new believer (1 Viewer)

[Matt_Sulli]

i've gotta say, I always thought that I'd never pay 100 bucks for a cable, but with the recent purchase of my first serious ht setup, i'm never going back to cheap cable. I had ordered some 8vs biwire to go with my image 6t's, but it wasn't in when i picked everything up, so the store gave me a loner set of 8pr that was burned in on their store systems. i was also using a cheap radio shack rca, until i barrowed a monster cable rca from a friend, noticed a difference with that over the radio shack crap with a sony 5 disc cd, but when i went it to pick up my 8vs, i decided to try out a kimber pbj rca, hooked it up and I instantly heard more detail and more precise imagining, and noticed even more when the 8vs was inserted, and it still needs to be burned in. as i said before, I won't ever go back to cheap cable again, i'm amazed how much of a difference good cable makes in a system

 

[Kevin T]

*ducks and covers*

 

[Chu Gai]

amazing isn't it? I mean back in the 90's Audioquest showed how their cables make even a boombox sound better at some show. I think they had the boombox perched on some table in a small room. Don't need any fancy stereo or room treatments to hear the difference in their cable.
Be careful burning your cables in. There's a point of no return when you do that and you may find that the music will start to sound unnatural and stifled. Try to burn them in using the same kind of music you listen to and just disconnect your speaker wires from your speakers so you don't stress the voicecoils.

 

[Matt_Sulli]

i'm just burning them in listening to the same music i always do, and with movies

although i'm a little confused about disconnecting the speaker wires from the speakers to avoid stressing the voice coils, what would cause a problem there?

 

[Phil Tomaskovic]

I think some people burn in various thing by playing music for extended periods of time at loud volumes. So they disconnect the speakers.

 

[Phil A]

Matt - welcome to the club. Don't go too far like me. I get a free straight jacket with the materials I buy to make my own. You will find that certain cables sound great with certain systems and perhaps not as good with others.

 

[Mike Matheson]

Matt,

Disconnecting the speaker wire from the speakers can definitely cause quick burn in. Or would that be burn out? If your speaker leads touch while your system is powered up (i.e., your amp is on) you can very quickly destroy your amp. . .

 

[JoshS]

Hi Matt

I too use a pair of Kimber PBJs. They are on the 2 channel analog outputs of my Toshiba 9200 and I feel they sound great.

I have spent as much as $200 on interconnects, Catcables silvercats w/wbt rcas and feel they are much more transparent and fuller sounding than the Kimbers.

I Also have used the 4vs speaker cable and really liked them but have since upgraded to Quantum silver speaker cables (Catcables).

Kimber makes an excellent product but be carefull, more money doesn't always mean better sound. The law of dimishing returns is always in affect with audio equiptment.

Example: A buddy of mine has a very nice 2 channel system with very expensive cables. We compared my $200 ic to his $550 MIT 330i s3 ic and no difference was heard. We definatly heard a diff comparing the Kimber and the catcables, so more money isn't always better. I beleive that you have to spend a ton of dough to get a huge difference from a $200 or less cable.

This is only MY opinion so take it for what it's worth, I'm not looking for battle.

I'm glad you like your Kimbers, great products for a reasonable price.

Isn't this hobby great?

Josh

 

[Chu Gai]

just make sure they don't touch...you can have the same problem when just running bare wire.

 

[Philip Hamm]

Matt,

I'm cable ambivalent but have mostly AudioQuest and Radio Shack Gold interconnect cables in my system. My speakers are 12G generic and Spidergear WebWire.

Recently after reading a very interesting thread I did a little experiment. My DVD-A player has two sets of L/R outs. One is hooked up permanently to the stereo DVD input on my pre/pro with the best AudioQuest cable that I have in my house. For the experiment I hooked up the second pair to the from input using the cheapest "came in the box witha $100 component" cables I had lying around. I A/Bed them and the difference was extremely subtle (but noticable - though honestly it could very well have been in my mind).

I'm shocked to hear you exclaim that you heard such a huge difference. Have you tried hooking up both cables and A/Bing them? You may end up with more money in your pocket if you honestly try both. Personally I'll never buy expensive cables after my experiment. I also with the help of a generous forum member, have tried an expensive Kimber digital interconnect with even more compelling results.

 

[Chu Gai]

Phil: any chance you've got a VOM and a suitable disk with test tones in order to check the voltages coming out of the wires with each set up? Then maybe repeat things with the wires swapped. I'm sure you've got other things on your mind, but perhaps posting the results might prove interesting.

 

[DavidSegelstein]

Chu Gai, you wouldn't, by any chance, be pulling anyone's leg, would you?

 

[Philip Hamm]

Phil: any chance you've got a VOM and a suitable disk with test tones in order to check the voltages coming out of the wires with each set up? Then maybe repeat things with the wires swapped. I'm sure you've got other things on your mind, but perhaps posting the results might prove interesting.

Nope. Nothing but subjective seat of the pants evaluation in my house.

 

[Lee Scoggins]

Matt,
Welcome to the believers club. I have been hearing differences in cable for many years in the recording studio and it is amazing how much difference a really good cable can make.

 

[farnamT]

Buring in cables? Are you guys loony? Its not a mechanical thing like a speaker, car engine. Its Copper, your crazy if you think you can burn in wire.

 

[Mike Matheson]

farnamT,
"loony" and "crazy" isn't really much of a contribution to this thread, and is sort of against the gist of the Tweaking forum (check the Note above the thread listing here).

 

[Matt_Sulli]

josh, i agree with you totally, i listened to my image 6t's with 8tc cable as well as monofocal xl kimber, and i only heard small differences if any between the 8tc and monofocal xl, main reason i got the 8vs was for biwiring, since i've previously heard, and have now experienced that the images benefit greatly from biwiring, which to answer your question philip, is probably where i heard the greatest difference after biwiring, although both the pbj and 8vs cables on their own made noticable differences, although i will say they weren't very obvious, pbj's were noticable in the low end for the most part, and with better imaging.

all i can say is, with cheap cables my setup performed well, however with the kimber added to it, it sounds amazing, made on of my neighbors jealous, and he's using a yamaha rxv 1000 with paradigm studio 60's

 

[Phil Mays]

I upgraded to bi-wiring with Kimber 8tc from 16 guage and the diference was amazing. I kept one speaker hooked up with the old wire to convince my wife. She agreed that there was a huge difference. I now run all speakers with bi-wiring 8tc (one set at a time).
I also am working on the interconnects with Kimber KCAG, again one set at a time....You can tell the difference.
If all you are trying to do is getting better sound quality then this is the way.
I am next going to get a power conditioner and am undecided between Monster Cables and a Panamax unit
Matt it is interesting that you could not tell a big difference between the 8tc and Monifocal XL. I was actually considering these for the mains. I have not heard them but thought if they made as much of a difference as my last switch then by golly I would try them.
Phil

 

[Philip Hamm]

I upgraded to bi-wiring with Kimber 8tc from 16 guage and the diference was amazing. I kept one speaker hooked up with the old wire to convince my wife. She agreed that there was a huge difference. I now run all speakers with bi-wiring 8tc (one set at a time).

Comparing one speaker against the other in this way is totally irrelevant. There will be different room acoustics involved making both speakers sound very different even with the same cable. Not to mention different signals going to the two speakers.

I've tried biwiring also and have determined that it is useless. Theil agrees with me, as well as some other high end speaker manufacturers. Off the record I've read speaker manufacturers claim that they only make their speakers "biwirable" for marketing purposes because customers demand it, not because there is any difference.

 

[John Royster]

Interesting comment about speaker companies.
I just received some new Martin Logan speakers. I was quite surprised to see an entire 5 page section devoted to speaker cables, bi-wiring and several different ways to bi-amp.
MLs suggestion (always taken with a grain of salt) - "Use the best speaker cable you can afford and bi-wire. While using a single speaker cable is supported, biwiring is recommended to directly connect the ESL panel to the amplifiers current source."
Now, are they telling the truth or just trying to get you to buy more speaker cable? Don't know.
I haven't tried to bi-wire them yet, but believe you me when the manual says to I have to at least try it.