Which interconnect to get from my selection?

[JiggaD369]

why dont you make your own cables man? it will cost so much less u'll sh*t in ur pants. get some 26 awg fine silver wire and some teflon and get going. if you cant do it, a diy'er will do it for u for ALOT less. an the quality will be up there with $1000 cables.

 

[Humperdink]

why dont you make your own cables man? it will cost so much less u'll sh*t in ur pants. get some 26 awg fine silver wire and some teflon and get going. if you cant do it, a diy'er will do it for u for ALOT less. an the quality will be up there with $1000 cables.

Well first of all, I do not know how to make cables and where to get the tools and materials (keep in mind that I live in Finland, I can't exactly find a store filled with cable-equipment).

Second of all, I'm sure most of you might agree that if there's one good thing of buying "snake oil" cables it that they look pretty. Sure, a person could be considered shallow for buying cables for their looks but, on the other hand, why should I use some lame-looking cable in my room that I have decorated -- just to save some money.

I so agree that expensive cables are quite often snake oil but come on: I think it's so ridiculous and downright insane to say that expensive cables are no better performance-wise that these no-brand-cables. Honestly, do you think that the cable makers, the cable reviewers and the consumers, who buy these cables, are in a conspiracy to make us hifists cough up extra dough for nothing. I find this attidude really weird.

To sum it up, I'm sure that expensive offer no big difference in performance when compared to cheap cables, but they do offer some difference. If this was not true, then I guess hundreds of thousands of people who have bought these more expensive cables are just idiots, right?

 

[zumbo]

AudioQuest sidewinder and copperhead look to be of high quality at a fair price.

Well, after another look, they look to be pricey. But, if you can find a good deal, they still look to be of high quality.

Bump. This looks like your best option.

 

[jaxvon]

I would definitely not suggest making your own cables with silver wire and teflon. By the time you get done, the silver will have oxidized and you'll just be screwing yourself over.

 

[JiggaD369]

silver oxidization is a highly conductive material. plus if you are just going for the looks, you can treat the cable with sleeving which looks like snake skin adn alot of other flavors.

http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=72860&page=6&pp=20

go there and check out some of the cables that are total DIY.

 

[Nick250]

Second of all, I'm sure most of you might agree that if there's one good thing of buying "snake oil" cables it that they look pretty. Sure, a person could be considered shallow for buying cables for their looks but, on the other hand, why should I use some lame-looking cable in my room that I have decorated -- just to save some money.

I so agree that expensive cables are quite often snake oil but come on: I think it's so ridiculous and downright insane to say that expensive cables are no better performance-wise that these no-brand-cables. Honestly, do you think that the cable makers, the cable reviewers and the consumers, who buy these cables, are in a conspiracy to make us hifists cough up extra dough for nothing. I find this attidude really weird.

To sum it up, I'm sure that expensive offer no big difference in performance when compared to cheap cables, but they do offer some difference. If this was not true, then I guess hundreds of thousands of people who have bought these more expensive cables are just idiots, right?

Idiots, not idiots who knows, but one thing is for sure and that is that they have been swindled. There is a hugh mark up in expensive cables. They are major factor in the bottom line of your Audio dealer and the salespersons commission. PT Barnum once said that nobody ever went broke by overestimating the gullibility of the American public. Unless the laws of physics are temporarily suspended when one uses the expensive cables as contrasted with plain old 12 gauge copper speaker wire then there are no audible differences. The whole signal gets from the amp to the speaker with the 12 gauge. There is nothing to improve upon! Nadda, zip, ziltch. Double blind tests have been done time and time again and listeners can not distinguish between the expensive stuff and the 12 gauge copper. You want a cable that is more attractive, fine. You want a cable that has nicer connectors, fine. But it aint going to sound any better.

 

[jaxvon]

That is unless you have:

• Oxidation of the connectors/conductors
• Poorly designed cable that rolls off high frequencies
• Insufficient cable gauge for length

 

[JiggaD369]

thats why you need to insulate the fine 99.99% silver with teflon.

 

[jaxvon]

First of all, none of the issues I mentioned have ANYTHING to do with the insulation choices, nor the metal choice. It's all about cable quality. A poorly made cable will oxidize, plain and simple. The same goes for connectors. A poorly designed cable like the Stealth Fine Ribbon actually rolls of high-frequencies because of its geometry. Lastly, regarding sufficient gauge, it has nothing to do with metal type. I don't care if you use six nines silver, if it's only a 24ga wire, it isn't enough for speakers. Plain and simple.

 

[Nick250]

That is unless you have:

• Oxidation of the connectors/conductors
• Poorly designed cable that rolls off high frequencies
• Insufficient cable gauge for length

Oxidation ----- Did I not say to get the better conectors if one felt that was importent?

Poorly designed cables ----- yes the more expensive cables may be of a poor design, however with the proper gauge copper (from Radio Shack, Home Depot etc) you do not have that concern since you know 100% of the signal is getting through.

Insufficient cable gauge for length ----- of course one always has to consider the length of the run when considering what gauge to use. I fail to see how this is relevant to the topic at hand.

 

[jaxvon]

It was partly a reply to you, partly a reply to JiggaD369. But indeed, it is wandering off topic.

Meh, I know what it was. I thought you said "different" when you said "better". My mistake, you're dead on.

 

[JiggaD369]

Jaxvon, relax man. no need to start a fight. lol. im just tryin to save this guy some money because i hate seeing these peopel fall for the snake oil. sick and tired of this. take some WBT, silver solder, fine silver, some cotton n teflon and call it a day.

 

[Gaius Caligula]

I know that I could go DIY or get low-cost cables such as Blue Jeans cables but PLEASE CHOOSE ONE INTERCONNECT FROM THE LIST ABOVE!

Blue Jeans does NOT sell cheap cables. They sell Canare and Belden, which are the same cables most studios use to actually RECORD the material you're going to be hearing and watching. So any cable allegedly better than Canare or Belden is irrelevant as the origin material was likely CREATED using Canare or Belden. Do you see the logic in this? Canare/Belden>ALL.

 

[markw]

Let's get clear on the semantics involved here.

"Inexpensive" does not necessarialy mean "Cheap".

The first means something does not cost a lot of money for what it does well while the second means something does not do something well for what it costs.

 

[Slice]

Well that's just it. The selection in Finland is really really poor and I am staying in a town that sell only Monster Cable, Nordost and van den hul. I can't audition the cables because I'm going to order them from another town.

I know that different cables sound different in different systems (warning: different overdose ) but I was hoping that somebody would know which cable would most likely be at least decent in my system.

Then why not make it easy on yourself - bring home & audition those 3 locally available brands and pick the one you like.

If there actually is any audible difference between various well-made cables (I don't subscribe to this myself), then you would have to agree that asking someone else's opinion is like asking someone else about speaker preferences. It all falls to your own ears and wallet.

 

[Humperdink]

Come on, now. So I should pick one out of the three brands (Monster Cable, van den hul, Tara Labs) just because they are available in my hometown. And I should just ignore all the other brands. Sorry but no thank you.

Anyway, I ordered the Analysis Plus Oval One RCA IC (1,5 metres) today and should be getting it in two weeks. It's a sexy IC and it has won several tests. Is it "snake oil", who knows but at least I got to buy the IC that I actually like (appearancewise).

 

[jaxvon]

Analysis Plus is actually a company from my home state (Michigan, w00t!). I was kinda thinking their stuff was snake oil (I still do), but I emailed them and the engineer emailed a photo of one of their tests. I don't think he sent me cable metrics (inductance, resistance, capacitance), but whatever.

Okay, so that didn't say anything. But yes, their cables are sexy, and they have a pretty unorthodox geometry for cable construction. I hope it works for you!

BTW, have you checked out their website? Read it with a grain of salt, but it's still kinda interesting.

 

[Slice]

Come on, now. So I should pick one out of the three brands (Monster Cable, van den hul, Tara Labs) just because they are available in my hometown. And I should just ignore all the other brands. Sorry but no thank you.

I was merely offering a suggestion based on your stringent list, since it seemed to me that you were driving yourself a little crazy over this.

Anyway, I ordered the Analysis Plus Oval One RCA IC (1,5 metres) today and should be getting it in two weeks. It's a sexy IC and it has won several tests. Is it "snake oil", who knows but at least I got to buy the IC that I actually like (appearancewise).

Did you end up doing any a/b auditioning at all then?

Congrats - I'm sure you'll be very happy.

 

[Humperdink]

Yeah, I have popped in their website. They sure know how to tell it in a complicated way. Anyway, the thing I could be worried about when it comes to the AP Oval One IC is that some say that it is a really revealing IC. I listen to mainly Elvis Presley records and they do have a rather grainy quality. I just hope that the Oval One IC does not amplify the "record-impurities" too much.

a Oval One review

 

[jaxvon]

I wouldn't worry about that too much. You're just listening to a classic example of placebo effect. The reviewer wants to hear something different, so he does. It happens all the time with cable reviews.