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
Yes, I was planning to run the Mundorf 24 awg inside the hyperflex and use VH's 21awg copper for the helical neutral.

mmrkaic
@geoffkait

>>>>By pseudo scientific narratives I assume you mean explanations or claims you disagree with. Nice touch.

No, I mean claims without any empirical support. You know, the boring stuff that engineers and scientists do, like measurements, blind tests etc. In one word: proof.

>>>>Good luck. Nobody measures cables. Were you thinking maybe NASA or MIT? 😛Didn’t you get the memo? Maybe that’s because it’s so boring. 😬


@maine95 - nice. That's exactly what I did with the vh audio silver in cotton and an OCC copper neutral. They should sound great. Let us know what you think.
@geoffkait

>>>>Good luck. Nobody measures cables. Were you thinking maybe NASA or MIT? 😛Didn’t you get the memo? Maybe that’s because it’s so boring.

For someone who insinuates to know informal logic, you make rather poor arguments. Your latest one is an argument ad populum.

I know of some people who have indeed measured cables...

and an appeal to authority is just what is needed as per the above post -- or when you see an MD

OTOH, how could a physics PhD possibly enlighten a liberal arts major in audiophoolology or anti-vaxing