Zafsk
Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jul 9, 2009
- Posts
- 66
- Likes
- 10
I've always been a little skeptical about the "buy better cables, it improves the sound" argument but jeez, I'm a believer now. I bought 5ft of the MSA-1 stereo audio cable from Blue Jeans Cable on the recommendation from a friend. First off, just out of the box, I noticed heavier connectors that clearly had superior build quality to the weird rubbery connectors the $9 Best Buy bought generic cables had.
I plugged them up to compare and boy did I hear a difference. Maybe it's the placebo effect, but I highly doubt it. First off, using the new cable, I immediately noticed the lack of a familiar hissing. I always figured it was a problem with my source, but the light hissing that was always there is now gone. I listened to Arcade Fire's Funeral and a great copy of Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, and I may be fooling myself, but I swear I can notice clearer mids and a tighter bass when switching between the two cables. It's not an overt difference, but it's there.
My only complaint about the wire is that the RCA split is too short, and my Audio-gd C-2 has a wide gap between the right and left channels so I had to cut a little slit in the outer-wire to allow that extra give so I didn't feel like the wire was being damaged. By and large, my favorite thing about the wire is that it eliminated the hiss that was present with the cheaper cables. For $38, it's more than I'd usually spend for wires (and I'm very aware of much more expensive cables, and I'm sure they're worth it to some degree) but I'm very happy about my purchase.
I'm more likely to spend a bit more money on cables now that I can hear the difference, without just being told that there is one. I'm not a veteran self-ordained audiophile by any means -- in fact, I've just recently delved into audio in any serious way -- so I'm not sure how qualified I am to make any judgements, but these cables are great and indeed worth the buy. Blue Jeans Cable is now my cable vendor of choice, plus the guy who runs it is a snarky awesome ex-lawyer from what I understand.
If you're interested, here's the link to purchase the cables: http://www.bluejeanscable.com/store/audio/index.htm
I plugged them up to compare and boy did I hear a difference. Maybe it's the placebo effect, but I highly doubt it. First off, using the new cable, I immediately noticed the lack of a familiar hissing. I always figured it was a problem with my source, but the light hissing that was always there is now gone. I listened to Arcade Fire's Funeral and a great copy of Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, and I may be fooling myself, but I swear I can notice clearer mids and a tighter bass when switching between the two cables. It's not an overt difference, but it's there.
My only complaint about the wire is that the RCA split is too short, and my Audio-gd C-2 has a wide gap between the right and left channels so I had to cut a little slit in the outer-wire to allow that extra give so I didn't feel like the wire was being damaged. By and large, my favorite thing about the wire is that it eliminated the hiss that was present with the cheaper cables. For $38, it's more than I'd usually spend for wires (and I'm very aware of much more expensive cables, and I'm sure they're worth it to some degree) but I'm very happy about my purchase.
I'm more likely to spend a bit more money on cables now that I can hear the difference, without just being told that there is one. I'm not a veteran self-ordained audiophile by any means -- in fact, I've just recently delved into audio in any serious way -- so I'm not sure how qualified I am to make any judgements, but these cables are great and indeed worth the buy. Blue Jeans Cable is now my cable vendor of choice, plus the guy who runs it is a snarky awesome ex-lawyer from what I understand.
If you're interested, here's the link to purchase the cables: http://www.bluejeanscable.com/store/audio/index.htm
