Need your opinion on Blue jeans LC-1 stereo interconnect

[gobble]

I don't know, but I suspect that the only difference is that it comes in a green cover!

My cables, ordered from bluejeans.co.uk, have been despatched from bluejeans USA, and have just spent 24 hours in Paris. So much for FedEx "Priority" :lol:. Anyway, if they arrive within a week from USA, I shall still be pretty pleased.

Just last month I was billed 300/- extra for customs duty processing by Fedex.
Apparently it is a minimum of 300 or 2.5% of duty wichever is HIGHER + service tax.

Let me know if you suffer this penalty.

G0bble

 

[keith_correa]

Just last month I was billed 300/- extra for customs duty processing by Fedex.
Apparently it is a minimum of 300 or 2.5% of duty wichever is HIGHER + service tax.

Let me know if you suffer this penalty.

G0bble

I was charged this once. I refused to take delivery. Called up their customer care and they gave me some bull about clearance charges etc. There was no customs duty charged so I refused to pay and told them to return it to the sender. They waived the charges and delivered it the next day. Apparently these charges are standard with FedEx.

 

[Soundstage]

I thought I read someone's post on this forum who was using earthing wire as speaker cable. Supposedly it is high quality copper and is a solid core cable. But I only vaguely remember.

Besides other popular brands, I also use DIY cables made from Finolex 6 sq mm wire. I find the quality of the copper used by Finolex to be excellent. Despite 3 odd years of usage, the bare copper strands look like new without any signs of tarnishing, something I cannot say about many of the more 'exotic' makes in the market!

 

[keith_correa]

Besides other popular brands, I also use DIY cables made from Finolex 6 sq mm wire. I find the quality of the copper used by Finolex to be excellent. Despite 3 odd years of usage, the bare copper strands look like new without any signs of tarnishing, something I cannot say about many of the more 'exotic' makes in the market!

Where do you buy the Finolex cables in Mumbai cut to length? Everywhere I ask they offer me all brands except Finolex.

 

[srinisundar]

I thought I read someone's post on this forum who was using earthing wire as speaker cable. Supposedly it is high quality copper and is a solid core cable. But I only vaguely remember.

U r right, i too remember the same.

 

[srinisundar]

It was send by an UK seller in that condition and he sold it as good condition self terminated cable. I beleive after completion of sale only he tried to terminate it and could not do anything successfully and sent it as it is

Interesting.. how did you manage to get cut pieces?
I will be doing the surgery but as a quack, not a qualified doctor.
I hope I dont forget a sponge or mop inside.

Reminds me of a popular advert shown in movie halls in the 90s..



G0bble

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Just last month I was billed 300/- extra for customs duty processing by Fedex.
Apparently it is a minimum of 300 or 2.5% of duty wichever is HIGHER + service tax.

Let me know if you suffer this penalty.

G0bble

I will. A different kind of quote from Bluejeans...

Probably the greatest annoyance to a customer buying across international borders is the unpredictable and often costly process of customs handling. When FedEx International Priority is the shipping method, we simplify this for you by charging you an amount which represents the VAT and/or customs duty we expect to be charged on your order, and we then prepay those charges through FedEx so that your package will arrive without any bill for these charges. In the event (it does happen, rarely) that you do receive a bill from FedEx for such charges, it's a mistake on FedEx's part. Do not pay it, and let us know--we will handle it.

I was charged this once. I refused to take delivery. Called up their customer care and they gave me some bull about clearance charges etc. There was no customs duty charged so I refused to pay and told them to return it to the sender. They waived the charges and delivered it the next day. Apparently these charges are standard with FedEx.

Forewarned is forearmed

Package is now in Delhi. 2 minitues later is says International shipment release - Import, and four hours later it says in transit again. Probably they have loaded it on a Tempo traveller, which is now headed for my home in Chennai :lol:

 

[jls001]

Package is now in Delhi. 2 minitues later is says International shipment release - Import, and four hours later it says in transit again. Probably they have loaded it on a Tempo traveller, which is now headed for my home in Chennai :lol:

Hope we will be treated to a blow-by-blow and bowl-by-bowl account of the sonic virtues of the cables once you get them

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

I'm saving that up for when I manage a headphone upgrade!

Added to which, the "disclaimer" about the state of my hearing, when it comes to personal listening reports remains sadly true. So, if, for instance, these were to do wonders for the high end, I probably wouldn't hear it. I could probably lend a pair to Srinisundar.

 

[Soundstage]

Where do you buy the Finolex cables in Mumbai cut to length? Everywhere I ask they offer me all brands except Finolex.

You are right, it is well nigh impossible to get Finolex cables cut to length. In fact it is very difficult to even buy a roll, as nowadays whenever you ask any dealer for Finolex they try their best to sell you Polycab. If you insist on buying only Finolex, they grudgingly order it for you. Looks like Polycab offers better margins....

I had bought a 90m roll from a shop at Lohar Chawl for about 2.5K, if I remember well. Now I believe it costs 3.5K. Although 2.5K was an trifling amount considering the prices speaker cables and ICs go for, I remember that the quantity (90m) was an issue at that time as I had no idea what to do with it. Luckily it came in handy for the rear surrounds, UPS and also a couple of A/Cs.

As an aside, the electrician thought I was loony to use 6 mm sq for wiring the A/Cs as he felt anything more than 4 mm sq was overkill, so I did not have the heart to tell him I was using the same wire for my speakers!

 

[shanmune]

If there is no belief on cables, why go for branded Blue jeans or red dawn or blue heaven, you can very well go for finolex or MX which is an local brand and get satisfied with that.

why I went with BJ -
I need the ICs to be transparent (I have already mentioned what I meant by transparent and so it is not a subjective point). For the ICs to be fairly transparent, I am convinced that LCR parameters alone play a role. Why am I convinced by that theory ? Please see my note below. I found that BJ has been transparent enough to specify the electrical characteristics for all their cables and so I got an opportunity to see LC-1 offering one of the best electrical characteristics. Of course I am getting all these for a very good price.
There can be cables which can sound more appealing (subjectively) to one's ears, but I don't have the confidence to say if they are truly transparent. At this point in time, I have confidence to say that LC-1 is truly transparent (as all the required technical information are available in their website). So clearly I know what I am buying rather than simply relying on some ...........
More on a lighter note - Plz don't ask me if I am buying everything with that same idea ... Frankly, I am not ...

NOTE:
Why did I get convinced that LCR alone matters for transparency ??
Because - when I asked questions to know if there are any other engineering parameters which aids for "minimal alteration to the signal", I got no convincing technical explanation. In contrast, I got one good answer from Kanwar and that convinced me about what I am currently believing in.

 

[gobble]

The LCR stuff is well known. The challenge is in identifying why different cables result in different sound. If there was an exacting answer, all cables would be made to one single exacting standard and there would not be any cable wars.

G0bble

 

[srinisundar]

Yes you are right, cost effective too.

The LCR stuff is well known. The challenge is in identifying why different cables result in different sound. If there was an exacting answer, all cables would be made to one single exacting standard and there would not be any cable wars.

G0bble

 

[shanmune]

The LCR stuff is well known. The challenge is in identifying why different cables result in different sound. If there was an exacting answer, all cables would be made to one single exacting standard and there would not be any cable wars.

G0bble

Could that be due to each cable having it's own LCR values (filtering effect ) ? Right now, my understanding is that the LCR alone plays a role in sound coloring

 

[srinisundar]

I'm saving that up for when I manage a headphone upgrade!

Added to which, the "disclaimer" about the state of my hearing, when it comes to personal listening reports remains sadly true. So, if, for instance, these were to do wonders for the high end, I probably wouldn't hear it. I could probably lend a pair to Srinisundar.

Happy to test it out once again, since already used it and switched over to Nordost. Probably we will test it at Rajiv / Mohdnasser house where the music plays well.

On a heavier note one should hear( already THAD has heard in Rajiv house) the PS Audio DAC + CD transport mohdnasser is having and it is uplifting the performance to an higher level. The sound-stage and clarity of high and lows is fantastic and hours together we can hear the music.

In the above combination the cable can do wonders.

 

[jls001]

Where do you buy the Finolex cables in Mumbai cut to length? Everywhere I ask they offer me all brands except Finolex.

I thought you already found it No?

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Somehow I could not access the site since composing a couple of replies, until now....

If there was an exacting answer, all cables would be made to one single exacting standard and there would not be any cable wars.

It isn't about cable wars, that's just a by-product: it is about a whole market, based on supposition, half-truths, pseudo-science and downright lies --- with, probably, a massive amount of overcharging (and nice fat dealer margins) liberally sprinkled.

The dealers may say that their margins on electronics are too small and get squeezed even smaller. I don't really blame them for wanting, even needing, to make a buck where they can, even though it means signing up to this whole charade.

It doesn't matter if the product is genuine: it is still marketed by the means I have mentioned. The strange thing is that ours is a technical hobby, and one would suppose that the buyers would be technically minded, and not prone to technical bullshit --- but somehow, the chocolate box has been so well presented, that mouths are made to water by everything from OFC, through teflon, silver and other exotic ingredients, all the way to oak collars, not to mention a superb physical presentation. Is there such a thing as the skin effect? Of course: remember the saying: beauty is skin deep!

Almost (I admit, not all) the engineering/technical/scientific commentators simply try to shoot this stuff in the knees, but it just refuses to fall over. In most commercial areas, if something is shown (or even alleged) to be, at least to some degree even if it is only in overcharging, a scam, the market collapses. Not this one. The buyers want it too much.

If there was an exacting answer, all cables would be made to one single exacting standard

There is an exacting answer, and that is the reason why pro audio does not suffer from this stuff. Of course, even there there is a range of pricing (but no really silly numbers, even for the best stuff). Even pros have their quirks, and they have to market their services to their customers, so yes, you will be able find studios that advertise that they use some sort of cable with a name that might be recognised by audiophiles.

So why is there a price range even in pro cables? I don't have to tell you where this quote comes from ...

So if Materials don't Make the Difference, What Does?

All right--if fancy and expensive materials aren't what distinguish bad cable from good cable, what does make the difference? The answer is that cable manufacture is all about consistency and tolerances. Is that surprising? Consider that all automobiles are made out of basically the same raw materials--mostly steel and plastics. The difference between a Yugo and a Ferrari has a lot more to do with what one does with the steel and plastic than with how good the raw steel and plastic were before anyone made them into engines, components, and body panels. With cable, it's all about controlling dimensions and consistencies. How consistent is the size of a wire from point to point? Are the nitrogen bubbles in the foamed dielectric of even size and distribution? Is the outer dimension of the dielectric different from point to point? Is the tightness of the foil and braid the same from point to point? The electrical characteristics of cable are intimately bound up with these fiddly little questions of controlling manufacturing tolerances. Somewhere, someone is scratching his head right now over just how to center a wire inside an extruded dielectric just a little bit better--perhaps by a ten-thousandth of an inch--than is currently possible. Questions like that, for those who don't need to deal with them for a living, are exquisitely boring. But attention to these questions is what makes the difference between American broadcast-quality cable and the cheap Chinese stuff which is so very common on the consumer audio/video market.

In Conclusion...

Fine materials and quality manufacturing practices make the best cables; but the best materials for cable manufacture aren't always the most exotic or fancy-sounding. Not only are quality copper wire and nitrogen-injected PE foam dielectric great materials for building a precision video cable, but manufacturers like Belden make the best use of these excellent materials by employing them in well-engineered manufacturing processes, with tight tolerances. The result: cables of the highest quality, relied upon worldwide by professional broadcast engineers when the quality of the signal is of the utmost importance.

Consistency... Hmmm... Anybody ever draw down wire? I have. I imagine that doing it with a big machine only deals with part of the problem.

PS... I got my cables. They arrived before I even got around to checking the FedEx site! All the way from Delhi on a ground-speed-record-breaking jet propelled Piaggio Ape. The driver was a bit dusty, but the cables were fine.

 

[gobble]

Great! Give 'em 25 hrs for "burn-in" then tell us.... soak them overnight in kerosene

Oh you don't believe in cable burn in do you? hyeah:

Did you get billed the 300/- for Duty processing?

Now the point about consistency of build in cables, it can't can't be that hard c'mon. And the above doesn't explain why cable X sounds different than cable Y. I wonder if there has ever been a shoot out between two cables with almost the same LCR measurements.
It may be hard for two cables of different construction to have the exact same LCR measurements.

But the point I made in an earlier post has been missed - there is no absolute standard that says, if you take a cable of 1mtr length and engineer its construction to result in LCR measurements within an XYZ range, then all such cables will not be differentiated in blind ABX testing. Or a frequency sweep and its spectral chart of the output will be the exact same for the two cables with the amplifier remaining constant.

Oh <slaps forehead!> I forgot ... isn't it already proven in blind ABX testing that a $$$ cable sounds exactly like a coat hanger? (especially if you bang the connector of the IC and the coat hanger to the aluminum rod in your closet?)

G0bble

 

[manoj.p]

The LCR stuff is well known. The challenge is in identifying why different cables result in different sound. If there was an exacting answer, all cables would be made to one single exacting standard and there would not be any cable wars.

G0bble

If all the cables are adhering to one single standard, then how exotic cables can be sold at such a huge markup? Its in the interest of those manufacturer's to not to adhere to basic standard but talk about big marketing jargon.

 

[gobble]

My point was that such a thing as a standard measurement proven to give consistent results has nor yet been discovered.

G0bble