What typs of interconnects do yo use and why?

[Danger Boy]

I enjoy mixing different RCA interconnects with the correct gear. Some people say that interconnects don't make a difference. I'm not trying to start WWIII here. but just curious why you choose the IC's you did?

Usually I lean more towards the home made type of IC's. Buying and trying out ones that have been recommended to me by friends or have gotten some good reviews.

To make this maybe a little easier.. lets say for a pair of 1m (3ft) interconnect, lets set the dollar amount no higher then say $150 tops. What good cables fit into that category? I have heard good things about more budget cables...and that's fine.. there is a huge market for entry level budget cables out there. but if you wanted to kick things up a notch, what cables do you go with?

Also. anyone use silver or a silver/copper hybrid IC?

[speakerman1]

I use Audio Magic Xstream. They are Silver. No complaints from me.

[Doug_Olitsky]

I use mostly wire from dh-labs ( bh-1 )and some cardas w/ wbt, cardas, goertz connectors

I make my own IC's. they are so easy to make I cant see spending more than necessary to buy off the shelf unless they are on sale or the application does not warrant a better cable (I have a few "TOTL" rat shack cables here and there)

Two pairs of 3ft IC w/ shipping made from silversonic bh1 and goertz rca's cost under $50

[Skywavebe]

Hi Danger;
There is too much attention given to cables and then in some case none at all- why all this extreme direction?
I like to use RCA connectors that are the Metal type both due to shielding and for mechanical stability and long use. Plastic ones I have had to remove crack up all the time and come apart.
Cable- the stuff you generally get at Radio Shack and other toy stores, are made with the least expensive type cable involving a wrap of shield copper not anything that goes all around the center conductor at all points- it could be said to be non- shielded wire. I don't imagine the dielectric is any great thing either thus bad high end response but clearly enough for Human hearing. Monster cables- I say these are preposterous. So what is left?
If you want to make your own you can get a good dual cable from Gepco International- the right side has a red stripe. It is also the same as Belden.
It has 22 gauge stranded wire in the center two conductors and then a drain wire as well as being completely shielded each pair in thier own jacket. This cable is good for XLR balanced cables or using one conductor for the unbalanced need. In any case I have never had one fail that I have made and many Radio stations are full of this cable many with RCA connectors. Those cheap cables often fail at the molded connector and the the cable opens as well. If you are making cables for Video with RCA then by all means use RG6 or some of the digital low cap cable and the appropriate connectors. Video is the only reason to go to this type of cable. The Gepco cable will droop something like 3 dB at 300KHz as far as I can remember but good enough for audio. If you are rich and have audiophile type equipment- I will not get mad- do as you wish!

[CanJet]

Danger,

I was talking about this with Angel on another thread. He is using MIT Terminators and recommended them for my Nak CR7. Right now I'm using a mix of different Monster grades, from the Uber thick to some budget 450's.

I actually just picked up some Harmonic Technologies balanced XLR's to run from my pre amp to power amp. They sound great. Any better than the unbalanced Monsters I had on there before? I'm not sure at this point.

A friend and I are getting some Cambridge Audio Azures in the next few weeks and we've already talked about setting up a blind listening test from the top of the heap we have right down to the cheapest rca jacks that come in the box with your dvd player. I think that $100.00 cables are going to sound better than $10 ones but I'm not sure that $1000.00 cables are going to sound appreciable better than the $100.00 ones.

I'm often suprised to see the AWG ratings on some very expensive cables, including speaker cables. Sometimes you could be paying hundreds of dollars for what amounts to a 20 gauge wire. Seems counter intuitive to me. *scratchchin*

[Danger Boy]

thanks.. I had forgotten I started this thread.

[TheReeler]

I mainly use Neutrik to make my own cables.

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc46/thereeler/cables1.jpg

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc46/thereeler/cables2.jpg

[itzmike]

I got some real good silver KCAGs. Very revealing and require hours of burn in. I used a duotech cable burner on them for a week. That finally took the edge of the brightness. got to have good equipment though. Garbage in garbage out! These cables wont cover up weaknesses. These will be the last cables I ever buy. Recommended by Stereophile mag for years. And I use them on my Tandberg 3014A. Mike

[shadowlord]

for about 75% of the connections in my systems i use Blue Jeans Cable.
and they are the best cables i ever used. plus they have a great price/performance ratio as well.

the rest is entry level Monitor, Audiquest or Belkin.



The Reeler:
I used those Neutriks once to re-cable a turntable but the connectors had too much grip on the RCA. Do yours have such a tight grip as well? I'm always afraid to damage the connector on the gear that way.

[LesX55]

Hi all,
I use Audience au24e from my SCD-1.
I use Audioquest quartz for every thing else ( this cable is better than many many high end stuff )
Also have some Chord,VDH,DPA Black slink,and Townshend...

[stuartypoorty]

I got some real good silver KCAGs. Very revealing and require hours of burn in.

These cables wont cover up weaknesses. These will be the last cables I ever buy. Recommended by Stereophile mag for years. And I use them on my Tandberg 3014A.

Mike

I use a mixture of Nordost and XLO interconnects.

Burn in blues...tell me about it.

Sold my old Kimber 8TC loudspeaker cables for an offer I couldn't refuse, incidentally very good they are too. Had mine - secondhand - for a 10 year period and saw no need to change, warmly recommended.

I'm running in some Kimber Crystal 24 speaker cables right now in conjunction with a new integrated LFD NCSE, have been for the last 3 weeks on and off. Sometimes the sound is terrific other days distinctly average(the Kimber dealer mentioned that this'd most likely happen)

The Classic Records reissue of Led Zeppelin II recorded on TDK MA-XG(green shell edition) through the Revox B215-S is playing at the moment, delicacy, power, dynamics and the Bonham Jones partnership providing a fundamental bedrock that sounds bloody great - I wish more records were given this lavish production. Hats off to Jimmy Page and engineer Eddie Kramer.

Ramble on...


Stuart

[Robzie70]

I use audioquest King Cobra x2 & Copper Head. I try a few another type of cables, but audioquest's sound was the best. Nice and clear sound, and great image with that cables. Good price/value.
...and from the turntable to pre-amp Jelco (JAC-502) very good price/value too!

[Mark J]

I use a splattering of cables.
the pair of silvers I mentioned in the your thread asking about silver
a couple pairs of Kimber Kable PBJs
Canare home made
Audioquest
Musetex
probably some monster crap hanging in the rack
StraightWire
and some of those ones that were mentioned and cheap about 6 months ago from...sears on line.
There is even a set of Discwasher goldens sitting over there.

Oh and why...They were at a price I liked at the time and I use the better sounding ones where they do the most good for what I have concerned myself with determining. I have not tried all the the cables between the amp and preamp being happy with the Canare and PBJ. I don't really care what cable hooks up a tuner or a cassette deck output. I put better cables on the tape deck inputs. Sometimes the decision on which cable to use has a little bit to do with the connector needed (1/4" phone jacks on some of my gear require certain cables) and or with the length of cable needed.

I don't generally have one of those nice systems shown by TheReeler with matching cables.

[westgate]

i use i'cs from the dollar store and they cost (you guessed it!) $1.00 per 6' pair.
they work pretty good too. they sound no worse than the $5.00/pair rite aid (yes, the drugstore) i'connects i had been using before.
*bananadance*

[Bob Boyer]

My system is pretty much tied together with Vampire Wire ICs from about ten years ago. .5 to 2 meter lengths.

Gonna have to start assembling my own for this studio project - I doubt I can afford the quality I want any other way as there are going to be some fairly long runs.

[Avionic]

Vampirewires - got them really cheap.

[laatsch55]

Might have to try some of those Dave, have some equipment that might detail the difference now.

[Avionic]

Might have to try some of those Dave, have some equipment that might detail the difference now.

http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Vampire-Wire-Stereo-Audio-Cable-10ft-3M-/370430963528?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item563f67ef48

[laatsch55]

Thanks for the link.

[Bob Boyer]

I'm right behind you...getting ready to get 100 feet of their oxygen free copper. At .85/foot, it's the best buy I can find out there in a high end IC cable right now. Got some of the better RCA ends from Parts Express yesterday.

Gotta start making up some cables for the Teac and the mixer and the amp.

[2ndRick]

I have some cheap-os from AAMP/Stinger that I got for next to free, they are actually well constructed so I keepo them around.

I still own some expensive Monster M-Series speaker wire that I no longer use (it started oxidizing badly). Mostly I use heavy gauge Liberty Wire speaker wire now (12 or 14 awg), it's a brand common to high-end custom a/v installation companies. The quality is excellent and the pricing is good in general.

I also like the idea of disassembling Cat-5/Cat-6 and using the individually insulated solid core strands in multiples, bundled as speaker wire. I may do that soon, although I doubt I will weave it like Kimber.

I have some odd pieces of Tributaries and AudioQuest interconnect laying around in different lengths, some is being used, some is not. Again, excellent quality an the pricing was right for me when I bought them (as a rep and/or distributor for the respective brand at the time of purchase).

I only use AQ for optical digital cables, because they have glass fiber models that are less likely to haze like the plastic fiber used on nearly everyone else's cable.

I generally make my own coaxial digital cables from bulk serial-digital cable and high quality compression ends. The compression ends I use have correct 360 degree termination which means the spacing of shield to center is perfectly uniform to maintain the impedance more accurately than the solder on connections that most interconnect companies use.

My HDMI cables are Ethereal.

[Fast Forward]

I use Monster XLN,, the price is reasonable and the transparent red gives a nice appearence to any wires that have to be exposed,,,speaker wire buried under the carpeting is 12 gauge oxygen free

[celticguitar6666]

I use mostly home mades. I pickeded at Job Lot a hundred foot roll of in wall telephone wire 8 connector solid core. For digital i use the center wire as center wire and leave the rest as a shield and keep the runs short, for analog runs I braid them and keep them short point to point also. I also made my speaker wires out this evenly spitting the conductors and braiding them two lengths per leg for a total of 4 they work quite well much better than the 12 guage monster cables they replaced I was not the originator of this Idea I kind of reverse engineered these from a catalouge I got. I thougt of trying what some the high end companies do which they use more than one thickness of conducter inside the IC for better frequency response who knows they all say their cable is the best but for whose ears? use what sounds best for you and your hearing changes as you get older too as well as taste
Dwight