AKSA 55N with U-byte speaker cables and others ...

Martin · « **Reply #40 on:** 7 Jul 2003, 11:28 pm »

Hi guys
I took some garden hose, jammed it full
of copper pennies...

Thanks

Anonymous

AKSA · « **Reply #41 on:** 7 Jul 2003, 11:45 pm »

Martin,

I daresay this would confer a tinkling, cascading sound to the music, and maybe reticent dynamics???

Cheers,

Hugh

jkarhan1 · « **Reply #42 on:** 8 Jul 2003, 05:00 am »

This seems like the perfect time to ask this. Hugh, excuse my ignorance. Will the AKSA design support XLR/balanced interconnects?
Is it worth the time and effert?
...I cant be the only one....

AKSA · « **Reply #43 on:** 8 Jul 2003, 07:51 am »

Hi Karthi,

No, unfortunately. However there are a few arguments on this; balanced lines are, in my view, a fashion just at present in hifi.

People will bridle at this, but balanced circuitry by its very nature eliminates even order distortion while leaving the odd order distortion unchanged. This skews the harmonic content of the music, and changes our perceptions, and generally speaking, we don't like it. Even order is musical; odd order is sharp and discordant.

However, balanced lines have one huge advantage - Low noise. In pro-audio where leads are long, this is invaluable, and necessary. In hifi, where interconnects are normally short, this is not so much of a problem.

When you investigate the recording engineers, you find that some of the best in the business have no balanced circuitry at all.

Cheers,

Hugh

Martin · « **Reply #44 on:** 8 Jul 2003, 05:41 pm »

Thanks Hugh
It's just the sound I was looking for!
Martin

fred · « **Reply #45 on:** 9 Jul 2003, 03:44 pm »

I always find discusions of cables to be interesting. I confess to being a skeptic - although I'm open to the possibility that cables matter. This has led to discussions I've had with a friend- we'd like to perform some tests. The first one will be a gross level comparison to see if we can manufacture some serious audible difference. As a baseline, we want to use the absolute worst thing imaginable. The worst thing we can think of is wire coathangers insulated with masking tape. Any other ideas about what would be a worse baseline? (note: we don't want to break anything)

Malcolm Fear · « **Reply #46 on:** 9 Jul 2003, 04:15 pm »

Hi Fred
I think that coathanger wire would be unmanageable.
If you read the Jon Risch stuff, it would seem that cheap tv coax would be bad. Check the Belden site, looking for co-ax that is copper clad steel. You may find that Radio Shack sell the stuff.

PSP · « **Reply #47 on:** 9 Jul 2003, 05:03 pm »

I had a recent cable experience... based on a recent link to the following post...http://db.audioasylum.com/cgi/m.pl?forum=cables&n=17659&highlight=coming+back+Todd+Krieger&r=&session= I ordered some Belden 8281 (I should have got the teflon version, 88281, but I didn't) and made up a couple of interconnects using nice Cardas RCAs between my TLP/Nirvana and AKSA 55N. Based on the above post, I expected "a sense of transparency, extension, authority, and especially 'rightness' ".... but after a week of burn-in (whether you believe in that or not) the sound was brittle and bright. When I put my standard Belden 89259 (again with Cardas RCAs) back in the system all was well... the sound was smooth and involving again.

I don't buy the "its all in your head... you expect an improvement and you therefore 'hear' an improvement" argument. Tweaks and cable experiments have just as often been a step backwards as they have been an improvement... yet I just about always expected or hoped for some kind of improvement... otherwise I wouldn't have made the change.

that's my 2cents on the subject.

Peter

andyr · « **Reply #48 on:** 10 Jul 2003, 11:16 am »

Quote from: Malcolm Fear

Hi Fred
I think that coathanger wire would be unmanageable.
If you read the Jon Risch stuff, it would seem that cheap tv coax would be bad. Check the Belden site, looking for co-ax that is copper clad steel. You may find that Radio Shack sell the stuff.

Malcolm,

You appear to be recommending people go in search of copper-clad steel coax?

Jon Risch of AA specifically warns AGAINST copper-clad steel so I, for one, won't touch it.

Regards,

Andy

Grumpy_Git · « **Reply #49 on:** 10 Jul 2003, 09:37 pm »

Quote from: andyr

Quote from: Malcolm Fear
Hi Fred
I think that coathanger wire would be unmanageable.
If you read the Jon Risch stuff, it would seem that cheap tv coax would be bad. Check the Belden site, looking for co-ax that is copper clad steel. You may find that Radio Shack sell the stuff.
Malcolm,

You appear to be recommending people go in search of copper-clad steel coax?

Jon Risch of AA specifically warns AGAINST copper-clad steel so I, for one, won't touch it.

Regards,

Andy

read the posts, Fred is looking for really BAD cables to test for his experiments into seeing what differences we really can hear.

Nick.

Malcolm Fear · « **Reply #50 on:** 10 Jul 2003, 09:59 pm »

Grumpy_Git
No, I am not recommending copper clad steel for "good" leads.
My response, was to Fred, who is looking for some "bad" leads to use as a base reference, then work upwards from there. Jon Risch says copper clad sleel is bad, so I recommended them as "bad".
Read Fred's post, then my response. Seems clear to me.

Grumpy_Git · « **Reply #51 on:** 10 Jul 2003, 10:17 pm »

Malcolm, sorry for any misunderstanding, my reply was for andy-r. i understood that you were offering advice on bad cables, obviously im providing more material for the English cant speak english lobby!

Nick.

Malcolm Fear · « **Reply #52 on:** 11 Jul 2003, 02:03 am »

Sorry Grumpy_Git
I should have addressed my last post to Andy_R.

karthikn · « **Reply #53 on:** 11 Jul 2003, 02:35 am »

Quote from: AKSA

Hi Karthi,
No, unfortunately. However there are a few arguments on this; balanced lines are, in my view, a fashion just at present in hifi.

Ah Hugh, I see that you are very very busy

You were actually responding to a "jkarhan1". Not to me. I was away for a few days.

andyr · « **Reply #54 on:** 11 Jul 2003, 11:20 am »

Sorry, Malcolm ... I should've read your post a bit more carefully before I answered (teach me to log onto the Aspen Forum after dinner & a bottle or three of wine

).

Grumpy-Git ... don't you call me a "cant"!!

If we're gonna have English lessons on the Forum then ... learn the beauty of the apostrophe!

Regards,

Andy

Jens · « **Reply #55 on:** 5 Aug 2003, 08:36 pm »

I got the Belden 89259 coax cable a couple of weeks ago. A pair of cables were soon twisted, soldered and put into the system. To make sure that I did not start to make comparisons with my current cable before the Ubyte was properly "burned in" I let it stay in the system until Thursday last week and had several good listens to it during that time.

My current speaker cable is a very little known cable from Tom Fletcher (he is the guy behind the Nottingham Analogue turntables). It consists of single wires that you simply tie together. Each wire has some 15-20 coarse strands of silver-coated, pure copper, giving it a cross section of 3-4 mm², and it has a fairly thin teflon insulation. The Fletcher cable costs around AUD 75 per metre, so it's not exactly very cheap, but since it has beaten stock cables costing more than twice as much, it's not all that bad a price.

I have now tried changing back and forth between the Ubyte and the Fletcher a few times and here is what I heard:

- The Ubyte cable is good, at least as good as a number of fairly expensive of-the-shelf cables that come to my mind (Kimber, Audioquest and the like)

- The Ubyte cable is not a match for the Fletcher cable. In comparison, the Ubyte cable lacks a lot of air in treble region, which affects the overall reproduction somewhat. Compared to the Fletcher cable sound is more shut-in and "dead".

- The Ubyte cable has an excellent midrange, which is fairly close to that of the Fletcher cable, lacking only the last bit of clarity.

- Since most of you will not know the Fletcher cable, my thoughts fell on the Audioquest Midnight speaker cable (now obsolete), which I used for many years before changing over to the Fletcher cable. The Ubyte cable would seem to be a lot like the Audioquest Midnight in a number respects. In my system, the Midnight had a hump in the upper bass, which the Ubyte does not seem to have, and the Ubyte could well be an improvement over the Midnight as far as midrange is concerned (this comparison is made from memory, but I do know the Midnight cable very well). Treble would seem to be more or less the same.

I am going to make a couple of interconnects from the Belden coax as well - will also report on those when I get there.

- and will also report on how the CAT5 fares, when I get it (plans have been made to obtain it).

Hope the above helps to place the Ubyte speaker cable in some sort of setting.

Cheers,

Jens

Jens · « **Reply #56 on:** 31 Aug 2003, 07:42 am »

I have now made and tested two different types of interconnects using the Belden 89259 coax:

Type #1: As is - i.e. using center core for hot and braid for earth/screen
Type #2: Using two center cores (with the foamed teflon insulation), wound tightly together.

Both types were fitted with Eichmann Bullet Plugs and compared to my current Tom Fletcher interconnects (also with Bullet Plugs). Lengths were approx. 75 centimeters for all cables.

The interconnects were inserted between CD (Rega Jupiter) and preamp (PreFiX handbuilt, see my homepage for description).

Type #1 sounded fairly dark, and there was a very noticable loss of detail. Also, soundstage was mediocre, but the most significant feature was the very muffled top end. All in all, compared to my reference, this is a very dull-sounding cable. I connect recommend using the Belden 89259 in this matter. However, if you have a few scraps of this cable lying around it is still vastly better than the junk supplied with gear when you buy it.

Type #2 was much brighter sounding, and actually sounded very much like my reference in this respect. Detail and soundstage was quite good, although not quite as good as my reference. Top end was a bit withdrawn, but much better than #1. The dull sound of #1 was completely gone, and the type #2 is quite lively and charming. But it was still bested by my Fletcher interconnect on all points. I would not hesitate to recommend the type #2, which will certainly be a much better choice than a large number of mid-price of-the-shelf interconnects. It also has the advantage of being very flexible.

Finished with the Belden 89259. I will get some CAT5 next weekend and will start experimenting with it soon.

You will hear more (whether you like it or not!)

Cheers,

Jens

Malcolm Fear · « **Reply #57 on:** 31 Aug 2003, 08:07 am »

Hi Jens
We've been down the 89259 road. We preferred 4 strands of CAT 5, loosely braided. They are worthy of Eichmanns.
Get 2 twisted paris of CAT 5. Separate them, so that you have 4 individual strands. Loosely braid. Cheap as chips.

andyr · « **Reply #58 on:** 31 Aug 2003, 08:50 am »

Malcolm, I presume that with the 4 strands of Cat 5, loosely braided, you are referring to ICs (not speaker cables).

Of course they should be teflon insulated Cat 5.

Jens, I'm not surprised your Type #1 sounded terrible ... because you had one leg of the IC as a braid - this would mess up the signal because it has to cross over all the braid connections.

Why don't you do one more experiment after you've done Malcolm's loosely-braided Cat 5 suggestion?:
* Take the length of coax which you used in #1 (which you don't want to use, so it's available!).
* Strip off the jacket and the braid so you are left with just the core and the core insulation.
* You are going to use this as a 'former'.
* Take two lengths of teflon Cat 5 which are slightly longer than the coax.
* Wrap them around what's left of the coax (the 'former')like a DNA double-helix - ie. take one in each hand and cross your hands over and under the 'former'.
* Put an RCA plug on each end.
* This gives you one cable - repeat for the stereo pair!

I would believe this would be better than plain braided Cat 5.

Regards,

Andy

Malcolm Fear · « **Reply #59 on:** 31 Aug 2003, 10:50 am »

Hi Andy
I use 4 strands of CAT 5 for interconnects.
For speaker leads, I use 8 strand. I braid 4 strands (2 coloured, two white/striped). I braid another 4 strands (as above). I then twist the two braids together. I then pull all of the coloureds together. I pull all of the white/striped together. Works well with AKSA (more than 8 strands is bad for AKSA).
I have demo'd this against the Jon Risch 89259 (from John R).
The CAT 5 is better.