Cables Recommendation

Some of my friends have lent me few cables to try out. Mainly XLR, power and speaker cables. I am going to give all a try. Bit overwhelmed how to do a comparison with so many cables at hand.

IMHO, the best way to compare cables is to record a track with your existing setup, swap one cable at a time record again and then listen on headphones may be to have close analysis. Playing and then swapping then playing again is not helping at all. Our memory is not that great to remember how a track was played while the difference is subtle.

All suggestions are welcome.

Thanks.
 
For such a high end system I would never start with stock cables especially interconnects, USB cable and speaker cables.
As Gerry has said atleast go with diy route for ICs and speaker cables.

Start with cheaper and decent USB cable and then move higher.

I found big difference in sound when I moved from stock USB cable to Anticable level 3.
Same was with moving slightly higher speaker wires from basic amazon wires.
 
Some of my friends have lent me few cables to try out. Mainly XLR, power and speaker cables. I am going to give all a try. Bit overwhelmed how to do a comparison with so many cables at hand.

IMHO, the best way to compare cables is to record a track with your existing setup, swap one cable at a time record again and then listen on headphones may be to have close analysis. Playing and then swapping then playing again is not helping at all. Our memory is not that great to remember how a track was played while the difference is subtle.

All suggestions are welcome.

Thanks.

Ask any of your family member or friend to help you. Ask for their opinion as well.
I usually ask my 13 years old son to help me out.
 
IMHO, the best way to compare cables is to record a track with your existing setup, swap one cable at a time record again and then listen on headphones may be to have close analysis.

Thanks.

Do that. Ensure a decent mic and neutral and transparent headphones are used. Else you’d add its coloration to the sound you hear. Also, make only one change at a time.

But above all, look for your subjective feeling while directly listening to the system. My ultimate test is the following. If I am listening to a song, I should not want to change it... I should want to continue listening to it... and this should happen across songs (from various artists and genres) I usually listen to. I should feel that compelling urge to listen to the entire song till the end.

Another related subjective test - When a system is rightly set, it usually feels like the same song has gotten longer. Yeah! It’s an indication that I am immersed in the song and appreciating more of it, and hence the song seems so much more than otherwise.

At the end of the day, no matter what your assessments on individual parameters are, you have to have a system that you’d want to listen and keep listening to music on.
 
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Some of my friends have lent me few cables to try out. Mainly XLR, power and speaker cables. I am going to give all a try. Bit overwhelmed how to do a comparison with so many cables at hand.

IMHO, the best way to compare cables is to record a track with your existing setup, swap one cable at a time record again and then listen on headphones may be to have close analysis. Playing and then swapping then playing again is not helping at all. Our memory is not that great to remember how a track was played while the difference is subtle.

All suggestions are welcome.

Thanks.
Mic Recording and Listening via headphones will add lots of variables to the mix, Apart from being more laborious, I'd advice against it. Don't complicate things in my opinion. These are my Routines while comparing 2 cables, which may help you in decision making.

1. Select an album or a Playlist with WELL RECORDED familiar songs, covering most of the attributes of the system like, Tonality, Vocals (male/Female), Dynamics, Sound stage, Resolution etc.. Songs which You can listen over and over again without getting fed up.

2. Select the Time of the day, when the ambient noise and intrusions are bare minimum, for me its late nights Or early morning sessions. You should be fresh enough for critical listening.

3. Ask unbiased Family members or audiophile buddies to help you with inputs. One of the most yielding Interventions can be sought this way.

4. Play your Default system for a while before starting comparing, at least 1 cd length or 45min, this warm up is bare minimum. Give at least 15 minutes for your new component (or cable) to settle in, before concluding.

5. Change only one component at a time, absolutely important. I go with Power Cables first because they make lots of change in the SQ, once you decide the best sound after deciding on the power cable go for changing the other components. You need to mix and match things many number of times.

6. Always see is there an incremental upgrade over the default cables you had previously, its very important to differentiate this. Also on the previous cable you are comparing with.

7. Vary the volume during listening, but Use the phone app at least for recording the Spl level, always try to compare 2 components at the same listening level. The major mistakes can be avoided here.

8. In general, the component that allows you to listen louder without producing A fatigue, Distortion or shouty character Is mostly the better one of the two. Similarly the component which doesn't lose details and dynamics at low volume is the better. Just remember that it's not necessary for a same component to excel in both areas, but more often I've seen that I prefer the same component for low volume listening which I prefer to listen loud. Use Subjectivity to your advantage and pick the one which sounds better at your listening levels. Walking to and from the listening area sometimes gives out the difference between the two components. Repeat the cable change again to reproduce your judgment again before concluding.

9. Not every component changes every attribute of the sound, do read up to know what to expect to change from changing each component. Do read up on the Manfacturer mentioned capacitance, conductivity and impedance numbers if available. But, Remember that Not Everything that can be Measured Matters & Not Everything that Matters can be Measured.

10. Finally, all said and done; the difference (including subjective preferences) between two well made cables is hardly ever more than 10% ( unless there's a significant synergy issue with one cable). That's why you see many people whining and being sceptic about cable changes. I usually pick the expensive cable if the difference is at least 5%. Once you have optimized everything else, each 5% increment in SQ via cable changes costs a lot.

Finally if you are unable to differentiate, Feel that you are Blessed With a Great System and stick to default cables , don't bother changing cables. Enjoy the process anyway.
 
3. Ask unbiased Family members or audiophile buddies to help you with inputs. One of the most yielding Interventions can be sought this way.
Hi Kritik

Unbiased family memeber offered her (read wife) help, on a condition that I reveal the actual price of my system. I politely declined the offer. ;)
 
Hi Guys

Thanks for your vaulable comments to how to test cables, I am posting few recordings if that can be of any help. These are recorded just with the phone the second one using the earphones, but not that good. I dont have any mic and without a proper mic its not that helpful to do comparisions. But if you got time, give these 2 vidoes a shot. One is with my default cables another is with all new cables. Lets keep it a blind testing ;)

Sorry for the poorest possible recording :(

1. Billy Joel - An Innocent Man

2. Jim Reeves - I Love you becuase

Regards
Vivek
 
Mic Recording and Listening via headphones will add lots of variables to the mix, Apart from being more laborious, I'd advice against it. Don't complicate things in my opinion. These are my Routines while comparing 2 cables, which may help you in decision making.

1. Select an album or a Playlist with WELL RECORDED familiar songs, covering most of the attributes of the system like, Tonality, Vocals (male/Female), Dynamics, Sound stage, Resolution etc.. Songs which You can listen over and over again without getting fed up.

2. Select the Time of the day, when the ambient noise and intrusions are bare minimum, for me its late nights Or early morning sessions. You should be fresh enough for critical listening.

3. Ask unbiased Family members or audiophile buddies to help you with inputs. One of the most yielding Interventions can be sought this way.

4. Play your Default system for a while before starting comparing, at least 1 cd length or 45min, this warm up is bare minimum. Give at least 15 minutes for your new component (or cable) to settle in, before concluding.

5. Change only one component at a time, absolutely important. I go with Power Cables first because they make lots of change in the SQ, once you decide the best sound after deciding on the power cable go for changing the other components. You need to mix and match things many number of times.

6. Always see is there an incremental upgrade over the default cables you had previously, its very important to differentiate this. Also on the previous cable you are comparing with.

7. Vary the volume during listening, but Use the phone app at least for recording the Spl level, always try to compare 2 components at the same listening level. The major mistakes can be avoided here.

8. In general, the component that allows you to listen louder without producing A fatigue, Distortion or shouty character Is mostly the better one of the two. Similarly the component which doesn't lose details and dynamics at low volume is the better. Just remember that it's not necessary for a same component to excel in both areas, but more often I've seen that I prefer the same component for low volume listening which I prefer to listen loud. Use Subjectivity to your advantage and pick the one which sounds better at your listening levels. Walking to and from the listening area sometimes gives out the difference between the two components. Repeat the cable change again to reproduce your judgment again before concluding.

9. Not every component changes every attribute of the sound, do read up to know what to expect to change from changing each component. Do read up on the Manfacturer mentioned capacitance, conductivity and impedance numbers if available. But, Remember that Not Everything that can be Measured Matters & Not Everything that Matters can be Measured.

10. Finally, all said and done; the difference (including subjective preferences) between two well made cables is hardly ever more than 10% ( unless there's a significant synergy issue with one cable). That's why you see many people whining and being sceptic about cable changes. I usually pick the expensive cable if the difference is at least 5%. Once you have optimized everything else, each 5% increment in SQ via cable changes costs a lot.

Finally if you are unable to differentiate, Feel that you are Blessed With a Great System and stick to default cables , don't bother changing cables. Enjoy the process anyway.
Thanks Kritik, I will try to stick to what you have suggested. This makes sense. Recording is already a failure. I am too overwhelmed at the moment and have not given a serious shot to try out any cable yet.
 
Do that. Ensure a decent mic and neutral and transparent headphones are used. Else you’d add its coloration to the sound you hear. Also, make only one change at a time.

But above all, look for your subjective feeling while directly listening to the system. My ultimate test is the following. If I am listening to a song, I should not want to change it... I should want to continue listening to it... and this should happen across songs (from various artists and genres) I usually listen to. I should feel that compelling urge to listen to the entire song till the end.

Another related subjective test - When a system is rightly set, it usually feels like the same song has gotten longer. Yeah! It’s an indication that I am immersed in the song and appreciating more of it, and hence the song seems so much more than otherwise.

At the end of the day, no matter what your assessments on individual parameters are, you have to have a system that you’d want to listen and keep listening to music on.
Agree, the emotional connection with the song is important to really enjoy it.
 
Hi Guys

Thanks for your vaulable comments to how to test cables, I am posting few recordings if that can be of any help. These are recorded just with the phone the second one using the earphones, but not that good. I dont have any mic and without a proper mic its not that helpful to do comparisions. But if you got time, give these 2 vidoes a shot. One is with my default cables another is with all new cables. Lets keep it a blind testing ;)

Sorry for the poorest possible recording :(

1. Billy Joel - An Innocent Man

2. Jim Reeves - I Love you becuase

Regards
Vivek

Hi. I am a bit lost on what you are trying to achieve with recordings. It is a complicated route to take. Why did you not simply take a single change at a time and listen yourself for deltas in the sound? recording with a phone is anyway going to reduce the resolution - so you wont be comparing hi res with hi res (even 16-44 is hi res wrt a phone's quality).
 
Hi. I am a bit lost on what you are trying to achieve with recordings. It is a complicated route to take. Why did you not simply take a single change at a time and listen yourself for deltas in the sound? recording with a phone is anyway going to reduce the resolution - so you wont be comparing hi res with hi res (even 16-44 is hi res wrt a phone's quality).
I know that. Shared the videos just for you guys to see if they are good enough to be compared. My ears aint may be that sensitive.
 
I know that. Shared the videos just for you guys to see if they are good enough to be compared. My ears aint may be that sensitive.

It's your own setup and one you have to take a call.
Be confident on yourself and if you don't hear any difference specially with a well praised cable there is nothing to be ashamed of or feel you are doing anything wrong.
Ultimately you only have to enjoy your setup and what Gerry says is very true. The phone recordings will get everything wrong and you would end up getting wrong suggestions
 
I know that. Shared the videos just for you guys to see if they are good enough to be compared. My ears aint may be that sensitive.

Have you posted two different songs to be compared? Why not the same track with both cables?
 
Hi Guys

So I am finally done with my testing of different cables in my system. My conclusion may upset many guys over here ;) . I tried power cables, XLR cables and bunch of speaker cables with my setup.

In short I didn't find any difference at all or a noticeable difference by swapping different cables one by one (all cables were from good brands and not cheap). I do not want to metion the brand names on purpose. Neither do I have any intention to discourage any one to not try different cables. Being a very subjective experiece, one may or may not find any difference.

The only difference I found was "visual" ofcourse the expensive cables look good, better build quality may be over stock cable. But do they make any difference? at least for me the answer is NO.

I am not against buying the good made cables, but I won't recommend cables that cost a bomb. For me thats a total eywash nothing more than marketing gimmick.

Rest use your own judgement/brains and spend wisely. I am glad I saved a good amount of money by not spending on just "visually" good looking cables.

I just found this on Audioholics Channel about power cables. I would suggest to watch this video. Gene has similar views about speaker cables and interconnects.


Regards
Vivek
 
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Hi Vivek,

Just out of curiosity is your observation only on power cables or every speaker cables? i know its a very touchy topic, however would really appreciate if you could share the Brand-AWG details which you had used for testing. I will tell you the reason why i'm asking this, because i have be using 16AWG (Local) speaker cable for sometime now & fairly happy with it, however never changed to something else to really understand if it really helps to go for higher Brand-AWG config speaker cables. Always used below shared chart for reference, however there are certainly videos out there which talks about capabilities of certain Brand-AWG which is low on resistance & hence delivers better performance. Now how true is it, i dont know because its always said "The proof of the pudding is in the eating".

So it will certainly help some of us, who are really thinking or looking forward to change speaker cable based on Brand-AWG & your experience.

Cheers,
:cool:

Screenshot 2020-07-14 at 5.46.37 PM.png
 
Hi Vivek,

Just out of curiosity is your observation only on power cables or every speaker cables? i know its a very touchy topic, however would really appreciate if you could share the Brand-AWG details which you had used for testing. I will tell you the reason why i'm asking this, because i have be using 16AWG (Local) speaker cable for sometime now & fairly happy with it, however never changed to something else to really understand if it really helps to go for higher Brand-AWG config speaker cables. Always used below shared chart for reference, however there are certainly videos out there which talks about capabilities of certain Brand-AWG which is low on resistance & hence delivers better performance. Now how true is it, i dont know because its always said "The proof of the pudding is in the eating".

So it will certainly help some of us, who are really thinking or looking forward to change speaker cable based on Brand-AWG & your experience.

Cheers,
:cool:

View attachment 47376
Hi @apbinu

I have the same observation for all the cables I tried, power, speaker and XLR. The speaker cables I tested were all 14 AWG length 2 to 3 meters mostly bare. All cables are from very well known brands.
 
In short I didn't find any difference at all or a noticeable difference by swapping different cables one by one (all cables were from good brands and not cheap). I do not want to metion the brand names on purpose. Neither do I have any intention to discourage any one to not try different cables. Being a very subjective experiece, one may or may not find any difference.

The only difference I found was "visual" ofcourse the expensive cables look good, better build quality may be over stock cable. But do they make any difference? at least for me the answer is NO.

I am not against buying the good made cables, but I won't recommend cables that cost a bomb. For me thats a total eywash nothing more than marketing gimmick.

Rest use your own judgement/brains and spend wisely. I am glad I saved a good amount of money by not spending on just "visually" good looking cables.

I would agree with almost all of your observations. Eerily similar to mine! And mind you, I did spend an unreasonable amount of money and time testing out cables of all kinds from some of the most reputable brands out there, just out of curiosity; if not anything else. Although the visual aspect is certainly an appeal, isn't it? There are many schools of thought when it comes to cables. Keep listening, and continue learning, hopefully, you'll find your synergy.
 
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