Vintage DIN phono cables, any good?

@lewm 

 I know and trust the owner, Paul Speltz; he is like we are, a serious listener, but he happens to be an EE and very smart in this field, as well.

Meanwile the designer of that old Xhadow RCA made his own new LoveCraft RCA and claimed they are even better, the good news (i just noticed that) the price is cheaper than Xhadow and they are available direct from the designer just for $80 (pair) here. I use the LoveCraft RCA on my best phono cable (Stereolab Master Reference) and i love it. Strange that each time i talk about Chris Sommovigo products (cables) his name is still new to the audiogonners, while he was in business for 25 years. I don't think that his idea to make Xhadow connectors comes from Eichman, those Xhadows are pretty old design. I think this 6moons review expain very well who's Chris Sommovigo. The reviewer is Srajan Ebaen.    

I don't think that 10 euro price difference is important:
Neutrik ProFi - 20 euro pair (retail)
KLE Copper Harmony - 30 euro pair (retail)  

I think the quality should be the most important for cable designer, not the minor price difference. In other words if Signal Cable Company taking care about the quality and uses different connectors in newer products, then it must be equal of better. Even if the well known Neutrik Proffessional connectors are equal to plastic Eichman then it ruins the theory of superiority of advanced Eichman plastic design over the traditional metal connectors. Or the designer just downgrade his products to sell more (hard to believe).

I have asked Frank about possibility of using different connectors (i could supply connectors by post), but he said he only sells what's on the website (standard or neutrik, no more Eichman).  

When i asked Chris Sommovigo to change standard connectors on one of my old Stereolab cables (designed by him), he said he could solder whatever connector i want if i will supply them. I was going to ship Xhadow to him by post (pretending it's the best rca), but instead he offered me his new LoveCraft RCA (for free) and said it's even better, but i had a choise. This is what i call customer service!   

P.S. I don't ask butchers for anything, i'm vegetarian

Chakster/Nandric -
I have used the Neutrik Profi - they are garbage in terms of sound quality - I have a bagful to prove it. The newer range of Klei are a new design and better than the earlier Eichmann bullets. The Klei and WBTNextgen are both good sound wise, and I have used them. Nevertheless I prefer a vintage plug from the 80’s, lightweight, minimal metal and robust.

With regard to the WBT’s - one of my preamps had Nextgen chassis mount RCA male sockets - the surface coating has long gone, whereas the other RCA’s for the other inputs are still like new. I question their longevity.
PS I used to distribute WBT’s in the 80’s and their quality control at the time was appalling.The centre pins on the original RCA’s were very short and on many top end components the WBTs could not actually make proper contact.

The Eichmann chassis mount RCA male sockets I have installed on my Marantz tube pre - they are ok sound wise, but no better than the original teflon/gold I had installed 25 years ago.

As far as cartridge pins go - the Cardas etc are garbage. I prefer sonically cartridge pins that are phosphor bronze base rather than the tinny brass used by most, including name brands.

Best connectors are copper or silver body ( no brass ) and minimal metal and non internal joints. If you are in the habit of melting Eichmanns or Klei’s then I suggest you go to soldering school and learn how to solder properly.

I have no experience with the Xhadow apart from 1 pair of interconnects, which, after about 4-5 years, the connector surfaces were tarnished to eternity. Not very impressive on the longevity front, given the cost..

@dover 

Nevertheless I prefer a vintage plug from the 80’s, lightweight, minimal metal and robust.

That's interesting! Which one, i'd love to see the images if possible. 
And what do you think about vintage phono cables? 

If you are in the habit of melting Eichmanns or Klei’s then I suggest you go to soldering school and learn how to solder properly.

Haha, definitely not in the habit, but i'm in my school here on audiogon. 

 

I have no experience with the Xhadow apart from 1 pair of interconnects, which, after about 4-5 years, the connector surfaces were tarnished to eternity. Not very impressive on the longevity front, given the cost..

I use my Stereovox Colibru RCA (Xhadow) for 15 years, still very impressivle cable, but the connectors are not like new in color, same with Xhadow Spades on my Stereovox Firebird speaker cables.