Best high end cables for monitoring

[dannycurtean@yah]

I have my entire studio fitted with monster gold cables on every I/O including monster power cables on high current equiptment (amps, preamps ect) and I wanted to know if there are significant improvements over monster gold cables in terms of sound quality and more importantly accuracy.

Im not looking to spend $10,000 for a cable but I am willing to spend up to 200 per cable if its THAT much better. I am an audiophile so for me having the piece of mind is important but the sound is even more important. Should I bother or are there any realistic upgrades as far as cables at least for my monitoring?

[dft3670]

Brother, you better get ready to duck and cover ....

[cavern]

for what it's worth, i have often been able to tell the difference between a crappy $2 cable and good cables like you have but i have never been able to tell the difference between good cables and supposedly great cables. i've played the audiofile game and still do to some extent. i used to make my own cables with gold, brass, silver ends and the best cable, different ground setups, ect .sometimes i would spend $50 to make a one foot cable back in the 80's. with all that, i felt good about having them, looking at them and showing them off but i can't honestly say that there was a difference in the sound as long as they were compared to good quality cables.
longer runs might be different..

[TanTan]

I´m using Kimber Kable PBJ from the console to the amps and active monitors, and Kimber Kable STC8 (i think this is the model) from the amp to the passive monitors, including the NS-10 and Auratone (!) and it made a huge difference even with the NS-10´s, wait until you will get them cheap on eBay.. Ive found plenty of them there.

[soundsundergroun]

ah shit man. I feel it...another monster thread.

[TVPostSound]

monster power cables on high current equiptment

Did you rip out the drywall to replace the shitty power wires from the service entrance to the wall plugs???
NO??Then you just wasted a whole lot of money on power cables!!!dfegad

Flame on!!!

[DanDan]

I believe the cables you have are probably superb in every respect. I cannot imagine anything that would make an audible improvement.
You could probably have achieved the same result with cheaper cabling, but at this point I recommend you rest easy, your cabling work is done.
DD

[the_Chris]

Originally Posted by TVPostSound

Did you rip out the drywall to replace the shitty power wires from the service entrance to the wall plugs???
NO??Then you just wasted a whole lot of money on power cables!!!dfegad

Flame on!!!

Ouch - harsh, but probably true. I never quite understood the power cable thing myself. A buddy of mine swears by it, but it just doesn't make sense to me.

[soundsundergroun]

Originally Posted by TVPostSound

Did you rip out the drywall to replace the shitty power wires from the service entrance to the wall plugs???
NO??Then you just wasted a whole lot of money on power cables!!!dfegad

Flame on!!!

Why stop there? You would need to replace all the lines going from the power plant to your house with Monster's brand of copper formulation.

[jjblair]

Honestly, all you want is to make sure that there's no O2 in your cables, so they don't oxidize. This only happens with cheap cables, like Hosa, etc. There are so many o ther factors that will affect the sound more noticeably than whether you use Monster or regular copper power cabling.

I call bullshit on magic IEC or AC cables, btw. If you spend more than $20 getting the electricity from the outlet to your box, you've been had.

[Micah Tolentino]

monsters are pretty good. They sound clean to me, but I've had a few go out on me.

I use mogami with neutrik connectors. I've had very few go out over the years.

For what its worth, I can't tell the difference between mogami and monster soundwise, but the mogamis tend to last longer.

hosa = crap though.

[DSD_Mastering]

Originally Posted by TVPostSound

Did you rip out the drywall to replace the shitty power wires from the service entrance to the wall plugs???
NO??Then you just wasted a whole lot of money on power cables!!!
Flame on!!!

Actually we built our entire studio from the ground up using "audiophile" cable. We had a custom cable made from the street going to an Equi=tech wall cabinet. Then we used JPS labs in-wall cable for all the runs, separating analog/digital and L/R. These cables were soldered/crimped using gold spades onto Oyaide R-1 receptacles. We use JPS Aluminata and SC3 throughout. For mic cables, we use JPS Super-Q.
Building a studio with high-end cable takes a lot of prep, $$$ and forthought. Equi=tech actually referred us to JPS Labs.
I had an article about "Does the last 6' matter" regarding powercables. Yes it does, especially if the powersupply in the component is not that great. That's where most companies cut cost. Remember the Control24?
Seriously, forget about the cables. If your monitoring system and room are not up to the high standards of a purpose-built room, then it's unlikely you'll hear the difference anyway. If you've exhausted all your $$ and feel your room, monitoring chain and converters can't get any better, THEN it's time to upgrade cables and such.


EDIT: Here's the Article. "Effects of Amplifiers and Cables"

Regards,

[dannycurtean@yah]

Originally Posted by dft3670

Brother, you better get ready to duck and cover ....

ok, ready!

[dannycurtean@yah]

Originally Posted by TVPostSound

Did you rip out the drywall to replace the shitty power wires from the service entrance to the wall plugs???
NO??Then you just wasted a whole lot of money on power cables!!!dfegad

Flame on!!!

Two questions.

Have you ever compared them your self?

If so, did you not hear a difference, and are you sure your EARs are not broken?

We are not philosophers, not the last time I checked. We are audio engineers, I for one would like to think. In understanding that you might also understand that we, me included make decisions based on sonic differences not philisophical perspective. If you were to run by your theory that the last 8 feet does not make a difference it is also safe to asume, by the same theory that evey FET based compressor should sound idential. Ohh wait....THEY DONT! So please, spare me your bullshit and go use your ears before you respond to somebody's experience with the disreguard that you did.

[dannycurtean@yah]

Originally Posted by jjblair

Honestly, all you want is to make sure that there's no O2 in your cables, so they don't oxidize. This only happens with cheap cables, like Hosa, etc. There are so many o ther factors that will affect the sound more noticeably than whether you use Monster or regular copper power cabling.

I call bullshit on magic IEC or AC cables, btw. If you spend more than $20 getting the electricity from the outlet to your box, you've been had.

I respectfully disagree and encourage you to hold an unbiased test. I for one had the positive experience of having the speakers respond better and the most noticeable thing were the reverb tails that you could track from start to finish which were not evident before. To each his own, but look into it.

[dannycurtean@yah]

Originally Posted by cavern

for what it's worth, i have often been able to tell the difference between a crappy $2 cable and good cables like you have but i have never been able to tell the difference between good cables and supposedly great cables. i've played the audiofile game and still do to some extent. i used to make my own cables with gold, brass, silver ends and the best cable, different ground setups, ect .sometimes i would spend $50 to make a one foot cable back in the 80's. with all that, i felt good about having them, looking at them and showing them off but i can't honestly say that there was a difference in the sound as long as they were compared to good quality cables.
longer runs might be different..

Isn't it nice when somebody actually answers the OP's question?

God I love it when the world works LIKE IT SHOULD!

[Sounds Great]

Originally Posted by dannycurtean@yah

If you were to run by your theory that the last 8 feet does not make a difference it is also safe to asume, by the same theory that evey FET based compressor should sound idential.

How so?

If every component in there is identical, short of the wire used to connect things, they will likely sound identical.

Waste your money on expensive power cords if you like. It's your money. But there is no question after spending said money, it is likely that you will hear a difference.

[mixerguy]

Originally Posted by TanTan

I´m using ....... Kimber Kable STC8 (i think this is the model) from the amp to the passive monitors,.......

these ?

Kimber Kable

[madehumble]

Mogami

[TVPostSound]

Have you ever compared them your self?

If so, did you not hear a difference, and are you sure your EARs are not broken?

So please, spare me your bullshit and go use your ears before you respond to somebody's experience with the disreguard that you did.

Why would expensive IEC cables make up for cheap Romex in the walls??

What? A stated fact is disregard? You need to justify spending outrageous money on Monster, not me!!
Belden, Mogami, or Canare no more no less.

IEC cables, hospital grade, green dots do just fine, at $5 a pop.

[TVPostSound]

God I love it when the world works LIKE IT SHOULD!

Yeah, you started swearing when you didnt like a reply. I feel Godwin's Law will affect you next!!!

[Mylithra]

Originally Posted by Sounds Great

How so?

If every component in there is identical, short of the wire used to connect things, they will likely sound identical.

Not entirely true.
Take for example the revered 1176.
Its a JFET style compressor that uses solid state JFETs to control the compression. When building a 2 channel 1176, your FETs have to match fairly closely otherwise when you use them in a stereo operation, the compression curves wont match up and I can tell you that you WILL hear a difference between the 2.

Ive built 2 channels of EQ from scratch and unit 1 sounded slightly different than unit 2. I bought all the parts for both channels at the same time, from the same place. Component wise, both are identical. They even share the same power supply. Yet still both units sound different enough to notice with your naked ear.

[theblotted]

i made these for my NS10/Bryston 2B combo:

DIY Cat5 Speaker Cables

took 3 days straight and a few blisters to make.

you gotta try it to believe it.

[captainj]

In my opinion, cables can make a huge difference in a system. Many years ago I sold hi end stereo equipment. When I started, I was quite skeptical about the importance of good cables, since I had a background in recording and many people in that world felt cables made little to no difference. I very quickly learned how much of a difference good cables make (even digital cables). I was constantly upgrading/switching components in my system when I worked there, since suppliers all wanted us to own their products and would make them very affordable. The biggest upgrade sonically to my system was when I went from a pretty good speaker cable to Kimber 8TC (yup, bigger improvement than various amp, CD player and speaker upgrades!!!).

Having said that, a more expensive cable doesn't necessarily mean it will sound better in your system and obviously differences (or the need for higher quality cables) only matters if you have a fairly good system to begin with. A rule of thumb in hi fi systems is to spend 10% of the cost of the system on cables. Of course, use common sense.

My recording monitor setup doubles as my hi fi system. Benchmark DAC, Simaudio i-5.3 amp, B&W 805s monitors. In my system, swapping cables often makes huge differences. A few weeks ago, a hi fi dealer lent me an Audio Note AN-Vx silver interconnect cable to go from my DAC to amp. It was such a huge improvement over the already great Audio Note Lexus copper interconnect, that a 65 year old client I am recording commented on how his song sounded "better, cleaner, more detailed and richer" before I mentioned anything about a different cable. Suffice to say, I returned the cable as I can't really afford to spend 1k on a 1 metre cable at this point, however if money was not an issue, I would still have it.

I'd love to hear from some of the well known and reputable engineers on the issue of cables.

[Sounds Great]

Originally Posted by Mylithra

Not entirely true.
Take for example the revered 1176.
Its a JFET style compressor that uses solid state JFETs to control the compression. When building a 2 channel 1176, your FETs have to match fairly closely otherwise when you use them in a stereo operation, the compression curves wont match up and I can tell you that you WILL hear a difference between the 2.

Ive built 2 channels of EQ from scratch and unit 1 sounded slightly different than unit 2. I bought all the parts for both channels at the same time, from the same place. Component wise, both are identical. They even share the same power supply. Yet still both units sound different enough to notice with your naked ear.

Sure but something is different about the components. You mentioned differences in FET's. Other components can also vary depending on tolerance's. If a bunch of the components are all slightly different it could add up to a large overall variance. Otherwise if two circuits contained identical everything from start to finish, how could you account for them sounding different?

[Gary Schmitt]

Get the best you can afford. In your case it's 200 per cable. It's that last 0.1 percent that makes a huge difference. Use your ears and compare as many cables as you can to make an informed decision. Everything contributes to your sound. EVERYTHING. Comparing great cables to good cables is like comparing a Lavry Gold to an Aurora. The great cables will sound better. Listen and you will understand what I mean. Great cables allow you to hear the tiny details.

[Sounds Great]

Originally Posted by Gary Schmitt

Everything contributes to your sound. EVERYTHING.

Yes, even the air temperature, the phase of the moon, etc. The question is what actually has an audible effect.

Originally Posted by Gary Schmitt

Comparing great cables to good cables is like comparing a Lavry Gold to an Aurora.

I respectfully disagree.

[reid]

Originally Posted by dannycurtean@yah

Two questions.

Have you ever compared them your self?

If so, did you not hear a difference, and are you sure your EARs are not broken?

We are not philosophers, not the last time I checked. We are audio engineers, I for one would like to think. In understanding that you might also understand that we, me included make decisions based on sonic differences not philisophical perspective. If you were to run by your theory that the last 8 feet does not make a difference it is also safe to asume, by the same theory that evey FET based compressor should sound idential. Ohh wait....THEY DONT! So please, spare me your bullshit and go use your ears before you respond to somebody's experience with the disreguard that you did.

So that's a no to ripping out the power cables behind your sockets then?

[Roc Mixwell]

Originally Posted by jjblair

I call bullshit on magic IEC or AC cables, btw. If you spend more than $20 getting the electricity from the outlet to your box, you've been had.

20$ for a AC cord? I paid 38 cents for one I picked up at Radio Shack the other day

[XSergeantD]

Originally Posted by theblotted

i made these for my NS10/Bryston 2B combo:

DIY Cat5 Speaker Cables

took 3 days straight and a few blisters to make.

you gotta try it to believe it.

Yeah, one of the mastering guys a my old spot made a pair of these for his room. He was all 'Wow, Cool, Check This Out' for a few months. I stopped in there about 6 months after he made and installed them and noticed he had removed them from his suite.
Personally, I never gave a listen because I didn't know his speakers, so how could I notice a difference if he wasn't going to A/B the old one. I have tested the power cable theory, but it was different from gear to gear if there was a change or not - which I attributed to some pieces changing during the on-off cycling. I mean, where should I use a power cable like that? on the amp? Well, what about the 2-track, or the mix buss compressor, then why skip the console power supply, and hell, the mic pre needs it, and the outboard EQ and...


Realistically I would look into cryogenics to affect all conductors if you really want to get the best sounds. A short dip in some liquid nitrogen will align the atoms for optimal conductance for when you place the conductors in your room. Hell, if you have the $, keep the liquid nitrogen cooling your cables and you'll have the lowest resistance cables ever manufactured. It may be expensive, but if you're looking for the best, it's gonna cost ya.