DIY cable compare time...
Thanks to
@teknorob23's adventures, help and advice I made RCA interconnects for my office; Neotech NEI 3004 copper interconnect cable + Aeco silver-plated connectors. The office setup was moving from cheapo-£5-amazon-special RCAs, so I will say immediately, they were absolutely noticeably much better. They were so enjoyable at work, I felt the need to bring them home and compare vs my main interconnects; ETI Research Plugs mentioned above with NEI-1002 UP-OCC Silver Cable.
I am both sad and happy to say that after 90 minutes of A/B listening - the more expensive setup is the overall winner for me. A few summary comments from my listening notes are below. There are pretty straight themes for all songs in my comparison playlist. Given that 1 is a £300+ DIY cable and one is a £60 DIY cable, I am both happy and sad about the results, but not too surprised. Just the fact that I even thought they were worth comparing says something about how well I like the Aeco cable. Awesome value for money IMO.
These are some of the more negative comments on the Aeco/ Copper cable. There were a load of positive comments too but eliminating for post-length-sake. They are nice cables that I will use daily at my office.
- Subbass there, not crushing, but there
- Mid-bass very slight coarse in the decay of thump?
- Mid enjoyment/ engagement, a bit ’shout coarse' at times
- Slight harshness when louder many instruments playing at once?
- Thinner upper range small sounds
- Slight coarseness to vocal upper mids?
- Narrower stage on this song?
These are the more positive comments for the ETI / Silver cable. There weren't too many negative ones.
- Most repated comment: stronger enjoyment/ engagement.
- Revealed lower mids section I hadn’t yet heard
- Good bass presence relative to the rest of the sounds
- Louder/ busier guitar solo well managed and coherent, with only very slight shout once or twice
- Pretty coherent when more busy/ sounds. Well-presented whole
- No harshness when the bass gets dominant
- All sounds ‘authentic' even when 'thinner' or smaller sounds, natural presentation
- Good imaging in busier sections, clear separation in action
- Engaging bass lead section (forced head-bobbing)
(I've not used this language before, but I think when people say PRaT, they may mean what I was experiencing as 'engagement' with the ETI/ silver cables?)
From a DIY perspective, I found the Aeco connectors
much more pleasant to solder than the ETIs. Perhaps I just suck less at this point.
I'd love to make pure silver Aeco + a proper Silver Neotech cable, but the fat silver neotech cable doesn't fit
It could be hacked, but perhaps wouldn't be aesthetically lovely.
Finally, my ETI cables don't have the screen connected to the ground from the source. Does anything think they are worth desoldering / trimming/ adding that to the earth? I can't tell if it is a psychoacoustic ghost, but I felt the Aeco cables were every so slightly quieter and I could only attribute it to that. Very likely "in the noise of measurement" but thought I'd mention anyhow.
Best
Chris
For completeness sake, here is an odd track I have been listening to while typing this post. Not my usual cup of tea, but enjoying despite that fact, quality production in the 2nd half.
https://tidal.com/browse/track/103633273
N.B. Now that I have completed this exercise I think there is an important caveat; that the new cables have 15-20h on them, whereas the other cables have a few hundred hours probably... Hmm.