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Hi Bruce,
We did extensive testing of various cables for a Magazine and you’re really better off with a good old Beldon cable.
We did everything from frequency response, impulse, capacitance, etc. to double blind listening tests. It’s interesting
that when people saw the shiny gold connectors on a high priced cable next to a boring set of regular cables they could
hear the difference but when they didn’t know what cable they were listening to they could not. Those spiral clawed
RCA cables from Monster used to break the jacks when inserted or removed. These days they sell digital cables that
they claim sound better and it’s just as ridiculous. Noel Lee laughs all the way to the bank! One of my favorites was
a telephone cable that made your dial up Internet speed faster. It was 6 feet long. I asked the engineer about the
house wiring which was intermingled with the mains and he didn’t know how to respond. At the end of the day a good
cable is one with good noise rejection and one that is quiet when shaken (instrument/mic cables), and coils nicely.
Any decent production cable will work fine. I remember a friend of mine paying over $300 in the 70’s for a 3 foot
phono cable. The pamphlet that came with it claimed that there were 3 gauges of wire inside and that the highs
traveled better down the small wires , the mids, the mid size wire, and the bass the larger wire. It then went on to
talk about “skin effect”, that as every real engineer knows, is a phenomena that only occurs at RF frequencies.
There is a lot of twisted science out there and a lot of powerful marketing to support it. There are a lot of great
cables out there at a reasonable price….quiet and durable. The Monster cable is quite popular in the car stereo
industry but in contests appearance is a big thing in their competitions.
Cheers,
Gary
From: newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com [mailto:newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Bruce Daily
Sent: Friday, September 02, 2011 12:42 AM
To: newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [newmellotrongroup] Re: Marantz 2230 restoration
Hey Gary- Monster Cable stuff is ok, but stay with their cheapest cables that have serviceable plugs. I have found that they aren't assembled (soldered) very well, and need rework. I did notice that the sound was better, more solid. Heavier speaker wire helps, but again, stay with the basics. I get the MusicDirect catalog, and some of the audio tweaks they sell are outrageous, and too expensive. Given some thought though, the ideas the tweaks employ can direct you to try cheaper home-brewed solutions. MusicDirect also offers the Avid Acutus Reference SP Turntable for $20K (no tonearm). Hmm... They also have some new Luxman stuff.
-Bruce D. (a poor audiophile with a 'tron)
--- On Thu, 9/1/11, Gary Brumm <gabru@comsec.net> wrote:
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