how important are interconnects?
Jul 21, 2007 at 5:48 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 57

Chris_Himself

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right now im using the one that comes with the PA2V2 and ive been wondering what the difference would be if i moved onto the Cardas interconnect from headroom or the Practical devices interconnect.

honestly i was kind of hoping i could find a really sweet looking braided one like the line out interconnects on the ipod.

all this is in preparation for my microshar to come in.
 
Jul 21, 2007 at 6:01 AM Post #2 of 57
It changes sound the least, but it's significant enough to not be ignored. The Cardas IC I have is very good for its price, but my AKZip made IC is noticeably better for couple times the price.
 
Jul 21, 2007 at 8:11 AM Post #4 of 57
so which one should i buy,

cardas
practical devices
the 10 dollar one that comes with the airhead.

if you guys can find me any other interconnects i would greatly appreciate it.
 
Jul 21, 2007 at 8:14 AM Post #6 of 57
In a high-end system, interconnects can be used as tweaks, but for such a system as yours, you won't hear any perceptible difference. Stick with the basic stuff. A good rule of thumb is to take 10% the cost of your amp or source (whichever is higher) and use that amount or less on interconnects.
 
Jul 21, 2007 at 8:22 AM Post #7 of 57
I say interconnects are very important.
They can't make an average system sound great, but they can help you fine tune a system to get the best sound quality out of it.
 
Jul 21, 2007 at 8:48 AM Post #9 of 57
Quote:

Originally Posted by krmathis /img/forum/go_quote.gif
They can't make an average system sound great, but they can help you fine tune a system to get the best sound quality out of it.


X2!!

They may not be on top of the priorities list.. but they do help get the most out of your set-up.. Don't let your interconnects be your weakest link in your set-up since it is one of the easiest and cheapest (sometimes) to improve. Can be debated, but that's my two cents!
eggosmile.gif


If your system isn't exactly "high-end", it is not worth getting expensive cables. Just get yourself some better quality cables for the built quality..
 
Jul 21, 2007 at 9:41 AM Post #10 of 57
alright so basically match your cables with the rest of your crap, argh im still going to have to say that the cable offered with the XM4 is QUITE sexy.

umm that one line about how people spend thousands of dollars on tube amps to color their music yet pay hundreds for cable neutrality at the same time is pretty crazy.
 
Jul 21, 2007 at 3:30 PM Post #11 of 57
Yes 10% or 20% are the numbers used as a rule of thumb. I definetly would not go spend more than $30 at this time if I was you.

On a side issue I can tell yout that for $30 you can get a heck of a good IC made by Fitz or Turbo. I have compared them with IC costing 2 to 6 times as much and with one or two exceptions either of Turbo or Fitz come on top.

I like the speed and clarity of silver so the silver plated IC by Fitz is fantastic!
 
Jul 21, 2007 at 3:43 PM Post #12 of 57
Quote:

I can tell yout that for $30 you can get a heck of a good IC made by Fitz or Turbo


I have spent $200 for Silver Bullet 4.0 IC's with WBT connectors and they sound no better than the $35 CT cables from TweekGeek.com. Different, but not better.

There is no need to spend big money on IC's today. Read the cable forum at Audio Asylum for references.
 
Jul 21, 2007 at 11:01 PM Post #14 of 57
Get more music

See ya
Steve
 
Jul 23, 2007 at 7:04 PM Post #15 of 57
Interconnects are easy and inexpensive to make well when terminated well.

I have found more dramatic differences with speaker cable. Look for the recipe for the Cat 5 speaker cable on Audio Asylum for a cheap but good speaker cable.
 

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