HI FI INTERCONNECT CABLE DIFFERENCES

[greenstiles]

Not wishing to invade anothers thread I thought I would post up seperatly.

Found this artical http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/intere.html

My own long term experiences are that different speaker cables make more of a difference than interconnects.

Most interconnects don't really improve the sound at all, apart from a very few that might just let the ' real sound through' wihout making it bass heavy or treble sharp.

I have noticed that some pure silver solid strand interconnects do make the sound very sharp at the top end (too much)

After trying many many over the years..........Gotham GAC1 off ebay £17.00 ish

XLO Pro 100 / 150 old but were about £100 but 2nd hand £20.00

And the very very good but expensive NVA Super Sound Pipes off ebay now ( used to sell via retailers ).........£80.00 for 30cm !.......you can buy longer lengths

are about the best buys and are an improvement

I now listen to music via a dedicated headphone amp ( as well as a normal set up)and have noticed that any differences can be observed more closely, prob due to not having to deal with room acoustics etc......

As for RCA plugs it doesn't seem to make any difference at all, god knows why people pay £100's of pounds on conectors...........just as long as theyare gold plated and kept clean all they do is join a cable to a terminal just like on the back of a speaker..more or less.

ps. NVA Silver speaker cables rocks

 

[Neil]

Analogue interconnects and speaker cables, I can see the point of moderate expense and quality - after that it's diminishing returns and golden-ear-syndrome.

It's the people who spend a fortune on digital connects that I can't fathom. Some, furiously blather on about jitter - but here's the thing, you take a look inside your PC - the cables transporting data, how much would you imagine they cost - or even for that matter, take a look at enterprise computing environments and look at any data cables being used, there. Whilst a minimum degree of quality is required, so that transport errors don't occur, beyond that, the IT world hardly obsesses about the need to spend a lot on cables that transport digital signals.

 

[russ77]

As my dad always told me: "Your hi-fi's only as strong as your stylus." he was right, of course. I was always suspicious of the very expensive interconnects until I bought a set just for my CD deck and was surprised what a difference they made. I recently installed phono sockets on the back of my Goldring turntable to replace the forty year old crispy cable soldered to the tone arm circuit board. I used the best shielded cable I could afford inside and now my extensive collection of Tijuana Brass has never sounded so good!

As for fancy coaxial and HDMI cables, it's such nonsense it's embarrassing. Such a shame that reputable hi-fi traders have jumped on the bandwagon too. It's a psychological thing for some though. If you'd just spent two grand on a telly and five hundred quid on a Blu-Ray player, the chances are you're going to be pretty easily convinced that spending another fifty on one cable between them is a good idea. When mobile phones went digital I don't remember anyone trying sell me a portable vacuum pump to go with my newfangled handset. An oxygen-free medium makes all the difference, dontcha know?

 

[greenstiles]

LOL .....................yes i re-wired a turntable once to very good effect ....sheilding is key there.........

But i think if i had a £1000 CD player and a £200 interconnect (boy can they be more !) I would be better just buying a £1200 CD player to start with....

 

[Neil]

As my dad always told me: "Your hi-fi's only as strong as your stylus." he was right, of course. I was always suspicious of the very expensive interconnects until I bought a set just for my CD deck and was surprised what a difference they made. I recently installed phono sockets on the back of my Goldring turntable to replace the forty year old crispy cable soldered to the tone arm circuit board. I used the best shielded cable I could afford inside and now my extensive collection of Tijuana Brass has never sounded so good!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting there's no improvement over bell wire - I think reasonable cables for interconnects and speaker cable, make sense - clearly there's potential for analogue signal to degrade.

However, as I said - up to a point - then I think it's diminishing returns, and more syndrome than science.

As for fancy coaxial and HDMI cables, it's such nonsense it's embarrassing. Such a shame that reputable hi-fi traders have jumped on the bandwagon too. It's a psychological thing for some though. If you'd just spent two grand on a telly and five hundred quid on a Blu-Ray player, the chances are you're going to be pretty easily convinced that spending another fifty on one cable between them is a good idea. When mobile phones went digital I don't remember anyone trying sell me a portable vacuum pump to go with my newfangled handset. An oxygen-free medium makes all the difference, dontcha know?

I just think a lot of the high-street retailers play on, say, the older generation where these things are concerned. I saw it a few years earlier, with relatives buying new equipment, persuaded that they needed Monster SCART cables (probably costing around £50 or £60) when a fully wired, shielded, SCART cable, with gold plated connecters could be easily had for around £10-£15.

Same thing goes on, now, with HDMI cables - I've seen several older family members that must have been suckered into buying hell-ish expensive HDMI cables (probably Monster ones). I think it's exploitation - they look at people of a certain age, and think they can tell them any old flannel, and unfortunately, a lot of older people are more trusting and less skeptical - so they fall for it - either grudgingly, or otherwise.

 

[cyfa2809]

some great discussion here
but i dont know what interconnects are?
i often think (same with bso's) that the ability of marketing and such, to baffle people with technical jargon until they become lost and then just trust what is being said
then buy said product

 

[drcarlos]

As my dad always told me: "Your hi-fi's only as strong as your stylus." he was right, of course. I was always suspicious of the very expensive interconnects until I bought a set just for my CD deck and was surprised what a difference they made. I recently installed phono sockets on the back of my Goldring turntable to replace the forty year old crispy cable soldered to the tone arm circuit board. I used the best shielded cable I could afford inside and now my extensive collection of Tijuana Brass has never sounded so good!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting there's no improvement over bell wire - I think reasonable cables for interconnects and speaker cable, make sense - clearly there's potential for analogue signal to degrade.

However, as I said - up to a point - then I think it's diminishing returns, and more syndrome than science.

As for fancy coaxial and HDMI cables, it's such nonsense it's embarrassing. Such a shame that reputable hi-fi traders have jumped on the bandwagon too. It's a psychological thing for some though. If you'd just spent two grand on a telly and five hundred quid on a Blu-Ray player, the chances are you're going to be pretty easily convinced that spending another fifty on one cable between them is a good idea. When mobile phones went digital I don't remember anyone trying sell me a portable vacuum pump to go with my newfangled handset. An oxygen-free medium makes all the difference, dontcha know?

I just think a lot of the high-street retailers play on, say, the older generation where these things are concerned. I saw it a few years earlier, with relatives buying new equipment, persuaded that they needed Monster SCART cables (probably costing around £50 or £60) when a fully wired, shielded, SCART cable, with gold plated connecters could be easily had for around £10-£15.

Same thing goes on, now, with HDMI cables - I've seen several older family members that must have been suckered into buying hell-ish expensive HDMI cables (probably Monster ones). I think it's exploitation - they look at people of a certain age, and think they can tell them any old flannel, and unfortunately, a lot of older people are more trusting and less skeptical - so they fall for it - either grudgingly, or otherwise.

Bloke in Currys tried to sell me one of these HDMI cables a while back to go with a new LCD TV, I don't think he understood the snakeoil comment as he kept trying.
On a better not Richersound didn't try to push anything on me last weekend when I actually bought a new TV, quite pleasing.

Carl.

 

[djoptix]

Re speaker wire, Roger Russell has the answers: http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm

There is actually some point to buying good digital cable. If you're transmitting essentially a series of 0s and 1s then it's a square wave, and analogue circuitry always has a rise time and so on, and getting the wrong cable can result in errors. But as long as the specifications are all OK then it will probably be fine. At any rate, you will need to be putting it into devices with very good clock reassembly processes and most consumer kit is extremely poor in this respect.

Some people do have phenomenal ears, like some of the mastering engineers I've been fortunate enough to work with. They might be able to tell more difference than most between interconnects. But usually, I find that these people (who are usually working in pro audio) don't believe any of the audiophile propaganda. I certainly don't. Super-expensive cable, special IECs, etc... it's just a sale waiting for an idiot.

Never ever ever buy Monster cable. See http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm#misleading

 

[Neil]

There is actually a point to buying good digital cable. If you're transmitting essentially a series of 0s and 1s then it's a square wave, and analogue circuitry always has a rise time and so on, and getting the wrong cable can result in errors. But as long as the specifications are all OK then it's fine.

Put that in context of the cable inside your PC, betwixt hard drive and mother board / controller.

Then tell me there's sense in spending lots of money on digital cables.

Look at the type of cable that's used for networking.

IT doesn't have the budget (typically, these days) for spending on expensive, overpriced cables, and the same types of 0s and 1s at easily the same speeds (probably much, much, more).

 

[drcarlos]

There is actually a point to buying good digital cable. If you're transmitting essentially a series of 0s and 1s then it's a square wave, and analogue circuitry always has a rise time and so on, and getting the wrong cable can result in errors. But as long as the specifications are all OK then it's fine.

Put that in context of the cable inside your PC, betwixt hard drive and mother board / controller.

Then tell me there's sense in spending lots of money on digital cables.

Look at the type of cable that's used for networking.

IT doesn't have the budget (typically, these days) for spending on expensive, overpriced cables, and the same types of 0s and 1s at easily the same speeds (probably much, much, more).

That's the point in having a specification and standard, any HDMI cable that meets the spec and standard layed down by the IEEE will be fine.
I worked recently on an interesting project and found out a lot about USB2 cabling and the misunderstanding of even cable builders and hardware suppliers in the industry. The long and short of it was, follow the standards and it works fine don't and if doesn't, simple.

Carl.