XLR interconnect recommendations

[randerson3024]

Welcome to head-case Bob! glad to have ya!

Thanks!

[Fungi]

I wish I had that graph of blacks and transients and such of various high end cables ready.

[Tachikoma]

I am discovering awesome deals on Chinese high end cables and equipment while in Singapore, they are sure to skyrocket in price once popular. I could get some names for you. I bought some for roughly $300US that are better than Nordost Valhalla. I would give the name, but it's in Chinise.

Sure, why not?

I've considered DIY-ing my own cables, but I think I broke the soldering iron on my first try <___<

The audioquest columbias on ebay look mighty tempting, $238 for an XLR pair with the 72V DBS. Used, though.

[spritzer]

For 200$ you are much better off building your own cables. Four silver bullet plugs, thin silver wire and some teflon tubing and start soldering.

Btw. Don't get me started on the DBS crap or what Singlepower is pushing.

[deepak]

what is Singlepower pushing, now?

Deep fried twinkies to compete with your moon pie business

[spritzer]

what is Singlepower pushing, now?

Tube PSU for your cables...

[Voltron]

From Stereophile CES Report:

We ran into SinglePower Inc.'s Mikhail Rotenberg as he was sprinting down the hall to the Synergistic Research room. "Check these out," he said. "These are a 1932 Tung Argon 4327 and a 1943 722A (323), labeled Centennial, but manufactured by Western Electric."

Rotenberg has a warehouse full of NOS treasures like this he bought from a MilSpec supplier near West Point. A few minutes later, we saw them in action, but we could have never guessed what they were being used in.

This is the Synergistic Research/SinglePower Enigma power supply ($6000) for Synergistic's active shielded Tesla cables (interconnect $1200

[Knuckledragger]

...

I had hoped Spritzer was kidding.

Normal is not going to do it. This calls for

EPIC FACEPALM.

[Icarium]

Yeah I like the tubes I like the aesthetic of the device as simple as it is. But I'm pretty skeptical of the whole thing... but...

The other Dan who was there to pick up his balanced supra has that thing so does I think Rob N and Blubliss. I asked Dan what did it do for him and he basically said it made things sound better and without it things sounded worse. Sounded awfully like placebo/wishful thinking but eh... should I be more inclined to believe him if he gave a really accurate description of what it seems to do for him with the usual audiophile glossary? He invited me and Neilvg to check it out some time. I think I'd like to at least see it in action on my system....

Even if it has as much as an affect as I seemed to notice with the VD Genesis power cord I just dont see myself investing.

[spritzer]

Stuff like this is why I hate audiophiles. VD cables with their "big ass magnets" and other stupid shit, then there is Transparent with their carbon fiber boxes full of 1cent parts, Tara Labs with the "vacuum" cables and Siltech, Jena, Nordost and the list goes on and on. Epic facepalm indeed.

[n_maher]

Sweet Jebus, how expensive a system does one have to own to consider a $6k power supply for your cables??!??

[randerson3024]

I tried to keep an open mind and buy some Chinese cables. They look pretty and sound like dogshit. I am back on Harmonix RCA's to the Raptor (bring on the complaints) and the Stax, and they sound great. Almost as good as the Stealth Indras, which for the price could feed a Darfur settlement for weeks. These fucking prices are out of control.

[spritzer]

Sweet Jebus, how expensive a system does one have to own to consider a $6k power supply for your cables??!??

I think it has a lot to do with lack of experience and the common error that paying more will get you something better. Add that to the fact that active cables must be better then passive. Mikhail can also spin some crazy shit to sell his amps and make people believe all kinds of things.

Btw. Did anybody else notice that the top cap of the tube on the right isn't connected or am I missing something...

I tried to keep an open mind and buy some Chinese cables. They look pretty and sound like dogshit. I am back on Harmonix RCA's to the Raptor (bring on the complaints) and the Stax, and they sound great. Almost as good as the Stealth Indras, which for the price could feed a Darfur settlement for weeks. These fucking prices are out of control.

Good to bring up the Indra and Stealth cables in general. Very expensive they are but the Indra brings something new to the table, custom made connectors and amorphous wire. It's the best IC I've ever used and I will probably pick up a set to use on the BHSE.

[Fitz]

Btw. Did anybody else notice that the top cap of the tube on the right isn't connected or am I missing something...

For all we know the heater is the only thing actually connected.

[Grahame]

Didn't you know warm air sounds better than cold air.

It's also less dense, so the sound waves have an easier time traveling, and thus aren't so tired out by the time they reach your ears, and who doesn't prefer energetic sound waves to fatigued ones, or something

[spritzer]

For all we know the heater is the only thing actually connected.

That was what I was getting at...

[spritzer]

i like my Blue Jeans LC-1s and Blue Jeans Belden 5000 speaker cables. they conduct electricity.

I do wonder sometimes if the idiots paying 25k$ for a cable have ever listened to the cheap-but-great stuff.

[Dusty Chalk]

i like my Blue Jeans LC-1s and Blue Jeans Belden 5000 speaker cables. they conduct electricity.

It's too bad that irony doesn't conduct electricity, despite sounding ferrous.

[Tachikoma]

These look kinda interesting, marketing talk aside (the cables arrive burned in!):

SILVER FOIL XLR CABLES IDEAL FOR AUDIO RESEARCH ETC 1m - eBay (item 170244971283 end time Aug-08-08 04:40:16 PDT)

Spaced interconnects, heh.

[Tachikoma]

Bah, bit the bullet on those. I got a 60 day money back guarantee so... why not I suppose

[spritzer]

...and why wouldn't you just get some Jupiter silver wire and make your own for a lot less then that? You could even make them spaced and thus copy one of the old Stax tweaks, just look at the internal wiring of a SRM-T1...

[Tachikoma]

I really did break my soldering gun the first time I used it :x Its bent at an angle now. Granted, it was cheap... too cheap I guess.

I'll stand to lose about $40 if I do return it, but that isn't too much. I wanted to hear how much of a difference a good XLR would make to my rig, first and foremost.

Could you post a link for the jupiter silver wires anyway? I'll take a look at those, and maybe invest some in a half-decent soldering rig.

Edit:http://www.partsconnexion.com/catalog/wire.html

Hmm, cotton insulated 28AWG solid core silver...

[spritzer]

That's it there. Cheap and cheerful silver wire which sounds great when wound around a center core and well damped like the VH audio DIY silver design.

[Tachikoma]

Still, what do you think about those cables? Price aside, of course. =P

[spritzer]

Tough to say really. Could be good and could be crap depending on the silver wire used as well as the build quality but the description isn't really helping them...