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Hello all,
Any sources for high-quality cables without the hype? In my area all I can get is Monster Cables- they primp and preen and write you a resume but they don't even tell you what gauge the copper is!
I'm thinking good solid mechanical connections, fat ample copper, and best of all, sounds great! Is it this simple or what should I know?
My problem is I can always hear the difference...
Turn me on, dead man.
Ted

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atlasproaudio Thu, 01/03/2002 - 17:19

Canare and Mogami are good quality, you probably won't need anything better (subjective)...maybe a pair of something really esoteric for overdubs and voxs like Vampire. I prefer Canare just because it's easier to get, and it's made in the USA. I have all my cables custom made, and it's really pretty economical all things considered.

atlasproaudio Thu, 01/03/2002 - 17:53

Don't even bother with the Canare star Quad if you aren't near a radio station or major power lines. The two conductor actually sounds more open to my ears, and it's quite a bit less $$$. Even better yet is their two conductor 110 ohm cable for analog use though (a little less than $1 per foot I think). If it wasn't so physically thick, I would wire the whole place with it.

sjoko Sun, 01/06/2002 - 21:30

I have found Gepco Quad (http://www.gepco.com) to be excellent cable at a very reasonable price. They sell direct from the factory.
To my ears - it outperforms both Moggi and Monster.
Also their new AES3 cable is outstanding.

I have to admit that I've gone insanely expensive for things like S/PDIF and bought solid silver core Zoalla cables. Almost 100 bucks a cable, but all you have to do is replace a "normal" cable with one of them once and listen - which blew my mind (and my wallet)

anonymous Mon, 01/07/2002 - 21:19

In our Demo Room/Studio we used Sundholm Accoustic silver plated oygen free starquad cables for certain runs. We also wired the entire control room with oxygen free silver plated Horizon cable. We wired the "overflow" runs to the tracking areas with regular beldon cable. WOW what a difference!! We also terminated the tracking area side with gold plated XLR jacks.

Let me know if you want more of the gooey details.

FYI in the control room we are using a Mix3 system with Pro Control

Darren

anonymous Tue, 01/08/2002 - 19:35

>Hey Darren-- exactly WHAT kind of diff are U hearing? Details please!

(Does this mean I need to replace all my newly soldered blue-collar Mogami multipair with oxygen-free silver-plated NASA-grade zero-G liquid-nitrogen-cooled 3-micron-gold-sputtered $2000-per-inch wire?)
>>>>>>>

LOL!!

I haven't spent much time A/B-ing and doing tests, what I noticed mostly on some of the longer runs is higher output lower noise. From what I'm told from the guy that turned me onto it is silver is the best conductor of electricity (besides platinum I think) and since the cables are oxygen free they last longer with out oxidation thus providing a signal path with lower resistence. This allows me to leave the levels lower on the pre-amp gains, and that is where the lower noise comes from. Another reason for the lower resistence (higher output) is the thicker gauge of cable and it being starquad. Maybe the difference is just because of the starquad and being a lower quage number. The guy that designed the studio suggested it when he found out we were concerned about having the best posible signal path.

The main difference is between it and the beldon, I don't know how many dbs difference the signal is but it was dramatic to me. I haven't spent much time comparing sonic clarity, clearer highs, or all that stuff like the guy said. I just noticed it making it easier to get a quieter (less noise) signal.

Let me know if you want to know more. IMO I think it is great if you can afford it, even if you use it sparingly like we did. Where it starts costing you the $$ is on the long runs. The $$ per foot adds up quickly. It didn't cost that much to do the control room in all silver, since it was all pretty short runs for the most part.

HTHs

Darren