[refault]

I just bought a Radioshack mini-mini for my SR-71 and Karma. Will this degrade sound quality a lot? Should I be better off getting a radioshack RCA -> mini for my zu pivot? (i'd rather not.)

Thanks!

 

[masahito24@chart]

maybe u could make a DIY one. its not too hard and instructions or in the DIY section. BTW if you can wait i'll be going home to Oahu from november for a couple of months. If you could wait i could help out if you wanted to make one. only thing you will need to spend money on is parts.

BTW, I really wanna listen to your SR-71 too. I really want to compare it to my XP-7.

Aloha,
Aaron

 

[MD1032]

I got one of those "Gold Series" mini-mini cables. They claim it's sheilded, but in reality it isn't quite as good as I expected, I can still pick up a little noise when it's running around my computer. I would go DIY. In fact, I'm building one myself right now.

 

[sbulack]

I just got one of these mini-to-mini cables from markertek.

It's a solidly made cable using Canare Star-Quad cable and Canare stereo mini plugs. Its shielding is quite good. I used it recently in a situation in which other cables were allowing quite a bit of interference in, and the markertek cable was dead quiet. Its audio quality is quite good too.

Here's the link to this cable (various lengths and colors) if you're interested:

http://www.markertek.com/Product.asp...&search=0&off=

 

[Earwax]

Quote:

Originally Posted by refault I just bought a Radioshack mini-mini for my SR-71 and Karma. Will this degrade sound quality a lot? Should I be better off getting a radioshack RCA -> mini for my zu pivot? (i'd rather not.) Thanks!

How long is it? I haven't noticed any problem with the 1 foot beige cable, but both the 6ft cables (M/M & M/F) I have are noisy.

I have one of those canare mini-mini cables too, and between the thick wire and the large size plugs I end up leaving it home and taking the ratshack cable or a DIY cat5/neutrik with me instead.

 

[MagusG]

Radioshack and quality and not synonymous at all. Look elsewhere for cables.
-Mag

 

[Sovkiller]

How long is that mini to mini, for relatively short lengths it will work fine, just try to get it as short as possible, and don't get fooled by the snobophilia you read here or there, I doubt you will hear any difference using another cable using portables as sources if you keep the length relatively short...

 

[MagusG]

I worked at a radio shack for almost a year, I know all about the quality of thier products(not snobery). They mostly SUCK.
-Mag

 

[Sovkiller]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MagusG I worked at a radio shack for almost a year, I know all about the quality of thier products(not snobery). They mostly SUCK. -Mag

You said that.....mostly.....I have found some good stuff there, sometimes the solder is not that bad, the Carbonedge CDP laser lens cleaner, a few tapes, the battery chargers are not that bad neither, and a few other stuff....
But even the worst cable, in a really small length, will sound acceptable, and for portable use, more than enough, as you will have a lot of other problems to worry about other than the quality of that short piece of cable, beginning with the isolation, quality of the players, quality of the recording, the amp will not be an issue in this case, but sometimes even the portable amp will not let you hear the difference....

 

[martycat]

I just got a Kimber 1ft mini mini from Headroom... tried to A/B with my cheapo mini mini which just cost HK$6 (about US$0.8...

)... but it's much shorter, just about a half foot. I found it's very convenient for portable use so I picked it.
I tried both cables with my 2G iPod headphone out, D-800K lineout, SR-71 and A900.
Kept swapping the 2 cables on same songs... OMG... I guess I must have a pair of wooden ear or I need a better source... I didn't notice any noticeable difference... My CDs are all original and 320kbps mp3s are on my iPod.

Forgot to mention that the D-800K is an old skool car discman which I think quite decent.

 

[Spent&Bent]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sovkiller You said that.....mostly.....I have found some good stuff there, sometimes the solder is not that bad, the Carbonedge CDP laser lens cleaner, a few tapes, the battery chargers are not that bad neither, and a few other stuff.... But even the worst cable, in a really small length, will sound acceptable, and for portable use, more than enough, as you will have a lot of other problems to worry about other than the quality of that short piece of cable, beginning with the isolation, quality of the players, quality of the recording, the amp will not be an issue in this case, but sometimes even the portable amp will not let you hear the difference....

Exactly, I have several mini to mini leads and all but one of them measured practically the same with RMAA (rightmark audio analyser) in loopback mode on my RME soundcard.
The one that measured different was internally broken...

 

[ted_b]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sbulack I just got one of these mini-to-mini cables from markertek. It's a solidly made cable using Canare Star-Quad cable and Canare stereo mini plugs. Its shielding is quite good. I used it recently in a situation in which other cables were allowing quite a bit of interference in, and the markertek cable was dead quiet. Its audio quality is quite good too. Here's the link to this cable (various lengths and colors) if you're interested: http://www.markertek.com/Product.asp...&search=0&off=

I use that exact cable (10ft) when I need to go from my Chaintech to my Xin Micro amped HD-580's and it is a good cable (shielding is good, quality is very good, price is tremendous). It's much better than Radio Shack or other less-than-$50 minis IMO.

ted_b

 

[null]

if you decide to diy, you may want to buy some good quality silver/quad euletic solder.

 

[crazyfrenchman27]

It's all about the length, dude.

A 1' cable shouldn't encounter any problems (mine hasn't), even if it's from Rat Shack.

Meanwhile, it is completely unfeasible for me to use a 6' radio shack cable around my computer because of the lack of shielding.

Pay more for the longer cables ($20-$40 or whatever you please). You'll save money and time by not purchasing the $5 ones.

 

[MagusG]

The biggest downfall of the radioshack 1ft mini cable isnt that it sucks to begin with... it has straight plugs on both ends and not right angle so it is quite inconvienent for portable use.
-Mag