Interconnects
Can anyone recommend really good interconnects under £100 please 0.75 or 1 metre long.
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You can make some very decent cables from studio grade microphone cable and reasonable plugs. £10 to £25 a set. Maybe James has something a little higher up the food chain in mind?
If buying, Blue Jeans have a reputation for very affordable good cables (no first hand knowledge myself)
https://www.bluejeanscable.com/store/audio/index.htm
A personal favourite of mine are the older, original Nordost Blue Heaven, second hand at £40 to £75 a set.
~O)
Did I miss a press release, Sov?
Could have gone for shilling I 'spose.
This new audio product includes diamond encrusted 24 carat gold connectors and comes in a range of attractive colours:
:-t
More importantly...great that the transplant was effective, and I'm feeling grateful to the woman, and to anyone else who donates in this way.
=D>
I'm not sure what other emoticons one would possibly need.
Sov please could we have some piccies when you're done.
Could you pm me the links to the plugs and cable used, just read the praise on AoS and fancy trying some.
Ta.
Last night I made up a set of leads using the cable and plugs mentioned above.
This just shows the cable configuration.
This shows the source end of the cable set up for "pseudo balanced", meaning the two centre cores are signal and ground and the braid is grounded at only the source end.
Downstream end showing the two centre cores connected for signal and earth but the shield NOT connected.
All done. The white bands mark the shield grounded end.
These work out at roughly £20 per 0.6m pair as shown above. I have not yet tried them out but they will up against the following;
A previous incarnation of DIYness at under £10 and...
Nordost original Blue Heaven, my current affordable (2nd hand) favourite cables.
When I get a chance to play I will update the thread.
What is this jiggery pokery?
Marantz CD52ii as transport
DIY DAC (heavily modfied Silicon Chip design)
MF X-cans v2 headphone amp (heavily modified & linear psu)
AKG K550 headphones
The interconnect already on duty was a QED Qunex 3 (Nordost had been taken for other duties at some point) I therefore included that in the comparison.
I'll try and keep this short and sweet, just pulling the key points I jotted down as I went. A variety of much listened to music was used of good recording quality.
QED vs MS/MC
The QED was in place first so the MS/MC followed it. Differences here were really obvious, the slighty over zealous top end of the QED disappeared and a little more depth to the bass was added. To begin with this made the sound seem slightly dull or curtailed at the top, after a little time ears readjusted but I still felt a little top end was missing, however reversing again confirmed the QED as being a tad too eager on HF. For clarity and tone in the mid range I'd say both were roughly equal.
MS/MC vs old homebrew (OH)
A very similar overall character here between the two. OH lost the the depth of bass gained by the MS/MC but definitely had a sweeter high end character. I had to switch a couple of times to make sure it wasn't just the difference in bass giving this perception but in conclusion no, the OH does have a better HF presentation. The MS/MC was superior in the mid range though, with better tone in particular on both acoustic and voice, it also seemed to allow a snadge more detail through.
MS/MC vs Nordost Blue Heaven i
Total slam dunk for the Nordost...again! It really easily outshined the MS/MC in every department, better defined and slightly deeper bass, which was faster, making the the MS/MC sound a little more dull still. Mid range, acoustic and voice were all more "real" and had a lovely sense of space. Lastly the the upper end was just spot on, no brightness, no curtailment and better defined. In fact overall a significant amount more information was being delivered intact and well presented.
Overall I have to say I was a little disappointed with the MS/MC, I expected it to build on what the OH could do which it did in some areas but that held back treble really is an Achilles heel. I also prefered the less deep but more accurate bass of the OH compared the deeper, slightly muddy bass of the MS/MC. Maybe between these two it would be personal preference that would hold sway or the fact the MS/MC had that better toned mid.
If I was on a really tight budget and had to choose between the £10 OH and the £20 MS/MC I would choose the former, YMMV.
No scares for the Nordost, they still reign supreme, significantly, in my system, to my ears.
Thanks for the write-up.
I can imagine your disappointment that MS/MC turned out to be not the significant step-up from the OH you'd hoped for.
Heartening and credibility-boosting though that your ears were able to hear through any potential subconscious bias.
What was the cable used in your OH design...? Apologies if you stated this earlier.
As the Nordost probably cost over 10x as much, I suppose their continuing supremacy is OK. BTW I think I heard some Nordost cables at a hifi show about 15 years ago. I don't remember which ones. I do remember they were obviously the best in the A-B listening demonstration that was carried out (assuming that it was carried out honestly). But never owned any myself.
The OH was another "professional instrument" cable with cheap but nice-looky-feely RCA plugs.
The Nordost Blue Heaven i was approx. £150? in its day, which rose sharply through subsequent marks and models. I think they are £250 - £300 now? I try and track them down second hand for around £50. At that price they seem to be invincible!
I used to sell the Nordost range back in my retail days and was always extremely impressed, particularly with the £/performance ratio of the Blue Heaven interconnects and speaker cables. The speaker cables, however, did not always suit the amp they were connected to. Red Dawn was the next model up at roughly twice the price, at the cost I wasn't totally convinced of their value.
I most often partnered the BH interconnects along with the "Goldline" speaker cables, usually amounted to very good results.
The prices of the new ranges are really scary though, wouldn't even consider them.
I'm considering changing the plugs on the MS/MC, there's something nagging at me that they may not be all that they claim....
I'm surprised didn't get on better with the Klotz MC 5000 . Is there are so many reviews on AOS but that can be extremely misleading as the blind off and lead the blind or what ever else you want to call it
I can't remember what cables I was using before the Klotz MC5000? But at the time my speakers were little harsh on the top end so maybe that's why I got along with them so well . I have since changed my tweeters which is transformed my speakers .
All the best