Quote:
Originally posted by radrd
What cables have you tried that you like less than your DIY cables? |
In my case the Truthlinks, Pro Silway II, Alpha Core Micropurl silver and a Wireworld Atlantis II among other cheaper cables. Thing is what I liked less about those cables may be things other people would have liked better than my Belden twisted pair. The Pro Silway II was darn good but I wasn't grooving on it's slightly sizzly sound and detailed top end, for example. System synergy and tastes is such a big thing with cables.
The Belden twisted pair is really hard to beat in terms of natural tone, it renders instruments very accurately. The twisted pair design has a lot going for it. First, only the cores of the Belden 89259 and 89248 coax cables are used. The 89248 is solid core 18 awg bare copper with a foamed tefon insulation. The 89259 is stranded 22 awg bare copper with a foamed tefon insulation. The foam teflon insulation is extremely ideal if not of the very best dielectric materials you could want. The twisted pair configuration is very low in capacitance and it's geometry is great for RFI rejection as well. A twisted pair is extremely ideal in that the conductors are as close to one another as possible. Another benefit of these two cables is you have a larger solid core and smaller stranded core copper conductor, both of which have their strengths sonically speaking and when combined you kind of get the best of both worlds. Termination of the twisted pair is paramount, as antness eluded to, the quality of the soldering is crucial. If soldering is done well and you use good RCA's like the Bullet plugs or Cardas RCA's this cable is simply fantastic. Quiet, quick, balanced tone, transparency, depth and pin point imaging. I have both a shielded and non-shielded pair, the shielded pair sounds a bit better in terms of accuracy where the unshielded pair sounds a hair more transparent.
A lot of under $100 IC's use poor dielectric insulators, like PVC for example, and often are simple coaxial type designs. These cables are easier to make and materials are cheaper. Commercial IC's in the more expensive catregory usually use more expensive insulators, better cable geometry and better connectors. These designs are more labor intensive and the materials become extremely expensive. Teflon extruded copper or silver is not cheap. Throw in marketing and business costs and you start to see why cables can become so damn expensive. The beauty of the Belden twisted pair that Jon Risch made so popular is it uses quality materials and cable geometry found in many expensive cables out there. That's why it's so good and so cheap. If built really well it will compete with very expensive cables, not just entry level audiophile brand cables.
