[Musiq]

My Northstar DAC is about 20' from my listening chair. I just bought a Singlepower amp for my Senn HD-650's.

Am I better off with a 20' headphone cable from the SP amp to my head, or placing the amp near the chair and running 20' interconnects?

No, I can't move the chair.

And how do you keep your kids from tripping over the cable?

An advice?

 

[babykenny]

I'd go with short ic and long headphone cable. A long ic will afect the sound more than the long hc. Also the cable is only underfoot when you're listening.

 

[krmathis]

I would go for short interconnects and longer headphone cables.
Cause you don't want to amplify the problems that might show up from using long interconnects.

 

[Musiq]

Plus, good 20' interconnects, if they're available, would be unaffordable I'd bet. Thx

 

[hembergler]

Another one for the long headphone cable, short IC. It's also beneficial if you want to sell things later, as 20' interconnects are rarely needed, but a 20' headphone/extension cable could be rather useful. I'd also think that depending on where you buy from, the headphone cable would be the more economic solution.

 

[Kees]

From a purely SQ point of view 20' balanced ICs would be the ideal solution.
This sort of situation is actually what balanced cables where invented for.

 

[Musiq]

I seem to remember reading something to that effect several years ago. If I remember correctly, the quality of balanced IC cables is not as critical, decent microphone cable is OK. Is that true?

 

[Musiq]

Of course, that raises the question...Is the relative lack of degradation in balanced cables the same if they're connected on either end by XLR-RCA adapters to non-balanced components?

 

[Kees]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Musiq /img/forum/go_quote.gif I seem to remember reading something to that effect several years ago. If I remember correctly, the quality of balanced IC cables is not as critical, decent microphone cable is OK. Is that true?

Basically: yes.

 

[Kees]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Musiq /img/forum/go_quote.gif Of course, that raises the question...Is the relative lack of degradation in balanced cables the same if they're connected on either end by XLR-RCA adapters to non-balanced components?

In that case they are utterly useless...

The trick is in the fact that you send two signals: an ordinary signal and the inverse signal. This means less chance of distortion and the means (on the receiving end) to correct distortion in (either) one signal with the other.
From a non-balanced source through RCA adapters you would send and receive only one signal.

 

[markl]

Your headphone amp, as an amplifier, is going to have much more drive than the outputs of your DAC. The long cable should be the headphone extension cable.

 

[Harricanes]

It is a non-issue at 20kHz.

 

[Sovkiller]

Output cables should be longer tha line level...I have a 30' canare extension and no degradation to talk about so far...use Canare Starquad low loss mic cable, and you will be all set

 

[Musiq]

The Canare sounds good with the 650's? Any idea how they stack up against SD's and Equinox? Is their popularity deserved?

I'll check out the Canare

 

[Sovkiller]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Musiq /img/forum/go_quote.gif The Canare sounds good with the 650's? Any idea how they stack up against SD's and Equinox? Is their popularity deserved? I'll check out the Canare

The Canare is a very good quality OFC cooper cable and very flexible, the Starquad has four counductors on it, I used two per channel and the shielding as the return. You can use any other configuration, I tried ot use all the cable for sound, trying to get the bigger gauge, given the distance. I used the two whites for one channel and two blues for the other, and shielding as a return. Others use the pairs individually for each channel, but this way you have double of gauge in the ground, and the shileding just for noise rejection if attached to ground...

They are widely used mainly in the PRO industry and IIRC, it is one of their standards, in one way or the other all the music you heard had passed through a Canare cable at one point...