The worst interconnects ever?

Today I did some expereimenting with all my interconnects and discovered that my Cambridge Audio Pearl interconnects were doing more harm than good. I starting with a cheap £3 pair with gold plated connectors and this sounded better them, then I progessed to my £20 profigolds which prevously weren't long enough hence having to use my Cambridges but now since I've untangeld the rats nest they fit perfectly.

My CDP now sounds much more musicaly and the saxophone sounds much more detailed than it did before and it seems to have better resolution. Bass is also not as boomy, it just goes to show a bit of playing around can help. My cambridges are used from my Toshiba Nicam VCR to my amp.

 

On further listening it seems thats its a matter of difference tastes rather than better. The cambridge was a lot brighter but also more shallow, the profigold is smoother and a lot more detailed, for folk/or general guitar driven music and dance (for some odd reason) I prefer the Profigolds, for Rock/Pop I prefer the cambridge. Now all I need to do is find a £20 cable thats some where in between.

 

Give QED Quenex one a try.

 

Or quite a bit better still (IMHO) for a tenner more, QED Qunex 2 or equivalent from Chord or Ecosse. I'm not a fan of the cheap Cable Talk ones, somehow they always seem a bit coarse in the upper regions. The 50 quid Cable Talk Monitor 3 is excellent though, and the one I'd get at the higher price.

Worth a play with a few loaners for a weekend unless I'm very much mistaken.

Cheers

 

Thanks I think that I need to get a box full of interconnects from a shop and see which one I like best because even at the low price level they all seem to sound completly different. How do you go about doing this? Do you have to leave a product and show proof of identity?

 

Hi, then theres the theory about - "Cables having signal directionality", to quote RS when I enquired about this - "In response, the best way to connect speaker cables for direction is using the writing and connecting left to right (from amp to speaker).

For Interconnects this will be the other way round right to left(from source to amp), again use the writing for direction. This principle can be applied to Scart cables and digital / analogue interconnects."

when I tested this, I found that all my cables were the correct way, expect for one of my main speaker cables...but changing that didn't make much difference to the overall sound.

any comments on this..?

p.s. and of coursde I use ferrites on my cables, can't afford any mains treatment just now.

 

Sounds like a very familiar quandry that we all seem to face at one time or another when it comes to kit purchasing decisions, whether it be cables or hardware i.e. I've tried A and B, and like bits of both and would like a product C which combines the bits from A and B that I like, but not that bits I don't like from either.

On getting loan cables... Some shops will indeed have a selection box of cables you can borrow for the weekend. I know there's particular companies who do offer a selection box to dealers which they can hand out, Chord and Nordost, IIRC, don't know of any others. Asks around... The shop will usually swipe your credit card for authorisation and use that as a deposit, but they won't debit your account (unless you do a disappearing act with the box of cables of course).

 

It sounds like a trip to Richer Sounds or Superfi then. I will probably do it today as its hot and cloudy so not really the right weather do be out doing leaflets all day.

 

mr cat,
cable directionality is a real can of worms... a couple of theorys of the whys and wherefores are....

1) directionality is determined by the burn in process. as you use the cable the directionality is determined by the way it;'s connected. this could explain your observation.

2) directionality is determined during the wire drawing process at time of manufacture.

3) directionality implies diodal properties (higher resistance in one direction than the other i believe?) and would therefore introduce heavy distortion into any sound. this isn;t the case from measuring some cables and therefore directionality is rubbish.

i personally make no judgement as to the validity or otherwise of any of the above.
cheers


julian

 

yeah, I agree, there is a document about this on trhe Russ Andrews website about this too...

 

If you can solder I can send you a kit to build a solid silver IC, pm me. Had some very nice feed back from some makers!

 

review of the Zanash IC here

https://www.audio-forums.com/as-rediect/showthread.php?s=&threadid=600

 

I can't solder to save my life, but the cable I will choose is a cross between the Ixos Gamma 1002 or the Quenex 2. Its hard,

 

I can make one up for you ...if you want a listen ?

PM me.....!

 

its too late now I've already bought the Ixos. I've just taken the others back now. Next time I'm looking for an upgrade I will bare in it mind though. Knowing me it will probably less than a year before I will want to upgrade my CDP so I will probably change my cable then.

Thanks.

 

Wow, this thread has gone from start to conclusive action taken in less than 24 hours..!