My recent cable experiences (long)
38.29.78.120 |
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| Posted on July 24, 1999 at 11:54:51 | ||
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As I've mentioned before, the last few months have seen lots of fiddling and experimentation in my system. The basic components are NAD 515 CD changer used as transport only, HHb CDR-850 (made by Pioneer) also as a transport, Monarchy DIP for both, Parasound DAC-2000, Bryston BP-20, Parasound HCA-2200 II, NHT 3.3s full range, and a Velodyne HGS-15 with a 45 Hz Low-pass. My tweaks have included careful attention to vibration control (cones and Vibrapods, plus a Seismic Sink for the NAD), which probably isn't finished, and more recently a lot of cable experimentation. For the subwoofer cable, I only tested three: Audioquest Jade, Straightwire Flexconnect, and RadioShack premium. I couldn't tell any difference, so I stuck with the RatShack. The Monarchy DIP seems relatively insensitive to what cable comes into it, at least I couldn't tell any difference between HAVE, Radio Shack premium video cable, and Kimber AGDL. Coming out of it is another matter entirely, but as I've mentioned elsewhere, it was primarily the obvious superiority of AES/EBU to S/PDIF coax. So far I haven't gone beyond Apogee Wyde-Eye for this cable (if Stereophile's JA will use it for long runs, it must be pretty decent for 1M). From the DAC to the pre-amp, I compared Mogami 2534 with gold-plated Neutriks (balanced) with Alpha Sterling (Synergistic Research), Kimber KCAG, Nordost Solar Wind, and XLO Reference 1.0 (all SE). Since the Parasound only has 2 DACs (not four), it's only a pseudo-balanced output, so this should be a fair comparison. The Mogami and the Alpha Sterling were at the top, and pretty indistinguishable (although the Mogami is dirt cheap comparatively), The Kimber was almost as good, but had occasional RFI problems. The XLO and Nordost were a clear step down. I run 20' of balanced Canare Star-Quad from pre-amp to amp. I compared them with 5M of StraightWire Rhapsody balanced, and 22' of Straightwire FlexConnect unbalanced (this last was obviously inferior, unsurprisingly). To me, the Canare sounded better, even though it was longer and significantly cheaper. Speaker wire is Kimber 4 TC, biwired, 3.5' long. I tried various combinations of Monster and Radio Shack 12 AWG stranded, and didn't prefer it even for the bass only. I may try more speaker cables; for such a short run, there may not be any real difference. OTOH, it's not too expensive either. Power management was another eye-opener. Anyone who thinks the wall receptacles don't matter should spend $5-10 to get some Hubble or Leviton Heavy Duty wall receptacles to match with similar plugs. It's like removing a veil from the music. With those and a heavy duty AC cord (HCM Audio is clearing out Audioquest for about the price of a DIY cord), I didn't notice any advantage to an AudioPrism Foundation power line filter on the amplifier. For the front end, however, the power line filter added a little more bass and clarity. I floated the ground for the transports only, which sounded a little cleaner than leaving them grounded. All other components are grounded with standard 3-prong plugs (HD as noted above).
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| Any exp. w/ Apogee Wdye-eye cables?, posted on July 26, 1999 at 09:56:44 | |
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tony s 
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Any experance with the Apogee wires for long runs?
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| Re: Any exp. w/ Apogee Wdye-eye cables?, posted on July 26, 1999 at 18:26:28 | |
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No, but they were used in long (100-150') runs in making some Stereophile CD's.
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