Marvey's Cable Rolling Adventures

Discussion in 'Modifications and Tweaks' started by purr1n, May 7, 2016.

  1. msommers

    msommers High on Epipens

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    I've had the Oyaide Tunami Terzo V2 RCA and Audio Sensibility Testament RCA in my system and I think both have sufficient hours on them, so I did a lot of A/Bing last night. Cable was placed between the pre and power amp.

    Tunami Terzo V2
    • Very well extended in the highs and lows. Lows particularly had great control and could feel the bass more
    • Can come across a bit HiFi sounding in the midrange
    • Particularly excellent in busy passages keeping everything separated. No muddiness here
    • Extends a bit further width-wise, but does seem to lose a bit in depth
    Testament
    • Midrange is really all it has going for it because it's rolled in the highs and lows noticeably
    • Muddy in busy passages, gets rather blobby but can push the depth back a touch relative to the Terzo
    • Slightly more forward
    • Seems to be a bit louder? I should have measured it but I only have my iPad
    • However, the midrange really is to die for. There is suddenly plankton and richness coming out the wazoo. Images appear more fluid and holographic

    I know the Testament has a lot of hours on it because I bought it used vs. the Tunami Terzo which was bought new (because there are fakes often if you're not careful). I'd guess the Oyaide has easily 100+ hours on it as I have been keeping the Metrum Onyx breaking in as well. The Onyx is most certainly broken in by now.

    Audio Sensibility does have a 30-day return policy so I may try their next step up in the copper world to the Statement SE. I'm tempted to try their pure silver as well because silver-plated copper doesn't seem to agree with me, and wondering if an OCC silver cable would or not (you know that brittle, thin, "HiFi" with boatloads of air garbage). But the price is substantial and I really don't want to spend that much. Best case it doesn't work and I return it, worst case is I love it and don't want to return it!

    I spoke with Planet of Sound (Oyaide dealer in Canada) awhile ago about the differences between the Tunami Terzo and Across 750.

    Given that I have a reference point of what he is meaning, I'm half-tempted to step down in the Oyaide world to see what that is like...

    Both cables are built very well, without question. The Testament is certainly more flexible than the Oyaide.

    Cheers. -Matt
     
  2. Thenewerguy009

    Thenewerguy009 Friend

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    That's usually a signature of silver plated copper. Pure silver OCC cable, as long as they aren't as super high gauge, usually sound nothing like that.
     
  3. BeyerMonster

    BeyerMonster Guest

    A few years back, I needed some cabling for all of my headphone gear and I didn't want to pay the same "audiophile" tax that I had previously paid for my speaker system (Settled upon Nordost Blue Heaven II after comparison with Nordost Black Knight, Nordost Red Dawn, bettercables.com, and old monster cable products).

    After perusing a few random internet threads, I stumbled upon the idea of getting custom built cables by people that build cabling for pro audio. You pick the exact connectors, type of cable (from among a bunch of well-known manufacturers), and they hand build the cables. I figured at worst, the products had a known origin wrt type of cable, and would hopefully be well made). To date, I've been pretty happy with my decision.

    I ended up using https://www.proaudiola.com for 3' RCA & XLR interconnects using Mogami cabling with Neutrik gold connectors that ended up < $20 apiece.
    They wouldn't make me a set of headphone cables for my Audeze cans back in 2014, but I kinda took their stance on Mini-XLR as a positive sign, even though it was an inconvenience for me.
    Used https://www.redco.com to make me a Audeze-friendly headphone cables also using Mogami that was terminated in mini-XLRs that ran about $50.

    Both sets of cables seem well constructed and I've had no issues.

    I also purchased a handful of cables from https://bettercables.com ~20 years ago, back when their site was less cringeworthy. I've had a handful of speaker cables fail on me due to bad solder joints. The interconnects have worked "fine", but they are kinda loose. With my recent switch from an AVR to separates in my HT, I'm probably going to use the opportunity to just buy a whole new set of interconnects.

    P.S. I have absolutely no commercial interest in any of these companies. Hope it's not taboo to mention them by name.
     
  4. TheIceman93

    TheIceman93 El pato-zorro

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    I've been very pleased with a pair of short XLR interconnects I ordered from Audio Envy in Colorado.

    A friend of mine who has a small recording studio in his garage recommended them to me. It's a very light and flexible cable at a pretty reasonable price.
     
    Last edited: Jul 5, 2020
  5. zonto

    zonto Friend

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    I came across this article re: cable measurements at Stereophile today and thought I'd share: What a Difference a Wire Makes. Still making my way through it.

    Summary
    For the first time, large differences have been demonstrated between different cables connecting a loudspeaker driven with a discontinuous signal (that represents a music transient) using industry-standard test equipment, and without recourse to exotic techniques. At 45mV relative to 1.3V RMS peak drive, alias –29dB down—or just 1 part in 28—the size of the largest measured perturbations is surprising. With the best-performing cables, perturbations are reduced to about 1/10 of this, or –50dB down. Hence the measurements show how cables expressly designed for audio, and in particular for speakers, can improve damping perturbations by at least 20dB.

    Better cables also shorten settling time. The results clearly demonstrate the limitations (at least with a full-range speaker) of the conventional, simplistic approach of using the fattest wire, as well as the futility of using a thin solid core (footnote 6). The results also illustrate the logic of making special cables for AC power purposes—considering that mains current into any DC power supply is a burst waveform, much as is simulated here.

    These tests make clear that Supra Ply is indeed a star performer, as claimed. Against a wider range of audio-grade cables, it would not be surprising if one or two of the other low-inductance types were strong competitors. But the point of this article is simply to show that cables do differ measurably in ways that relate to music. The measurements provide a way of short-listing serious contenders and eliminating spaced-eight cables from serious consideration, after which readers must make their own decisions based on cost and relative sonics in the context of their monitoring system(s).

    Anybody heard Supra Ply speaker cables? Per Madisound it looks like Supra Ply 3.4 comes in a regular or shielded version. Electrical characteristics compared to my Mogami W3103 are below:
    • Resistance: Supra Ply 3.4: 5.1 Ohm/km; Mogam W3103: 5 Ohm/km
    • Inductance: Supra Ply 3.4; 0.20 µH/m; Mogami W3103: 0.6 µH/m
    My understanding was that speaker cable resistance was the most important spec at normal speaker cable lengths.
     
  6. bixby

    bixby Friend

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    I have not heard the supra ply but did own the classic 2.5 eons ago. I did not care for it. Soft and too laid back is my recollection, although I am a fan of their power cable. In my experience specs do not correlate that well to how things sound.

    I think much more has to do with speaker load characteristics and amp load behavior. Hard to figure out by specs which is going to sound better with your amp and speakers. You just have to try them, imho.
     
  7. farbinator

    farbinator Facebook Friend

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    Figured this was the most appropriate place for this without starting a new thread. I've been having noise issues on the SE side of my headphone rig (PC->Modius->Loki->Jotunheim) that I assumed was purely USB induced but unsurprisingly I found the root cause was actually poor quality SE interconnects between my Modius, Loki, and Jotunheim.

    I recently discovered these Californian made CESS brand RCA cables that I ordered in both 6in and 1ft lengths. Not only are these cables very reasonably priced ($10 per set of 6in or 1ft cables, slightly more for other lengths) but they are solidly constructed, with good flexibility in the cabling. Better still they resolved all of the noise issues I was having, now my SE setup is super quiet.

    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B082VKSP8M/

    20201015_005217.jpg
     
  8. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    I “believe” in cables. Not only do I hear a difference, I’ve more often then not preferred cheaper cables to expensive ones and my experience has often gone against my “expectation bias”. For example I got an hd600 with whatever that infamous smurf blue cable was and thought it sounded very wrong. I switched to the stock cable and it sounded much much better. I was expecting the blue cable to sound good. Lots of examples like that. I remember slowly noticing my mackie monitors having a cooler tonality then they used to. In a bad way. And I eventually figured out it was coming from some really nice looking handmade silver or silver plated copper cables a popular cable maker made for me and I just connected them, never considering they might sound bad. Which is why it took a while to pin it on them. But when I switched to monoprice or some cheaper copper cables that cold tonality went away and the speakers were back to their perfect tonality selves. I think anyone who doesn’t even hear a difference between silver and copper is actually deluding themselves in the opposite direction. Sort of the objectivist side of things.

    I’m currently very curious why all iem cables are silver plated copper. I tried switching to all copper and didn’t hear an improvement so I guess it’s ok for whatever reason.
     
  9. Biodegraded

    Biodegraded Friend

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    Oh hell, there are all sorts of other variants around at the moment: pure copper (traditional or OCC), tin-plated copper, copper-silver mix, even supposedly 4N-pure silver at affordable prices.

    Search around on Aliexpress and complement your eartip obsession! :D
     
  10. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    What eartip obsession? :D I guess I meant stock iem cables. From what I’ve seen. I guess your right though. But I’m not going down that rabbit hole especially when I have EQ and the tone of my og Solaris doesn’t seem off currently....also I use an extension cable making a new cable a very expensive proposition.
     
  11. dematted

    dematted Friend

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    Can anyone recommend some cheap-ish (under $50) RCA interconnects that are properly shielded and made of copper? I just discovered my AmazonBasics ones are picking up some EMI because of lack of sufficient shielding. Not a huge issue, but somewhat annoying...
     
  12. fraggler

    fraggler A Happy & Busy Life

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    Just about anything from World's Best Cables on Amazon should work.
     
  13. Baten

    Baten Friend

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    Mogami 2964 coax is the best single ended cable out there, from my experience. Examples:
    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01I2VGFAC https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GNXMGTA
     
  14. robot zombie

    robot zombie Friend

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    I saw those popping up on amazon before, was interesting to see somebody actually advertising the cable stock they use there. Most cables available on amazon are either chinesium mystery parts that look pretty, absolute barebones unshielded aluma-copper, or balls-to-the-wall lets-engineer-everything-as-much-as-humanly-possible. Wondered about the connectors though. They do look like they're pretty good quality from the photos. Pretty good deal for what you're getting.

    I like Blue Jeans Cable for general use in part because of those super-solid Canare-style connectors, though. Those things are just too nice for the money. Kinda big and bulky, but the fit is on-point and they're very rugged.

    Those still get a recc from me here, too. A little pricier at $37 for a 3' stereo RCA, but they're quality, too. The LC-1 they use in their main RCA interconnect option is pretty ace. Nothing fancy, but well made and toleranced. No wild innovations, just tried and true stuff. Has real braided shielding. They're beefy, which can be good or bad depending on who you ask. I like that they're so solid and have essentially zero memory so they 'lay' better. Long strain relief, too. But also very good strain relief. Sort of cable that you know isn't going to have any of the problems that type of cable can commonly have, and will probably never fail on you.

    They also offer them in Belden 1505F and 1694A, which are good shielded coax options.

    Can pretty much have em done up how you want with length and parts. No fancy materials or frills to em. Again, just the kind of thing that's really well put together with good parts chosen. Papa John always said: "Better ingredients, better pizza." Personally, I put down chintzier interconnects for BJC because they're all business. They pick their parts based on manufacturing quality/consistency and ideal electrical characteristics for each cable's application - it's all about function with them.
     
  15. Cryptowolf

    Cryptowolf Repping Chi Town - Friend

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    I decided to recable my desktop headphone system with World’s Best Cables with eminence twist lock RCA connectors. The Mogami 2549 cables with this connector are shielded at the ground source end and left floating at the receiver. I figured the modest price increase over Schiit Pyst cables was worth it for the locking connectors and better? shielding. My headphone rig sits near three monitors, a desk light, and two computers so I have nervosa about interference.

    I think my total was around $65 for a half foot (DAC to SYS) and a one and a half foot (SYS to Amp) set of RCA cables.
     
  16. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    So BJC vs WBC which is better for RCA or XLR interconnects?

    I just bought some BJC XLR cables for hooking up my monitors because buying a nice 10ft cable would be ridiculously expensive. And another for a secondary headphone amp I’m going to have to put a bit away from my DAC due to space limitations. So can’t afford anything fancy.
     
    Last edited: Jan 21, 2021
  17. yotacowboy

    yotacowboy McRibs Kind of Guy

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  18. Alondite

    Alondite Acquaintance

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    I own a few pairs of each and I think they're very comparable. Both are well-built and use good parts, so I don't think you can go wrong either way. I tend to go WBC only because they have a larger, more readily-available selection on Amazon, but my experience with both has been good.
     
    Last edited: Jan 21, 2021
  19. Noodlz

    Noodlz Almost "Made"

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    So seems like the discussion here is mostly related to interconnects, but I wanted to share my experience today with some custom headphone cables i got for my HD580/650, balanced terminated with the whole eidolic 4pin XLR plugs and all.

    LOOVE the way they look and was super excited to hear them. This is to my MCTH so 4pin XLR is still actually SE not balanced, but i still expected that the quality of the cables might have a slight improvement over the stock hd650 cables, aaannnd....

    hm. i mean they still sound good, and definitely different sounding, just not sure if i actually like them. The stock cables feel warmer, fuller, more liquid, but at same time a bit more congested. In comparison these new cables sound colder, more neutral, more clear / open with separation, but also just a tad brighter/sharper.

    Right now it does feel like a bit of the "soul" of the music has been changed to like a precision machine. The difference is very very small, and more of a feel, but its definitely there.

    So... different flavor? maybe there's that whole "burn in" period? At the end of the day i got these so i can have balanced terminated cables for when i eventually buy the Jot 2, but im really wondering if i made the right decision. I guess i'll see when i pair it with the Jot 2, hopefully by that time whatever "burn in" would occur would have done so and hope that it pairs well then. Wondering if anyone had similar experiences.

    On that note, if i wanted to have a balanced sound and avoid overly sharp / cold sounding cables, are there materials that I should be opting for? I recall in the past i used to have a Cardas (golden cross?) for my 580 and i really dug the way it sounded, and i think that was more copper than silver? I figure understanding the different effects of the materials would better inform the future decisions for building custom cables? Please excuse my ignorance and my apologies if this ends up sounding like a stupid question~

    (for reference the cables i got this time i believe are 26AWG OCC copper wires)

    Edit: picture for reference

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Feb 13, 2021
  20. animus

    animus Almost "Made"

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    I have a new amp coming in a day or two, and I decided, hey, why not treat myself to some new ICs while I'm at it? So I picked up a pair of the Pangea ICs (specifically the fancy SE versions) that seem to be well liked on here. Unfortunately I was shipped the wrong length so I may have to get them swapped out, but I figured my experience with them was interesting enough to talk about regardless.

    I have to admit, when I first decided to swap out my ICs from the cheap Schiit PYSTs that came in with my Bifrost 2 a year ago, I really didn't think it would make a massive difference. I mean, I have messed around with cables a bit in the past, but I never thought that interconnects would be as consequential as the stuff between transducers and amps. I mean, there's a whole amplifier that the damn thing has to work its way through, and that has its own sound and coloration as well. Just how much can it change?

    Apparently, a decent amount, and not everything is necessarily for the better.

    First off, the tonality of the two cables (how completely bonkers do I sound saying that?) sounds different. The PYSTs sound a little bright and piercing in comparison, where the Pangeas sound slightly warm. In general, the PYSTs sound maybe a little too strident and too edgy for their own good, where the Pangeas are timbrally smooth (in a good way) and a little relaxed (maybe too relaxed, I'll get to that in a bit).

    I think the weirdest and least expected change by far, though, is presentation. I'm used to having my Utopia setup sound incisive as all shit, after all, it's a Schiit DAC into a pretty straight-edged solid state amp into a Focal. After swapping the PYSTs for the Pangeas, I'm not even sure if I can say that anymore. For whatever reason, the Pangea cables seem to have a somewhat laidback and spacious presentation, not too far off from how I felt the Wavelight presented itself (albeit not nearly as extreme; maybe 1/10th as much). This seemingly comes in turn with the same boons that the Wavelight had in layering. I know I sound completely insane saying this, but the Pangea cables have improved layering to a significant enough degree from the PYSTs that I'm hearing stuff in recordings I wasn't previously aware of.

    Here's an example. I've brought up the Takacs recording of Bartok's 4th quartet too many times by now, but another of my favorite recordings is their rendition of Beethoven's Große Fuge. The main reason I bring that recording up is in certain sections of the performance, you can hear the first violinist clicking to keep time for the quartet. It's a pretty neat detail that lesser gear often glosses over. Well, on the aforementioned Bartok's 4th quartet... I can somehow hear the same clicking in parts when I previously wasn't even aware it was in this recording, just hidden beneath the cacophony of strings. Previously if you'd have asked me, I would have thought such an improvement would squarely be in the realm of a solid amp or DAC upgrade, but after this, I'm not so sure. This general step up in layering applies to everything. I'm not big on soundstage, but I feel like stuff has been pushed out a bit further, so the placements of instruments in the mix aren't as congested and have a little more room to breathe. Again, I couldn't tell you how the f**k a cable of all things is accomplishing this, but it apparently is.

    Now, what I'm a little negative on. I'm a big stickler for dynamics, pretty much obsessed with them, and I feel like the Pangea cables negatively affect them. The more spacious sound I mentioned earlier seems to come with the drawback of nullifying the tactile sensation of dynamic peaks, which seems to take away the feeling of slam that I'm used to with the PYSTs. Again, it's kind of similar to how I felt about the Wavelight, except the Wavelight had ungodly macrodynamic range to make up for it. Here, well, it just feels like an overall step down. Though frankly, I'm not even sure if it's possible to have both the aforementioned layering and spacing improvements without sacrificing dynamics to some degree. It feels to me like the loss of dynamic tactility comes hand in hand with the slightly more diffuse and spacious sound. Not sure at all about this, and I'm certainly not in a position to speculate given I've had a grand total of 2 different interconnects in my system.

    I do think that this feeling of loss of slam and incision reminds me of something. Way back when I was starting out in audio and mostly operated in IEMs, I upgraded my measly Shanling M0 to a Sony WM1A. The WM1A with my A12ts at the time made me realize how etched and grainy the M0 was in comparison, but somehow I almost felt like I lost something that was previously what I was used to, even if it was something "objectively" negative like etched treble. It took me maybe a week or two to acclimate to the smoother treble of the WM1A, and today, if I went back to the M0, I'd probably retch in disgust at how etched it is. I guess this is a less extreme and far more granular version of that, and maybe I just need a few days to acclimate to the more relaxed and less aggressive sound of the Pangeas. Or maybe I'm just fooling myself over a bad purchase, I don't know.

    Regardless, this experience has certainly been eye opening for me. Now I wonder exactly how much I've been missing in terms of stupid tweaker bullshit like this, and now I'm very very wary of falling down the insane audiophool rabbit hole that is cables and power and what-have-you. And I suppose it does bear emphasizing that my Utopia still sounds like a Utopia, and my BHA-1 and BF2 still sound like their respective components. I would equate the IC swap to putting a different color of filter on in front of the music. It's still recognizably the same thing, but with some minor intangible nuances reworked. Some for better, and some for worse. If anything, at least, this serves as food for thought for me, and helped me think a little about how I perceive sound and how best to formulate a sound that works for my preferences. And that, above all, was worth the price of admission.
     

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