Cable Asylum

Posted by Sean (i) on August 13, 2000 at 01:06:23:

First of all, let me start off by making the standard disclaimers. This test was done using my computer room system. Components used are listed below. Opinions and observations pertain strictly to this system and my personal tastes. This means that results will vary from system to system and is very likely to be influenced by personal tastes. If my results don't agree with yours, please don't take it personally. There were more than a few outside comments from my brother and girlfriend while running some of the various cables. While these were "unsolicited" from them at the time, they pretty much coincided with what i was also thinking.

CD: CAL Delta Transport / Mod Squad Wonder Link / CAL Sigma DAC
Tuner: Musical Fidelity E-50
Preamp: AGI 511A w / Burr-Brown option
Amp: Forte' 6A (375 wpc @ 4 ohms )
Speakers: Ohm F's w / Axon binding posts & Michael Percy Spikes
Interconnects: JR's SSTP (solid / stranded twisted pair design)

I did not play any vinyl or cassettes while doing this, so i didn't bother to list those components.

Music listened to varied from the lounge lizard sounds of Diana Krall to the electronica of Gary Numan to the classical sounds of Prokofiev to the pounding death metal of Master and the acoustic new age sounds of Ian Anderson's last solo disc. Since different styles of music tend to highlight various frequency ranges, i tried to give all the cables a well rounded diet before their examination. All were burned for several days of continuous use with the Oval 9's receiving 500+ hours of break in time since they were the only cables purchased brand new.

Here's a little background on the situation. My house has a basement foundation. The suspended wooden floor gave me a very hard time with bass reproduction. This system could easily shake the entire house if cranked up, even though the speakers are probably about 82 - 83 db's efficient and do not "rock". Removing the speakers factory platform from the base and installing the spikes obtained from Michael Percy made a huge difference. Bass was much tighter with better pitch and definition. Slam and impact both improved while the reduction in floor borne rumble was extremely noticeable. Nonetheless, the system still had a tendency to lean towards the warm side. This did not bother me and the slightly fuller sound was actually kind of nice, as i typically listen to this later at night and at lower volumes while my girlfriend is sleeping.

I was using some modified XLO Pro 650 cable in this system before doing this shoot-out. This cable started off as 18 twenty gauge conductors of stranded wire broken down into 9 conductors per polarity giving us appr. two 11 gauge wires. Suffice it to say that it was kind of a cross between Chris' CAT 5 design and the Kimber type woven braid by the time i was done with it.

Initial impressions were of a pretty well balanced system that sounded quite musical. Frequency response was pretty linear thoughout the range with a bass maximum at appr. 35 Hz and solid treble response up to 15 Khz and rolling off after that. Bass had good initial impact but would ring if driven hard. As the volume went up to higher levels ( 95 db's average @ 8' ), bass would get looser due to the undamped mass of the cone. Soundstage was wide and deep but lacked pinpoint imaging. This is to be expected with the F's 360* radiation pattern though. Midrange and treble were relatively smooth, but lacked detail. While most would consider some of these things as "sins of omission", the errors comitted were those that were of the "less offensive" category. Overall, i could listen to this system as it was with no major complaints even though it did have it's weak points. Quite honestly, i thought i should have stopped playing games with wire and components a while ago, but i'm glad that i did do this test.

I went from the XLO's to the AP Oval 9's. I was warned by Corey at Audio Advisor that these cables required a LOT of burn in time and initially sounded poor right out of the box. He was right. When they went into the system, the bass disappeared and the treble stuck out like a sore thumb. Besides the tonal balance becoming totally skewed, the treble was extremely hard and smeary. I noticed some major changes after appr. 150 - 175 hours of playing time and then again at about 250 hrs or so. As mentioned earlier, i gave them a very fair listening period of well over 500 hours before passing final judgement on them. When all was said and done, i found these cables very intriguing but quite lacking overall. As mentioned before, the tonal balance never did even out completely. Bass did pick up more weight to it, but the treble was still hard and glaring to the point of being overtly "tizzy". Having to deal with this is one thing, but the fact that it was also much louder than the other ranges of the frequency spectrum really made it noticeable. It was kind of like ramming barbed wire into your ear, over and over and over again. There also seemed to be a series of small amplitude peaks and dips within the midrange, most noticeably between appr. 200 Hz and 2 Khz. This took away from the clarity of and naturalness of voices and several instruments within that range. My brother and i could never really put a finger on what was taking place there. Bass and transient response. Now that's a good one on these cables. It's what really has me puzzled. The "finger snaps" on the Diana Krall CD sounded the sharpest on this cable. This shows that the cable is capable of excellent transient response and allow the amp to minimize overshoot and ringing of the driver. I think the fact that it is such a large conductor helps in this area. As further proof of this, the bass that these cables offered was EXTREMELY tight and well defined. Probably the best of the bunch. My amp was able to "grip" the mass of the large Walsh driver and keep it under utter control. The problem was that, while the bass was of excellent quality, there just wasn't near enough of it. This kept making me want to crank the power up more and more, hoping that it would fill out the sound sooner or later. Never happened. Due to the lack of bass output which reduced the amount of "throw" that the Walsh had to make, i could easily crank the volume level control measurably higher with these cables than i could with any others used during this test. Besides all of that, the soundstage was nowhere near as full sounding as what i was used to. I couldn't get the floor to resonate if i tried with these. Overall, i found them to be hard and thin sounding in my system with a poor soundstage. I will say that it is very flexible for it's gauge and size and would give no hassles when trying to install it.

From the Oval 9's, i went to some Goertz MI-2's. Since my specific amp would oscillate with their high capacitance design, i had to install a Zobel network at the speaker. Once this was done, i hooked the MI-2's into the system. WOOOOOOOOOOOW. What a difference. I had bass again. And smoother, more liquid midrange. And treble that offered far more shimmer instead of smear. And a soundstage with an ever expanding width and depth. and...... I think you get the idea. The Goertz was a far better balanced cable in this system. It did almost everything MILES better. While the bass wasn't quite as tight as the AP Oval 9's, it's level was far more even with the rest of the frequency range. Due to the expansive soundstage and more linear frequency response throughout the midrange, music was instantly more open, liquid and real. I had never heard this system sound so good. While my girlfiend wasn't home when i did the AP to the Goertz cable swap, she did come home just a short while after that. Within appr. 15 minutes of her return, she asked what i did to the stereo. I asked why ? Her reply was " it sounds SOOOOOO much better". Nuff said ?

I really didn't want to, but i did take the Goertz out of system. Due to the similarly high capacitance levels, i left the Zobels in the circuit. In their place went a set of Teflon CAT 5 cables that a fellow inmate ( Hello Ashis !!! ) initially made and i purchased from him. They were constructed as per Chris' 27 pair instructions and gave me an idea of what a full blown pair of these look like. While i have made a few "cheater" cables like this, all i can say is that you guys MUST have patience AND real sore fingers. Since Ashis was using these bare-ended, i installed some XLO spades on one end and some Axon's on the other. The different sized spades help me keep track of which end is which.

My initial impressions going from the Goertz to the CAT 5 cables were as follows. Bass was stronger and offered more extreme bottom end to it. Upper bass was a little lean while the midrange seemed slightly recessed, not as clear, liquid or open sounding compared to the Goertz. Treble was also softer, but offered better detail with a little less ringing to it. As previously mentioned by several folks here on the Asylum and in other places, small gauge solid wires can't be beat for high frequency reproduction. The soundstage was solid with reasonable width and depth.

Quite honestly, i was expecting these to sound a little more "open" and slightly leaner on the extreme bottom end than they did. I was basing this on the "cheater" CAT 5's that we had built for my brothers system. Nonetheless, they performed very well for the cost involved and would perform excellently in a system that was well balanced but slightly lacking in the last octave or two.

Just to keep things straight and retain my baseline, i installed the modified XLO's that i started off with back into the system. They now sounded slightly veiled with less detail throughout the entire range. Mind you, it wasn't bad at all, but i had now tasted the steak that was hiding within this system when it was serving me hamburger before. Then again, these cables run appr. $3.00 per foot, so it is in a completely different price league compared to most of the other competition. Soundstage was quite good and would compete with any of the others outside of the Goertz in that respect.

Out came the XLO's again and in went the Kimber 8TC's. Initially, i noticed a small problem with sibilance. Bass was solid and well extended. It did not have the ultra extended weight of the CAT 5's or the super tightness of the AP Oval 9's, but was running pretty close with the Goertz. I would have to say that the Goertz had a slightly more "lush" bass to it ( not that it was sloppy at all ) while the Kimber was a little quicker, more defined but slightly less full. Midrange was relatively smooth and open although it didn't seem quite as much of a soundstage that the Goertz offered. After it "played in" a while, the treble smoothed out noticeably. Treble was somewhere between the Goertz and the CAT 5 cables in terms of clarity and detail. I would say that it was probably a hair cleaner than the MI-2's in that respect, but not by a whole bunch.

For those that have never tried these cables in your system but are familiar with Kimber's 4 or 8 PR series, the TC cables are far smoother and offer much better tonal balance. The PR's came across as being kind of thin and "zippy" sounding. While that may not be bad for an overtly dry or bloated sounding system, the TC's really do present a far more natual picture. The sound is not nearly as etched and offers better harmonic structure to it.

I went back and stuck the AP Oval 9's back into the system. Same impressions as when i first listened to them. They came back out a few hours later. I got tired of listening to smeared cymbals with music underneath them.

To sum things up, here's a brief summary as to how i would rank these cables IN THIS SYSTEM:

(1) Goertz MI-2's. These were the most musical. Full-bodied yet very open sounding to me. They were also the most involving. This is not to mention the all enveloping soundstage.

(2) Kimber 8TC. Well balanced throughout their entire range. Not quite as full bodied or enticing musically as the Goertz, probably due to their slightly leaner presentation and smaller soundstage.

(3) Chris VH's CAT 5. Very solid performer in every aspect with the cleanest treble response. It's extended bass output actually hurt it in this specific system, as i was already having problems with bottom octave resonances in this installation.

(4) Modified XLO Pro 650F's. Not as revealing or detailed as any of the others, but never made offensive contributions to the signal. Soundstage was also quite solid.

(5) Analysis Plus Oval 9's. (I can already hear the flamethrower posts sizzling ) Sorry folks, but these just didn't hack it in this system. While it did have some individually strong performance points to it, the entire presentation was lacking as a whole. I found it annoying and strident to listen to and am actually amazed that i left it in as long as i did. I also tried them in another system ( which is VERY different ) and had similar results. I would rather use standard fine strand 12 gauge zip cord. I guess that they just aren't for me.

As mentioned above, the cables are but a PART of the system. Taking that into account, you really have to interpret their performance on an individual basis with each installation and NOT as having the same characteristics EVERY time. What works well in one place might bomb horribly in another. That's the reason why we try and stress home demo-ing equipment with your other gear and looking at the whole system as a package, not as an assembly of individual pieces. Sean
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