Audio cables vs cheap wire test

Now that is pretty. I can hear that image!

Would be sacrilege to wire those babies up with twin flex.
 
W@P said:
Sjoe i can only imagine the can worms if everyone here went on over to the avforums forum. I only got some decent cables recently because i couldn't justify my current components using some shitty cables. I'm already balls deep into this hobby regarding cost another grand would not hurt and then at least i know everything is premium.

Does the cable make a difference to my setup? Not sure tbh.
Am i happy with the current setup? Fsck yeaah.

For interest sake here's a photo of my current B&W's next to the new Bentleys. The Bentleys are monsters.

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Fully agree that the feel good factor is important. Beautiful setup BTW. Suitably jealous:)
 
W@P said:
Sjoe i can only imagine the can worms if everyone here went on over to the avforums forum. I only got some decent cables recently because i couldn't justify my current components using some shitty cables. I'm already balls deep into this hobby regarding cost another grand would not hurt and then at least i know everything is premium.

Does the cable make a difference to my setup? Not sure tbh.
Am i happy with the current setup? Fsck yeaah.

For interest sake here's a photo of my current B&W's next to the new Bentleys. The Bentleys are monsters.

View attachment 1267092

View attachment 1267094
Click to expand...

Now that is absolutely gorgeous and engenders many feelings of hatred and jealousy :P

And as much as I'm largely in the camp of not buying the snake-oil for cabling anymore since I have a relatively run of the mill setup at home. If I had stuff likes yours I'd very likely have decent cables because they would visually and personally round out the installation.
 
garyc said:
I compared a Linn Mimik CD player that I have to an Asus Xonar Essence STX internal sound card. The Asus actually sounded a bit better, despite the Linn being an upmarket player. This appeared to be due to the better jitter correction possible within a computer.

To explore the idea further I set up a laptop with a very low latency Linux OS and used the Jack audio transport system. This was tuned to prioritize the audio signal and reduce the latency to an absolute minimum, thereby also decreasing the jitter to a minimum. Playing 24 bit FLAC files the imaging was better than any CD player I have heard. This was despite playing this system through a Focusrite Scarlett audio interface, where the quoted specs are not has high as those for high-end CD players.

The use of computer based hardware can give excellent results, and an old laptop, about R4k to R4k, and some time can yield excellent audio results.
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The only useful purpose a CD serves is to hang from a mirror while cruising the Marine Parade in Durban.
 
Thanks all for the compliments. It took quite a few years from starting with entry-level stuff and upgrading every so often to where I am now. By no means is it high-end. But it's high-end enough for me. The trick is to go second-hand/pre-loved.

To replace everything I have now with the same stuff from new out the box would be a pretty penny. That I can't justify.

The amp is a local product from Oom Schalk as we know him. The owner of Valve Audio. He makes next-level products that don't stand back for anything. Hand made. The speakers are also a local product that I took a chance on. Time will tell how much I enjoy them as I only got them this week.
 
2 years ago I bought a Ematic TV Box and connected on my AV receiver, on a cheap HDMI cable that I already have.
Was streaming 1080p and was constantly flickering and breaking up.
Swapped out with the high speed cable that came in the box and all sorted since then.
 
chromedome said:
What is your opinion on the inerconnection between turntable and phono stage and between phono stage to amp. This is the only area where I have noticed a significant audible effect.
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Well, here you have very low voltage signals, typically 5mV from a cartridge, so any degradation will manifest itself immediately

Phono stages typically output 0.5 volt, so not so important

Matching is it all. An honest audio dealer will tell you that. In Cape Town, e-Piphany in Bellville
 
jannievanzyl said:
I'd love to hear how a mains cable, LAN cable or USB cable affect the sound quality.
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A well-off friend bought a Less-Loss mains cable and said it was worth the R11000 paid

As far as USB and LAN is concerned, I am talking about the quality of construction of the cable. I gave a music lover friend some copies of DSD and 192KHz 24 bit classical music recordings. He said they sounded no better than his 44.1KHz 16bit rips

He had a cheapie USB printer cable between his Macbook and a PS Audio DAC. He has a CARY valve amp and Quad ESL-9305 speakers. Very transparent. As soon as I plugged in a 1-metre Chord USB cable, the difference was chalk and cheese

Just to make sure, we put the printer cable back. The music appeared "lifeless" and lacked depth
 
chrisc said:
A well-off friend bought a Less-Loss mains cable and said it was worth the R11000 paid

As far as USB and LAN is concerned, I am talking about the quality of construction of the cable. I gave a music lover friend some copies of DSD and 192KHz 24 bit classical music recordings. He said they sounded no better than his 44.1KHz 16bit rips

He had a cheapie USB printer cable between his Macbook and a PS Audio DAC. He has a CARY valve amp and Quad ESL-9305 speakers. Very transparent. As soon as I plugged in a 1-metre Chord USB cable, the difference was chalk and cheese

Just to make sure, we put the printer cable back. The music appeared "lifeless" and lacked depth
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Yussie, those Chord cables are a complete fscking rip off...

200GBP for a basic A to B cable is daylight robbery. Snake-Oil salesmen saw you coming from 200miles away.

A vaguely decent cable (better than the random printer cable he had) would have done as good a job as your Chord cable.
 
I am willing to bet a few months worth of salary that no one here will be able to reliably ABX the most expensive speaker wire vs a wire coat hanger. Neither 256 kbps AAC PCM vs DSD.

Sorry, but "I heard it and it sounds better" is not good enough. If it is not ABX then you are fooling yourself.

I recommend https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php
 
ToxicBunny said:
Yussie, those Chord cables are a complete fscking rip off...

200GBP for a basic A to B cable is daylight robbery. Snake-Oil salesmen saw you coming from 200miles away.

A vaguely decent cable (better than the random printer cable he had) would have done as good a job as your Chord cable.
Click to expand...

How can you possibly know what we heard about 14 months ago?

I've opened up USB printer cables to reveal an indifferent crimp relying on puncturing the insulation
I paid R380 for a Chord 0.95m USB cable. Worth every cent
I agree that some Chord products are bordering on the realm of pseudo-science
A friend paid R12000 for an Audioquest Diamond USB. No difference whatever

As I did point out, if your system is insufficiently revealing, any changes will be masked

Its as if you were listening through a closed door
 
chrisc said:
How can you possibly know what we heard about 14 months ago?

I've opened up USB printer cables to reveal an indifferent crimp relying on puncturing the insulation
I paid R380 for a Chord 0.75m USB cable. Worth every cent
I agree that some Chord products are bordering on the realm of pseudo-science
A friend paid R12000 for an Audioquest Diamond USB. No difference whatever

As I did point out, if your system is insufficiently revealing, any changes will be masked

Its as if you were listening through a closed door
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Ok, at R380 for the cable... that is reasonble and what I would class as the price for a vaguely decent USB cable.

I based my "WTF" off the price I was seeing on their page.. 200GBP for a USB cable is fscking stupid and 100% snake-oil crap.
 
W@P said:
The speakers are also a local product that I took a chance on. Time will tell how much I enjoy them as I only got them this week.
Click to expand...

I know this isn't AV forum, but let me know how the Bentley sound
 
W@P said:
Sjoe i can only imagine the can worms if everyone here went on over to the avforums forum. I only got some decent cables recently because i couldn't justify my current components using some shitty cables. I'm already balls deep into this hobby regarding cost another grand would not hurt and then at least i know everything is premium.

Does the cable make a difference to my setup? Not sure tbh.
Am i happy with the current setup? Fsck yeaah.

For interest sake here's a photo of my current B&W's next to the new Bentleys. The Bentleys are monsters.

View attachment 1267092

View attachment 1267094
Click to expand...
Why are there pictures in front of the telly?
 
W@P said:
Sjoe i can only imagine the can worms if everyone here went on over to the avforums forum. I only got some decent cables recently because i couldn't justify my current components using some shitty cables. I'm already balls deep into this hobby regarding cost another grand would not hurt and then at least i know everything is premium.

Does the cable make a difference to my setup? Not sure tbh.
Am i happy with the current setup? Fsck yeaah.

For interest sake here's a photo of my current B&W's next to the new Bentleys. The Bentleys are monsters.

View attachment 1267092

View attachment 1267094
Click to expand...
So no one likes watching TV? Why would you have pictures in front of it?
 
The 2 pictures in front of the telly usually sit on top of the speakers. When i took the picture i just finished putting the speakers in their spots so i put the pictures there.
 
W@P said:
The 2 pictures in front of the telly usually sit on top of the speakers. When i took the picture i just finished putting the speakers in their spots so i put the pictures there.
Click to expand...
Don't they vibrate? Always figured you'd keep the speaker clean with no stuff on it...like you're going through all that expense to minimize noise but then put pictures on the speaker?
 
No, they don't vibrate. Not afaik
 
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