[Nigel79]

Quote:

Originally Posted by iriverdude /img/forum/go_quote.gif Do you mean reasonbly priced but decent quality, or decent quality with stupidly high price tag?

reasonbly priced

 

[TheMarchingMule]

I have a BCJ at home. It's nice, but the cable is so incredibly stiff for its diameter, that it's a pain to try and shape between its connection points.

I either go with RadioShack or now maybe monoprice.com from now on.

 

[Nigel79]

Well I just ordered a set of 1 Foot blue jeans with tech flex. Thanks for the advice guys!

 

[koven]

Blue jeans.

 

[cafe zeenuts]

Learn to DIY one, its really simple and its the best value for money cable you can have...

 

[skyline889]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cafe zeenuts /img/forum/go_quote.gif Learn to DIY one, its really simple and its the best value for money cable you can have...

x2

Or find some one else to DIY for you. I used to buy from other DIYers before I started building my own. Much better price to performance than any big corporate entity.

 

[nick_charles]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cafe zeenuts /img/forum/go_quote.gif Learn to DIY one, its really simple and its the best value for money cable you can have...

When you can get a Monoprice cable for $0.73, or $2.11 for a "premium" it is hard to see how a hobbyist could beat that, unless they do not cost their time of course....okay there is shipping as well that adds $1.73, so the total would be $3.84 for a premium cable. Could you even buy the parts for that , let alone the soldering iron and solder

 

[Nebby]

The better customization options, part quality, and self-satisfaction of a DIY cable could be factored into that "value". In terms of absolute price then yes the monoprice are cheaper but value is always subjective

 

[nick_charles]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nebby /img/forum/go_quote.gif The better customization options, part quality, and self-satisfaction of a DIY cable could be factored into that "value". In terms of absolute price then yes the monoprice are cheaper but value is always subjective

I agree that the satisfacton of doing it yourself is hard to quantify and that may be worth a great deal.

The ability to make something to your exact spec also agreed.

Where I have misgivings is over the whole part quality thing and how relevant it is wrt cables.

Sure some parts will last longer than others being better made and it is iritating to have to chuck out broken cables regardless of how cheap they were.

However, assuming both make a good electrical contact will these better quality parts be audibly different from bog-standard parts?

My own tests (measurements and blind tests) have not produced evidence to support this assertion for the samples I used, thus I have sold all my expensive cables and happily live with the cheap ones.

 

[Nebby]

I believe you have mistaken the point of my post.

Audibility of part quality has never really been a factor into my DIY cables. In the past I moved often, so cables with cheap connectors tended to fail quite quickly. I moved to building DIY cables with high quality jacks and tough inner construction (sealing connectors with epoxy or rubber sealant). Neutrik Pro-fi's or Canare connectors have yet to fail on me after multiple moves and some very rough treatment.

Mind you, since I build my own cables an "expensive" DIY cable runs on the order of ~$10-$20 for parts depending on parts selected (generally stay away from the "audiophile" coatings/cryo treatments). For my DIY speaker I chose the Neutrik Speak-On connectors and they are seriously tough.

 

[Valens7]

I definitely like Enigma Audio. I'd also advise you check out YACCo. cables. They both do good work at affordable prices.

 

[Adu]

To choose a cable it's a difficult task, because we have different tast. In my case, sometimes I prefer a smoth, warm sound; in this case solid cooper cables are my favourite.
In the second case, if I want an aggressive sound, with an accent on highs, I prefer silver cables or cooper plated.
Another issue are the components, the source we use.

 

[Mediahound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by userlander /img/forum/go_quote.gif monoprice "premium." Can't get better for the money. They're often literally just pennies a cable, v. high quality.

I used to like these but I received a few that were defective out of the box so don't like them any more. Also, their 'premium' RCAs used to have all metal connectors (like Tartans) and now they are mostly plastic. Sometime in the last couple of years they changed 'em. I still have some of the older ones and they are good but the newer ones are not as good quality IMO and the current ones are the ones I received that were defective.

For short RCAs, they are probably okay (just make sure you check them to make sure they work when you receive them). I actually have some Blue Jeans RCAs for longer runs and really like them even though they were *a lot* more expensive. The connectors on them are tops though as is the cable itself.

 

[krmathis]

Signal Cable get my vote.
Nicely built and sounding cables, especially for the money.

 

[roadcykler]

With all the posts about BJC and other reasonably priced interconnects, how does a company like Nordhost stay in business? Their Tyr interconnects are $2000 for a pair that is all of a metre long. Sure they come in a fancy box but still.

Then again, the profit margin on a pair of those is likely in the thousands of percent so selling even one pair would add to the bottom line quite effectively.