[dura]

I have a collection of IC's priced between €100 and €300.
My favs were an Audioquest Coral (full and warm, but not very dynamic) a kimber PBJ (detailed, dynamic, but a little bit grainy) and a vdHul the First Ultimate (detailed but mechanic).

A year ago I decided to try something for myself I used bullet plugs and 2x 50 cm of Homegrown audio's Silver lace, a solid core silver, teflon isolated braided cable (thanks to Kimber I'm a big fan of braided/teflon) and soldered the stuf together.
Total costs about €100 and half an hour work.

The results are excellent; the cable sounds like the Kimber but clearly smoother (copper does have a slight grainyness) very detailed, dynamic and spatial (the soundstage gains a meter on both sides compared to the AQ) and good bass.
The cable does not have artificial warmth (rolled of treble/ diminished dynamics, midbass excess) but on the same time is not to analytical, no time or tonesmear at all.

I haven't heart all cables, and of course tastes and systems differ, but on my setup (Rega/Primare/Dynaudio) this is by far the best IC I have tried, and maybe it'll work for you too.

 

[NotoriousBIG_PJ]

I found the Silver lace cable to make the sound washed out. Compared to the grover mkII reference cable they didn't compare and the grovers were cheaper to boot.

Biggie.

 

[dura]

I do not know the grover, but sounds good, I'll keep it in mind.
All the same, 'washed out' is really not a description I recognize in my system, not stand alone and neither compared to other IC's I have and had.
I did not test how much the Bulletplugs contributed, judged by the number of commercial I see the last two years with them, probably clearly noticable.
But I have experienced IC's are systemsensitive, I use them on a speakerbasedsystem and of course tastes differ.

 

[RnB180]

IMO thats still a bit expensive to silver DIY :X

maybe you can save even more cash and buy single run silver teflon wire and braid them your self?

 

[recca]

I highly recommend Chris VenHaus cryo'd pulsars. Chris is really helpful and these were easy to build. I used Neutrik 1/4" on one end an Bullet Plugs on the other. I imagine that Silver bullets or WBT NexGens might be better, but these sounded great nonetheless. The cable goes for $4.99 a foot. Kits are not inexpensive, but I think they are worth it. Probably make awesome digital cables as well.

 

[dura]

Quote:

IMO thats still a bit expensive to silver DIY :X maybe you can save even more cash and buy single run silver teflon wire and braid them your self?

Probably, but the plugs were the most expensive, and the cable has 6 runs braided.

 

[RnB180]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dura Probably, but the plugs were the most expensive, and the cable has 6 runs braided.

why do you need six runs of silver for an interconnect? IMO anything more then 2 single runs of 22-20 awg is already overkill beyond anything humanly perceivable especially in such short lengths.

Did you notice an increase in any audio fidelity using 6 strands of silver as opposed to two 22 awg strand runs? Id find you impressions interesting.
If so maybe I should try it out.

thanks for replying!

 

[dura]

Quote:

why do you need six runs of silver for an interconnect?

Interesting question.
First of all, there is the braiding, you need at least 3 wires for that of course.

Braiding is a clever way to chance the way the IC picks up RFI; instead of one long wire working as an antenna there is a short piece of wire that disappears in the shield of other wire every 0,5 cm.
Furthermore, I did expiriment with wires, but admittedly not with this stuff.
Doubling wires on an IC can give a fuller sound. (the effect is more noticacle on speaker wire, the audible differences between f.i. Kimber 4TC and 8TC are far from subtle). The efffects has its limits, too much wire and a kind of "smear" gets audible.
The IC I described stays on the safe side , and has a clear, detailed and dynamic sound.

 

[RnB180]

couldnt that be done with twisting two wires? the ground and signal OR if you really need a braid use three runs and twist two signals to one ground.

for wire that guage and length that short with such little wattage running through them.. tiny itty bitty eenie weenie wattage... reistance is pretty much nil with a single 22-24 awg wire right?


I guess if you have it unsleeved it would look really cool

, performancewise imo its just overkill.

 

[dura]

Twisting seems to reduce dynamics in my experience, giving a slightly "sat-on" sound.
I do not know if the resistancething tells the whole story; the audible differences in cables cannot be explained by resistance, inductance and capacitance alone it seems.
So I only rely on my ears, that's what I do it for in the first place of course.

Overkill...?
Well, the differences between this and my over twice as expensive bought ICs are clearly audible, also to others.
The first thing that always tells the differences between cables in my system (which sounds very spatial, probably due to the d'apollito configuration of the speakers) is soundstage.

Compared to the AQ Coral I gain a meter at both sides.
My personal pet hate is distorted or grainy treble; the silver lace is more smooth then the Kimber (also with bulletplugs), and there is slightly more height and depth, in other aspects the cables are very much alike, so the kimber is an interesting cable to see if you like this kind sonic signature.
The first Ultimate is an excellent cable, but somehow it seems to lack 'musicality' sounding cold and analytical to my ears. I have others hanging around, but these are my favs.

To put things in perspective:
playing with cables is a relatively easy way to finetune your system (you need them anyway) without but IMO only makes sense with a system that is balanced and for the overseeable time finished in the opinion of the owner, not to try to cure significant flaws.

 

[RnB180]

Dura,

Would you be more in depth with your description, Im not sure if Im following you here, but if you are experiencing an increase in sound stage, that usually pertains to a higher range of dynamics in the upper frquencies.

It would be easier if you explained your impressions that way, rather then.. Lacking musicality, cold and other inapropriate descriptions of audio. Because My perception of cold may be different from yours. They only way we can be on the same level here, is if you use actual reasons why there is a difference in audio fidelity betweem several cables.

terms like sat on, lacking musicality, cold and such descriptions really do not add much to an understanding of your experience. mainly because I do not know what sat-on sound sounds like, or what cold sounds like (I know what it feels like though), and I dont see how recorded music actually lacks musicality when in essence that is what it is.. music. and the defintion of musicality is "the property of sounding like music"

My guess is since warmth is a description for enhanced mid range and bass, cold my be sibilance?

Ive used and switched cables on my system before, but after a certain price point, the sound differences are negligiable and when the orignal difference in sound already borders on imaginary, higher up you go, the differences become even more slim. IMO. I am a believer that audio cables make a difference, but after a certain level, there is just no perceivable difference at all it, it becomes an issue of aesthetics more then anything else.

thats my 2 cents.

 

[dura]

Quote:

Im not sure if Im following you here, but if you are experiencing an increase in sound stage, that usually pertains to a higher range of dynamics in the upper frquencies.

Sounds very plausible.
Sat-on is reduced dynamics.
I agree about cold and musicality, but frankly, I cannot put the finger on why exactly I dislike the Ultimate.
It does not have any noticable sibilance but sounds mechanical nevertheless.
Warmth is a difficult thing too; used for midbass excess/rolled off treble, reduced dynamics...

Cables seem to be very systemdependent; I used to have a powerfull sounding system with big 3-ways that went down to 20Hz, not very detailed or spatial; cables didn't make too much difference and there was no justification to spent more then necessary.
My current system sounds detailed, dynamic and very spatial, and cables have a realtively large contribution.