Check Out Signal Cable's Analog Two IC

[sbulack]

After a moderate amount of research on the Internet for reasonably-priced IC's, I found some very high praise for the IC's of Signal Cable (www.signalcable.com). At $36.00 for a two foot IC for their Analog One, and $49.00 for a two foot IC for their Analog Two, I decided to splurge on a four foot Analog Two, for $65.00 incl. shipping. After a day of continuous use, the IC sounds crystal clear, beautifully spectrally balanced with DEEP lows and well-focused highs. My sources, which I had heard previously as thin in bass and lacking solidity I now hear as having plenty of bass, and acoustic instruments sound as solid as live ones. I haven't ever seen Signal Cable or their Analog Two cable mentioned on these threads, so I wanted to mention it. BTW, I am just a really happy customer, and in no way associated with or stand to profit in any way from the sales of, Signal Cable.

The benefits I have heard from the Analog Two IC are:
1) Much improved spectral information from my sources. Every electronic and acoustic instrument in my recordings sounds more solid, realistic and live than I have ever heard it before.
2) Much improved sound staging and placement of instruments within the sound stage. This helps vintage 60's and earlier recordings (in which good spectral information often just isn't there) to sound more live.
3) Quieter background. You really hear a cymbal decay to infinity when the background provides seemingly no floor below which it disappears. This also helps a lot for classical recordings with a large dynamic range, so that the quietest passages are quite faint. No problem, they are faint, but clearly and distinctly audible.

For the quality I am hearing, and the price I paid, I wanted to pass this name along: the Analog Two cable from Signal Cable (www.signalcable.com).

 

[kartik]

Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt, written the book....

... and moved on!

BTW do a search for the signal cable analogs, I remember at least 5-7 previous threads describing these, not the least my own.

The headphile combo ICS made these cry and run away. In terms of sheer transparency the silvers ruled and the OFCs had way nicer imaging than the SC A2s. Try them out!

 

[sbulack]

It's interesting that you mention the headphile cables, because I had my eye on their CPU Series Silver mini-to-RCA, and their price is certainly right ($50.00 for a 1.5m length). I'm going to be getting one and doing a compare with the SC A2. I'll post my comparisson in one of the threads that I found when I did my search differently than I had previously done (prompted by your letting me know that other threads DO exist - Thanks). BTW, I did not come up with a thread started by you. Can you help me out and give me the link to it? I'd appreciate it. I'd like to get the substance behind your playground taunt conclusions. - Thanks in advance.

 

[mjg]

i like signal cable, Frank is a real cool guy and is eager to please his clients

I ordered their digital aes/beu and their new HC digital power cable to try out with my dac1, should arrive fridayish

enjoy the new cables.
BTW if your just starting to get into cable upgrading, it only gets worse! Wait and see in a few months : ]
The improvements are addictive, and you want more and more!

 

[Chinchy]

I have had the SignalCable Analog Two's for a good long time (~8 months or so, which is a long time for Head-fi...

). Yes, they're pretty good for the money, but after I got the Grado Signature IC's ($135 new, ~$90-100 used) I noticed a great increase in detail. Things I hadn't heard before were clearer and brought more to the forefront. Once you hear what you're missing, you can't go back...

Sigh, upgrading is a never ending disease.

 

[kartik]

Quote:

Originally posted by sbulack It's interesting that you mention the headphile cables, because I had my eye on their CPU Series Silver mini-to-RCA, and their price is certainly right ($50.00 for a 1.5m length). I'm going to be getting one and doing a compare with the SC A2. I'll post my comparisson in one of the threads that I found when I did my search differently than I had previously done (prompted by your letting me know that other threads DO exist - Thanks). BTW, I did not come up with a thread started by you. Can you help me out and give me the link to it? I'd appreciate it. I'd like to get the substance behind your playground taunt conclusions. - Thanks in advance.

The post is from quite a while back and is fairly light in terms of detail. Far from a detailed review. I did use the SC A2 for nearly 4-5 months before upgrading to the headphile combos. THe silver + copper combination in my setup sounds really good. Which is why my SCA2 has been relegated to home theater duty on my 'B' system. One of the big downsides IMHO is the fact that the SCA2s are fairly stiff and cumbersome for closely spaced components. The headphiles are really soft and easy to handle but still sound excellent. The imaging and bass IMO are the places where they really score over the SCA2s. This is not to say that these are poor cables. When I first tried them I was completely blown away, now after upgrading they seem passe. 'Tis the way in headfi.

 

[sbulack]

Thanks for more detail, kartik. As I noted in my earlier post, I'll be picking up a headphile cable (with the prices of headphile and Signal Cable, it really is worth the experiment) and comparing the two on my rig. I've got a low-end source, which has seemed to me light on bass, and Grado SR225, which are a forward set of phones. Since I am using the rig near my computer system, I need to use shielded IC's, so I will use the CPU series, in which Copper or Silver must be chosen. I'll be chosing Copper to balance the light/forward other components of my rig. I agree with you that the stiffness of the SC A2 is a drawback to it. For $40.00 for a 1.5m length of headphile Copper, if I can get a better handling, better sounding IC, I can't afford NOT to do the compare. I'll make the results of my compare known.

 

[kartik]

Good job!
Copper sounds like a good idea with the SR-225s. Although, I might add that the Xanadu777 (The owner of headphile) rewired his SR-225 with fine silver wire to great results. As per his description, the silvers really made the SR-225 seem much smoother and less harsh. Unusual for both silver cables and the SR-225s. One of the headfiers recently picked up some silver wire ICs for about the same price, We will know how they sound when he posts his review