I got them for free, and they seem to work just fine.

Speaker cable: QED XT-40. Probably the most snake-oily thing I own. Had a moment of weakness and got swayed by the X-Tube technology, but lately I've begun to doubt the bennefits of it. Planning to replace it with some Cordial CLS 240 at some point.

Power cable: Stock cables. Can't imagine a twisted alternate reality where a convincing argument for an "upgrade" exists.

have read with increasing incredulity over the years the audiophiles claims of 'small but significant improvements' when one thing after another got changed from cables to fuses. Well I would have thought such changes would be cumulative and given enough changes I can only assume that these systems must have been shockingly bad at the outset.

I'm glad that my dad was a self proclaimed 'audiophile'.

I saw him go through one ludicrous "tweak" after the other. He even bought one of those green permanent markers for painting the edges of CDs to avoid "reflections" or some BS. He was a smart man, but somehow the hobby blinded his intelligence again and again. At least he had enough self irony and sense to just laugh at it when he found out that the "tweak" did absolutely nothing, and I learned to "tweak" my own scepticism through him :D

His system was not shockingly bad, but it was enough of a pile of "project" for me to have no problem simply selling it when he passed away.

I think a lot of people in this hobby go by the "the journey is more important than the destination" -philosophy more or less unknowingly.

EDIT: My god, I used a lot of quotation marks! Feel like Dr. Evil.
 
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Shadrach

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There is always that risk. The experiences and pictures I posted are from many years ago when I still lived in the UK. Many of my friends were also interested in audio reproduction and we had a number of gatherings; DBT was a favorite pastime.
Interestingly some of the ‘best’ sounding systems I’ve heard have been hand built, or kit built, particularly when it came to loudspeakers.
The points that get overlooked to a greater, or lesser extent in audio reproduction on both sides of the subjective and objective debate are firstly can you really hear something and often more importantly, do you actually like what you are hearing.
My view now is I want anything before the loudspeaker to be measurably accurate within certain criteria; most electronics have met that criteria for many years now. One competently designed amp is much the same as another, no matter what the price bracket. They may measure differently but in a proper DBT very few people can give a positive result and this would indicate that what differences there are, are very small.
http://matrixhifi.com/ENG_contenedor_ppec.htm
So many of these tests have been done now one is left with only two options; the test itself is flawed, or the perceived differences are very small.
DBT has shown that people can detect a difference in loudspeakers.
Some excellently specified studio monitors I’ve found hard to listen to while others have got my foot tapping and been very enjoyable.
My speakers are essentially studio monitors. What I seem to find attractive to listen to is a wide polar response, a slight increase in bass over flat response and treble produced by soft dome tweeters.
So knowing what sort of loudspeaker produces a sound you enjoy becomes important. I’ve tuned mine to give a sound I like over many years.
 

trl

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'
https://www.lessloss.com/dfpc-series-p-213.html

Take a look at this article. Now, if I were uneducated the fancy photoshop graphs and images would be impressive, and I would totally buy a product such as this. Thankfully, I know better by now.
Worth watching:

Few of the comments:
"I tried it on my blender. Now my Margarita's taste like heaven! "
" I use them on my toaster oven and man I can tell you. Crispy, warm and perfect every single time. "
"I used them on my weed whacker , don't laugh now but I could hear it was lot greener with this cable".
" I used them on my vacuum cleaner and boy o boy no surprise. it was 0.01 percent more efficient".


Now, after reading the above comments, I'm thinking to buy one an use it to my Gaggia Classic espresso machine. I am expecting to feel more body and flavor in my morning coup, that's for sure.
 

Killingbeans

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All of those poor stupid scientists spending so much time looking for Higgs bosons, neutrinos and gravitational waves. If only they were smart enough to use Nordost power cables on their measuring equipment, they'd be able to detect all of those things with just a simple multimeter and a piece of tin foil :p
 

Gyroscopics

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What cables do you use in your systems?

Interconnects:

The shortest ones I could find:

20190303_210204 copy 600x338.jpg
20190304_005556 copy 600.jpg
 
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trl

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trl

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No need to, the 0.5 meters long cable is way cheaper: only $5,400. So, please keep your car safe for now. :)
 

k3nb5t

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I like cable threads, they help me figure out who's opinions I should value. Therefore, I shall participate so that other members might make their own judgements :)

Interconnects: Mogami Quad terminated w/XLR

Speaker cable: Some generic 12 AWG I bought off PartsExpress.com about a decade ago. The spool is gone, so I don't know the actual brand.

USB cable: my preference is (in order)
1. cable that came with the device
2. whatever I have lying around if the cable that came with it is too short/long
3. Amazon Basics

Power cable: same as USB cable

I was using some $7 Cable Matters XLR interconnects, but I had one fail. One (out of 5) failures in 3 years isn't so bad... but I got worried (irrationally?) about shorts and stuff, so I went for a more "professional" cable and got the Mogami cables. I planned to go the DIY route, since factory terminated Mogami's are pretty expensive. However, I couldn't find my soldering iron, got lazy and bought some.
 

trl

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maxxevv

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Interconnects: doesn't matter

Speaker cable: doesn't matter

Coax cable: doesn't matter

USB cable: doesn't matter

Power cable: especially doesn't matter

(Sorry to be provocative ;) )

Strange as its unbelievable, I thought likewise too regarding RCA cables. But there really is a threshold below which it does affect the quality of the signal coming through.

I just took delivery of my JDS Atom, and to plug it into the DAC, I used a pair of ultra-cheap $3/pair RCA connect cables (came with the cable-tv box) that ran 2 meters as I didn't want to shift and adjust the position of the DAC to accommodate a pair of shorter $20 cables I had.

I was really shocked at how muffled my HE4XX sounded out of the Atom, I seriously thought I got a lemon or that it was over hyped !
Somehow I decided to give the "proper cables" I had a try instead. And hey .... the Atom does indeed sound good !

As always, there really no need for ultra-expensive cables but there does indeed seem to have a threshold of build quality , below which it really can affect the audio quality.

So, RCA cables CAN matter.
 

andreasmaaan

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Strange as its unbelievable, I thought likewise too regarding RCA cables. But there really is a threshold below which it does affect the quality of the signal coming through.

I just took delivery of my JDS Atom, and to plug it into the DAC, I used a pair of ultra-cheap $3/pair RCA connect cables (came with the cable-tv box) that ran 2 meters as I didn't want to shift and adjust the position of the DAC to accommodate a pair of shorter $20 cables I had.

I was really shocked at how muffled my HE4XX sounded out of the Atom, I seriously thought I got a lemon or that it was over hyped !
Somehow I decided to give the "proper cables" I had a try instead. And hey .... the Atom does indeed sound good !

As always, there really no need for ultra-expensive cables but there does indeed seem to have a threshold of build quality , below which it really can affect the audio quality.

So, RCA cables CAN matter.

Do you have equipment there to measure the output of each pair of cables? And are you able to pick the difference blind?
 
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