Ha! Gotham GAC-1 review........

[timwileman]

daveh75:its nice too see that products being talked about on the forums are getting reviewed, first the beresford,now gotham, what next?the tesco granite chopping boards and squash ball combo! seriously though whf good work

well they would have to compare to sainsbury granite boards...which are better of course 🙂

 

[John Duncan]

timwileman:daveh75:its nice too see that products being talked about on the forums are getting reviewed, first the beresford,now gotham, what next?the tesco granite chopping boards and squash ball combo! seriously though whf good work

well they would have to compare to sainsbury granite boards...which are better of course 🙂

Nothing less than Waitrose for my Primares mate.........

 

[Clare Newsome]

JohnDuncan:daveh75:its nice too see that products being talked about on the forums are getting reviewed, first the beresford,now gotham, what next?the tesco granite chopping boards and squash ball combo! seriously though whf good work

And more to the point, just seen that it's a contender for the Readers' Award!

Wouldn't it be funny if it won.........
Don't start getting ideas - we're monitoring votes for duplicate entries and any other voting anomalies.

 

[Clare Newsome]

Thaiman:
I bet Clare felt like a referee in Man utd match! (When Keano, Nev and becks use to surrounded ref....good old day

)

Nah, if I were a ref, i'd be...

(The resemblance is uncanny).

 

[Anonymous]

Just a general question, Clare, are the WHF team allowed to take any product that is sold (even those by a guy who flogs them on eBay via his garden shed) and publish a review? Are any permissions required? A genuine question, i have no idea of the rules there. What happens if Mr Gotham isnt too chuffed with the rating, and never wanted them to be reviewed in the first place?

 

[Dave_]

Clare Newsome:

JohnDuncan:daveh75:its nice too see that products being talked about on the forums are getting reviewed, first the beresford,now gotham, what next?the tesco granite chopping boards and squash ball combo! seriously though whf good work

And more to the point, just seen that it's a contender for the Readers' Award! Wouldn't it be funny if it won......... Don't start getting ideas - we're monitoring votes for duplicate entries and any other voting anomalies.

clare, while were on the subject of voting, i cast my vote last night,but didnt get the email with the link to confirm myvote/email addy, tryed voting again this morning, but wont let me as it says i've already voted

 

[Anonymous]

daveh75:i cast my vote last night,but didnt get the email with the link to confirm myvote/email addy, tryed voting again this morning, but wont let me as it says i've already voted

Me too, I want to make sure Stan gets my nod.ÿ

 

[Clare Newsome]

I'll check the votes have been registered....Did you both vote using the same email address as you do here?

 

[Anonymous]

Yes Clare.

 

[Clare Newsome]

thfcwestlower:Just a general question, Clare, are the WHF team allowed to take any product that is sold (even those by a guy who flogs them on eBay via his garden shed) and publish a review? Are any permissions required? A genuine question, i have no idea of the rules there. What happens if Mr Gotham isnt too chuffed with the rating, and never wanted them to be reviewed in the first place?

Yes, we can test anything that's widely available for sale (ie anything you lovely lot might want to buy).

And sometimes manufacturers don't want us to review stuff - which is why we have to buy kit - but if it's good enough to be sold and advertised, it should be good enough for test scrutiny, IMO.

I have no idea if Gotham wanted us to review the product or not, but we never hid who we were when we bought them - that's why we have an eBay account called What Hi-fi? Sound and Vision, with products posted to our official address.

 

[Dave_]

yes i did, also tried another email address too, but dont think that 1 went thru at all,

 

[Anonymous]

JoelSim:
Mr Hughes, how are you finding your Arcs these days?

ÿ

Sorry Joel lost track of this thread! Better to say the least (which is why I'm on here less!) I found that if I moved my speakers to the short wall so they fired down the room I get a much better sound with improved soundstage and much more dynamics. Oh, I'm starting to enjoy music once more! I'm toying with getting a TV at the moment (Sony 40" 4000 something looks good!) but I also am looking at some new speakers to get rid of those Wharfeys. Then again, there's a new Sony Pro dSLR coming out soon...

How's yours doing? Liking that CD192?

 

[John Duncan]

Clare Newsome:
JohnDuncan:daveh75:its nice too see that products being talked about on the forums are getting reviewed, first the beresford,now gotham, what next?the tesco granite chopping boards and squash ball combo! seriously though whf good work

And more to the point, just seen that it's a contender for the Readers' Award!

Wouldn't it be funny if it won.........
Don't start getting ideas - we're monitoring votes for duplicate entries and any other voting anomalies.

In which case you'll have seen my vote, and that you misjudge me

 

[Clare Newsome]

Misjudge you? I'd use the phrase agent provocateur if it didn't have other, Kylie-video-starring connotations

 

[professorhat]

Yeah, I liked that video...

 

[Anonymous]

Clare I don't want you to get me wrong but I would like to say:

1) I have just blind tested the GAC-1 with the VDH The Bay, whilst I could hear the difference, three of the four friends at the time couldn't. Please it is for these people your opinion matters so much. What do forum readers present? 30%? Edited by Mods for House Rule Violation

I appeciate that people will find knowledge unessential But don't forget it.

 

[Anonymous]

Just out of curiousity has anyone tried the (dare I say it!) pureav cables. Im using the Belkin Silver PureAV Dual Phono Cable and to be honest I think the sound is more then decent especially considering it can be bought cheaper than the GAC-1 and the build quality can be matched with cables costing three times as much.

 

[Clare Newsome]

Octopo:
Clare I don't want you to get me wrong but I would like to say:

1) I have just blind tested the GAC-1 with the VDH The Bay, whilst I could hear the difference, three of the four friends at the time couldn't. Please it is for these people your opinion matters so much. What do forum readers present? 30%? Edited by Mods for House Rule Violation

I appeciate that people will find knowledge unessential But don't forget it.

I'll accept you wrote this very late so i've edited your more inflamatory comments.

I'll again say we're well aware of our power and responsibilities. And if your friends can't hear the difference between the cables, than that's great for them - they can save money, though in the longer term they may not be able to pinpoint just why they're not getting the satisfaction from their sound they'd like.

 

[drummerman]

There you go, in the end its all about finding a good match. If you have a bass heavy system that needs reigning in then a cable that excels in that particular aspect is clearly not a good idea (provided you tried all the other possible remedies such as positioning and sympathetic room furnishings/sound treatments etc). Same at the other frequency extreme and in between. In an ideal world cables contribute/detract nothing from a signal but that's simply not the case. There's a huge variety of systems out there, many are far from perfect and that makes this a very subjective issue, as are most things hifi.

I find it great that this publication is testing stuff we recommend and whilst I and others not always agree in the end you have to try products yourself. I dont usually get involved in cable debates but this one clearly warrants a comment or two.

I certainly dont think the GAC-1 is a giant killer, more money can buy better or different, but its decent imo. I heard it sound both decicively average and very good and transparent. Just a small addition caused the difference, odd eh?

Because the cable is associated with my home country it clearly warrants 6 stars

 

[Gerrardasnails]

chebby:I would like to disagree with the WHF review.

My friend and I compared a 1 metre length of GAC-1 and a 1 metre length of Chord Cobra connecting between his Rega Fono MM and his Primare I30.

(Complete system = Rega P3-24 + TT-PSU, Denon DL-103R, Denon AU-300LC step-up transformer, Rega Fono MM, Primare I30, JM FocalLab 716S Chorus bi-wired with Chord Rumour 2)

He obviously wanted to hear that his £60 Chord Cobra cable was better than the GAC-1 (£12) so I guess that the (non-blind) test was a bit 'skewed' in terms of expectations. (We both expected the Chord cable to sound noticeably better.)

We played 3 album sides and alternated between Chord and GAC-1 (so each cable was getting about 20 - 25 mins each) and each time the GAC-1 was slightly preferred until we got to "Dub side of the moon" by Easy Star Allstars when the difference was quite stark. The GAC-1 was simply doing bass a lot better (very important on this disc!) and allowing the DL-103R to really show itself off. After this it became a bit of a random selection of tracks selected purely for their bass quality and a little while later we did not even bother plugging the Chords back in again.

In my own system I was only using GAC-1 to connect the DVD and TV (my Arcam Solo-Mini already has it's FM and CD sources in the one box.)

I now have a 3 metre length of GAC-1's between my Rega P2/Fono-Mini and the Arcam but based on your review (and this thread) I am going to try out a 3 metre length of Chord Crimson (WHF 5 stars). It is cheap enough to do as an experiment and if it (Chord Crimson) does not perform then I will stick it on e-bay.

I tested the same Gotham with Crimson and Cobra from Chord. My system at the time was fairly budget at the time and although I didn't notice major differences, the Gotham was definitely not better than the two from Chord. I imagine that in a better system, the Gotham would be found out easier. I've always said that the people who have posted saying that the Gothams were as good as Chord Chameleon and other £100 cables, need their ears tested.

 

[Anonymous]

Gotham GAC-1 ----> fine for the money!

 

[Nadeac]

So are these !
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/JOB-LOT-25X-2-TO-2-PHONO-INTERCONNECT-LEAD-0-4M-GOLD_W0QQitemZ200250050953QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item200250050953&_trkparms=72%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

Bought 4 of them for less then a tenner a few months back .Only ever used one ,but bought 4 because they were so cheap

Have a Chord crimson on its way{Del for £30} be interesting to see if theres any difference probably not to my untrained 37 year old ok hearing

Mark

 

[John Duncan]

Clare Newsome:I'd use the phrase agent provocateur

See, you do misjudge me - I'm an Intimissimmi guy, dahling.

 

[drummerman]

You and tim never fail to put a smile on my face

 

[plastic penguin]

Are these GAC-1's available from any high street shop or are they purely an e-bay-sourced product? Sorry, I haven't scanned the whole thread.