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HomeGrown Audio Impressions

By now, I think enough of us have had the time to gauge the performance of this cable to be able to offer concrete opinions. I am curious as to the impressions of others on this cable. In my system(tubes and silk dome tweeters), I am shielded from the nasty things a silver cable can engender in some systems. They would be brightness, harshness, and irritating distortion. The negatives I have found with this unshielded cable are a significant raising of the noise floor(which you forget about when you start to play music), and a big dose of RFI when using the cable on my tuner. RFI stoppers sent to me by Eldragon(thanks so much) have done a great job cleaning things up. Otherwise, I cannot knock the cable on any level. In fact, I am able to hear farther into the music than with any copper cable I have ever tried. The sound is full, extended, and detailed. Bass response is excellent. I A/B the cable against Coincident. The Coincident has the advantage of not having RFI problems. But the HomeGrown lets me hear things the Coincident doesn't pass through. The fact that this cable is only $70 makes me think it has to be the best kept secret in wire. Better performance than Kimber KCAG, for less than the price of PBJ. Of course, it will not work for everyone. But, I am wondering how everyone else is perceiving this product. Please share with us your opinions of performance in your systems. I cannot say it is the best, because I am now using a cable that has redefined what I have gotten from wire. Just burning it in on my tuner now. Will switch to the CD player over the holiday. If performance transfers, this will be the best cable, BY FAR, I have ever used. Will report then. Thanks to everyone for your impressions.
trelja
trelja OP
3,223 posts
 
I feel the need to clarify my position on RFI blockers. I see they are becoming an item on their own. The RFI I was experiencing was a local radio station coming through my system when the volume of my amp(only when the tuner was selected) was turned all the way down. As soon as music started coming through, this noise was no longer perceptible AT ALL. Perhaps I was a bit too anal about this whole thing. My integrated tube amp has a passive preamp section. It is VERY quiet. I am used to noise with other tube pre/power amps, this one does not have it. When I installed the RFI blockers, the radio station no longer came through, and everything was seemingly back to normal. In no way did the RFI blockers affect(good or bad) the sound of the system when playing music. If you think they will improve a cable, I have no evidence of such. I know Antony Michaelson, owner of Musical Fidelity, includes them integrally on his NuVista cable line(and they look snazzy). He feels the need to banish RFI that important. I did not purchase these. They were given to me by our great compatriot here on Audion, Eldragon. They should be VERY cheap, as there is nothing to them(but we know what things are like in audio). My father also gave me a magnet(ferrite?) in the shape of a ring that had the same effect(the RFI blockers are also magnetic). Only the magnet doesn't open and close, it just slips over the wire. One could just go buy some ferrite magnets(REALLY cheap)... I would say that a person would only need RFI blockers should they be experiencing excessive RFI(in any cable). Otherwise, why not forego them? Thank you all for letting me air my opinions.
dekay's avatar
dekay
5,515 posts
 
Does anyone know if a small amount of RFI would sound like a HF hiss at higher volumes (when music is not playing), I do not hear a radio station? I experience this with my Homegrown Super Silver IC's, but have dead silence at the same volume when I am running my Harmonic Technology Truthlink IC's. I do not ever listen at this higher volume by the way. I just noticed it when I was troubleshooting a defective power amp that I tried in my system.
mezmo
516 posts
 
All this talk about RFI stoppers got me going and I went downstairs and picked up a pair of the Radio Shack ferrite clamps for lunch. Is it technically sound to place them at a latter stage in the chain (between preamp and amp) with the thought that, to the exent that there is interference to stop, getting it later would clean up anything that had entered the chain at earlier stages--or is effectiveness simply going to come down to the old trial and error trick? I tried'em out on the computer speakers here in the office (where RFI is REALLY bad) and they didn't do a darn thing. Not entirely encouraging....
no_money
638 posts
 
Computer speakers/systems IMHO don't offer enough resolution for them to make a difference. Try putting one set between amp/preamp and one set between pre/source. You can also try them on your power cords if they will fit around without tearing into the insulation.
rcprince
3,068 posts
 
The Radio Shack clamps are pretty cheap, as I recall. In the NYC area we have a lot of RFI problems, although I really haven't had too many. I use shielded cables, mostly, and haven't noticed too much difference with the clamps on them. However, my JP80MC has a lot of gain in the phono section for the moving coil stage, and when I bought it Victor Goldstein had just replaced the cabling in that portion with some Cardas wiring, as he was doing at the time. VERY short piece of wire. When I was listening to records, at times it would sound as if Niagra Falls was coming through my left speaker; it almost took out tubes in my amps, and you never knew when it would happen. I thought it was bad tubes, but as it was explained to me it turned out, after Victor and Frank Garbie took a look at it, that the Cardas either was not shielded or had been left with its shielding removed and was picking up RFI and magnifying it with 60db of gain, or thereabouts. The fix was that they put in a couple of the Radio Shack blockers; haven't had the problem since in 7 years.
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