RCA Interconnects

Driftin' Blues

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Hi All,

This is my first thread here. :) I am looking for RCA interconnects for my Stereo System. I have Epos M22i speakers and Creek Evolution 2 Amp. Source is PC (FLAC) through Asus Xonar Essence STX.

How good is QED brand? Cables matter a lot. I mean analog Cables. The sound signature of every cable is different. But sad, in India we don't get chance test the cables with your system and pick the one which you like.

I have 2 options. QED Performance Audio and Liberty Z300 THX Audio Cable. Liberty is expensive and QED is comparatively cheaper.
I am looking for cables which are not bright at all. Your suggestions pls..
 
Thanks Ashish!

I have heard about Van Den Hul The Name. But didn't know who is the dealer here. Is there any discount or 5k is the fixed price.?

Have you tested QED? Was it bright or warm?
 
Never tested QED...

Denny is a good dealer... he has Chord, QED, VDH... visit him once and he will let you have a good demo of whatever you want.
 
Any suggestions on good budget Audio interconnects for connecting CD player to Amp and From AVR pre outs to Stereo Amp - As each brand has a broad range any input on which variant to look for will be helpful. Also prices if possible.

Also anything else to keep in mind.
 
I have been using QED Quinex1 for 6 years now. The sound is pretty good. Creek/Epos is a great combination with an aggressive sound. In this setup, the QED's might appear ever so slightly bright. Having said that, I'd still go ahead and recommend them to you.

I have also been using MX Audio ICs for long but I found them to be slightly sibilant and harsh. They also seem to be more prone to electircal interference (the wires behind my setup are a mess).

Try Kimber PBJ (their basic IC). I tired it and found them to be really good.
 
The brand is merely a confirmation of the specs you see are the specs you get.

OFC copper = standard conductor, oxidizes over time.
OCC copper = newer technique of making ofc little using ohono process. More expensive, better quality, oxidation degrades lesser than ofc over time.
Silver = induces a type of brightness but also helps preserve detail, weak with lower frequencies, oxide forms aswell but affects sounds less.
Gold = bad conductor for core, warm, good for low freqs

Copper core = Generic sound
Copper + Gold coating = Warm
Copper + silver coating = Smoothness of Copper + detail of Silver

Silver core = Bright sound
Silver + copper coating = Might be good but drawbacks of larger surface area of copper and oxide over time reduces preference.
Silver + Gold coating = Detail of silver + warmth of gold. Hard to find this combination but possibly best of both worlds.

RCA plugs:

Generic type - Typical sound
WBT nextgen - Bright and detailed
Eichmann ETI Bullets - Smooth and detailed

Type of weaving:

Hyperlitz solid core - Good for slightly longer distances, high quality sound.
Single solid core - Excellent for short distances, fragile, High quality sound.
Multistrand cores as one conductor - cheapest and usually lowest quality for sound.

Things to keep in mind

Capacitance
Impedance
Keeping awg small and using thicker awg only if needed.
 
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Thanks cor Element. Very enlightening indeed. How is Audioquest RCA vs. say Chord or should I just focus on the specs.
 
You need to look at things like

Material of conductor
Single or multi strands
What awg in relation to length
Hyperlitz configuration or Standard configuration
Type of shielding
Online history of the cable <- Most important
Capacitance
Impedance
 
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:lol: :lol: :lol:
Ignorance is bliss..

Well said.


All well designed interconnects will sound the same. This is a contentious claim, but is regrettably true - regrettable for those who have paid vast sums of money for theirs, at least ;)

There are far less expensive ways of eliminating interference, capacitance, inductance.

One can avoid skin effect by using litz wire, but skin effect becomes noticeable when frequency reaches MHz. Aside from interference pickup, capacitance and crosstalk are the only real potential problem with interconnects. Capacitance can be minimised by selection of the cable, keeping it as short as possible. In some cases, even though the impedance of the preamp may be low enough, use of a highly capacitive cable may cause RF instability in the output stages - this will definitely ruin the sound.
Crosstalk is all but eliminated by the use of good quality shielding, which will generally also reduce interference. Keeping lead lengths to the minimum needed will also help reduce any possible negative influences.

The height is that superior audio claims are made even for cables that carry digital signal (0s and 1s) - USB cable, optical cable, RCA cable that carry SPDIF, etc

And one cannot eliminate the role of our ear and the marvelous human brain (which will naturally feel the better sound coming from super expensive cables). Cars cannot go fast with cryogenic-ally treated platinum pistons

From Douglas Self -

"It has been universally recognised for many years in experimental psychology, particularly in experiments about perception, that people tend to perceive what they want to perceive. This is often called the 'experimenter expectancy' effect; it is more subtle and insidious than it sounds, and the history of science is littered with the wrecked careers of those who failed to guard against it. Such self-deception has most often occurred in fields like biology, where although the raw data may be numerical, there is no real mathematical theory to check it against.

When the only 'results' are vague subjective impressions, the danger is clearly much greater, no matter how absolute the integrity of the experimenter. Thus in psychological work great care is necessary in the use of impartial observers, double-blind techniques, and rigorous statistical tests for significance. The vast majority of Subjectivist writings wholly ignore these precautions, with predictable results. In a few cases properly controlled listening tests been done, and at the time of writing all have resulted in different amplifiers sounding indistinguishable. I believe the conclusion is inescapable that experimenter expectancy has played a dominant role in the growth of Subjectivism.

It is notable that in Subjectivist audio the 'correct' answer is always the more expensive or inconvenient one. Electronics is rarely as simple as that. A major improvement is more likely to be linked with a new circuit topology or new type of semiconductor, than with mindlessly specifying more expensive components of the same type.
"

To sum it up

"I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith, I am nothing."

--The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

The above could just as easily be re-phrased - for example ...

"I refuse to prove that my cables will make your system sound better", says the snake oil vendor, "for proof denies faith, and without faith, you will hear nothing."
 
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When I replaced my amplifier, one of the RCA connectors on my Van de Hul CD interconnect broke off. On the sleeve it says "Halogen free." Maybe I should look for cables with halogen next time! :lol:
 
I believe in audible effects of interconnects but they are only audible if:

1. You have a high end rig especially great speakers as well as source material and you are testing between a run of the mill interconnect like ones that come with 3000 buck dvd players and decent ones. You wont hear a day and night difference between a 1000 buck interconnect and a 50000 buck interconnect.

2. Speaker wire are more of the snake oil phenomena. Any decent guage copper cable will be indistinguishable from costlier cables even on high end systems especially if they are less than 2 meter in length.
 
I believed and I still believe that differences from the cables is largely perception-based but then I experienced this first hand -

I got a loaner interconnect from Mr. Murthy. When I tried in my setup (Denon CDP + NAD amp + Kef Spkrs), the sound was bright and there was sibilance. When I changed back to my QED, the warmth returned.

I took the same IC to a friends' place who had a better setup (Marantz CDP + Accuphase amp + Kef Spkrs), the sound was very balanced. None of the brittleness and sibilance I noted in my setup was there. When we tried my QED IC, the sound seemed brighter. His IC (Tara Labs) sounded very similar to Mr. Murthy's. Needless to say, the equipment were making the most difference but there still seemed to be some change in the sound based on the IC.

All the tech specs of the cables are Greek and Latin to me but what I understand is that the cheaper ICs would (naturally) use cheaper shielding making them more prone to electrical interference around them. Also the cheaper RCA plugs and cables might be prone to oxidization (or other effects of Mother Nature) that might affect the sound.
 
Also the cheaper RCA plugs and cables might be prone to oxidization
Well, if you don't want oxidation, then gold-pated is gold-plated, whatever cable it is attached to, and however much the total assembly cost.

I suspect that the VdeH cable which I joked about two posts ago is my most expensive. I don't know: all bought a decade or more ago. I'm sure it would have been more expensive that two Cambridge Audio cables that had been attached to a might-get-repaired cassette deck. Although golden in colour, the VdeH RCA connectors were very badly oxidised: the CA ones were not.

One thing this all goes to show is --- it is a good idea to look at the back of the equipment more often than I do!

Apart from the very tiny amount of gold involved in plating a connector, cost equates to value is something that the manufacturers would simply love us to believe. Why should cheaper shielding mean worse shielding? Why should more expensive copper be better at conducting electricity?

I'm not saying is or isn't here: I'm saying beware of assumptions, even the ones that look obvious.
 
Getting Audio quest Evergreen for Rs2000 for 2m and Chord Crimson for Rs3400. Do interconnect make so much of difference for a 70% premium - Confused as I am inclined towards Audio quest due to costs but am wondering if I am compromising on performance.
 
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