Have been looking at some really good interconnects for my system;

MF KW550 Amp, DM25 transport and dac and Keff reference 205 system -
Need RCA and XLR - speaker cables are Chord signiture

Looked at Van De Hul, Chord and some stuff on Russ Andrews. Any
opinions?

Lot of stuff about Nordost but the money is quite significant.

It seems that silver is the best so would be looking at that , but not
sure about the science.

PS also found some people call Pure Reference but no heard of them

Thanks StevieT

On Feb 9, 7:33=A0pm, m...@stevet.me.uk wrote:
<snip>

> It seems that silver is the best so would be looking at that , but not
> sure about the science.
>

Why would that be the case. Studios use copper cables all of the time
for recording. If copper works well for recording why wouldn't it
work well for playback which is less demanding? Competently made
interconnects need not be expensive. Even the throwaway cables that
come with some audio equipment are likely to be indistinguishable from
more expensive cables under blind testing although they may well be
less reliable.

On Feb 9, 7:33=A0pm, m...@stevet.me.uk wrote:
> but not
> sure about the science.

I'll say.

The science is that these things are all interchangeable commodities,
and none is better, worse, or different than whatever you are using
right now=97even if you are using unwound coathangers.

bob

On Tue, 9 Feb 2010 16:33:01 -0800, (E-Mail Removed) wrote
(in article <(E-Mail Removed)>):

> Have been looking at some really good interconnects for my system;
>
> MF KW550 Amp, DM25 transport and dac and Keff reference 205 system -
> Need RCA and XLR - speaker cables are Chord signiture
>
> Looked at Van De Hul, Chord and some stuff on Russ Andrews. Any
> opinions?
>
> Lot of stuff about Nordost but the money is quite significant.
>
> It seems that silver is the best so would be looking at that , but not
> sure about the science.
>
> PS also found some people call Pure Reference but no heard of them
>
> Thanks StevieT
>

The science is simple: wire is wire at audio frequencies. A piece of
coat-hanger or a pair of $4000/meter Nordost Valhalla interconnects, they
both will sound identical. Cable is audio jewelry; IOW, bling, and nothing
else. Do the math. It will tell you all need to know about the three
components of any conductor: DC resistance/foot, capacitive reactance and
inductive reactance. The effect of these components on an audio signal (DC -
50KHz) over any practical length? Negligible, unimportant, a non-event.

Add that to the fact that NO double-blind test (and there have been lots of
them) has EVER been able to detect any difference between an expensive
speaker cable and a length of zip cord. No double-blind test has EVER been
able to detect any difference between the "sound" of a set of Radio Shack
throw-away audio interconnects and any expensive interconnect that you care
to name. Spend your money on better speakers and forget this cable nonsense.

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)
> Have been looking at some really good interconnects for
> my system;
>
> MF KW550 Amp, DM25 transport and dac and Keff reference
> 205 system - Need RCA and XLR - speaker cables are Chord
> signiture
>
> Looked at Van De Hul, Chord and some stuff on Russ
> Andrews. Any opinions?

Fancy cables are audio jewelry - all looks and generally no sonic benifit at
all.

> Lot of stuff about Nordost but the money is quite
> significant.

>From a sound quality standpoint, the money would be a loss.

> It seems that silver is the best so would be looking at
> that , but not sure about the science.

The science says that good sounding interconnects are easy to make, and
inexpensive to obtain.

On Feb 9, 4:33=A0pm, m...@stevet.me.uk wrote:
> Have been looking at some really good interconnects for my system;
>
> MF KW550 Amp, DM25 transport and dac and Keff reference 205 system -
> Need RCA and XLR - speaker cables are Chord signiture

I use Monoprice XLR cables. Build quality seems very good. I haven't
tried their RCA cables.

http://www.monoprice.com/products/se...lr&x=3D0&y=3D0

Dave Cook

On Tue, 9 Feb 2010 20:28:42 -0800, Dave Cook wrote
(in article <(E-Mail Removed)>):

> On Feb 9, 4:33=A0pm, m...@stevet.me.uk wrote:
>> Have been looking at some really good interconnects for my system;
>>
>> MF KW550 Amp, DM25 transport and dac and Keff reference 205 system -
>> Need RCA and XLR - speaker cables are Chord signiture
>
> I use Monoprice XLR cables. Build quality seems very good. I haven't
> tried their RCA cables.
>
> http://www.monoprice.com/products/se...lr&x=3D0&y=3D0
>
> Dave Cook

Yes, I've used these people. Their RCA/RCA stereo interconnects are cheap,
well made and reliable. You cannot ask for much more than that. (well you can
ask for quasi-balanced, which I prefer from a low noise standpoint, and which
these aren't, but otherwise...).

In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:

> Have been looking at some really good interconnects for my system;

Frankly, for anything up to a meter I have never heard a difference.
I'm not sure electrically you could unless the cable has some really
weird topology.

The longer the run the more likely you may encounter resistance,
capacitance and reluctance issues, but it would take a really long run.
I've been away from this too long to do the calculations. Maybe
somebody else has it handy.

On Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:20:28 -0800, Robert Peirce wrote
(in article <(E-Mail Removed)>):

> In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>
>> Have been looking at some really good interconnects for my system;
>
> Frankly, for anything up to a meter I have never heard a difference.
> I'm not sure electrically you could unless the cable has some really
> weird topology.

By weird topology, it would almost have to be that external capacitors,
resistors and inductors would have to be added to the cable to PURPOSELY make
filters which would alter the frequency response of the interconnect. Simply
a 1 meter length of coax with RCA connectors on each end can not possibly
have enough reactance at any audio frequency to affect the sound in any
audible way.

> The longer the run the more likely you may encounter resistance,
> capacitance and reluctance issues, but it would take a really long run.
> I've been away from this too long to do the calculations. Maybe
> somebody else has it handy.

Capacitive reactance (X sub C) = 1/(2 Pi Fc) where F = the highest frequency
in the pass band, and c = the capacitance in Farads.

Inductive reactance (X sub L) = 2 Pi Fl where l = the inductance in Henrys.

Z (Impedance) = The square root of (R squared Times (Xl squared - Xc
squared))

Where R = Total DC resistance in Ohms, Xl = Inductive reactance in Ohms and
Xc - capacitive reactance in Ohms In a case where Xl is > than Xc. If Xc is >
than Xl, the formula becomes:

Z = The square root of (R squared Times (Xc squared - Xl squared))

If you use typical coaxial cable specs for C and L/foot, then at 20,000 Hz
(or even 50,000 Hz) the impedance is miniscule and attenuation is not enough
to make any difference whatsoever in the audio band for normal interconnect
runs. Now you get to 20 ft and more and it is measurable, but only as a loss
at extremely high frequencies and not likely audible. Extreme cases could
effect a very slight "dulling" of the highest frequencies that most adults
can hear, but no other effects.

The bottom line is that if you can hear, using controlled double-blind
testing, any difference between two interconnects or speaker cables it's
because one of the manufacturers has purposely designed the cable to
attenuate (that is, take away from) some portion of the audio spectrum and
this is NOT anything that one should want.

On Feb 9, 7:03=A0pm, Audio Empire <audio_emp...@comcast.net> wrote:
> On Tue, 9 Feb 2010 16:33:01 -0800, m...@stevet.me.uk wrote
> (in article <7ted5tF9m...@mid.individual.net>):
>
>
>
>
>
> > Have been looking at some really good interconnects for my system;
>
> > MF KW550 Amp, DM25 transport and dac and Keff reference 205 system -
> > Need RCA and XLR - speaker cables are Chord signiture
>
> > Looked at Van De Hul, Chord and some stuff on Russ Andrews. Any
> > opinions?
>
> > Lot of stuff about Nordost but the money is quite significant.
>
> > It seems that silver is the best so would be looking at that , but not
> > sure about the science.
>
> > PS also found some people call Pure Reference but no heard of them
>
> > Thanks StevieT
>
> The science is simple: wire is wire at audio frequencies. A piece of
> coat-hanger or a pair of =A0$4000/meter Nordost Valhalla interconnects, t=
hey
> both will sound identical. Cable is audio jewelry; IOW, bling, and nothin=
g
> else. Do the math. It will tell you all need to know about the three
> components of any conductor: DC resistance/foot, capacitive reactance and
> inductive reactance. The effect of these components on an audio signal (D=
C -
> 50KHz) over any practical length? Negligible, unimportant, a non-event.
>

DC resistance in the ground path is a source of hum. I strapped all
the chasis together in my system in a star configuration and I believe
it made for a subtle improvement even though I had no audible hum at
the listening position.

This is worth studying.

http://www.jensen-transformers.com/an/an004.pdf

"The 99 dB figure can be improved further by lowering the shield
resistance of the 5 foot cable which uses a foil shielded cable with
#24 gauge drain wire (25 mohm per foot). Cable using a #18 gauge
equivalent braided copper shield (6.5 mohm per foot) will lower hum
level by 5 dB from 99 dB to 104 dB."

ScottW