Help with first cable upgrade.
I had a set full of blue jeans a while back which were great for years, then I had the opportunity to demo a set of considerably stupid money by comparison from Hapa Audio. Holy crap what a difference. Like absolutely 2 different tracks entirely. We’re talking the difference of Bluetooth speaker on a subway vs full orchestra 2nd row. That being said, those cables were by comparison stupid money at over $400 but the immediate difference they made on my budget setup was more than the sound quality increase from 400 spent anywhere else in the system, and it will scale with each improvement along the way. Like Millercarbon said, plan your upgrades wisely and budget accordingly. But the ideal that you must equally split amongst all cords is a load of bull. Find the easiest tweak/weakest link and start there but plan for what your system will be 5 years from now, not just next month. Just my personal experience $0.02. Have fun! -Lloyd |
Similar to others I’ve never been a huge believer in exotic cables but… TLDR: The takeaway - There maybe marginal returns or heavy preferences for certain effects cables drive but it’s going to be difficult to improve on generally well made cables. Maybe check something like AudioQuest entry ranges for transparent quality ICs but how much ground you’ll cover past this will probably be diminishing returns and exponentially priced. If it’s something other than single conductor coax for a single ended (rca) IC be wary. On the cost effective side specifically for a heavy/bassy sound you might try FosPower https://www.amazon.com/dp/B016QVZF06/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_0D3DHK28CX6EVRXAFW76?psc=1 The fuller story: On a DIY kick, I recently attempted to make some ICs myself to the tune of >$100. I think the the best way to summarize this experiment is that while it may be exceedingly hard to improve a decent cable it’s surprisingly easy to make a bad one. Possibly more relevant to your to your ask is the result of the experiment (with handmade silver-coated ofc, shielded 2 conductor, ptfe wrapped w/profi connectors, and Cardas solder ICs). All cables tested for only desired continuity. When shielding for the entire cable set was commonly grounded to the phono stage the system was amazing noise free. However I experienced what I’ll call odd phasing issues adding up to loss of substance. Sound didn’t seem to carry from the speakers the way I was used to. I wish I could explain better but I could turn up the subwoofer and get overpowering bass but regardless of xover, phase, or tone control the sound didn’t feel full, lacked resonance (but exhibited distinct clarity in reverb). Sound did carry extreme HF detail like I’d never heard from the table. I believe this was due to conservative soldering. I stopped feeding the solder as soon as I had a solid attachment and did not build a full bead (fill the cup) to allow for a substantial path. After this initial experiment I made second set of cables: Belden silver coated 16awg single conductor coax, profi connectors, signal cup filled as much as possible without melting insulation away. These don’t seem to have the same issues or issues or specific “heaviness” but also don’t deliver the HF detail of the initial set… Further reading: http://www.referencefidelitycomponents.co.uk/articles/design-of-interconnects/ |
