As Erik mentions, Connex/DH Labs BL-Ag bulk IC cable is pure silver wire with teflon dielectric. Top quality materials that sound fine with KLEI silver RCAs, with R&R or whatever.
Diy interconnects RCA connectors.
I've made some pretty good sounding interconnects using Furutech FP126g RCA connectors. I'm wondering if anyone has experience with KLE harmony RCA connectors,or other higher quality ones under $100. a set.
I just ordered the entry level KLE Copper Harmony rca connectors and will be building a cable using them. I suspect they will sound very different from the Furutech FP126g.
I'm also wondering if anyone has experience using different brands of pure silver,solid core,wire. So far I've tested the Jupiter silver in cotton and silk casings,and the Neotech upocc silver in teflon. I believe the Jupiter is more open,and the slight "tizz" or haze isn't there. The Neotech might have produced slightly more midbass/bass presence,but my Emotiva system and Energy RC-70 speakers might not be quite good enough to make a more accurate comparison.
I just ordered the entry level KLE Copper Harmony rca connectors and will be building a cable using them. I suspect they will sound very different from the Furutech FP126g.
I'm also wondering if anyone has experience using different brands of pure silver,solid core,wire. So far I've tested the Jupiter silver in cotton and silk casings,and the Neotech upocc silver in teflon. I believe the Jupiter is more open,and the slight "tizz" or haze isn't there. The Neotech might have produced slightly more midbass/bass presence,but my Emotiva system and Energy RC-70 speakers might not be quite good enough to make a more accurate comparison.
- ...
- 25 posts total
Ok,I see what your talking about. My experience with silver wire is that the smaller 28 or 26 awg brings out the highs better.The last pair of Ic's I made I tried the 23 awg Jupiter wire. The soundstage was brought more forward as the midrange bloomed. Another thing,I don't want to use just silver alone.For me,I like the combination of silver and copper,and even the amtrans 24kt gold plated occ copper. My Energy RC speakers are quite laid back. I'm trying to get a bit more brightness out of them.Especially at lower volumes because I live in a duplex and my neighbor complains. But since I like a lot of classic rock,pure silver doesn't sound natural to me. I don't know if most audiophiles can tell the difference between electric guitars and amplifier combos. But with my background of playing,I know what guitar brands and amps sound like. Pure copper seems to be the most natural sounding,but it can also be dull and lifeless. I know a lot of people like the warm tubey analog sound. The gold plated occ copper wire produces this in my Emotiva system. It also could be heard in a Yamaha and Harmon Kardon receiver I tried it on. The speakers being used were considerably brighter than mine. The bookshelves were the Ed Frias kit using Peerless drivers. I did hear a couple of my cables on a Parasound A21/P5 combo,with B&W 805's. Since that's the most expensive system I've heard for more than a few hours,my experience is limited when it comes to really high end equipment. Thanks for the info,but from what I've read from other cable diy guys,the higher awg silver solid core wires do produce an excessive midrange bloom. This is great for a center channel cable in a HT setup,which I'm keeping one of the cables for,the other I'm going to take apart. This connex wire looks like it might be suited for a xlr balanced cable design. Am I wrong? I've never used balanced cables before. Somewhere on another blog,somebody mentioned the Cardas bare silver solid core sounded better than the Jupiter silver I've been using. But he didn't say how or why. One last thing. I spent about 2k for my Emotiva system. I have an Xpa-2 gen2,an Xsp-1 gen2 (breaking in right now),and an ERC-3 cd player. In the past I've had two Carver amps,an Adcom GFA555 mkii/GFP710 pre,and a B&K st140. The Emotiva sysem sounds much better to my ears. I've compensated for the thinner sound by using heavier guage speaker wires (Neotech 3004/Audioquest type 4 combo),and using heavier awg interconnects. The interconnects I'm making are 19 or 18 awg. Maybe my next step will be building a high end speaker from a kit. The Zaph Bitfrost has my attention. In the past I played around with replacing stock commercial speakers drivers(Pioneer,Polk,Dahlquist,etc) with good heavy mdf cabinets.I used Vifa,Peerless,and Morel components. The results were eye opening,or I should say ear opening. But there's not a lot of info out there about diy kit speakers. I searched youtube with limited results. I guess my problem is like many. I want a Black Angus meal on a McDonalds budget. |
A heads up re: KLEI ’silver’/pure/absolute harmony connectors - they are not silver apparently: https://www.aurealisaudio.com.au/klei-harmony-rca-issues/ Just silver plated. Bit sad to hear it. But also now feel better having bought the copper harmony connectors. Any recommendation of Neutrik profi vs KLEI copper harmony? The Neutrik are slightly cheaper but seem comparable quality. The 10K+ (if remember correctly, it’s at least 3-5K for the RCA if not more) mating cycle rating is pretty nice too I think using silver audio solder is a nice way to get a 'touch' of silver into your setup. I have used Cardas solder so far. |
@lastninja - in response to your postng of the Aurealis Audio web content above. Please checkout the KLE Innovations site and read the Brochure and Technical Paper https://kleinnovations.com/kle-innovations-klei-products/klei-harmony-plug/ I think you will find that nowhere does it state that the Silver Harmony is fabricated from "solid silver". It would appear that most people "ASSUMES" solid silver is used simply because of the name assigned to the plug. Based on that "assumption" is it feasible to conclude that an American Express Gold Card is made of gold? I think not. The "Silver Harmony" is just a name assigned to an RCA that achieves a higher level of performance that the Copper Harmony, but not as good as the Pure Harmony or Absolute Harmony. To quote from their documents: Proprietary mathematical modeling is utilized to produce the Silver Harmony’s ground to signal pin relationship, parameters, and determines the proprietary metallurgical processes that are used. I think this fact has been overlooked by the people at Aurealis Audio on purpose. They may have stated in their advertising that Solid silver was used and a customer complained and are now covering their "assets" In fact they seem to have gone one stage further and have actually mis-quoted snippets from KLE Innovations documents on purpose. For what purpose I do not know, but it would appear they have an axe to grind with KLE Innovations and are willing mis-quote their documents in order to disparage the good name of KLE Innovations in favour of their own. Personally - I have auditioned every plug from KLE Innovations at length and all I can is that it does not matter the Harmony plugs are not made from Solid Silver - each plug in the range, much like American Express cards, provide a level "service" that improves as you proceed up the product line. The issues here should not be with KLE Innovations, a company that I trust and respct, but with that post on Aurealis Audio that appears to have no other goal but to disparage. Regards - Steve |
- 25 posts total