Who else is using old cables/interconnects, and is happy?

I have upgrade my power solution with Shunyata cables, speaker cables are Audio Quest, interconnects from TT to phono pre are Monster Cables I have had for over 25 years but are in excellent condition.  Interconnects from my Nakamichi Cassette Deck are also Monster Cables.  My cables from my Whest Two.2  to my Arcam AVR 850 are Whest interconnects.   

My cables snd connects by and large are at least 40 years old. They are - now that I think of it - the oldest parts in my system. 

I have made all my cables except for one interconnect which is about 14 years old, the Van den Hul Orchid interconnect. I later swapped out the RCA connectors for top of the range Furutech and noticed a small but important improvement.

Outside diameter is 2.9mm with 2 braids, one for screen and one for signal return. The centre conductor is very thin solid core. I keep it because of it's sound and as a sanity check for my own cable concoctions.

A friend convinced me to let him try the Orchid. I had a hard time getting it back and he is a Nordost fanboy.

Just had an interesting experience w/elderly cables. It didn’t go well:

• I pulled 2 pairs of 5 ft long Monster Cable M1 speaker cables (late-’80s vintage) out of storage
• I decided to biwire my ATC SCM 12 Pro passive monitors w/them. I’d been meaning to try it, but only had one run/pair of AQ Type 4 cables, so had been stalling.
• To make this work, I had to get 8 spade-lug-to-banana adapters. I affixed them very tightly on 1/2 the spade lugs (which my particular amp/speaker set up requires)
• With a lot of pain & struggling (those old spade lugs just don’t want to work w/WBTs!), got it done. Let the cables cook for ~100 hrs.

The other day I fired up the ATCs. Frankly, it sounded like shit--not very similar to my usual system of AQ Type 4 cables + 2 pairs of no-name 4" 12 gauge jumpers for the ATCs. Suddenly there’s a broad glare in the upper mids & lower treble; also some grain in the treble. The bass (which is otherwise epic for a 2-way in these ATCs + JLAudio sub) suddenly goes less deep with less impact.

I suppose the 8 adapters could be at fault. But I tend to think that those old Monster Cables just aren’t as good as up-to-date Audioquest type 4s.

Just swapped them back to original cabling this morning, and that great sound is back.

I have a bunch of 30 yr+Lindsay Guyer's and a pair of Kimber Select KS 1020 for my mains and I'm very happy!