[weirdo]

I have Van Alstine Omega Star Pre and Amp. After much auditioning, I have setteled on Audioquest diamondback as the interconnect having the best ( most neutral) sound. I realize that many of you don't think too much of fancy interconnects and such, but with gear this sensitive, the cheap stuff sounds ..........cheap. I'm interested if anyone has had similar experiences and might recommend any other moderately priced interconnects that sound good. thanks dk

[rlee8394]

Check out cables from Blue Jeans Cables. No magic or BS, just good solid cables with great Canare connectors. See here:

http://www.bluejeanscable.com/store/audio/index.htm

Notice the nice "pressure contacts" on the inner circumference of the RCA connector. I also like the fact that you can specify custom lengths. I'll be ordering some as soon as I figure out what lengths I need. I hate using 3' or 6' lengths of cable when not necessary. They'll cost about one third of the Audioquest Diamondback cables. Worth a try in my estimation.

[rockadanny]

I second that suggestion and also recommend bluejeanscable. I have had very good success with their interconnects. I use mine to connect my Opera Audio Consonance Reference 2.2 (mod'ed) CDP and my DVD player to my Mapletree Audio preamp, and then to my AVA Ultra 550 and my ACI Titan subwoofer (25' length). No problems whatsoever - and excellent quality sound.

[nathanm]

See the thing with Bluejeans is that they do what Hollywood does with the "homely girl" characters; they take a beautiful woman, dress her down in frumpy clothes, give her some lame eyeglasses and try to sell you on the fact that she's an "ugly duckling" when their pretense is painfully self-evident.  All the Canare cables really need is to ditch those ugly boots and dress them up in some beautiful, albeit wholly unnecessary in the home audio application flex sleeving from the fine people at wirecare.com.

https://www.wirecare.com/wirecarephp1/wc_product_company.php

That way you can achieve the flashy look of the pricey brands without having to buy George Cardas a yacht.  They've got so many varieties, it's like being a kid in a candy store for uh, wire nuts.  How about the reflective kind?  Clip the hell out of the CCD on your digital camera with these!  Ooh, how about the conductive anti-static kind?  Chrome?  Kevlar? (you get to buy an expensive scissors too! )

[Wayner]

After visiting Frank Van Alstine several times at his factory and having seen what cables he uses, I have reinstalled the cheap cables in my own systems, like the ones that come with a Sony CD player for example. I have decided I shall follow the Masters footsteps. The fact is, I can't tell the difference.....maybe if the cable had horrible shielding and I was running parallel with power cords for some distance but I really haven't experienced it. I know this may come as a shock to many of you that insist on high dollar cables. I have heard Frank's HT3's hooked up to U70 amps with Radio Shack type of connects and speaker wire and the sound is incredible. The fact is, special cable and interconnects bring the smallest bang for the buck. The real bang for the buck would be saving money on the exotic stuff which would allow you to go buy a T8 or a AVA 550.

W

[WEEZ]

Low capacitance; a good shielding scheme; and solid connectors are paramount to a good interconnect. The pf rating per foot is not as important as the total pf; i.e., the length of the cable plus the capacitance of the connectors. A typical 2'-3' length should pose very little difference in frequency response whether you choose bluejeans' Belden wire or their Canare wire. I used to use a Cardas interconnect that had a pf rating twice that of Canare LV-77S, and it worked just fine. Only thing was, that I sold them and used the money to cable my whole system from bluejeans- with no degredation in sound quality whatsoever. None.

With speaker wire, the capacitance issue is a little less important, especially with reasonable runs. Resistance and inductance play a bigger role. The expensive stuff may use a complex design to minimize resistance without having to use wire the size of battery cable; but in general, unless you have your speakers more than 50' from your amplifier, it doesn't matter much. I use Cobalt 10 ga. Ultimate speaker wires. Why? Well, I wanted to move my equipment rack off to the side and out from between my speakers; which meant I needed around 16-17'. The 10 ga. is heavier than I needed (it looks like black garden hose  ), but the quality of the terminations is excellent and the price was right. Prior to that, I used Audioquest Type 4. Sound wise- even if I strain- I can hear no difference.

By the way, for all you cable afficionado's out there, my hearing was just checked- and despite hearing a bit less below 60 hz in my left ear vs. my right; my hearing is fine. Not 'Golden', but fine.

(btw, Kevin @ DIYCable has some killer deals on wire as well. But it would be hard to beat bluejeans for real value)

my 2 cents,

WEEZ

[topround]

There is a lot of arrogance on both sides of the camp regarding speaker wire and interconnects.
I just did a test with a friend comparing  Gregg Straley reality speaker cables and Harmonic Technology cables.
The difference was obvious to anyone with ears, one may prefer one to the other but the difference was definitely there.
To say there are no real differences is not really being honest. Or just a defense mechanism against the high price of cabling. There are many snake oil cables out there but there are cables out there that really do make a difference, for better or worse.

[Zheeeem]

The difference was obvious to anyone with ears, one may prefer one to the other but the difference was definitely there.  To say there are no real differences is not really being honest. Or just a defense mechanism against the high price of cabling. There are many snake oil cables out there but there are cables out there that really do make a difference, for better or worse.

The whole wires business would be much easier to deal with if someone could give a cogent explanation of what, other than resistence, capacitance or inductance, causes wires to sound different.  I'm not denying that different wires do sound different.  But without knowing the feature that causes the difference and how it exerts its influence, the cost of chasing after the "best" wire in a particular application is prohibitive.  (Added to that is the phenomenon that many who espouse high priced wires also tend to tout the benefits of expensive power cords, wall outlets, intellichips, clever clocks, brilliant pebbles, CD demagnetizers, quantum purifiers, magic foils, refrigerating pictures of audio gurus, etc. etc.)

That said, I like a well made wire.

[WEEZ]

So, topround, what were the differences? Which sounded more natural? Which one is the one to live with for the long term? Why should anybody buy those wires instead of Belden or Canare? Who actually makes the wire?

I was on that roller coaster a few years back, too. Fortunately, I didn't lose too much money. 

If a given set of wire sounds 'dramatic' in it's differences...it is likely doing something wrong to the signal. I heard differences with Kimber and Cardas. The differences were not 'dramatic'. (the Cardas sounded more natural).

Whatever works for you is okay by me. But if the wire has electrical properties that are suited for the purpose, it will be just fine.

WEEZ

[boead]

The difference was obvious to anyone with ears, one may prefer one to the other but the difference was definitely there.  To say there are no real differences is not really being honest. Or just a defense mechanism against the high price of cabling. There are many snake oil cables out there but there are cables out there that really do make a difference, for better or worse.

The whole wires business would be much easier to deal with if someone could give a cogent explanation of what, other than resistence, capacitance or inductance, causes wires to sound different.  I'm not denying that different wires do sound different.  But without knowing the feature that causes the difference and how it exerts its influence, the cost of chasing after the "best" wire in a particular application is prohibitive.  (Added to that is the phenomenon that many who espouse high priced wires also tend to tout the benefits of expensive power cords, wall outlets, intellichips, clever clocks, brilliant pebbles, CD demagnetizers, quantum purifiers, magic foils, refrigerating pictures of audio gurus, etc. etc.)

That said, I like a well made wire.

Yeah, I agree. The same holds true for the business of government and organized religion. Neither can really tell you what they sell just that theirs is better and you’ll like it. Still, people believe in god and struggle to gain citizenship to what they perceive as a better place to live and worship – right?

Because you can’t explain it, does not mean it doesn’t exist.

Who said; Magic (or voodoo) is science not yet discovered or explained?

[warnerwh]

Although there may be a tiny difference between the sound you hear from the wire you put in I don't think it's worth worrying about. A quality connection with shielded cables is fine.

Considering the cost of wire a unit like the Behringer DEQ 2496 with the Behringer ECM 8000 microphone can be purchased. This I guarantee you can gain an improvement in your sound system with. If nothing else it's a good educational device with the built in analyzer and room measuring abilities.

I've no problem with high quality cables but I do have a problem with the prices that are charged. I believe this to be one reason why alot of people are afraid of the high end. Tell someone there's speaker wire that costs 500 or a thousand bucks and you'll lose them for life. Although I've never heard a system using thousands of dollars with of speaker cables I'll bet you the money would be better spent on a Tact unit, better speakers or a better source. At least you wouldn't have to try to notice the differences.

One more thing that bugs me. When someone reviews a piece of gear then say this piece of gear didn't work with the first interconnects but had been amazing with the second set I lose all respect for the review. And yes I had a friend loan me 5 sets of IC's from Cardas to Kimber KCAG and couldn't hear any difference worth worrying about.

[boead]

If a given set of wire sounds 'dramatic' in it's differences...it is likely doing something wrong to the signal. I heard differences with Kimber and Cardas. The differences were not 'dramatic'. (the Cardas sounded more natural).

But what if the act of doing something wrong sounds better? Is it still wrong?

[WEEZ]

It won't sound better. Only different.

[topround]

But what if the act of doing something wrong sounds better? Is it still wrong?


Sounds like moral relativism.


Honestly I have no idea what makes differnet cables sound different, and honestly I don't have the time to try to figure it out( as if I could!) Just some cables sound better for me.
The test of the 2 cables I did today was a revelation, they both sounded fine, just one removed a veil that was more of a sock. The detail was amazing, and the frequency extensions were huge. With the veil removed I began to experience the room that the recording was made. Perhaps this was too much detail?
All I know is one cable revealed more than the other by a large degree. If this is a vice or virtue, time will tell.

[TomW16]

Oh Oh, here we go again on the cable debate.   

I have heard differences between interconnects so to say that cable doesn't make a difference cannot be true despite what the engineers claim.  What I have since learned, however, is that the engineers weren't  wrong.  How can this be possible?   

It all made sense to me after reading an article by a telecom engineer by the name of Jim Hayward (in a Canadian audio publication called Audio Ideas Guide and later for Bryston, I believe).  To severely condense his conclusions, which included formulas and math to prove his point, he basically stated that as long as the impedances of the components are not mismatched (as can occur with passive preamps and tubes) any reasonable cable will transfer the audio signal without affecting any frequencies that we can hear (and frequencies well above that).  AVA equipment falls into this category of well designed equipment so cabling is not critical. 

Where components with non-ideal impedances are mated (as can occur with tubes and passive preamps), cables can and do affect the sound.   (Finally an explanation as to why some can hear cable differences and others can not.)  In these cases, interconnects should be as short as possible (but not shorter otherwise it severely diminishes the soundstage to nothing ) and be low capacitance.  Higher capacitance interconnects can roll of the high frequencies.

As others have already stated, Blue Jean Cables are good value and have good explanations regarding cable design parameters without the voodoo. 

Tom

[boead]

It won't sound better. Only different.

Weez, I understand different. What I’m saying is that different IS better. Better being MY adjective to describe something I like BETTER.

So no it doesn’t sound different to me, it sounds better!

[weirdo]

So, topround, what were the differences? Which sounded more natural? Which one is the one to live with for the long term? Why should anybody buy those wires instead of Belden or Canare? Who actually makes the wire?

I was on that roller coaster a few years back, too. Fortunately, I didn't lose too much money. 

If a given set of wire sounds 'dramatic' in it's differences...it is likely doing something wrong to the signal. I heard differences with Kimber and Cardas. The differences were not 'dramatic'. (the Cardas sounded more natural).

Whatever works for you is okay by me. But if the wire has electrical properties that are suited for the purpose, it will be just fine.

WEEZ

Wow, I didn't want to generate a whole set of efficicy arguments with my post.  I will state my case. I believe that the AVA components combined with my speakers have resulted in a system that is very sensitive and revealing. This is a good thing. The somewhat difficult thing is that cheap wires just do not cut the mustard in my system, and i have settled on a pair on interconnects that cost about a hundred bucks. I do not regret my purchase and defend it by the fact that cheaper interconnects simply don't separate the music as well and the pressentation is less crisp. I have swapped them out many times since I bought them thinking I was crazy to begin with, but the results continue to be the same. Would I ever spend even 2 or 300 dollars on an interconnect.....no. It was painful enough to spend a hunj, but in my system, it was necessary ( IMO).  I wish it wasn't the case, but for me, I had to get to a certain level of interconnect performance before I was satisfied. I listen to classical choral, and it is complex and layered music. depending on the interconnect, i can actually break down the groups of singers or they kind of melt together. I respect those who don't feel that way. Everyone's perspective is a little different. thank god for the differences in all of us. 

[budyog]

I am using SignalCable IC's with all my gear including my AVA stuff. I am very happy with them and I think they are a very good value. Frank at SignalCable is a super man to deal with. I don't think I have met a bad Frank in my life yet!   A friend brought over a few very expensive (2 to 3 times the price, I remember one of them being Kimber) ICs a while back and I did not here a difference. I also will not spend any more on any IC's than what I paid for my SignalCable IC's.