August 2019

 

I wish I never believed in snake oil, but at a younger age, I did enormously. My focus then, like most, was namely cable, cable risers and footers for audio components. I remember using squash balls under my turntable in late 90's.

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Cable does matter quite a bit, but measurements are next to useless. Moreover, limited measurement results can never predict what will work best. Often, most people rely on subjective reviews to choose a cable. That’s often a false lead to follow. It may be well intended, but useless advice nevertheless.

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What’s typically the first item the average audiophile swaps out? Yes…the speaker cable.

·         Should I go for 12 AWG cable for my speakers or 14 AWG, or perhaps even 16 AWG?

·         Maybe the electricity will travel faster if I use a very tiny sized cable?

·         Should it be solid core or multi-strand?

·         Will they behave the same or different if I use some "Cable riser" to elevate them away from the floor? 

·         How about conductor impedance, inductance, inter-coupling capacity?

·         Crosstalk?

·         Bi-cabling?

·         Silver plating. Is it beneficial due to the phenomenon known as the "skin effect"?

·         What about pure silver cables?

·         Conductor material purity?

·         Alloy, advanced metallurgy containing few ppm of gold? 

·         There are also all sorts of insulation material you can choose from to alter the sonic.

·         Teflon, Cotton, PVC?

·         And geometry, some models look very cool.

·         Cryo-treated? 

·         The possibilities are endless...

 

Cable matters much more than most can imagine. However, due to lack of science predictability, the only option is to keep trying most of these options before finally settling in. The only way to know what works best, is to try as many as you can afford and then take the time to properly evaluate them. No review can predict what will work best on your system and fit your personal preference. Building several DIY cables are often the most cost-efficient way to experiment.

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Not only do analog cables matter (RCA, XLR and speaker wire), but power cables matter equally as well.  And just to piss you off further, the optimum IEC cable on an amplifier won't be the best one for a DAC, as they represent a very different electrical loads and require different approaches.

So, you often have to mismatch brands and review issues such as shielded cable in some places and un-shielded in others.

It does never end.

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For power transmission, one thing is certain:

A shorter cable is better. Try to have your cable as short as possible… always.

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In the digital domain, (Coax, SPdif, USB and Ethernet) cables significantly alter sonics as well. All 0’s and 1’s and somehow sonics are shifted when you change the carrier.

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For the USB cable for my previous DAC, I built 18 versions of cable. I also evaluated seven commercial products, before feeling confident that I arrived with the "best recipe" for my taste and system. That was a total of 25 USB cables I tried...

Turned out for the USB, my most striking shot was inspired by a very expensive product, called the LightSpeed 10G.

http://lightharmonic.com/lightspeed-10g-usb-cables/

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Now, with the NAS (Network Attached Storage) holding all my music, a router connected in the chain and a Lynx Aurora 32 Dante connected via Ethernet to my I7 PC. I use no USB cable anymore… just Ethernet.

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I decided to explore Ethernet cable options.

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I've only tried three so far, and each one sounds vastly different. Much more testing is in the forecast.

The test below was done between my PC and the Lynx. I'm sure the Ethernet cable connecting the NAS to the PC matters as well.