[vrom]

I had great replies earlier on a question. This one concerns a cable swap. Right now I own a Silver Audio Silver Bullet 4.0 ($225) interconnect and was planning to replace it with a more organic sounding cable (Stealth PGS, $1800 if bought new). The latter is supposed to be WAY better ofcourse. My Silver Audio has been reterminated after making it shorter (1 feet). That was fairly easy and the improvement in sound was surprising. The Stealth is 3 feet and cannot be reterminated. So I'll just have to hopen that the Stealth is that good that it can outperform a Silver Audio at a third of its lenght. My idea is that NO cable at all is always better than the best sounding and most expensive cable in a system. So keeping it short is a must. So is it worth to buy the Stealth if in lenght it has this trade off?

 

[markl]

I'd be very very surprised if a difference of 2 feet was significant. Presuming the PGS justifies its price and build is really 7 times better, I wouldn't worry. In other words, I'd rather have a longer better IC than an average shorter IC.

OTOH, have you heard the PGS? Isn't that their gold interconnect? personally, I'm skeptical of the utility of using gold in the conductors of an IC, but then again I've never heard one.

Have you considered the new Virtual Dynamics cables? They are very "organic" sounding cables in your price range.

 

[Ebonyks]

The general belief that as long as your cables are under two meters, the sound quality difference between them isn't terribly significant.

And markl, can you please stop advertising VD cables in every one of your posts? he asked a simple question about length in cables, not for an advertisement, and it's getting obnoxious

 

[vrom]

Sounds reassuring. But can you clarify why lenght of the cable isn't such an issue for you. Is that just your opnion, different from person to person, or is there a plausible technical explanation that can take away my doubt at once? Because that's more reassuring.

 

[radrd]

Remember, with cables price does not always equal better, and at $1800 you have a ton of choices for cables. You might be able to find something cheaper that you will like just as well, if not better.

I too seriously doubt that shortening an interconnect from three feet to one foot makes a lot of difference, but I've never tried it.

 

[Ebonyks]

My opinion is based on the fact that the greatest amount of resistance in a cable is located in the plugs, and in the solder connecting the wire to the plugs. Assuming the wire is well built (accecptable purity, high quality dialect), the impact that the wire itself has on the sound in my experence isn't terribly large, and i believe that the length of it isn't going to signficantly impact the sound up to a certian level

 

[braillediver]

What are you hooking up that requires or would benefit from an $1800/meter cable?

Just curious. If the sound quality isn’t there the best cable in the world won’t help.


Mitch

 

[vrom]

Ebonyks... but that suggests that a cheap but well build cable with WBT connectors and good soldering can compare with any reference cable. So I must be making a mistake by upgrading my cable. I mean... there must be more to it. Right?

 

[vrom]

Hooking up to a Meridian 508.24. Should be up to the challenge... By the way... the cable is going to be an auction. I can probably get it far below the newprice. So no worries!

 

[markl]

Ebonyks, talk about obnoxious.

vrom is shopping for a new cable, I gave him some advice. If vrom doesn't like it, he can say so, it has squat to do with you. You are also going to get very tired very quickly flaming people on this board who make recomendations.

 

[daycart1]

I'd vote (this is a democratic discussion, right?) for the better, longer cable. I think you'd have to go considerably longer to introduce degradation.

Things might be different if you have a LOT of RF interference. Then it would be important to minimize IC length.

OTOH, some components can interfere with each other. I was advised to use 1M instead of 0.5M ICs for my phono stage to get it farther from my power amp....

 

[arnaud]

Quote:

Originally posted by vrom Ebonyks... but that suggests that a cheap but well build cable with WBT connectors and good soldering can compare with any reference cable. So I must be making a mistake by upgrading my cable. I mean... there must be more to it. Right?

Even some cable manufacturers have admitted this fact... Have a look at the Equinox review on on-hifi.com. The manufacturer implied to the reviewer that a large part of magic is in the junctions:

http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/showt...threadid=49732

cheers,

Arnaud.

 

[Ebonyks]

If it's a true statement for headphone cables which are over 3m on average, imagine how that applies to interconnects only a percentage of that. The only aspect of wire that i would think could influence the sound is gauge and dialect, aside from material obliviously.

 

[AnsBjork]

The difference in sound with shorter interconnect could be caused by EMI (electromagnetic interference) as any wire will act as an antenna. Since interconnects carries very small current (contrairy to speaker cables), the noise generated by EMI is proportionnaly important and will be amplified by the amp. Usually interconnects are very well shielded against this but still, the shorter the better.

Also with long cables you very often end up with loops and twists (with power cords?) that will degrade the sound.

Maybe the retermination was better done than the original job?

The other cable proprieties, like resistance, inductance and capacitance change also, but is it significant?

One thing is for sure shorter cables are cheaper!

 

[ServinginEcuador]

vrom,

BlueSaint here did a comparison of the Stealth PGS vs Virtual Dynaimcs Nites, and the review is under the Cables section here. Seems he did prefer the Nites, but you can read the review for specifics. He knows best since he owned them both and tested them against each other.


Here's the link:

http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/showt...ht=stealth+PGS


So, as to MarkL's comments about the Nites, I would say he was right on with his reco of them over the PGS. He was asking about a cable purchase in the near future, so if someone can steer him the right way so he avoids a bad purchase, or could make a better one, GREAT JOB MARK!