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Recommendations for good budget interconnects

My take.. which I've expressed many times previously.
All cables and wires (there is a difference) exhibit impedance, capacitance, inductance and possible other parameters. Therefore they act as filters.

Howver, AIUI, the extent of proven parameters in the lengths normally used for ICs is tiny and therefore it follow that any filter effect is correspondingly tiny.

If any IC exhibits an easily audible effect, it is presumable acting as a tone control and if this is the case I'd be looking elsewhere in the system to identify the problem.
 
I have chord c-screen interconnects for RCA as find them very good and not too expensive Amazon was a good buy when I got them. For din or special cables I have flashback and biggest compliment I can give is they look and sound as good as the naim original snaic. Not too expensive so I recommend them
 
I've always bought "better" ICs second hand.
My personal favourite is Nordost Blue Heaven originals, usually around £40 to £50 for a 0.5m or 1m pair in good condition.
I also find the QEDs a little biased to HFs.

If you're able to strip cable and solder, make your own from good quality microphone cable and sensible plugs.

My biggest disappointment was using some highly recommended cheap versions of Eichmann plugs, forget the brand, they were really bad, made everything sound dull. I don't know why but even bog standard plugs did a better job, very odd. (Yes I triple checked I hadn't done a boggy job of it.)
 
Just an opinion guys, I have always considered cables to be little more than a tuning tool in the absence of tone controls. Different materials/metals have a different sonic signature brighter or smoother. Having owned very expensive cables and sold them on having disappointed I can confirm that a lot of lower cost cables are truly very good. QED on the whole I have found to be quite bright whilst Van Damme fairly smooth. Of the smooth cables however I prefer the Klotz mc5000 microphone cables. Cheap as chips and to be very honest the best I have heard at a sensible price.
 
Mullardman said:
it is presumable acting as a tone control
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Without doubt some people do use cables as subtle tone controls. My own view is there is nothing to get up-tight about here. Many things will affect the sound of a hi-fi, making it sound brighter or duller for instance, not least the listening room or the support that it is placed on. Cables can be used successfully to provide subtle
shifts in the tone, eg. if you wish to round off the high frequencies a smidgen then choose a smooth sounding cable rather than a bright one. Common sense really.

What cables cannot do IME is to 'fix' a broken system, ie. if you have an unbalanced system that sounds unpleasantly bright then no cable on earth will fix that. Thy just can't make that sort of magnitude of difference. All they can do is put the final 'polish' on an already good system.

Pete
 
Make your own. Save a large percentage on the huge majority of ready-mades.

Use a screened cable - changing to one was night and day here with background mush/hiss reduced enormously.

A popular screened cable is Klotz microphone cable, usually MC5000. This is incredibly cheap (from around £3 per m if you search), and very flexible, so very easy to route wherever you like. You can buy interconnects ready-made from MC5000.
Other screened cables are available.

All of this has only been posted here 32453762358 times before (approx.).
 
I tend to make my own now as it is cheaper and quite enjoyable :)

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beammeup said:
Well made but fantastic sounding without spending silly money.

Any company you have had experience with and find their cables reliable and well made?

Or cables that have 'transformed' your system for a sensible price?
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Sensible money:
If they work keep what you've got and spend the money on a better box (amp, player, speaker...)
I have some indecently expensive boxes but an unholy hodgepodge of cables... to say nothing of unused ones in the cupboard.

On transformation:
I have not yet found a cable that "transformed" my system.
There are cables I prefer (sound-wise) and as funds and 2nd hand opportunities allow I am going towardsthose options but see above...
 
I second atlas cables. I have a 0.5m pair of hyper symmetrical with occ copper and their self cleaning plugs.. £50?
 
I have recently fitted a Yannis Tome tone arm cable with pleasing results. It is well made and very cost effective especially when compared to the Linn product!
 
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Pete L said:
In reality I guess that it's entirely a hypothetical matter. If cable A sounds better than cable B to my ears, then it is better, to me. And if everyone else in the world thinks it sounds worse or identical then that doesn't change my own perception and opinion. Whether I'm 'wrong' or 'right' in realty is irrelevant. I may be entirely wrong and I may be imagining it, but if that's what I hear then that's what I hear!

Pete
Click to expand...
And this is the rub with every cable thread since the dawn of the internet. Nobody wants to be told he has spent £100 on a cable and imagined it improves his sound, nobody wants to be told he just doesn't know how to listen.
 
I for one make my own DIN or RCA interconnects. Always have.

I use good microphone professional cable I buy from the local electronic shop and above all no stupid gilded plugs, but good old fashioned nickel ones which won't corrode. Real gold plated ones are very expensive (think £ 120 for a set of four WBT, obviously not the Aliexpress copies), and our interconnects don't go to space missions, do they?
 
palacefan said:
Know all was on here the other day saying that you only need the thin cheapo stuff that gets supplied with your usually Japanese kit. Personally mine are made from pure silver foil by silver arrow.
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Sarcasm or affirmation? Clarification required.
 
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