Cable Upgrades????

Jason36

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Jul 23, 2008
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OK I have just downsized my system from a full surround sound to stereo system, but now using my Yamaha A5 AV amp for stereo duties (for the time being), The rest of my system is made up of Phillips CD624 CD player and Castle Richmond speakers on Atacama stands, also use an ipod with lossless music on it.

Speaker Cable is from Curry's and interconnects are home made from satellite cable and phono interconnects, which are exceedingly old (10 years at least).

In the current setup, am I likely to hear a substantial sound improvement by uprgrading my connections between amp, source and speakers? I was thinking along the lines of QED Silver Aniversary speaker maybe with terminated ends (however I only have one set of speaker terminations on the Richmonds, but believe I could get these terminated 4 into two) and possibly either Chord Crimson or Gotham internet cable between Amp and CD.

Eventually I would like to upgrade the AV amp to a dedicated stereo amp and then eventually the CD player.

OK guys what are you opinions on the interconnects and also possible upgrades??

Jay
 
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Anonymous

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Many people will disagree with me , but cables speaker or otherwise are only important to a degree. Interconnects should be reasonable quality( I make my own from the best screened cable , not sat cable!!! audio use only and good quality plugs. Otherwise get some 20 quid qed and you should be fine.Remember your amp and cd are made using printed curcuit boards, with tiny tracks, connected to a naff piece of wire, to the plug, then you hope to improve the situation spending hundreds for the next meter???? er noooo. Speaker cable is a bit different.It is a bit complicated, bit it is better to have the two conductors close together, not seperated. It is to do with inductance, but too complicated and boring to explain now.My speaker cable is twisted cat 5 cable(see internet for how to do). This really does sound great, but your amp must be well made or it can cause problems , again see net.Otherwise a sensible heavy duty speaker cable will do fine.Spend mony on the Hifi not the cables.
 

Jason36

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Thanks Esky,

So in a nutshell, what you are saying is I would be better off upgrading my Amplifier in the first instance and buying a set of half decent interconnects....and then when funds allow upgrade my CD player...........

In all honesty most of my music is in lossless format on the ipod and I am also thinking of upgrading the connection here to a Russ Andrews cable, connecting to the bottom of the ipod rather than the headphone socket....I understand these are based on the Kimber cable and provide excellent and a definate improvement in sound quality.

Hmmm so now I need to think about amplifiers....dam
 

fr0g

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Upgrade your amp. then maybe CD player. Get some proper interconnects (Look up Gotham GAC-1 on Ebay - excellent quality, and just over a tenner a pop.)

If the speaker cable is of reasonable thickness (ie not skinny bell-wire) then you should be fine for the moment.

Amazon sell plenty of different dock cables for iPod. I doubt you'll hear any difference spending silly money.
 
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Anonymous

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Cables still play an important role. Last night I tried my Chord Cobra 2 (£50) against my Chord Chameleon Silver Plus (£125) on my new CDP and the difference was very obvious. The Cobra was softer and made the midrange less clear. Generally the whole sound was less clear. Get a Gotham or two but remember, cables do play a key role. It has to be done in balance with your system cost else it all gets a bit silly.
 
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Anonymous

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esky:Many people will disagree with me , but cables speaker or otherwise are only important to a degree. Interconnects should be reasonable quality( I make my own from the best screened cable , not sat cable!!! audio use only and good quality plugs. Otherwise get some 20 quid qed and you should be fine.Remember your amp and cd are made using printed curcuit boards, with tiny tracks, connected to a naff piece of wire, to the plug, then you hope to improve the situation spending hundreds for the next meter???? er noooo. Speaker cable is a bit different.It is a bit complicated, bit it is better to have the two conductors close together, not seperated. It is to do with inductance, but too complicated and boring to explain now.My speaker cable is twisted cat 5 cable(see internet for how to do). This really does sound great, but your amp must be well made or it can cause problems , again see net.Otherwise a sensible heavy duty speaker cable will do fine.Spend mony on the Hifi not the cables.

I fully agree with you - if you have decent cables then spend your money on the Hi Fi boxes. My std issue ears rarely detect any difference in one cable to the next. on my budget system. I'll say it again, 'cos I like to. Speakers will make the biggest difference to what you hear on a budget system.
 
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Anonymous

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Firstly reasonable as I have said are important, but what many people dont understand is why some cables sound different to others, different, not better.With speaker cables the distance between the two conductors changes the inductance and capacitance of the cables.For good frequency response the center of the conductors need to be as close together as possible, ie the thicker the core the further apart the centers.Ok why not bell wire then? Well it is just too thin for the current and the signal is damaged.Fortuanatly most speakers are made that this effect is there, but minimal, so we but thick cables for a comprimise.If you own electrostatics which are very suseptable to these changes, then you need another solution...One solution tyed was thin strips of copper sprayed with a polymer so the insulation is thin, layed on top of each other, or the wires twisted together to reduce inductance, or what I have done use many strands of cat 5 cable and take off the outer cover off at least 5 times the length you need for each side, chop into 5 equal lengths, so you have a good bunch for each side , then use all of one side of the twists for positive, and all of the other for neg. So pos and neg are twisted together in each case. next twist all into a neat bunch and I just put insulation tape in a band every six inches or so, to hold it all together, but many people use srink tubing.TWO CAUTIONS!!!!!!!!! First make sure you havent buggered up and have a crossed connection, ie a short between pos and neg(continuity check with meter). Second these cables will be VERY low inductance , but highly capasitive(highly capasitive sonically is fine, but upsets poorly made amps).So if you are in any doubt of your skills or your amps stability , dont make this cable!!!!!!!!! However If you run ESL57 or other electrostatics they make a massive difference(I use in my second system). INTERCONNECTS Silver is expensive, but is a far WORSE conductor than copper, so as its resistance is higher, and reduces the signal, more than copper, how can it be any good. This also applies to carbon.Copper is an extremely good conductor, so for a lead which is double or tripple screened, and well made shoud give a good clean sound.It is possible to make leads which will sound different, using similar principals to what I have just said, but if you whant to change the sound, altering certain frequencies by changing inductance, then buy an amp with tone controls.I have put this here not to upset anyone, but to explain why leads sound different, but I am aware many people dont what to know.
 
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Anonymous

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I forgot to say..Is directional cable a good idea as the signal to the amp from the cd and and from the amp to the speakers is AC, ie flowing in both directions?????????? So if a cable is even a little bit directional it will ruin the sound.
 

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