New Black Mountain Cables

[john_jcb]

I was on Audiogon the other day and saw an auction for Black Mountain Cables. I was one of 2 bidders that won. I bought 2 pair of the 1M BMC Gold Interconnects at a great price.

I installed them in my speaker system last night and they were a definite upgrade. Even my wife who is a reluctant listener when I start quizzing her about what she hears heard an improvement. Very transparent. I need to let them burn in a bit which will take a while. My idea to leave the system on playing Led Zeppelin for 100hrs was not well received.

http://www.blackmountaincable.com/peak.htm

Mine are the first gold ones on the page.

 

[mjg]

looks great jon. Let us know how they turn out. Can't you let them burn in with no headphones or speakers?

 

[oneeyedhobbit]

Quote:

Originally Posted by john_jcb My idea to leave the system on playing Led Zeppelin for 100hrs was not well received. \

Bah, who's got something against Led Zeppelin in your house?

 

[john_jcb]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mjg looks great jon. Let us know how they turn out. Can't you let them burn in with no headphones or speakers?

I have a pair between my CDP and preamp and another pair between the pre amp and amp. I don't like running the amps with no load even though it reportedly will not hurt them. Even with only about 4 hours on them I think they are a definite improvement over what I was using.

 

[Welly Wu]

Looks interesting! How do they compare to Cardas cables?

 

[mjg]

Welly Wu;

Nothing compares to cardas cables ; )
j/k

Those cables look rather interesting. Gold Alloy! Wow, i never heard anything like that yet.

 

[Welly Wu]

I know that silver is probably the best metal conductor of electricity with copper being very close. However, I don't know whether gold is an excellent metal to conduct electricity. Hence, it is usually incorporated into an alloy.

Am I correct in thinking that these specially designed and engineered metallic alloys represent the cutting edge in cable technology and sound performance?

 

[averydonovan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Welly Wu I know that silver is probably the best metal conductor of electricity with copper being very close. However, I don't know whether gold is an excellent metal to conduct electricity. Hence, it is usually incorporated into an alloy.

I thought gold was a rather soft metal so they have to put it into an alloy to be able to work with it in wire form relatively easily.

 

[Welly Wu]

Yes. You're right. That is precisely why gold must be incorporated into an metal alloy because it is too soft.

 

[NotoriousBIG_PJ]

They use the gold alloy wire also found in a lot of different cables sold on audiogon. They are a good deal if you get them cheap. I used to own active cables with the same wire. They have a rich detailed smooth tone, but I found the highs to be a bit coloured and splashy. I now use a cable with pure gold wire for left and right, and silver wire for the return which I find fixes all the problems of the gold-alloy wire.

I also tried the bmc gold-alloy power cord a long time ago and was not impressed at all with it so I sent it back.

edit: so there is in fact gold wire that is not alloy heh..

Biggie.

 

[PhilS]

Any more recent opinons re these cables from those who have had them for awhile? They look nice, but the BMC website makes me suspicious. They list the retail and direct prices of a 1m cable between $470 and $900, yet they always seem to go on audiogon in the $90 to $100 range? Do they just grossly inflate the retail and direct prices to make you think you're getting a steal, or do they really compete with $500 cables?

 

[NotoriousBIG_PJ]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PhilS Do they just grossly inflate the retail and direct prices to make you think you're getting a steal, or do they really compete with $500 cables?

Both.

Biggie.