Atlas Hyper 2.0 conundrum. What would you do?

[Big Chris]

I recently snagged a 3m pair of Atlas Hyper 2.0 (factory termainated with Atlas Z plugs) off eBay for £50. No, I haven't demoed them beforehand, but I'm taken with my Atlas I/Cs, and Atlas seem to be one of the few manufacturers who fit. as standard, a Banana that's BFA compatible.

As I bi-amp, they're sitting in the cupboard waiting for me to buy a second run of Atlas Hyper cables.

Should I...

1. Buy another 3m pair of Hyper 2.0?

2. Buy a pair of Hyper 1.5, using my 2.0 for mids and the 1.5 for tweeters?

3. Buy a pair of Hyper 3.0, using my 2.0 for tweeters and the 3.0 for the mids?

4. The wildcard....... Use my new Hypers in conjunction with my existing QED Silver Anniversay Bi-Wire in some configuration or other. (unlikely I know, but I thought I'd throw it out there).

I'm in no rush, and I haven't really thought about budget, so was wondering if it'd be a case of spend the most and plump for the Hyper 3.0, or if there were any other opinions out there. There are no wrong or right answers.

 

[MattSPL]

Try the hyper 3.0 on the mid/bass, and the QED on the tweeters. And then try it the other way around and see which you prefer.

 

[Craig M.]

i'd partner it with some van damme lc-ofc. i used to use hyper 3.0 in my old system and couldn't tell any difference when i compared it to the van damme. this stuff.

 

[Anonymous]

I'd go with something other than the Hyper 3.0, it's great cable but it doesnt suit the P85 well from when I tried it. Much preferred the QED Silver Anniversary I had lying about, and that was with a relatively bright speaker (ProAc Studio 130).

 

[aliEnRIK]

I definitely wouldnt pair with the QED as the different characteristics will probably mean theres a missmatch between the signals

If you must go your route, id go Hyper 3 to bass and 2 to treble

Personally id single wire the hyper 2s

Or if you must biwire/biamp, id go hyper 2 all round (purely to keep all cable characteristics exactly the same)

 

[aliEnRIK]

i'd partner it with some van damme lc-ofc. i used to use hyper 3.0 in my old system and couldn't tell any difference when i compared it to the van damme. this stuff.

Never tried the hyper, but the Ascent 3 is definitely a step up from the van damme

 

[Anonymous]

Just buy some 6mm OFC generic copper cable from eBay for £15 or so. I didn't hear any difference from Atlas Hyper 2.0.

Save some money and enjoy the music.

 

[oldric_naubhoff]

I recently snagged a 3m pair of Atlas Hyper 2.0 (factory termainated with Atlas Z plugs) off eBay for £50.

excellent choice

I have Hyper 2.0 and with my apm and speakers I definitely prefer Atlas over QED Revelation which I previosly used.

As I bi-amp, they're sitting in the cupboard waiting for me to buy a second run of Atlas Hyper cables.

Should I...

2. Buy a pair of Hyper 1.5, using my 2.0 for mids and the 1.5 for tweeters?

there is version of Atlas Hyper speaker cable for biamping and, while not being identical, it resembles 1.5 +2.0 combination. so I'd go for solid core 1.5 into tweeters and multistranded 2.0 into woofers.

 

[Craig M.]

haha. i'm not a cable believer. i used to be until i got someone to blind test me. realising it all sounds the same is great. imo (and everyone else who's been blind tested).

 

[Shanka]

Hi,

I was looking at speaker cables and decided to go with qed revelation based on reviews and a dealer said he was demo'ing caspian amps with it, my other selected choice was Atlas hyper 2.

Was interested in your comments preferring the atlas as I think there may be too much brightness but thought would leave until I change speakers.

However as also advised above am going to get some quality van damme copper cable which is hugely cheaper and see if that does the job,or maybe just clean up my 25 year old qed 79 strand, any thoughts ?

Thanks

 

[Big Chris]

Well, I was gonna wait for some Hyper 3.0 to turn up, but another 3m pair of Hyper 2.0 turned up on eBay for £50, so I took the plunge.

The Auction only ended last night, so I hope to receive them some time this week and will probably wait until the weekend to swap out my QEDs for the Hypers.

 

[Dan Turner]

Nice one Chris, I think you'll find it a noticeable and beneficial improvement

 

[Big Chris]

I hope you're right Dan.

 

[CnoEvil]

I hope you're right Dan.

I would be surprised if he wasn't. It should give improvements across the frequency range. Can you give us your evaluation when you try it.

I was impressed when I heard Arcam with Atlas Ichor biwire (not the same but not miles away).

 

[Anonymous]

It should give improvements across the frequency range.

How?

 

[Dan Turner]

It should give improvements across the frequency range.

How?

Presumably by being a better speaker cable. I had both in a previous system and the Atlas was clearly better.

 

[Anonymous]

It should give improvements across the frequency range.

How?

Presumably by being a better speaker cable. I had both in a previous system and the Atlas was clearly better.

Sorry, I meant 'how' as in the application of the laws of physics. Cables can only have the following properties:

1. Resistance

2. Inductance

3. Capacitance

4. Some have RFI filtering

I guess a cable with higher inductance and differing resistance could suit a system better, but these are not price items, these are 'shall I buy a thick wire or a thin wire?' and 'how long?' type factors.

For instance a higher inductance can stop amplifier instability (i.e. correct a fault condition) which makes the treble bearable, a higher resistance can (ironically) increase bass because damping goes down.

Capacitance is the enemy of transistor amps and should be kept to a minimum at all times, and RFI filtering is a £2 ferrite clamp at the amplifier end of the cable.

All the possible physical attributes of a speaker cable can be found in any readily available DIY and car audio centre, so it still puzzles me why people are being raked for cables.

So my question: Is ignorance of the physics that govern our universe (and cables) something carefully cultivated by the Russ's of this world? Because at the end of the day this just drains the pockets of the hi-fi buff to no good effect (when they could acheive the same sound for peanuts) and pushes the hi-fi industry further into the ignorance pit of it's own making. Lets be frank here, cable hype has been and is terrible for the industry as a whole, better audio is only going to come from people spending money on better speakers, amps, DACs etc, not lining the pockets of charlatans.

 

[Anonymous]

It should give improvements across the frequency range.

How?

Presumably by being a better speaker cable. I had both in a previous system and the Atlas was clearly better.

Sorry, I meant 'how' as in the application of the laws of physics. Cables can only have the following properties:

1. Resistance

2. Inductance

3. Capacitance

4. Some have RFI filtering

I guess a cable with higher inductance and differing resistance could suit a system better, but these are not price items, these are 'shall I buy a thick wire or a thin wire?' and 'how long?' type factors.

For instance a higher inductance can stop amplifier instability (i.e. correct a fault condition) which makes the treble bearable, a higher resistance can (ironically) increase bass because damping goes down.

Capacitance is the enemy of transistor amps and should be kept to a minimum at all times, and RFI filtering is a £2 ferrite clamp at the amplifier end of the cable.

All the possible physical attributes of a speaker cable can be found in any readily available DIY and car audio centre, so it still puzzles me why people are being raked for cables.

So my question: Is ignorance of the physics that govern our universe (and cables) something carefully cultivated by the Russ's of this world? Because at the end of the day this just drains the pockets of the hi-fi buff to no good effect (when they could acheive the same sound for peanuts) and pushes the hi-fi industry further into the ignorance pit of it's own making. Lets be frank here, cable hype has been and is terrible for the industry as a whole, better audio is only going to come from people spending money on better speakers, amps, DACs etc, not lining the pockets of charlatans.

Whilst I agree with you Globs, some people have money to burn and spending a couple of hundred quid on Gucci speaker cables is peanuts to them. So whilst people continue to have this excess cash the companies peddling these super douper products will continue to profit.

 

[Anonymous]

Some will buy just because they look fancy, regardless of what they may or may not do to the sound.

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry, I meant 'how' as in the application of the laws of physics. Cables can only have the following properties:

1. Resistance

2. Inductance

3. Capacitance

4. Some have RFI filtering

5. Aesthetic appeal

6. power of suggestion (increases exponentially with the price tag)

 

[MajorFubar]

Every time cables are mentioned, within a page if not less the thread ends up going the same hackneyed direction...

If you think it's all snakeoil to pry good money from those people who have too much of it, that's toally fine, but do you have to keep spouting it in every thread?

If you really can't help the O/P with what I thought was a very specific question, then instead of degenerating the topic into yet another Emperor's New Clothes dabate (which doesn't at all help the O/P), maybe just don't post.

Why can we not all be happy? We all enjoy the same hobby at the end of the day? :?

 

[Anonymous]

We all enjoy the same hobby at the end of the day?

Actually I'm not so sure we do! Sure, we all like a better sound, but how we get there, how we regard the industry and the equipment is vastly different. As different as our musical taste in fact!

I'm of the view that hi-fi isn't magic, and while some techniques, materials and methods do work better than others there is a reason and a difference between them.

I realise that there is a class of people who are convinced that Maxwell was wrong and modern electromagnetic and electronic theory is over ridden by small wooden feet a £2.5k mains cable or other ridiculous paraphernalia, and I think these people are enjoying a different hobby to hi-fi. In my view this class of person is (often in total ignorance) damaging the hi-fi hobby and industry because:

1) They are making hi-fi a laughing stock with 17 century superstition replacing sound electronic theory and the laws of nature.

2) They are allowing the snake oil salesmen to bring down the industry, diverting money and attention from genuine advances in technology.

There is are reasons the hi-fi industry is in decline, and cable voodoo is one of them, and it's giving hi-fi a very bad image of expense, ridicule and mistrust. Hi-Fi salesmen are giving used car salesmen a good name these days - if the computer industry was run like this we wouldn't have one..

 

[MajorFubar]

The HiFi industry is in decline not because of ‘cable voodoo’ but because (a) most consumers are perfectly happy with the sound from small plastic handheld devices which hold 20,000 MP3s at 128kbps or less, and (b) it's no longer the 'in vogue' hobby it once was as people have other interests.

I have various hobbies away from HiFi including photography and classic cars, and I must say, out of all the forums I visit which cater for those hobbies, I have never before come across people so eager to publicly rubbish others’ views, and it’s nearly always about ‘contentious’ items like cables.

Blithering on about physics is irrelevant to the o/p’s post on this occasion and frankly is getting darn tiresome to read in any case, regardless of what your views are on the subject.

By all means have your opinions, but I think there should be a rule on here that if you can’t directly help the O/P’s original question, maybe just zip it!

 

[hammill]

The HiFi industry is in decline not because of ‘cable voodoo’ but because (a) most consumers are perfectly happy with the sound from small plastic handheld devices which hold 20,000 MP3s at 128kbps or less, and (b) it's no longer the 'in vogue' hobby it once was as people have other interests. I have various hobbies away from HiFi including photography and classic cars, and I must say, out of all the forums I visit which cater for those hobbies, I have never before come across people so eager to publicly rubbish others’ views, and it’s nearly always about ‘contentious’ items like cables. Blithering on about physics is irrelevant to the o/p’s post on this occasion and frankly is getting darn tiresome to read in any case, regardless of what your views are on the subject. By all means have your opinions, but I think there should be a rule on here that if you can’t directly help the O/P’s original question, maybe just zip it!

Do your other hobbies have similarly contentious areas? For example do people claim their TR6 goes faster if they use very expensive wheel nuts or their Leica takes a better picture if they glue a piece of wonder tape to the case to remove unwanted resonances?

 

[Anonymous]

I hope you're right Dan.

I would be surprised if he wasn't. It should give improvements across the frequency range. Can you give us your evaluation when you try it. I was impressed when I heard Arcam with Atlas Ichor biwire (not the same but not miles away).

How would it provide these improvements across the frequency range?