ALO au/ag series (silver w/ gold addition) compared to jenalabs cryo (copper)

[Luminette]

A quote from Ken over at ALO, found on the "Fun with Modded Sony R10s" thread in this forum

"While I have used various custom built multiple thin gauge silver wire headphone designs, the nature of a solid silver cable does not perform well mechanically and I have solely been using the (JenaLabs) Ultra Wire for not only my headphone mods but ipod and IC cables as well. I have looked far and wide to try and locate a better conductor for a headphone cable, sonics and durability in this application. The JenaLabs wire does wonders for mid range and bottom end resolution, extension of frequency, decay, and all the wile not sacrificing the detail of the upper end. I have auditioned several other vendors headphone cables and found them to all be weighted to one end of the spectrum or the other, never finding a correct balance between the two."

My question is ultimately aimed at figuring out which choice is going to be better.. and what criteria is available to determine "better"

The au/ag stuff is coming in at 195 (for the LOD) compared to the Cryo at 155

and with the au/ag having a silver base, I'm left wondering, if not confused

Differences? Would love a response from Ken

[KB]

Originally Posted by Luminette

A quote from Ken over at ALO, found on the "Fun with Modded Sony R10s" thread in this forum

"While I have used various custom built multiple thin gauge silver wire headphone designs, the nature of a solid silver cable does not perform well mechanically and I have solely been using the (JenaLabs) Ultra Wire for not only my headphone mods but ipod and IC cables as well. I have looked far and wide to try and locate a better conductor for a headphone cable, sonics and durability in this application. The JenaLabs wire does wonders for mid range and bottom end resolution, extension of frequency, decay, and all the wile not sacrificing the detail of the upper end. I have auditioned several other vendors headphone cables and found them to all be weighted to one end of the spectrum or the other, never finding a correct balance between the two."

My question is ultimately aimed at figuring out which choice is going to be better.. and what criteria is available to determine "better"

The au/ag stuff is coming in at 195 (for the LOD) compared to the Cryo at 155

and with the au/ag having a silver base, I'm left wondering, if not confused

Differences? Would love a response from Ken

Hello Luminette,

That quote was about headphone cables. A headphone cable and a ipod dock cable are quite different. The Headphone cable being long, at a min of 6 feet has to be supple and flexible. That is why I said "the nature of a solid silver cable does not perform well mechanically". Mechanically not sonically, although some will argue this because its a matter of personal preference and there is often not definitive "best" in audio. Meaning that physically a 20 gauge silver wire is not going to work for a headphone cable. Your comparing apples to oranges I think. If I could make a 20-24 gauge solid Au/Ag wire preform physically like a 22g stranded wire I would use it every time. Now a ipod cable is 3 inches or so and is not being moved about like a headphone cable, so we can use this.

Hope this helps.

ken

[Luminette]

i'm smart. gah. thanks for pulling my head out of my rear

[KB]

Originally Posted by Luminette

i'm smart. gah. thanks for pulling my head out of my rear

Luminette,

No it was a very good question. I do want to be as clear as possible and any question asked is better than none asked. So no worries.

Ken