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In Reply to: RE: Naah, I come "TO SERVE MAN." posted by John Marks on May 01, 2016 at 17:13:38
If I'm going to eat soilent I would like it to be green.
Follow Ups:
nt
JM-
where are you going to launch your cable? Whom is your supplier/distributor?
Hi-
Thanks for your interest.
I have been signing up dealers slowly, because the cables are in small batches and half the first batch went to friends as thank-yous or to a reviewer or two to play with.
Serial #1 of the S/PDIF went to Tam Carlson of The University of the South, and #2 went to John Atkinson, and he duly noted its existence in an equipment list sidebar in a recent issue.
I have sold a quantity of BNC/BNC cables to people who are using them as Word Clock cables in setups that have external master clocks.
I have sold a set of AES/EBU cables to one listener, and I have begun sending AES/EBU cables to engineer friends to get their opinions.
Experimental electric-guitar cables of my design are in fabrication this week, and when those are finished, I will send a couple out to people who can really play and who have a lot of experience with high-end guitar cables. If they say YESSS!, then those will go into production. If they say "meh," then, that's that.
You asked about suppliers. I specify the components, including the laser-engraved wood blocks that I hand-finish here, and then a cable fabricator from the telecommunications and broadcast fields fabricates the cables for me, and then I QC them, burn them in, and package them. In other words, I am not having an audiophile cable company OEM things for me.
For better or worse, the cables are of my own design. My goal is not to reinvent the wheel, but rather the make a really good wheel.
An online magazine will probably have some coverage in, I dunno, 4 to 6 weeks?
Now, having planed 50 Koa wood blocks yesterday, time to sand them! And then simmer them in hot orange oil!
(The olivewood blocks in the photo above are for the electric-guitar cables. The other blocks are American Black Walnut for the S/PDIF cables. The olivewood blocks come from a workshop in a Christian village near Bethlehem. The real Bethlehem. I like that. The Koa blocks come from Hawaii and the Walnut blocks from the Midwest.)
ATB,
John Marks
I like and will pay for cables that look pretty. I know first hand how difficult it is to make a cable (DIYed many, many cables) and even more how time consuming it is to make a good cable look good.
And those cables are really good looking! Plus skeptic doesn't mean (in my case) closed minded. I'm always hoping to try the ones that prove me wrong.
I even tried the green marker CD thing...
The S/PDIF cables have ID blocks made from American Black Walnut, from a woodshop in the Midwestern USA.
The AES/EBU cable is about twice as fat, so it gets a larger zip-up stuff sack and a much larger Koa wood block, from Hawaii. (Image above.)
The experimental Electric Guitar cables have my favorite blocks, Olive wood from a workshop in a Christian village near the real Bethlehem.
So, if the guitar cables sound no better than standard commercial cables, at least they will look pretty and come in nice gig bags.
Thanks for your kind words,
John
Nice pic! JM
are you planning to make interconnects (IC) of RCA/XLR?
Speaker cables?
Hi-
Thanks for asking.
I started with S/PDIF because the history of coaxial cables and of the pure math that made possible transatlantic cables that could carry signals at practical speeds has always fascinated me, as did the early history of digital audio's practical implementation. I believed that I could make a real contribution.
I think I can make a decent analog signal cable, but those engineering challenges are not as subtle, and there are many excellent analog signal cables. I would have to make prototypes and then test them.
Loudspeaker cables I think are a more complicated area than signal cables, and I also think that there are some unquestionably great loudspeaker cables. I am not going to devote energy at this time to playing around with speaker cable designs and costing when my day-to-day challenges are to rationalize my intensely hands-on production methods with a view toward outsourcing more tasks, and to sell the cables by setting up dealers.
In theory, I could do something of a USB cable, but that would I think have to be an OEM product made for me by another audio company in the USA, and therefore more expensive. That, because I do not want to sell a cable made in China.
JM
NB: My cables are assembled in the US from a variety of foreign and domestic components, none of which are from China. I do not claim "Made in USA," because pricing parts versus labor and processing is debatable and I don't want to get into any needless tussles. Some of my connectors say on them that they are made in Japan. The AES/EBU plugs say in nearly invisible Mouse Script MADE IN LIECHTENSTEIN. I'd think they'd want to shout that from the rooftops.
JM-
it would be of interest to me to read about the IC and SP cables that you do like, use or endorse. I am a "cable" guy 1st.
That said, I also have to say that for some companies, I have experience only with the more affordable cables, and for other companies mostly with the top end.
I have been very pleasantly surprised with what Audioquest can do for very short money. When I specified stereo systems for the executive suites at Steinway & Sons pianos, all the signal and speaker cabling was from Audioquest, as described in the linked-to blog entry.
In the past I thought that Nordost Blue Heaven was the "Great Cheap Chardonnay" in affordable cables, especially to sharpen up a system that was a bit nebulous. That line has changed a lot since I heard any.
Equally out of date, I thought that WireWorld's top of the line stuff was stellar.
The little I heard of Siltech was very good, but more system-specific than the norm I think.
I love Cardas' Clear ICs and speaker cables. I have not heard the Clear Beyond.
Philip O'Hanlon seems to use Kubala-Sosna at a lot of show demos; he has good ears.
All for now,
John
You used to be a big fan of Mogami 2534 ...
NT
This is the perfect thread to discuss all things cable!
Apparently not ....
Many Thanks! JM,
feel free to keep listing your "cable" experiences w/ the various brands out there. No harm in telling the good, bad and ugly!
I could answer a specific question from a Member, but because I am all of, Journalist, Music Industry Professional, and Manufacturer, I cannot just start a thread talking about products in the field I have products in.
Indeed, even though I consider myself as having a day job of classical music producer and recording engineer, I have just changed my ID to (M), so that nobody can quibble.
jm
Thanks! JM-
you can always send me a PM. Discretion is assured.
Good on ya- JM.
It is always good to read that someone is not junk-sourcing their wares to china.
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