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Cable Survey

The idea for this thread came from @sautan 904 op titled “Who thinks $ Speaker cable really better than generic 14awg cable?

My reply:

From op:

SO WHAT DO YOU ALL THINK? OR I AM THE LAST PERSON TO FIND OUT THAT EXPENSIVE CABLE JUST A RIP OFF?

Some are, some are definitely not. It really is a matter of discovering what brands out there (and there a lot) offer the best performance for your money. Some are really worth the money and clearly they offer a big increase in sound quality. It seems the dealers you used were not very discriminating about what brands they carry. This does not surprise me since I have found many are not well informed. You really need to seek out somebody who has compared different makes of cable and really believes in what they are selling.

So I thought it a good idea to pool knowledge on this subject and make a list of what people are using and why. This is my current preferences:

Speaker: Hi Diamond 7

IC XLR: Hi Diamond XLR 3

USB: Vovox

Ethernet: AQVOX, Vovox

Power: Belden

The Hi Diamond speaker cable was so much better than other cables I have tried to date. The increase in musicality, depth and detail in bass, increased sound stage and cleaner more detailed top where some of the benefits I had with this cable. The same can be said of their XLR interconnect.

The Vovox I have only been able to compare with some generic cables, and it is much clearer than those. I intend trying some other brands in the near future and I will post my findings.

Ethernet cables I find make a difference and I am currently using both Vovox and AQVOX, compared to various generic makes and the blue Meicord these are both much preferred, opening the sound stage and lowering the noise floor.

Power cables I haven’t so far experimented with a great deal, I’m using heavy Belden cables that are part of a dedicated mains spur arrangement, so that each individual piece of equipment has its own spur. In order to test cable types I will need to introduce a mains block (Shunyata?).

toetapaudio
toetapaudio OP
474 posts
 
@alanhovey what are the Shunyata series that you use?
midareff1
182 posts
 
When I first built the system I still have (twenty-five + years ago) Fatwyre was a cable lending company.  I tried about 10 or 12 different speaker cables, and about the same amount of interconnects finding out what worked best with the components I have.  At the time my cap was $1K for an 8 foot pair of speaker cables and $400 for a 2 meter pair of interconnects. After all was said and done on speaker cables a friend loaned me a pair of Straightwire Maestro cables. Turns out they were the charm and I bought them from him.  Turns out Monster Interlink 800 worked the best for interconnects (then) and I had a pair custom terminated since my amps use double single ended to connect balanced.  Those pairs started to fall apart after 25 + years  and I ran across a 25 foot single Straightwire Maestro balanced interconnect on eBay and bought it.  FWIW, the Straightire facility is about 15 miles away from me and they are GREAT guys and re-terminated that piece of cable into 4 "jumper", 1.5' balanced female XLR to double male single ended cables and a 3 meter balanced pair.  I had already partially converted to Straightwire Maestro balanced and this finished it except for the Straightwire silver cable (forget the name, maybe Creshendo) from the XA5400 ES SACD player to the ARC pre.
alanholvey's avatar
alanholvey
96 posts
 
toetapaudio:  That was 6-7 years ago. They were the ones prior to their "anaconda" model which themself were noteworthy as only costing $4000 for a six foot pair at the time.  In fact it was back in 1983-4 when I first learned about Randall Research hook up wires from Ken Mavrick-an southern California audio dealer.  Ken began by rewiring his Fried speakers and later  pair of Spica'a with Randall Resesach wires.  They made an incredible improvement to the sound.  Later I learned at the time that using top end hook up wires in place of the much more costly top end speaker wires was, in fact, the best cost verses performance speaker wire avaliable.  As the prices of top end speaker wires has increased over the years, myearly discoveries made even more sense.  It was just by chanch when 6=7 yers ago I obtained a then one foot pair of Shunyata's then top of the line speaker wires that it all came together.  Hooking up the shunyata speaker wires to my speakers, and using the 18ngage Jenna Lab's hook up wires between them and my amplifier did the job.  And then some.  I later discovered MG Audio Design wires and it really got good.  I later added a second run of the Jenna Lab wires, and finally a third.  There was a time and a place when I realized that my wire combination really works.  The Jenna Lab hook up wires are so totally excellent that they allow the MG Audio Design speaker wires rely do their stuff.  Both companies are very small wire manufactures of the highest order.  Simply by combining them together really works.  Much like I used to see audio dealers combining Audio Research and VTL electronics together, my speaker wire combination really works.  I have absolutely no personal or financial involvement in the matter.  Just a satisfied customer.
toetapaudio OP
474 posts
 
@alanholvey, thanks for the information. How many wires altogether and how do you terminate them?
alanholvey's avatar
alanholvey
96 posts
 
toetapaudio:      12 wires altogether.  By chanch when I began my experiments with Jenna Lab hook up wires, I had all the wires necessary.  I am an old timer and thus still require my audio equipment within easy reach of my right hand, thus the need for a long speaker run for the left speaker.  At first I began with one single Jenna Lab 18 gage wire to attach between my amplifier and the, at the time and one foot long top of the line MG Audio Design wires.  That is 4 Jenna Lab wires.  I next added another Jenna Lab wire-8 in total-to the equation and notced much better audio reproduction.  Actually due to its great sound reproduction at the time it was only by chanch that I added 4 more Jenna Lab wires to the total.  12 of them.  The results were spectacular.  I have been in audio for nearly 50 years and I know what I herd.  What I still hear.  Anyway it was done very basically very simple.  The 6 let channel Jenna Lab wires are 11 feet long.  At both ends hand wire 3 each at both ends.  I use a sort of loose binding post to connect to the one foot MG Audio Design wires at one end, and the same 3 wires directly to my amplifier.  I then wrap all wire visible parts completly with electrical tape.  The whole thing takes minutes to put together.  And you can order both wires on the internet, although it is great to correspond with the owners themself.  If anyone is around Boulder and wants to check it out, call me at (720) 550-6908.  Again I have no fiinancial interest whatsoever, other than I myself was able to take advantage.  Just an experiment that went right.
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