You know... as an American it would be nice if someone in my country would produce reviews as detailed, well structured, logical, and just enough technical talk to make it interesting but not get us non-engineers lost in the weeds of transistors, capacitors and biasing tubes, Tarun surely is becoming the standard for excellence. The review on interconnects is absolutely a first rate job. All I can say is... Well Done Sir!! and I will definitely continue watching and I will recommend your videos to my audiophile friends... just really well done.
I'm not a regular commenter, but you know you've done something well when a subscriber rewatches your videos several times to cull every last bit of knowledge your sharing. Several of your informational videos are reference material to me. Thank you again keep up the great work.
I'm a 3 x Grammy nominated audio engineer. Let me share my experience. I did a simple scientific test, that consists of taking the signal out of the converter (D/A) and recording it back through a A/D converter. So, the signal path is: DAW (Pro Tools HDX @ 96k) > D/A converter > *CABLE* > A/D converter > DAW. I used music program, white/pink noises and 1k sine wave signals, and repeated the process using my cables from Monster Cable (Studio Pro 1000), Mogami (Gold Studio- quad), Gepco (can't remember), Van Den Hul (D 102 MKII), Reference (RMLCO2) and Belden (don't know which model), one by one. After getting all the signals recorded back through each one of the cables, I started doing null tests with them. And surprisingly, ALL OF THEM NULLED with each other. Only with the Belden, really (I mean REALLY) minor 'tsc' (say, after 10 seconds, one 'tsc' happened). You *should* know that when 2 signals null themselves, is because they are IDENTICAL. So, from my own experience, in a scientifically controlled experience, all this buzz about some cable being more 'coloured', or 'the bass response of that cable is deeper', all this talk is pure BIAS. Back in time I was always concerned about which cable I should use with that mic or gear, and I could swear that I was hearing differences between them. But now, I just pick the one in front of me and use with total confidence and knowledge: good shield, longevity, flexibility, reliability, well built, those are what I expect from a good cable. *Important* - when regarding INSTRUMENT cables, then yes, there are differences in sound between cables due to the CAPACITANCE. But this is another subject...
Why blindly? The fact is you sometimes think to hear a difference in the same setup due to external influences. Blind test shows nothing as brain can't adjust not adopt in such short time period.
We desperately need more reviews like this. There has to be way to bridge the gap or to narrow it between “objectivists” and “subjectivists”. And, for what is worth, audiophile companies should be a bit more transparent with basic specs. Thanks Tarun for the fantastic review.
Nothing fantastic here. Just a well spoken, well educated, no hyperbole, knowledgeable man who has prepared his presentation sufficiently. And, mind you, didn’t start off with ”Hello youtubers! Whaaaats up?!” And no unecessary hand movements! I would be very surprised if he didn’t do multiple takes, splicing it all together to this coherent easy to follow presentation. This should be the norm, alas it is an exception. Having said all this: well done Sir!
Ah Tarun you are a brave man indeed, evaluating cables. As always, I appreciate your approach to reviewing. You tell us what you hear, rather than summarizing. And since we know what your reference system is, we have a way to correlate your descriptions to a know reference.
Hands down the most informative RU-vid presentation I've watched explaining the importance of cables within a HiFi system. Many thanks Tarun. The content on your channel is always a MUST SEE for anyone with an interest in the audiophile world. Always superbly explained and absolutely no hyperbole. Thanks for taking the time and effort.
Probably the best cable presentation that you can come across on the net. I really liked the objectivity and the categories used to determine differences that may exist between cables.
Disagree, he notes how important capacitance is but can't report what it is on the audiophile cables because they don't list it. The 'Best Cable Presentation that you can come across on the net" would involve a capacitance meter ($80.00 on Amazon) and actual measurements of all the cables, not listing specs from the wrapper or "I have no idea they don't list specs" cop outs.
@@mrb2917 but we don’t listen to specs or measurements. We listen to how it sounds. I could give two sheets how many microfarads of capacitance a cable has, as long as it sounds good.
Excellent, Tarun. Very high quality content and meaningful evaluation categories for audiophiles because we know that cables make a significant difference. All the best, Rob in Switzerland
Just came across your video, and even though it is not new anymore, it is very refreshing to see someone try and explain cable theory - Thank you! As a former cable designer I just want to add a few notes that you may find interesting. So glad you touched upon the inductance and capacitance of cables. This is where things get interesting for a designer. The impedance can almost be reduced to a result of the inductance and capacitance. Often an interconnect cable impedance ends up being around 75 ohms. For XLR it will certainly be. But that does not mean that all cables share the same inductance and capacitance, but the sum of these values often will be comparable. The real magic happens around the di-electric as you also touched upon. These materials are key to the charge curve and phase of the cable - Not as a battery charge, but comparable to a capacitor, this curve will not be linear, and it will influence on the sound. The input impedance on the receiving equipment, will also form a filtering part with the cable, this of course has impact on the sound. Conducting materials and DC resistance, is far from the only exciting specs. of a cable.
That was very well done, thank you. I was surprised and impressed to hear you advocate extended, relaxed listening sessions as a method of evaluation over the usual quick A/B swaps.
Thank you. Unless you can do very quick AB testing using a switching device that doesn’t degrade sound quality, it is best not to relay on short term memory 😊👍
Awesome Tarun! The think that I like about your reviews are the clarification of the fundamentals which folks won't find in any other channels. Keep it up.
As always, you bring a unique and detailed balanced info. There were too many subjective / uncontrolled variables here with an n = 1 for my scientist brain to truly believe differences in cables could be accurately discerned, but I appreciate the effort put in, and the neutral presentation of the experiment.
@@abritishaudiophile7314 i spent a few thousand on audio cable in the 80s and 90s. word was, the best audio cable you can get was an orange power extension cord. all you're really looking at is conductivity (distance) and shielding. silver conducts a bit better than copper, and it's been discovered that artificial diamonds are something like 14 times better conductance than copper, so circuit boards will change in the future. anyway, definately, diamond is the best. :)
@@Harald_Reindl I tend to think length is the most important characteristic as it can have a very significant impact on the sound. Joking aside, it depends on the application. If you run a record player, the cabling to the phono preamp can be very significant, depending on the used cartridge (since the cable is a load on the cartridge which is a passive component).
Dear Tarun...till today I have seen so many various tests and reviews regarding audio signal cables...but this one from You vastly overcomes all the prevoius ones ...and in all aspects . For me as B.Sc. electrical engineer it was quite easy to smootly fallow your ecellent presentation...and with a lot of joy. For over 40 Years I have been using Van den Hul cables...as well. No regret at all. Best regards
I started my audio journey in the early 80s. I’ve spent a lot of time, hard earned money, and experimentation building a system that reproduces music the way I prefer to hear it. The smallest part of my budget, given over to cables. Whilst I appreciate they do make a difference, you need to spend a lot of money for very small differences, which may or may not be favourable. I’ve spent as much money on my hifi as many people spend on a new family car. I have friends who have spent more on cables than I’ve spent on my complete, and to my way of thinking that is extreme. That having been said, many of my friends, colleagues and family consider my hifi expenditure, extreme. Even though I think my rig is now about as good as I can get it, within the limits of my listening environment, I still avidly and enthusiastically read, listen to and watch hifi reviews and comparisons. I still have a thirst for knowledge. I can honestly say, that was one of the best, if not the best video I’ve seen. I’d raise my hat to you, if I had a hat! Absolutely superb. Keep those videos coming.
"Whilst I appreciate they do make a difference, you need to spend a lot of money for very small differences, which may or may not be favourable." - THIS, Howard in my opinion sums up most of the cable discussion out there. For HIFI enthusiasts that are near their end game system a set of cables can give them that last 0.1% - for real or in their heads depending on how good they are to combat bias - but for nearly all others of us the money is best used on better gear instead (or kept in the purse altogether).
@@alphaniner3770 I’ll tell you a true story, that happened to me many years ago. When I was young free single and reckless, I would use a much higher percentage of my disposable income to invest in audio gear, where my equals were throwing their hard earned at fast cars and fast women. I invited a friend and his girlfriend over for a serious listening session washed down with a couple of beers. The following evening he called round with a large box. Howard, he said, you’ve built yourself a premium quality system, but, he said, handing me the box, you don’t have DVD player. Well, I plumbed it in and using a spare, cheap RCA cable I’d probably bought from Boots for £9.99 I connected it to my amp. It was a Tesco branded DVD and I think he paid £18 for it. I had paid £2700 for my CD player and £199 for it’s ‘oxygen free’ interconnect. I had a number of duplicate CDs. Ones I’d purchased myself, then been given as a birthday or Christmas gift. I took the album ‘SO’ by Peter Gabriel and put one disk in my CD player and the other in the DVD player and synchronised them. Honestly, other than a difference in volume levels, it was very difficult to differentiate them. I seriously would struggled In a blind test. I then swapped the interconnects which made it even harder to tell them apart. It made me think, if I’m struggling to differentiate between a player plus cable costing in total just under £30 and a player plus cable costing in total just under £3000, was that extra expenditure actually worth it? But, I guess that is what differentiates the man on the street from the audiophile.
@@howardskeivys4184 Great story! - and yes this can put us with both feet back on the ground. I have a similar story - it was about 20 years ago, and my then girlfriend got a DVD-player. These things were just introduced and special at the time. Because the DVD-player could play CDs she removed her CD-player from her system. It was a pretty decent system, I don't remember the brand of the DVD-player, but the CD-player was Technics. I told her that she should put the Technics back in and A/B the two players the same way you did - the difference was pretty big - the CD-player sounded a lot better on the system - Looking back now I think that the DVD-player wasn't 'poor' - but simply tuned to enjoy movies (very warm and lots of bass). The main reason I put quite some money in my CD-player is that I want it to last a long time - my previous player (a Rotel) served me for 18 years - and is still serving my brother. Now I have a Yamaha tank that weighs 16 kilos - should last for a while.
@@alphaniner3770 I also had a wake up call about 2 years ago. In around 1990 I bought a Rega Elicit integrated amplifier. It cost me around £1700. It is, a fantastic integrated amp and is still in production today, costs around £1600 and comes with a remote control, which mine doesn’t. Anyway, until very recently that amp formed the beating heart of my hifi rig and served me well. 2 years ago, I took it to my local dealer and asked them to send it back to Rega for a thorough service. The dealer asked me if I’d listened to the new amp from Rega? The Osiris I replied. No, £6000 is a bit more than I’d want to pay for an integrated amp. They explained that the Osiris was indeed a nice amp, Rega’s attempt at the ‘high end market’ what ever that is? They then told me that Rega had just introduced a new integrated, the Ethos which retailed at £3000 and they rated it as superb. I agreed to do a blind audition of all 3 amps when my Elicit came back from Rega. Well, 3 weeks later I found myself in their listening room, armed with a bag of my favourite CDs. They put on amp 1 and I immediately said to myself, that is with out doubt my Elicit. After listening to a few tracks they put on amp 2. I began to question my original thoughts as this amp sounded like my Elicit. Q when amp 3 was running, I could note a slight improvement in clarity. They then asked me to name the amps. My response was 1 my Elicit. 2 the Aethos, I think? 3 the Osiris! I was spot on and they openly admitted how closely the Ethos and Elicit resembled each other. They then repeated the test using difficult to drive speakers. Now the differences were more apparent, but not sufficient to warrant a fresh purchase. I came away rather proud of my 30 year old Elicit. I have since upgraded the amp to a preamp monovlock combo. My trustee old Rega is still in my rack, ready for action if needed. By the way, that 20 year old Tesco DVD is still perfectly functional and has take up residence in my sons bedroom. For £18 it’s a hefty unit, weighing at around 11kg and only slightly smaller than one of my new monoblocks! You are right, a components longevity is a must consideration when making a purchase. Enjoy the music, whilst we still can. Before we’re over run by the Taliban and music is outlawed. LOL!
I found Mogami about 2 years ago, I could have saved a few quid if only I had picked them up first . This review helps so many people get it somewhat right from the start . Thank you Tarun .
@@StringerNews1 You act like science has barely advanced in our lifetimes. We just have differences in the personality trait of openness. I ain't mad at cha
@UC5aEi_Id481-FZH5Bbs5CKQ don't quit your day job. Your ability to cold-read people by how you think they "act" is pretty useless. In reality I know quite a lot about technology and how much it has advanced. But as much as technology has advanced, human biology has not increased to create people with extra-sensory perception. Lots of fraudsters claiming to have it, but they just can't pass a simple double-blind test.
@@StringerNews1 Echolocation was first identified in 1938. It existed before then. ESP is a strawman. Simply: There are probably aspects of human hearing that we haven't created measurement devices for
Most excellent presentation Tarun, Thank You. I have made my own cables for 50 years. I use various professional cables, like the Belden and Mogami that you have reviewed. Indeed there are subtle differences in each. But this is the joy and frustration of this hobby. Please keep up your remarkable work.
Great work Tarun. This review couldn't be more timely. Currently thinking of building my own rca cables. Even though the price of the chord would be way out of my level of affordability, it gives me some comfort knowing that the likes of the mogami isn't that far off behind. Much appreciated for your effort to do this video.
This video breaks everything down that we enthusiasts are looking for in cables. You go into great detail with explanations, well appreciated. I feel you on the wife picking up the right remote. Haha!
Very well done. Thanks to your wife for providing her ear to you and us. As women generally are smaller than men, so are their ears and ear canals and consequently they can hear higher frequencies than the less refined bigger males. As to the table, I have a hobby in decision theory and so I copied the table from the video into a spreadsheet. My Mogami row adds up to 47, not 46. That's not a big deal though. The reason I did this was to see what the effect on the scores would be if I "weighed" the individual attributes. A weight of "1" for all attributes then gives 40, 46, 47, 42, 50 as scores. Note that the sum of the weights is 14. If I then apply a 1, 2 or 3 weight to each attribute according to what I feel is important, then in my case the weights add up to 31 now - 7 times a 3, 3 times a 2 and 4 times a 1. To get my weighted scores in the same ballpark as yours, I multiplied my score sum by 14/31. This results in 40.6, 45.2, 48.8, 40.2, 50.6. Not a shockingly different ordering. Let me add a bit to the conversation, still. There's one thing we generally do not measure: wave shape. Electrical engineers test with DC or sinusoidal signals and both have zero relevance to our ears and the hearing behind it. Play the central A on the piano and if tuned to today's standard, you'll hear something we call "440 Hz". If you look at the shape of that piano's wave, you'll see complexity and the shape does not resemble a sinusoidal wave. There are really high frequency elements in there that determine the "voice" of the individual instrument - they are all different, like human voices. The reason we recognize a piano is because our ear is a complex microphone with 20,000 neurons each measuring another frequency (range). The auditory nerve system is much faster than the visual system, by the way. What we can do with this system requires training or learning. And our ability to "judge" sound depends on that learning experience. A concert pianist may be able to discern the five Steinway grands they can choose from for their recital "in the blind" even when to us they all sound the same - like a very nice concert grand. What does this have to do with cables? Well, the differences in quality we perceive indicate that they have frequency dependent properties and their impact on acoustic imaging suggests these are in part frequency dependent phase shifts. An electrical engineer with their Ohm's Law and "humans hear nothing above 20 kHz sinusoidal" is totally oblivious to this all. The second thing we have to be aware of is that the cable as interface in a system, is not subjected to legal standards. My power amp can throw 60 Ampères at each of my speakers. Try to get that properly across with thick figure 8 lamp wire. And my pre-amplifier as a Voltage amplifier can throw over 100V at my power amps input. Which again poses serious requirements to the "audio interconnect" cable. Three octaves above piano's central A, we are in musical domain that does not see a lot of action (3,520 Hz), relative. If a transversal flute plays the same note as the piano's central A, it sounds differently. And so does a clarinet. And a violin. And a human voice. Our ears can pick them apart, place them in space and recognize them as such. Even when some of them play at the same time. In terms of "sinusoidal frequency response" we need way more bandwidth than 20 kHz. Distortion-free BANDWIDTH. Try to get an amplifier, interconnect and loudspeaker to produce a 1,760 Hz block wave (2 octaves above piano's central A) and with a measurement microphone and oscilloscope compare what was sent to the input of the chain and what comes out. You'll be shocked and wonder how come we recognize anything coming out of these systems. Yes, I am saying that part of what one person might call snake oil, another might call the former's limitations in their measurement and their hearing abilities. To be very clear, Tarun, that was a heck of a nice review with a very good presentation. Keep up the good work.
Interesting post. I'll add that some folks like even order harmonic distortion created by their equipment. Maybe because it synthesizes some of the characteristics that are lost by the time the sound is reproduced?
@@PlaybackMansion - my hypothesis would be that "we" love harmony. And these harmonics you mention may mask potentially distracting more random noise. We also are programmed to learn "melody" patterns. This starts in the womb and when we are born, we can produce crying spurts in the melody patterns of our mother's language.
Studios don't use RCA cables. I should know. I design cable and signal transmission systems for contemporary TV studios. We use XLR cables, Belden, Mogami, Klotz, Sommer, Canford, whatever we can find in the box, (but always Neutrik connectors, because they don't break). Then we run it to the stage box, where it's A/D converted, and run as multicast IP traffic over the cheapest available unshielded CAT6 into a wall box where there's a £3 RJ45 IDC jack, and then 70 metres of CAT6, another IDC jack, and then into an Ethernet switch. The switch of course costs £5000, because it's a PTP boundary switch. The cable wankery is just that, wankery. It does not matter a bleeping worm turd what you use, as long as it is balanced, reasonable impedance and rugged. If you could be arsed to do a proper *double* blind test, you would be very hard pressed to find any differences, and if you do, it's usually because the audiophile gear tends to be built using unstable unfiltered designs that brown out when you load it just a little bit wrongly. Proper gear, built right to pro transmission standards, is very insensitive to cable loading. 100 meters 120Ω pair cable is inaudible if you do it right.
Sure, sure but I think the audience of this video is using rca's and audiophile gear. It is after all The British Audiophile testing RCA cables. It looks like by writing "audiophile gear tends to be built using unstable unfiltered designs that brown out when you load it just a little bit wrongly," you're suggesting rca's can sound different. The whole "it must be double blind tested" argument is tired. People make decisions daily that are based on incomplete and imperfect data. The scientific method will always contain subjective elements such as what samples to test, what to test for, what degree of certainty is required, how the data is analyzed, how the results are interpreted and so on. It's interesting that you make an assumption about what a double blind test would show as if it's a foregone conclusion. Is it possible you have biases like everyone else with a heartbeat? I love all the advances double blind testing has brought to the world as much as the next guy. But... it's not practical for a hobbyist RU-vid channel to run tests like the FDA
@@PlaybackMansion - The only assumption which can be made about double-blind listening tests is the listener and the test administrator have no influence on the outcome.
@@rb032682 There is a distinct lack of proper scientific double trials in this area. Unfortunately, a double blind test done but one person does not make it scientifically valid due to the sample size being one. There was a single blind test done in my cable evaluation (a double blind test would require switching mechanisms that do not degrade sound quality and a second person cable to set it up). I switched the cables about half a dozen time for my wife to listen and made sure I had no interaction with her. Each time she picked out the difference between the cables and surprisingly quickly. Others You-tubers have done similar investigations where some have picked out differences and others have not. My advice, try for yourself 😊
We could say the same for sources and amps. Some might dazzle you with sparkle and energy, other just open a window to a performance to let you peek in. Our preferences regarding music genres and the volume we usually listen to are also factors contributing to the selection of a particular brand. Great video as usual! Trust your ears and not the hype!
Well done video and I don't have a quibble with anything you said. What makes doing a comparison of cables like you did in this video is the results will vary with the equipment the cables are connected to. The output impedance of the source and the input impedance of the destination are critical. An output impedance of just an ohm or two will by itself mitigate most problems. This is why cables make such a huge difference with tube equipment. I know this because my wife had a Crown IC-150 preamp and she had all kinds of problems with noise and distortion. After I installed buffer amplifiers to the IC-150 outputs using NE5532 chips. This lowered the output impedance from about 1,000 ohms to less that five ohms. The problems went away. Back in the 1990s I had a problem with connecting my big 250 watt per channel power amp to the needed speaker equalizer. The power amplifier was located in between the speakers and the equalizer was with the receiver, tape decks and turntable. That distance was about 18 feet or 3.5 meters. With the power amplifier located within 1 meter of the equalizer and using the best Monster Cable interconnects available at that time all worked well. with the amplifier back in between the speakers there was noise, hum and really bad sound even though I was using the same type of cable in both circumstances. The solution was to convert the power amplifiers input to balanced using an Analog Devices SSM-2141 balanced line receiver chip. The interconnect was changed to a Gotham Audio balanced microphone cable with the power amp end wired as balanced XLR and the equalizer end wired unbalanced RCA with the negative wire connected to the shield. This combo works perfectly. I was curious about what the balanced line input would allow and changed the microphone cord to two lengths of cheap 18 gauge speaker cable from Radio Shack. One length connected the equalizers output and its ground to the plus and negative inputs of the power amp and the other length connected the ground to the XLR's ground pin.This has to be a worst case scenario in term of audio interconnection cabling. This worked almost as well. My conclusion is, Use balanced inputs wherever you can or keep the interconnect cable as short as possible. My perspective on this comes from my experience being a broadcast and audio recording engineer.
Thanks for this review. New to me high gain vintage valve monoblocks on 105 db sensitive speakers have had me chasing down unwanted noise in my system that’s been very audible from the listening position. I’ve now reduced it down to only being audible right next to the speakers. It’s taken shielded mains and interconnect cables to do this combined with plugging power amps and source into the same gang plug. I’m looking at cables again now because I’ve got Ifi phono 3 on order that deserves a quality cable.
Great review, I wish more reviewers adopted this approach with speakers, amps etc as well as cables. It’s much more useful to compare products across categories in order to shortlist what may appeal to you.
Back in the late 90's I was loaned an off board Dac by my hifi dealer to use with an ageing Phillips cd850mk2. Over the course of the week of listening I have to admit I wasn't overly excited, so the end of the week came and the dac was unplugged to return as I didn't thing it made a difference. Playing a track while boxing the dac up to return got my attention as it now sounded closed in and flat not 3 dimensional and full bodied!!!! A very quick re plugging of the DAC returned the 3d fullness so I left it in place and stumped up the £200 for the dac. Some times it is when some thing is removed that we hear what it did.
And certain "Audio Experts" will say that your findings are a bunch of BS because "bits are bits" or else accuse you of being on mind altering substances since your experiences either "don't count" or are not congruent with their "no statistically significant differences with double blind testing" agenda.
No way Nick! (sarc) Don't you know that's "impossible"? bc ones and zeros are always and only just that, at least according to some of the unctuous twats on this thread.
Another great video, with an eloquent explanation of your thoughts that so closely mirror my own musings my wife looked up and asked if Id been involved with your script! Thanks for doing what you do so well , I always enjoy your content.
Another excellent video, especially love how you conclude with your own experiences. Myself, I've done a few things which have had very negligible differences before and after such as bi-wiring, putting cheap anti-vibration pads under my TT, etc. But recently changed my Chord Rumour X speaker cables to Kimber 8TC and that made a significant difference in the tonality of the music.
Just picked up a Mogami balanced XLR cable after hearing about the brand from this video. Great build quality, great sound, great price. I am delighted. Thanks, Tarun !
A very significant and honest assessment of audio cables I think. Thank you. The audio press have been less than honest at times and have been afraid of telling the truth, because they ultimately depend on the industry for their livelihood. You 'don't bite the hand that feeds you'. Also, I feel sorry for those audiophiles who believe that they get better sound if they spend more money. How a cable sounds is 'system specific', in that sometimes a cheap cable can sound better. It all depends on what works best with a particular system, irrespective of the cables' cost.
As a retired physicist, and after reviewing the literature, cheap cables perform the same as expensive cables. Buy the 1000/ft cables if you like, I don't care, but other than looks, the 5/ft cables will work just as well, and in some cases, much better. Use any currency units you like. Thanks for the video!
Wow.. A sensible, well thought out objective review of affordable cables ! I didn’t think such a thing existed in the audiophile world ! I replaced some “audiophile” speaker cables with some Canare pro 4S11 which was much less expensive than what I was using previously. they don’t look as impressive, but they do sound better in my system. Since I’m using a Music First Audio passive TVC, I have selected wire that best meets the proper electrical characteristics for Impedance, resistance, capacitance, A good place to start I thought.. but still searching for that last percentage of synergy that seems elusive. Thank you again for the time and effort you put into this comparison ! It’s not an easy task and you pulled it together quite well ! 👍🏻
Like you basically said Tarun at the end of your video, it's all about matching the correct cable to your existing system to get the balanced and needed sound for you. The cost of the cable means Diddley squat if it doesn't produce the sound your wanting. A very good video and thanks for sharing it.
Thank you! Thank you! Tarun, this video was a game changer for me! This video set me off on the search for the Belden 8402 cable, and I tracked some down. I then saw a few online posts, picked up some Switchcraft 3502AAU RCA connectors, and made some DIY interconnects following the "Japanese" termination, as suggested by Jeff Day and others, where the shield is connected at both ends. I used Cardas Quad-Eutectic solder which is awesome to work with. Wow!!! I am so happy with the results. These IC's are, hands down, the best I have heard in my system which is on the bright side. Soundstage width and depth increased, there was more "air" around performers who were more precisely positioned in the soundstage, I was able to hear the acoustic nature of the recording space and its natural reverberation more, the timbre of acoustic instruments became more natural, and the attack and decay increased from my former cables, mainly on solo piano pieces. I was actually able to sell all of my Nirvana SL interconnects and end up with a substantial amount of cash in my pocket at the end of the day. I have since also replaced my Nirvana SL speaker cables with DIY Belden 9497 speaker cables, but that's another story.
@@johnreel8944 Instead of attaching the shield wire to the ground / neutral wire at only the source end and allowing it to "float" at the receiving end of the cable (I believe they refer to this as American termination), the shield is attached to the ground wire at both ends.
Great video. Being an average music listener I don’t have the knowledge or ear (40 years flying jets) to tell the worst from the best component. So you do a great service to all in my category. Ty Steve
The results of this experiment, as far as I'm concerned, are mixed. On the one hand, the Chord Co. cables demonstrate that as you pay more for audio components, you do get marginally better performance, but not multiple times better performance. On the other hand, it appears that the Van Den Hul cables demonstrate that not all audio components perform in line with the price you pay for them, allowing for the snake oil theory to continue to haunt us. In other words, the results, as I see them, give both camps ammunition, and therefore, the debate continues. Thank you for taking the time to conduct this experiment. I really appreciate it. Cheers!
Thank you Khalid. This being a controversial topic with surprising results, I took an extra week of listening to confirm my results. That is why there was no video last week. The results are what they are. Cables don’t sound the same but more expensive is not always better 😊👍
there’s really no need for debate. Just return the cable if it doesn’t improve your system. I tried a few USB cables ranging from $40 to $350 with my Chord Hugo 2 DAC. The stock cable sound too sharp but none of the upgrade cable solves the problem. I concluded that the noise isolation on Hugo 2 makes USB cable upgrade useless. Then the Curious Hugo Link finally arrived. It is a real game changer. It improves all aspect of the sound quality and adds a bit sweetness. Ultimately, the best solution is to make a lot of money so you can afford purchasing mistakes.
I am aware that there are different views as to whether spending extra money on cables is necessary. Arguing what is right and wrong about subjective matters is pointles. It's like arguing about, say, red versus orange. Which is why I usually avoid hifi forums.
I love the approach you took with evaluating these cables and the advice you give is sage. I subscribed well before you brought up quantum mechanics. Now I wish I could hit that button x10!
I was just researching this myself you hit the nail on the head.We must be twins so much of your thoughts and theory are mine also.But you do a better job putting it into words.
The most contentious subject in hi fi , I have seen people nearly coming to blows over cables.After 55 years in this hobby I have now gravitated towards pro cables such as mogami.
Great video. As an intermediate audiophile I’ve also noticed cabling matters. Naturally I don’t go looking for the most expensive or exotic stuff. But I have plunked down enough cash to compare a few moderately priced balanced cables on my headphone rig. One was a cheap generic brand from China that came 3-pairs-to-a-pack. The next most expensive was a custom cable from Blue Jean. The third and most expensive was a pair of Mogami. The Chinese brand was sort of meh. The Blue Jeans seemed to be a distinct step up and were the most natural sounding. The Mogamis sucked the life out of the music and harshened up the sound in a way that I could not have predicted. I’m glad l tried all three to see what was up because if I’d just bought the Mogami’s on price/brand, today I would be assuming something was wrong with the rest of my rig. And it would have been a lot more expensive upgrading my other components trying to “fix” what some $90 cables were doing to my sound. The moral of the story: new cables aren’t always about chasing audio perfection - sometimes they’re about finding out your default cable choices were ruining the audio perfection you already had.
Tarun, I really appreciate hearing your opinions and knowledge on all things audio. In a future piece can you shed light on the pros and cons of TOSLINK versus S/PDIF RCA interconnects. I’m always looking for ways to tweak my system. Keep up the great work.
@@abritishaudiophile7314The TOSLINK digital optical connection was developed by Toshiba, its basically a pipe that carries the signal as light. S/PDIF ( Sony Philips digital interface) is an electrical connection co-developed by the inventors of Compact Disc, Sony and Philips, so they are in fact totally dissimilar.
Hi Tarun , hope you are having good time with your family missing your videos for 2 weeks and realise kids will go back to school next week. We are having fun watching RAF show.
This video was perfectly timed for where I am in my audiophile journey. I've only been in the hobby for about a year, and I've recently considered upgrading my interconnects and speaker cables to possibly improve the sound of my system. I'm looking at two pro-grade cables: Mogami 2549 and Canare L-4ES6. Your review gave me some things to consider (in terms of cables and system synergy.) The midrange is a bit lean in my system, and the right cable could potentially make an incremental improvement to the sound at a reasonable cost. Thanks, and keep up the good work. Cheers!
Do you have as extensive room treatment as you possibly can ? If you don't, save money on things like cables and fancy DACs and focus on the room. Speakers and room are far and away more important than everything else put together (short of the mastering of the album).
@@DrinkWater713I do need to look into room treatment, but I have been holding off because I may relocate in the near future. My listening area is my living room for now. I'll research simple, discreet ways to diffuse/absorb sound in this shared space temporarily. Thanks for the suggestion.
@@DrinkWater713 - Agreed! I have been saying the same thing since I realized the bliss of a room with good acoustics is within reach of even a pauper like myself. I often ask, "What is the one component in an average audiophile system which has NOT been built to reproduce audio as accurately as possible at a specific price point?" The room.
I am in the camp if you can't measure the difference you surely can't hear it...So...this wasn't a blind test? So basicly it's worthless...If you don't test this blind and give your opinion based on that you can get rid of inheret bias...The whole "audiophile" thing is nothing more then...oooh thats shiny and expensive, so it must be better...At least when it comes to cables and interconnects...There is a prize/performance scale and tbh most of the differences people say they can "hear" is nothing more then the placebo effect at work... I would love to see a test with a high enf measuring microphone and all the graphs next to each other...if they're all the same..there is no difference..
A pretty simple test would be to take 100m cable of each type and see if you can hear a difference. I'm sure you can't. The recordings you play to test the cables are being recorded with mixing consoles containing a few 100 op amps mostly TL071, 072 NE5532, 5534,... By the time the signal arrives at the recorder, the signal has been passed trough probably 25...30 op amps and then people claim to hear the difference between two different op amps. I can send you the schematics of a the Legendary Midas XL3/XL4 mixers if you like. Carefully inspect and count how many op amps of the aforementioned types the signal is passed trough before being made available at the output. Some of your reference records where recorded with this type of mixing console. I also have schematics of Studio mixing consoles made in Swiss. They use low cost op amps. There is nothing fancy in there. Besides: all the printed circuit boards in those mixing consoles use regular copper and the connectors are nothing more then bog standard DIN41612 or similar connectors. And cables are just UL16... rated or whatever they had. The same wire as being used in cars to connect brake lights. Nothing like that oxygen free rubbish. (at least they didn't smell like oxygen free)
@@foobarables Yeah i know...And please don't get me wrong, i am all for "audiophiles" and the hobby...i love to listen to the Krell ksa 250 from my nephew with the B&W 801 matrix3 totally upgraded..(i love those speakers) But when it comes to speakerwire and interconnects..i have listened to just about everything he had on that install...and the "best sounding" was a pair of speakerwires that cost around 300 euro's and they were "nice" but then he tried speakerwire that costs 2500 euros...and i couldn't hear any difference...but he sweared the "highs were crisper"...And i told him ...not 2300 euro crisper...Sometimes its just snakeoil and there is a limit to what people above a certain age can hear..
@@justkiddin1980 The problem with this channel is the lack of knowledge which is not very respectfulness towards the audience and the engineers doing all the hard work. Trying to measure cable resistance with a low cost multi meter is not going to work. You will need something more advanced capable of kelvin sensing = $$$. Anything else won't work to measure the difference between cables with a resistance a fraction of an ohm. I've watched other videos on this channel and the lack of knowledge is all over the place. Throwing terminology around without knowing what it really means. There is for example a video on this channel presenting a discrete DAC. Nicely build but discrete DAC's build with R2R ladder networks...Resistors with the a precision required to achieve 16bit resolution do exist but they are certainly not in used the DAC shown. I have a book called "advanced digital audio". The first 250 pages describe in detail every possible error in a ADC's DAC's. Chip designers came up with ingenious methods to improve the performance of DAC's. Something which you can not achieve with a discrete build R2R ladder network. I think every audiophile should read this book to gain insight into the requirements to achieve 16bit. Apart from all the above, the largest source of errors in any audio system are still the loudspeakers. Some work has been done to improve distortion figures. But the process is rather slow. It's just extremely difficult. In all those years, loudspeakers didn't change to much. Different cone materials, drive structures, voice coil winding techniques, different magnets, vented magnets, surround materials,... There are a lot of factors to take into consideration. For example: short term voice coil temperature changes caused by a transient in the music you're listening are a source of distortion because the voice coil resistance changes. How can this be solved without affecting other parameters? Adding more mass to the voice coil will limit temperature changes but at the same time the loudspeaker will store more energy. Something you don't want. Vented magnets maybe? Nope, they have their set of problems. Expensive interconnects are just fancy things and any descent connector will do fine as long as you don't solve other problems which are more real. But you must have some will and determination to sit down and think for moths/years/decades to thinker about the same thing. Perhaps you never find the ultimate solution. But at least you learned something which might be applicable to something completely different.
I guess you don't know that the placebo effect in medicine is now proven to be real and heals and helps people physically and measurably. so if it comes into audio as you propose, why not use it to get more satisfaction from a system? I think there's more to it than just that, but I agree it's a factor. I just don't see it as a negative.
Hi Tarun I've really enjoyed the two videos you've done on interconnects. I agree with you that buying better kit is a more preferable route than expecting 'better' cables to be a panacea for what is perceived as lacking in a system. You also make a great point about how our listening experience is affected by tiredness, electricity supply etc. But when you think about it there are two reasons to buy and swap out existing hi-fi components and accessories. The first one is a must in that if you are unhappy with clarity, tonality and dynamics, you'll want o buy better kit. Your suggestion of spending 3 X more on the upgrade has worked for me, (I did this before hearing you say it). The second reason for upgrading is where you love what you've got but there must be better kit out to buy, and we don't want to miss out. I've got chord cobra interconnects between CD player and Amp. Before upgrading my amp and CD player to high-end,. I couldn't tell the difference between my interconnects and Chord Shawline. I heard the difference when I heard Chord epic, but to my ears, it flattened the music. Now I have better kit, I thought about trying Chord Epic or similar in my newest system, and see how that would work. But then I heard you relate in this video how the 5 cables performed in terms of clarity of acoustic instruments etc, and I realized that the interconnects give me what I want, simply because they do, and the hi-fi equipment is very good. So, I'm not going to buy or stress myself trying several£400 interconnects 'on loan' to chase a better sound. That's because the ones I have do the job right. Ultimately, I don't want to pay money for interconnects that may well introduce neutrality or sibilance.
Tarun, this is a really good video. Because a measurement shows no difference between two components does not mean that there is no difference, it only means that the measurement process is not necesssarily adequate. Typically people measure the frequency spectrum of two cables and conclude that it is the same and therefore both cable should sound the same. But the last conclusion is the culprit because it is no secret that our ears are incredibly sensitive to the time domain, not the frequency domain. It is like testing dacs and the THD, in the frequency domain where they measure great but the problem with digital is all about the time domain, where the signal is chopped to start with. Talking about dacs, we are now using femtosecond clocks and some times atomic clocks; doesn't that prove the accuracy of our ears at detecting minimal phase shifts/ temporal distortion. Coming back to cable, I make my own interconnects and speaker cables with quality components and I have experimented with OFC/OCC cable and to my ears there is a significant difference in favour of the OCC cables. I am a physicist and I can not necessarily explain in detail why this is the case. However crystal dislocations/boundaries have an effect on phase velocity dispersion with frequency and can produce wave damping. Subtle phase effects: trust your ears to hear them. Tarun, I suggest that you experiment OFC vs OCC!
Wow . Really enjoyed this video. I and friends have done many of similar tests over the years and got some interesting results. pricing usually bears little relevance to the results. I have made my own cables for over 30 years and rarely buy pre made commercial cables. I have borrowed high end, but not 1000 pounds per metre cables from friends to compare to the cables i have made. I currently have 2 pairs of interconnects made up by a friend. He has not told me what cable he has used . One pair uses the older ETI plastic Phono plugs and the other up market Chinese copy phono plugs. Both have silver solder used. So i shall be comparing these to my current cables. So once again many thanks for this video really enjoyed it
excellent review as always love this style and detailed analysis not for bragging rights or ego just raw data and facts keep goin tarun we appreciate you friend
I read something once about single crystal copper that seemed plausible : the "grain boundaries" between crystals of standard copper are like semiconductor junctions, so they introduce nonlinearity (distortion). I acquired some Hitachi single crystal speaker cables and they do sound cleaner to me.
This is still the channel's best video. Tarun, you and your family should come to Cambodia on holiday and we'll take a day n which I do the cable-switching for you. :D
My suggestion, based on years of evaluating cables: change the cables on one channel versus the other. Left vs Right. This eliminates the BIG problem of limited audio memory. I have taught this technique to my audiophile friends, and it has been adopted by them also with great success. With time, and practice, you will be able to judge open, transparency, and imaging. I trust my ability to eliminate the placebo effort. As, I don't care about proving anything, ever. Just finding the best sound. The approach shortens the evaluation time. And allows you to make the quickest audio progress.
Left VS Right really isn't practical either based on our human anatomy. Your Left ear is connected to the left side of your brain, Right ear is connect to the right side if your brain. These two work together but perceive the audio source differently. Together they give you the sound that you are used to hearing. When you separate them for an AB test you are basically comparing the two sides of your brain at that point which will always sound different.
@brandonhayes161 you can place both speakers in the middle of the room next to each other. You can then shuffle over a little and sit directly in front of the one that is playing. To make it even more equal convert the audio to mono or play mono music. This method allows instant swap of speaker cables whilst keeping everything else equal. This is the best way to do blind testing.
Well, years ago, I gave in and tried a custom IEM cable. I set up a test of stock, cheap eBay and 2x price custom cable. I got the Mrs to help me with a blind test, and I picked the custom one every time (detail and slight separation). As for the stock and cheap, they sounded the same. I am now looking at silver vs copper, and if you dare ask it in some forums, you get run out of town lol with "No difference, it's impossible, tests have shown."
Audiophiles love to hallucinate over the most bizarre fantasies. The fact is that a cable can not add anything to a signal, it can only take away. Audio is a simple waveform, and very easy to reproduce accurately. Electrons do not flow any better through pretty wire. Please, be kind, and do not interrupt an audiophile when he (or she) is playing mind games with their system.
I was about to purchase a Mogami interconnect, but my system is already leaning on the bright side. After watch this video I'm gonna get a Belden. Thanks for making me aware.
Can you demonstrate these differences or results through an oscilloscope and also tear the cables down to show us what's inside and measure stuff? I'd only be believe it when I see it.
It's really not about you believing or not. Not even a little bit There's really so few cable comparisons around so obviously they can't please everyone. For people like you, interested in this and in many measurements and other details, it's your moment to shine, I guess. Do these comparisons unlike anyone on the net.
@@entity279 I, for one am looking forward to Mr Mobodies cables comparison just so I can read from someone more pedantic than he is stinking up the comment section
I am not the only one, it is being discussed at the EEVBLOG forum -> Dodgy technology "A British Audiophile" compares speaker cables" that's how I got here. The first bit was fine, show us some cables, diagrams, great sounding good the beginning and if he doesn't know stuff I find that that fine too.. but at the end and this "I don't think an adequate explanation exists when it comes to science " and some sounding words that sounds just snake oil to me.
@@entity279 Well that is my opionion but if it is not being believing or not what is do you think it is suppose to be about that you are referring to as "a little bit"?
@@mrmobodies4879 It's about the reviewer describing his comparative experience with these products. Experience just simply can't be wrong (or right). Comparison could for sure (always ) be improved. But there are probably 1 or 2 other cable comparisons this year on yt. It takes courage to put such content out, while so many avoid it. So in this context it's just arrogance and disrespect when people like you come and stop just short of making the author a liar.
Hi Tarun. Great video - objective listening and comparison with some science thrown in for good measure. I've commented on a previous video regarding cables. I can hear a difference with cables and my journey has led me through Van den Hul to Chord Chorus to Chord Signature to Chord Indigo. Each time I have experienced an improvement the further up the chain I go in terms of expense. Recently I've been using a Wireworld Platinum Eclipse (top of the range) to connect my Dac for streaming which unfortunately had to be sent for repair due to a faulty connection. While the cable was away I had to use a much inferior Cambrige Audio I/c instead. Let's just say that after hearing the difference I stopped streaming until the Wireworld cable returned. Sceptics will always cry 'snake oil' but if you can hear it, you can hear it.
OutStanding video so much work appreciate your effort. Although it would've been nice to throw in a much higher end cable. So I'm still at a loss to understand what a truly higher end interconnect table Will do for me. Although mogami seems to offer a great value.
Having been interested in good quality Hifi just my observation: interconnects sound different indeed, and you don’t need to be an audiophile to hear the differences. To my surprise when doing a comparison: it seemed that one interconnect sounded louder than another one. Another difference was the soundstage: Nordost Red Dawn brought the sound more forward into the room than the v.d.Hul you included. As always really appreciated your in depth review!
@@wouterkolkman als ik deze man hoor praten val ik na 5 min spontaan in slaap… I’ve listened to his recital about the quality of cables, sorry, but there’s no measurable data in it. It’s all about variables that don’t make any difference in sound quality. The epilog of his story is that if you hear a difference in sound you have to consider if it’s worth the money. Well, I know the answer, there’s no difference in sound, but your brain thinks there is a difference, because of the psychological marketing that comes along with fancy expensive cables and people around you telling you it sounds better.
This is a cool comparison! I plan to experiment with a bunch of different rca cables from Ali express to see how they compare in sound to my Beldon rca, same ones you used here. Should be fun!
Yep !! You got that right mate. The Mogami Neglex W2534 is quite the hidden gem of a cable. Been using it as my primary interconnect for audio and HT appliocations since 2008. With all my microphones and even with all my headfphones. It is simply that good. Definitely one of the very best bang for your buck, quality all rounder audio cables out there. Nice one again Tarun. Keep up the good work. Cheers.
Great review. Great descriptions. I had some very expensive high end cables. I replaced them with simple pure occ fine strand copper wire and got much better results. No, dollars don't always mean better sound.
Brilliant! That is why the cable market has so many brands - audiophiles can hear the differences and cable manufacturers play with geometries and materials ro get to a performance level the designer is pursuing. Measurements and just a baseline.
.. And you can only go with what you hear, so you have the right cable for you. Ive never heard a cable that didnt have its own sonic character so for me its a choice I make with care as it has always affected the sound of my systems and the studios Ive built.
I have been through various cables but none made as much difference as the room layout and furnishings. I opted for a reasonably priced cable and am happy with it and managed to get away from interconnects by using Devialet Air streaming protocal. When I moved from an €80 USB to Devialet Air the difference was amazing,. When I moved from powerlines to Cat 6 the difference was equally huge. Loving the channel.
Please explain. You’re saying that I can connect my phono amp to my amp without interconnect cables? And, you power your rig with a modified Ethernet cable? How did you rig that up?
Just a side note: Mogami made its good reputation by designing a guitar cable that could stand up to the sort of punishment that such cables used gig after gig would see. Since then, Mogami has branched out with a full range of pro audio cables, all of similar good quality. The Mogami cable you reviewed is aimed at the touring DJ market, which demanded more reliable RCA cables to hookup their gear.
….I'm more confused than ever! 😁…Kind of the same way I feel about DACs and DAC reviews….different does not mean better…so I will just stick with the interconnects that I have, the 10-gauge lamp cord to my speakers and enjoy the music. 👍🏼
