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~$250 budget for *SHORT* RCA interconnect - Page 3

post #31 of 43
12/16/07 at 12:52am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr. Strangelove View Post
A fork is something that moves the food from the plate to the mouth (Cable). A poorly designed fork will not hold the food properly and therefore drop food, which results in a lessened taste (Signal loss). It could even be made out of poor materials and inject some bad taste in to the food (bad shielding, etc).

A good fork will hold the food, and deliver it to the mouth with out error. Thing is though, a good fork does not cost 400 USD.

God I put to much thought in to that analogy...
Forks work to different extremes then cables. I am really looking for advice based on experience. Blue Jeans cable will not stand for a permanent fixture for me unless I test it against higher priced cabling (nothing over the $500 range) and deem it good enough. I don't think you'll find many takers in the bet that blue jeans cable sounds as good as as the Red Dawn, however I'm sure it satisfies. It wouldn't be hard to sell either cable for a very small loss here if either were to prove less to my liking for the money paid.

I go through the trouble to test and gain experience because I care.
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post #32 of 43
12/16/07 at 12:58am
The only expensive cable I've ever seen to be worth more than $100 is the wyvern. The work that goes into this thing, and the amount of materials is amazing. And to top it off, it sounds great. If you find the edwood blind cable test, you'll note that Alex (ayt999) is the only person who could identify each cable blindly. He's got great ears, and spent time figuring out what made for a good cable. If you're spending the coin, the wyvern ag8 is a spectacular deal. If he still makes them
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post #33 of 43
12/16/07 at 1:00am
Quote:
Originally Posted by manaox2 View Post
Forks work to different extremes then cables.
Was meant to be only a simple analogy, but I think it gets my thoughts across.

Quote:
Originally Posted by manaox2 View Post
I don't think you'll find many takers in the bet that blue jeans cable sounds as good as as the Red Dawn, however I'm sure it satisfies.
I would bet the same as you because:

1: The Red Dawn is probably better

2: Placebo effect

What must be remembered is that the RD probably only sounds extremely marginally better. I'm talking critical listening in a super quiet room with multiple tracks. In my opinion, the advantage does not justify a 280 USD investment. I would invest in cans/tubes/turn table/other amps before I spend that much on a cable.
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post #34 of 43
12/16/07 at 1:04am
The OP has already invested in everything else in his signal chain. Don't begrudge people their luxuries. There are people who spend significantly more than the price of these cables on dinner. I guarantee you get more appreciation from the cables 2 weeks after purchase than you do the steak...

boy am I dreading my food and entertainment bills from canjam...
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post #35 of 43
12/16/07 at 1:06am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr. Strangelove View Post
What must be remembered is that the RD probably only sounds extremely marginally better. I'm talking critical listening in a super quiet room with multiple tracks. In my opinion, the advantage does not justify a 280 USD investment. I would invest in cans/tubes/turn table/other amps before I spend that much on a cable.
Your thoughts come across well and I have done some research into what makes a good cable. I see what you mean about the money is better invested elsewhere for my system, but these interconnects are about the only upgrade left I can see for a portable system. Its about maxed out. I'll be buying some new cans (HD650) not too far from now.

I really don't plan on going under $100 for the cables and something under $200 with good quality will satisfy me. I'm just hard to satisfy mostly, which is why I'm in this situation.

The UE11 can be finicky with its hyper bass, and the components going into my source can be very revealing (which is what I want), I need to make sure in my mind that there is nothing wrong in the upstream which means getting some extra micro detail from my interconnects.
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post #36 of 43
12/16/07 at 1:06am
Quote:
Originally Posted by grawk View Post
I guarantee you get more appreciation from the cables 2 weeks after purchase than you do the steak...
Well by that time said steak would have raped your butt, so of course you prefer the cables
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post #37 of 43
12/16/07 at 1:22am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by grawk View Post
The only expensive cable I've ever seen to be worth more than $100 is the wyvern. The work that goes into this thing, and the amount of materials is amazing. And to top it off, it sounds great. If you find the edwood blind cable test, you'll note that Alex (ayt999) is the only person who could identify each cable blindly. He's got great ears, and spent time figuring out what made for a good cable. If you're spending the coin, the wyvern ag8 is a spectacular deal. If he still makes them
Got caught up in the conversation and missed this. I emailed him about a quote on the custom 8" cable, but haven't received a reply yet. I hope he still makes them and won't charge more then $200, his cables specs are nothing to sneeze at. Should I shoot his head-fi member account a PM too?
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post #38 of 43
12/16/07 at 4:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by manaox2 View Post
I have been watching audiogon. They have SO many cables. See? This is why I need help deciding.

I guess I forgot to mention that this is going from the vCap dock to the LISA III, so no need for a mini to RCA.
Keep watching and be patient...
all these cable shucksters want you to get all worked up so you end up forking over ridiculous $$$.

Watch for Cardas Neutral Reference, Golden Presence, Golden Reference/ Kimber Select Series/ Nordost Heimdall/Ridge Street Audio MSE GenII or Poiema, Revelation Audio Labs Cryo Paradise, etc... if you're patient you should be able to find a really nice .5m pair for $200
or less.

If you're in a big rush just buy a new set of Kimber Timbre's or Hero's and use those until you can find something more "Audiophile extravagant"... you might find you're happy with the "ordinary" Kimber's

I recently picked up a 0.5 set of RSA MSE Gen II's for $100and passed on a set of RAL Cryo Paradise for $200...
I got the feeling alot of AudioGon'ers are peeps that work in the Audio industry and get "samples" and/or deep discounts on wire... they get bored with it and dump it rather cheaply vs. retail because they know the mark-up involved. You have to be NUTS () to pay anything more than $200 for 0.5M of wire!!! I don't care if it's constructed in a zero gravity chamber and uses cryogenically treated "unobtainium". Some would argue $200 is NUTS

Good Luck
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post #39 of 43
12/16/07 at 5:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr. Strangelove View Post
Even though all of that is rather spendy, it doesn't mean you should pay ridiculous amounts for a cable. That's like saying if I pay for a 1000 USD dinner I should have 400 USD fork to eat it with because the fork improves transmission of the food from the plate to my mouth.

30 USD can get me a 6ft high quality cable from bluejeans, I highly doubt it would sound so extremely different from a 300 USD >1ft cable that it warrants it's price.

But this is all my opinion, tis your money to spend not mine.
I've run both StraightWire Serenade (~$300 per meter) and Straight Wire Chorus IC's (~$35 per meter) from my Pioneer Elite DV-47A to the McIntosh MA6900 and find very little difference between them.

While the Serenades look more impressive with the WBT style locking RCA's, fancy interwoven jacket material and such...the differences I hear are so small that I doubt I could pick one out over the other.
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post #40 of 43
12/16/07 at 5:55pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Know Talent View Post
Keep watching and be patient...
all these cable shucksters want you to get all worked up so you end up forking over ridiculous $$$.

Watch for Cardas Neutral Reference, Golden Presence, Golden Reference/ Kimber Select Series/ Nordost Heimdall/Ridge Street Audio MSE GenII or Poiema, Revelation Audio Labs Cryo Paradise, etc... if you're patient you should be able to find a really nice .5m pair for $200
or less.

If you're in a big rush just buy a new set of Kimber Timbre's or Hero's and use those until you can find something more "Audiophile extravagant"... you might find you're happy with the "ordinary" Kimber's

I recently picked up a 0.5 set of RSA MSE Gen II's for $100and passed on a set of RAL Cryo Paradise for $200...
I got the feeling alot of AudioGon'ers are peeps that work in the Audio industry and get "samples" and/or deep discounts on wire... they get bored with it and dump it rather cheaply vs. retail because they know the mark-up involved. You have to be NUTS () to pay anything more than $200 for 0.5M of wire!!! I don't care if it's constructed in a zero gravity chamber and uses cryogenically treated "unobtainium". Some would argue $200 is NUTS

Good Luck
I have actually already ruled out all cables over $200. I think I have some final choices in mind.
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post #41 of 43
12/16/07 at 6:03pm
I'm ordering Signal Cable Silver Mini w/ Eichmann Silver Bullet RCA Plugs and Signal Cable Analog Mini along with some power cords.
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post #42 of 43
12/16/07 at 6:44pm
Thread Starter 
I just got new 0.5m nordost red dawns with the eichmann cu bullets for $155.50 plus shipping. I think I found a winner, thanks guys.

Cost me ~$185 after shipping from Spain.
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post #43 of 43
12/16/07 at 7:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by manaox2 View Post
I just got new 0.5m nordost red dawns with the eichmann cu bullets for $155.50 plus shipping. I think I found a winner, thanks guys.

enjoy!
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