Best RCA cables for the money - Page 9

If you want a sobering test of audiophile equipment, read about the Matrix test (http://www.matrixhifi.com/ENG_contenedor_ppec.htm).

Not only did they use a cheap RCA cable, they also used a cheap source and amp.

No one could tell the difference. The cable being the least of this.

It confirms what I've long found to be the case. Cables don't matter at all. Digital sources are all about the same. Amplification matters as much as it is adequate, and what's most important is having a good recording and good speakers/headphones.

I do think you can get different sounds from amps. Tubes introduce some character (often pleasing, and that can be backed with measurements) but aren't necessary for great sound.

I like to see people get great sound and enjoy their music at the lowest possible cost. Thankfully, that can be done for very reasonable prices today. Then there are those who want status symbols. That's OK. Some of the expensive stuff is beautiful and works well. Enjoy it if you can afford it. What I really want to see is high-end audio become more mainstream and popular. Everyone should have great headphones and/or speakers without worrying abou the stuff that doesn't matter.

Personally I would question the validity of this test. For starter who are the people taking the test? Are they audiophiles with high-end systems who have tried different audio components, cables and what not? You cannot ask a bunch of people randomly to take these kinds of tests. You cannot be serious!

Apparently you didn't bother to read the page, and automatically dismissed it. It stated clearly, "The human testers were all trained ears and used to extensively listening to high end equipments, a good number of them participated, each with his own conception of the high end world, some totally subjectivists, some completely objectivists, some in between." 

 

yep you're right I missed that. my bad. but it doesn't change anything. I still don't know who these people really were, or what their experience with high-end audio, and that was just the first thing that I'd question about the validity of this test.

 

 

would I personally come to a final conclusion about amps, source, cables, etc.. because of this one test? I don't think so. but thanks for point that out

Edited by Lenni - 8/27/11 at 12:03pm

 

All the people in those tests were self-proclaimed audiophiles. Whether or not they are to be trusted as real audiophiles or whether the tests are to be trusted for that matter, I think the conclusion remains the same. Even though on paper all those higher-grade components(cables or other products) are better the difference to the listener is so small that even it's existence is disputed. Whether or not the differences are audible/noticeable. The fact remains that if we can't confirm clear differences consistently between different grades of components then whether they are a worthy investment is understandably questionable.

I just started buying good audio(what I consider good anyways) components. I now have a little dot mk III with rolled driver tubes, hd 650s and an asus d2x sound card. I was told that that sound card would be a serious bottleneck. Now seeing as my audio memory was for from good enough to the allow conventional testing of doing one setup testing it out and then doing another I bought an input selector(with all gold plated rca connections if that makes it better for that matter lol...). I connected both my sound card(100 euros) and an also new 300euro cd player to the input selector and then little dot and hd650s. I played the same songs with the same bitrates(over 1000 kbps and all MJ songs) at the same time and switched between them. The bass was tighter, but only ever so slightly so on the CD player. That difference was barely noticeable. Another far more noticeable difference was that on the sound card the sound seemed to immerse me more as if my head was in the voice whereas on the CD player the voice seemed to be in front of me. Now personally I preferred the CD-player sound in this aspect, but it was still more a difference than an improvement. I would however never notice this difference if there was a delay between me hearing the different setups even if it was a fairly short one. I only found those differences because I had the input selector. Now keep in mind that that CD-player is 3 times the price of the sound card which was said to be "bottlenecking" and still the difference was tiny.

My point here is that difference are so tiny and so subtle(to me at least) that I can't imagine things like going from a high quality cable to a higher quality cable would provide a noticeable improvement, especially given the amount of time it takes to switch out the cables. I could be wrong in all this, but despite my lack of experience I must side with uncle erik and the "articles" on this matter. don't get me wrong I love all the stuff I bought and never thought of it as a waste, but I do find some people are bringing their own placebos into other peoples lives too much.

Seems like the thread fizzled out. Here it goes again ... "Best RCA cables for the money" = make your own silver wire interconnects and speaker cables ... laventure (http://www.laventure.net/tourist/cables.htm) You don't have to make them from silver though. You can get 1.2 mm diameter copper by stripping down heavy house wiring (25amp) from hardware store. You'll get quite a few solid Cu wires from every metre of it. Silver does have a slightly lower resistance per metre than copper ... but (oh no, here's the arguments coming up again) I wonder if you can hear it.

If not into DIY, then one of the earliest posts in this thread ... DNM solid core cable. Been around for ages. The designer is hifi designer of note. Been positively reviewed for ages too. Like all cables it has some reviewers saying there are flaws in highs/soundstage reduction. But as a plunge/experiment for someone wanting to go from standard cable, they are an excellent and reasonable start.

Re the overall argument about hearing differences in cables ... the best rationale behind this is to consider a simple speaker cross over. If this has been mentioned already in this thread, apologies. But I like the analogy. A speaker cross over is a combination of resistor, capacitor and inductor of different values which alter the signal to allow the bass cone to filter off at its higher frequencies, and the mid/high driver to filter off its low frequencies. Every design of cable has a different resistance, capacitance and inductance. And of course the length multiplies this resistance, capacitance and inductance. So electronically speaking, every cable is adding in a resistor, capacitor and inductor into the stereo equipment chain. IE a cross over which has the potential of altering the highs or lows, or tone in general much like a speaker cross-over. But we are talking about small amounts/effect compared to a cross over. But some people have better hearing than others. And some people just like bragging about their cables. If you are happy and enjoy listening to your system without trying different cables ... go for it. If you enjoy DIY'ing cables or even buying them on eBay/brand new and seeing if it hightens your enjoyment of the music and/or the hobby ... go nuts!