Ghetto cables

[HiWire]

So I'm in the middle of building a stereo system. Does anybody have experience with super el-cheapo budget interconnect and speaker cables – maybe including stuff like Audioquest and Monster products (budget < $200 total, 4 sets of interconnects and speaker cable for two speakers).

I was looking at the Audioquest website and I was considering the new Big Sur – no reviews so far. I was also looking (laughing) at the Monster website as well as the no-name products from The Source (Radio Shack) and Best Buy. I remember somebody like Stereophile recommending Radio Shack speaker wire back in the day.

Grover Huffman's products occurred to me, but they're priced a little high for a sight unseen (sound unheard) online purchase. The Kimber Hero also seems to have a good, popular rep.

Another option would be the stuff at the surplus store. It's anybody's guess what it would sound like, but I guess I could use them as spares someday.

Edited July 29, 2012 by HiWire

[cobra_kai]

Monoprice FTW

[roadtonowhere08]

To mention Audioquest and Grover's products in a thread titled "Ghetto Cables" made me laugh.

Just go to an online place like Bluejeans Cable, get what you need, and be done with it. Once you start trying to listen to differences in cables, you might as well hang yourself with them.

[HiWire]

Grover's cables just seem like an incredible bargain compared to the boutique name brands. I definitely did not intend to denigrate the quality of his products.

I completely forgot about Monoprice and Bluejeans. I'll take a look at their stuff.

Thanks, guys!

Edited July 29, 2012 by HiWire

[swt61]

If you feel you want something a little more boutique-ish, (ie dressier looking) then don't forget SignalCable. He makes a nice looking cable at a reasonable price.

[Torpedo]

Best Cables I know is George. I'd recommend these

Also his albums with Art Pepper as a leader are awesome.

[Knuckledragger]

The eBay seller heels-6 makes excellent, no-BS cables at really good prices. He does a lot of custom work, too.

[HeadphoneAddict]

The eBay seller heels-6 makes excellent, no-BS cables at really good prices. He does a lot of custom work, too.

I agree, I bought cables from heels-6 a couple of times. Very happy with them.

[CarlSeibert]

I've bought cables from BlueJeans and they've been good value for money.

A friend of mine has SignalCables and likes them.

We've all made interconnects out of star-quad mic cable. (Which isn't to say they're the greatest, but you can't beat the price.)

I've built interconnects out of jewelers small-gauge silver wire and "stuff" (the recipe is here in the cable gallery thread) that I've been very happy with (and they cost less than lint - just some labor)

Speaker cables are harder to do, but I've made some out of some in a shotgun configuration out of some crazy Mogami coax that sound good and didn't cost much. They look snazzy, too, if that matters. I can find the model number of that wire if you want.

If you can find some teflon-insulated CAT5 or 6 network cable, speaker cables can be fashioned from that. (many recipes on the web)

I've also bought nice manufactured cables that cost a fair bit, and - gee wiz - they work really well.

[The Monkey]

I am not a fan of Monoprice's build quality. Signal Cable is nice and I also happen to like the lowest end Audioquest (esp. if on sale). I'm talking only about build quality and ergonomics here. They all sound the same to me.

EDIT: BlueJeans has been good too.

[deepak]

I really dislike the XLR connectors Monoprice uses on their balanced cables. The powder coating they apply is so thick that it's a pain in the ass to insert them in Neutrik panel mount connectors. And the thickness of the paint is variable, I had to shave off the paint on one connector to fit.

[Dusty Chalk]

No, to go truly ghetto, you must build them yourself. And not be very good at it. At least, initially. Markertek. Get cable, a soldering iron, and whatever connectors you need, and go to town.

[n_maher]

I'll offer a somewhat alternate suggestion - there's a few of us around here who have been known to either buy or build more than we need. Odds are good that if you post up what you need (lenghts, styles, etc.) we might be able to offer up some even cheaper solutions. I know I have both balanced and SE cables just sitting around unused...

[edit]Hell, I even have speaker cables laying around.

[swt61]

I'd pit the speaker cables Nate builds (and taught me to build) against any. And they look fantastic too.

I also am lucky enough to have several pair of his SE and Balanced cables. Also cables from Fitz, luvdunhill and a few others around here. If built with quality wire (I'm not talking esoteric, just good quality) they sound as good as anything I've heard.

I've definitely come to the conclusion that cables do not provide anywhere near the difference that cable manufacturers would like you to believe. The only bad cables I've heard are those made with shitty wire (not intended for cable use) or crappy solder joints.

Now I buy/trade from these guys first, or if I need something really fast, then SignalCables.

[HiWire]

No, to go truly ghetto, you must build them yourself. And not be very good at it. At least, initially. Markertek. Get cable, a soldering iron, and whatever connectors you need, and go to town.

Thanks, guys.

My DIY skillz would probably result in a cable fire hazard (and explosive to boot). I'll take all of your suggestions into consideration... there may be a cable begging PM in your inbox soon. Keep the suggestions coming if you have any other ideas. The current interconnect between my CD player and headphone amp came for free from Philodox... it was a custom RCA job of about 1.5 feet that he didn't want, so I've never actually owned a name brand cable.

I'll be using the cables to connect my Arcam FMJ CD36 to an Arcam C31 preamp to 2 Arcam P1 monobloc power amplifiers. That's six interconnects, which kind of freaks me out... going from a simple headphone setup to a full-fledged stereo system (not to mention the staggering cost). The speaker cables will go to (hopefully) a set of PMC twenty.24 floorstanding speakers. Probably not biwired, because then the number of cables in the system creates a cosmic string, sucking my humble little stereo into a wormhole of audiophilia.

Fortunately, I am picking up the amplifier stuff used, so the total system cost wasn't as astronomical as I'd imagined.

Edited July 30, 2012 by HiWire

[n_maher]

It's unclear to me how you're coming up with 6 pairs of cables.

Pair 1 - from source to preamp (balanced or se, it's just one pair)

Pair 2 - from preamp to amp (balanced or SE, it should still only take one cable to get to each amp)

Pair 3 - speaker cables one cable from each amp to each speaker

What am I missing?

[HiWire]

A slightly technical question: should I use balanced cables going from the preamp to the monoblocs? The CD player only has single-ended outputs, but the Oppo BDP-95 I am planning on getting has balanced outputs. None of the cable runs are going to be particularly long... I envision the separates stack as one rack eventually, so the interconnects should be 3 feet long or shorter.

I've never really understood the benefits of balanced cable runs at the "budget" audiophile scale, but maybe this is one more jump I'm going to make while building this system.

Also, my listening room is very small, at 10' x 10', so the speaker cables won't need to be too long, either.

[HiWire]

It's unclear to me how you're coming up with 6 pairs of cables

Sorry, I mistyped that and edited it in between when you read it and now.

By my count:

1 pair - CD Player -> Preamp

2 pair - Preamp -> Power Amp

3 pairs = 6 interconnects. Also, I'm thinking about hooking up a PS3 and/or an Oppo BDP-95 for Video/SACD/HDCD, along with a possible upgrade between my headphone amp and the source which would mean even more cables (4 to 6 pairs in total). I hope it doesn't become a crazy, tangled rat's nest that actually needs the shielding cable vendors tout.

My initial plan was to have a simple, clean system with minimal equipment. Adding all these extra boxes will also mean another PS Audio Duet for power filtering...

Edited July 30, 2012 by HiWire

[robm321]

Not that it has anything to do with cables, but a 10 x 10 room can be incredibly difficult in regards to acoustic issues. Have you considered diagonal speaker placement?

[CarlSeibert]

Sounds like you're on the right track.

Short speaker cables are good if for no other reaason than because speaker cables tend to be expensive.

In theory, the best interconnects should be the ones between the preamp and amp because the signal always goes through them, whichever source may be selected, and they're usually the longest. (That said, the best sounding system I know has a forty foot run of microphone cable as its main interconnect.)

Balanced is way better if you can do it, in my experience, especially for that long preamp-to-amp run. Cheaper balanced cables> more expensive single-ended ones. I've heard slighter differences between cheap and expensive in balanced mode than single-ended, too. I don't really agree that cables are all more or less the same, but I do concur with the notion that you're more likely to hear more sound quailtiy per buck invetsing in better equipment than better cables. Not to mention that some commercial cables are absolutely terrible value for money. (Assuming, as Steve said, that you avoid corroded zipcord.)

If you use interconnects made from microphone cables, shielding and balanced or not become moot points, since most of those wires have four conductors and kick-ass shielding.

[HiWire]

Balanced it is, then.

Yes, 10 x 10 is a challenge... I may have too much system for the room.

[Dusty Chalk]

Room treatments.

And I would posit: Nate's cables do not count as 'ghetto'.

[HiWire]

I'll look into room treatments.

What are your opinions on Kimber Kable's 4TC speaker wire? It's been suggested along with 47 Labs for interconnect wire. Also, the monoblocs might be closer to the speakers than I imagined, so the speaker cables' length could be less than 6 feet.

I am thinking of terminating the single-ended interconnect with Eichmann Copper Bullet Plugs and the balanced interconnect with Neutrik NC3MXX-HE cable connectors. The speaker wire will go directly into the binding posts.

Also, the cable count is changing again because it was pointed out to me that balanced cables don't need to come in pairs. So that would be 1 pair of single-ended interconnects, 2 balanced interconnects, and 2 speaker cables.

Edited July 31, 2012 by HiWire

[Dusty Chalk]

Also, the cable count is changing again because it was pointed out to me that balanced cables don't need to come in pairs.

[Nebby]

Maybe he meant that they don't necessarily come as attached pairs, as some rca connects are made? dunno.