And the new winner of the TQ Green Loudspeaker Cables is...

uglymusic

As the TQ Green Loudspeaker cables weren't claimed by the original winner who only visited us once, we've had a new draw.

Step forward @NeilP, you no longer have to listen to your 1988 vintage QED 79 strand!

Please PM me your address and I'll send them to you.

Brain_Dead

Eat up your Greens Neil, enjoy.

Docfoster

Congratulations Neil.
Enjoy your prize!

NeilP

Oh, hey , Thanks

That is amazing

Thank you so much, going to make a good difference I am sure

Alan

Congratulations, Neil! You'l have the best cables in the channel islands for sure.

Brumjam

Congratulations Neil!

uglymusic

Don't forget to give me your address, Neil.

Alan

He might bring the 'copter over to pick it up!

uglymusic

Yes!  B-)

NeilP

Now that is  good idea.

Hopefully I sent you the work postal address at Exeter airport, so i can collect direct from there, or one of the lads can bring over on the daily cargo run 

Going to have to get the 'scope out to the Claymore repaired, that is the first job on the list, won't be using these cables on the Yamaha AV amp that is for sure

uglymusic

I've not received anything so far Neil. Can you PM it to me again, please?

NeilP

Hi Col

Have the cables been sent yet?..You have not sent them to Guernsey instead have you   

uglymusic

I'm not Col, I'm Dave

I'm still awaiting the address to send them to - see my post of 2 Sept (above).

NeilP

Finally got around to setting up for some listening tests in the old snooker room at the farm the other day. Totally empty now, and just used for yoga lessons three days a week, so unfortunately I have to dismantle every time.  I can't setup in my home as I just have a single bedroom apartment, with combined living room/computer room/dining room and kitchen.  So that room now has a small multi speaker surround setup with speakers bolted to the wall.

The test listening room is very spartan, ..totally empty in fact apart from a pile of rolled up yoga mats in one corner.  Size, big enough for full size snooker table at least 25 foot by 30 or 40 at a guess.  Hard walls, no soft furnishings.

As usual Flickr is being a bloody pain and not sharing the photo correctly again..so click the link to see the photo.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/suh_neilp/8042807909/

Just got setup and had the amp warming up when the phone went and I had to go to work....and because of the yoga on Monday had to strip down the setup

Setup is:

Amp..repaired  Inca Tech Claymore...  Think it was either a dry joint or a piece of swarf/solder flake I found under the board. So was not the FETS after all.

Mission CD PCM4000 ? Cyrus..cant remember off the top of my head.  

Not going to unpack the Linn Basik and set it up, since it is a lot of work just to have to strip it down and pack it up again.  So no analogue input to compare, although we do have a pro studio 24/96 recorder that we plan to use too

Target budget stand on spikes for CD player and amp..not pictured.

Mission 700LE speakers on spiked (Target? ) stands  Seem to remember the setup instructions saying they were to be placed parallel to the listener and not pointed inwards.

May try an bigger set of free standing Jamo's with bass reflex ports to increase the lower frequencies.

Chord Company interconnect

Inca Tech plated MK plugs on all equipment .  The two way extension was some unknown 'audio quailty' extension bought from Rayleigh HiFi in Chelmsford back in the late 80s/early 90's

And to compare the TQ Green,

Original QED 79 strand speaker cable terminated by stripping back to bare wire..silver solder tinning of the ends and gold banana plug thumb screw type adapters at the amp end and bare wire /silver tinned ends in to the speakers

Unbranded thinner generic speaker cable, standard banana plugs and bare ends to the speaker.

Trying to get together with two friends so we can conduct blind tests..one listener..two people swapping cables, re setting the CD player etc.

But to the initial impressions

When I first setup and with amp only having been on for 20 minutes or so..still warming up, the whole system sounds very bright.  Small speakers and big open empty room.

I did think I noticed a major spacial 'openness' with the Greens, compared to the QED.  

But then I thought I ought to properly terminate the QED.  For initial setup I had no terminations at the amp end, so stripped back and wrapped the conductor around the insulator and plugged straight in to the sockets on the amp.  Speaker end was, untouched grey oxidised solder tinned copper.  So I left the amp playing through the Green took the QED to the workshop, stripped back both ends, re tinned the ends with a silver solder and fitted the amp ends to the banana plug connectors.

After I got back to the listening room I had a chance to experiment with three or four different CD's, jumping immediately to parts of tracks I knew.  

A Phillips recording of Rosinni La Gazza Ladra, about 8 minutes in the final couple of minutes where it really builds up

Christopher Cross, "Say You'll be Mine" about 2 minutes in with the female vocals

My only jazz album  Arne Domnérus  Jazz at te Pawnshop..various tracks 

Gordon Lightfoot  "Restless"'

A little bit of swapping back and forth, and then my mate turned up with his studio test CD's and other bits of kit, so I lost concentration and he had a little listen

But initial impressions once the amp had had a few hours of warming up and I had sorted the terminations on the 79 strand was one of a little disappointment as it was difficult to tell either cable apart. Felt there was possible something, but nothing you could put your finger on. Feeling a little deflated really, was hoping for a good noticeable difference but no, not noticed yet.

This is not the end though, we are planning to get together again, with another mate at the end of October when we are all back in Jersey and free on the same Wednesday or Thursday night and we can get set up again.  may have to break out the Linn and try the vinyl.  Would like to maybe hang some heavy drapes around the walls, or find a smaller room to listen in, and maybe different speakers to teh Mission 700's or the jamo's which I always found a little harsh

Alan

Alan

Flikr is weird!

Glad you got them alright Neil, though I share your disappointment at not getting the difference right away. To be fair, it looks like a mighty challenging room to get singing. It must be very hard and reverberant.

NeilP

So how did you get the link to post?

You are correct about the room, but it is the only space I have I can use 

Alan

So how did you get the link to post?

You are correct about the room, but it is the only space I have I can use 

With a lot of faffing/trial & error! It's actually like posting a youtube vid.

Copy the longer HTML / BBCode from Flikr. Then on Chews;click the little red brackets (next to the print icon), paste the link, and click the red brackets again. The photo will then appear in the text box.

Weird, stoopid system, I don't know how good it would be if you needed to write text as well in the same post. Anyhow, it's a workaround.

NeilP

Ah, ..see first post...