|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
When it comes to buying a car or truck or CDplayer or preamp or amp I don't have much trouble deciding which one I'd buy. I do some research and then go shopping.But when it comes to cables. Holy mackarel!!!! Everyone has the very best cable for sale. Much better than the competition. Where does a dummy like me start? All the hype about cables have given me a great big headache. All I want is some decent cables at a reasonable price.
Follow Ups:
Got a Signal cable Silver resolutiom interconnect cable yesterday. It sounds just a small tad better than my reference cable the Kimber Kable silver streak.I've done an A(kimber Kable) versus B cable on six different cables in the past week or so. None of the cables involved in this test has outperformend the Kimber.
When I started this my question was "Best cable for the buck?" In my opinion the answer to that is Bluejeanscable Belden 1505F. It's cheap and sounds every bit as good as the Kimber. There are a lot of cables out there and I'm sure that some outperform the Kimber but for me I'm through testing cables.
Hi guys:
In the past week or so I've tried out several good quality interconnect cables. I've been using a KimberKable Silver streak as a reference cable and have been trying to find something better. So far no luck. Bluejeanscable Belden 1505F comes very close to the KimberKable. I've got a Signalcable Silver resolution cable on the way. It should be here by Saturday. I'm told it takes 200 hours to break in so I won't post another report untill it get's some hours on it.
Ive had very good results with signal cable. Depending on your connection thoughts you cant lose with blue jean or heartland either
nt
spend the time you're trying to find out who makes a better cable with researching how to make them yourself instead. Pretty easy, best bang for the buck guaranteed.
Do a search here on "Music Boy."And the $8.95 (plus ship) buys you THREE cables, 'cause they're marketed as component video cables.
Hi Guys;
Thanks for your input on my dilema regarding cables. I've been listening to several different brands and I have ordered a few others to try. In about a week or two I'll let you know how testing and results turn out. I won't say anything now about what I'm hearing but I know that lot's of people are going to be surprised.Those people will pobably call me crazy.
I agree with mt10425 - there is no "best cable for the buck", but there certainly is an abundance of cables out there to try.It's not clear if you're asking about interconnects or speaker cables, but if it's ICs, you should check out the VH Audio Pulsar ICs. Not just a great cable for the price, but a cable capable of besting much of the high-priced stuff (IMHO). Neutral, revealing, etc... I could describe how well they work in my system, but one thing is certain - it doesn't mean a thing until you hear them in yours.
Chris VenHaus offers an unprecedented 60 day evaluation period so it's a great opportunity to see if they work for you. Do a search hear and you'll find tons of great feedback on these (and on Chris!)
I just hit my 60 days on 2 pair and I'm keeping them! Check it out...
Mike
Music Metre cables are horribly undervalued on the used market. Very revealing and very fast; not a fixer cable in the least.
Look, the discussion, voodoo, faux science, hype, and opinion aside. Ok, maybe I will state my opinion here, but not without some experimentation....ok lots of experimentation.....I have tried silver, silver plated, copper. It has come twisted, insulated in bizarre materials, shielded and non, with every type of connector you can think of, including BNC's.
For interconnects, Bluejeans cable has their priorities in the correct place on several fronts. They recommend good shielding, appropriate to the usage, they use highquality copper coax for unbalanced, and they use Canare crimped connectors for unbalanced IC's.
There is a concept called 'good enough'. There is also proper balance paid to to things like capacitance, inductance, etc.
I went to the dark side. And I found some grossly expensive wires, some of which actually sounded pretty good. Then I wised up. Bluejeans Cable is a quality shop. They treat their customers very well. They ship quickly. Their work is consistently excellent.
I think most people get impressed with over engineering, and there are wires out there that will cost you as much as you can afford. But this I know. Right now I have pulled all the highpriced spread wires off my system, Cardas Cross, DH Labs (which are very good) Air Marix and Revelations, LAT, Mapleshade, etc. By no means did I try Nordost, which have an excellent reputation to go along with their prices. All over engineered, in my opinion. Nice features, whiz bang technology, and that mysterious voodoo mojo.
Bluejean's Belkin 1505F's sound great, at least at the 1 meter length I use. And for the balanced run, 11', the Belkin 1800F sounds better than a bunch I have tried at a hugh fraction of the pretender's cost.
Just go with sensible high quality and very good connectors. You will not need voodoo.
My two cents.
For Power cords, I use Moon Audio Green and DH Labs, all with regular Marinco and Wattgate terminations. They work great. I haven't quite worked out the shielded vs non yet, but it seems to me around digital equipment the more shielding the better.
Everyone who says that cords sound different with different equipment are right, but also different equipment sounds different. Chicken/Egg.
Keep your runs as short as is feasible, and enjoy the music. Really enjoy the damn music, isn't that the point?
Chimera Labs Advantage
I'm guessing these are more expensive than what everyone is recomending
but the advantage is that they are lifetime product for only a little more. No more upgrading cables.
They come with a moneyback guarentee and I'm told that the only person to ever return a pair did so because the cables revealed how awful the tweeter on his ultra-expensive monitoring speakers sounded. He chose to keep the speakers. Too revealing!
I used to use silver foil wire that was almost 4x the price. The Chimeras are in another league.
Steve
The Tsunami Ultra (make sure it's ULTRA)found in the car audio section of Circuit City kicks major audiophile butt. Pure silver plated high purity copper, Teflon dielectric, twisted pair configuration, high quality connectors make this the one to beat. Tried too many interconnects over the past 25 years, this one lets the music through like few others. My analog system is wired with this. It's within a couple of points of my Van Den Hul carbon interconnects, at 8x the price.
discovery cable....the cables have been reviewed by stereophile/tas and online users here and audiogon. btw, discovery makes the ic's and tonearem cable for VPI.they are a very nice cable that is well balanced with real bass. the top end is ever so lightly silky and images extremely well.
the owner is a great guy and true gentleman. his prices are more than reasonable and even better used. this is the real deal. to do better you will have to pay alot (3x-4x) the price.
good luck,
nt
dare to compare to anything that costs more.
... what they sell for. $50 for a pair of 89259's with Eichmanns; well built and good looking.
Yo pureaudio(A)!
Does Heartland have a website. If not how do I get Info. on their products?Cheers
Charlie
I have used Heartland Cables for interconnects and am quite pleased with the results. I got the Belden's with Eichmann's. Dan is a wonderful person to deal with - top notch customer service. I would not hesitate to order more cables from him. In fact I am in need of some longer interconnects (15ft) since rearranging my room and I plan on contacting him as soon as I have the $$$Later...Dan
There is no best cable. Many of us here mix/match brands to get the best from our equipment. Cables are system dependant and can be very reasonably priced or expensive and stupidly priced. Before you are consumed by the cable "Dark Side", try Frank's cables. I've used them in the past and they are a very good place to start (some have even stopped here). I can't think of any other cables that give so much bang for so little bucks.
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: