Anti-cables

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defride

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I mentioned in a couple of threads I've been waiting for said cables to arrive. Thought I'd share my thoughts and a bit of info for any who are interested.

This cable has been causing quite a stir in the US, just check out thier sites feedback page - well pages and pages as it happens backed up by amazing reviews.

The reason for the stir, its cheap and its good, so good that lots of people are selling up thier £$KKKs cables and replacing them. I came across them through a chap who was replacing Chord Signatures and felt Anti-cables sounded better. The system I heard them in certainly sounded good, though no comparison was possible.

The premise is that its the dielectric (plastic casing/shielding) around cables that is a major source of sound degradation in cables. Seeing the effort (and extreme expense!) Nordost are going too to make air the dialetric in thier cables perhaps A-c are on the right track.

Anti-cables are high purity solid core copper cables with a form of anodised finish for insulation rather than plastics.

I was quoted 10 days delivery due to customs and they turned up in 4, can't complain on that score.

So how do they sound?

Very good, well bloody good actually. I've only ever had mid-price cables in my system, (no shop I've contacted has even had highend XLRs available to demo!) so I can't compare in that context. What I will say is that they have allowed in my system a clarity, an openess that wasn't there before.

Allison Krause has a sweetness and presence next to Robert Plant on thier Raising Sand album that has taken replay to a new level. Bass has become better defined and like I said that sweet treble really makes listening a joy. The sound of a resonating acoustic guitar strings are startling! All this in a system I was/am very very happy with.

I'm a convert as you can see. At $US10 per foot pair for speaker cable and from $US100 for interconnects they are not just a bargain, they're a steal...

Very nice people to deal with too!

www.anticables.com
 
i still think that cables are system dependant, however is always a good solution to try and decide,
for your ears only,
nando p.s. glad you are happy.
 
re: - I'm a convert as you can see. At $US10 per foot pair for speaker cable and from $US100 for interconnects they are not just a bargain, they're a steal...


equate that to uk prices then you can replace the $ with a £ - and in my eyes that is not a bargain..!
 
mr cat said:
re: - I'm a convert as you can see. At $US10 per foot pair for speaker cable and from $US100 for interconnects they are not just a bargain, they're a steal...


equate that to uk prices then you can replace the $ with a £ - and in my eyes that is not a bargain..!
Click to expand...

But there's nigh on two USD to GBP, so it's pretty much half the dollar cost? Even taking into account postage (IME postage cost is little more than UK postage for small packets) and VAT/duty (if you're unlucky), it's a long way of a straight £-$ exchange.
 
I know a couple of people who have used this successfully, but am I right in thinking this is simply "magnet wire" and therefore available pretty cheaply?
 
aquapiranha said:
I know a couple of people who have used this successfully, but am I right in thinking this is simply "magnet wire" and therefore available pretty cheaply?
Click to expand...

Might be? You could try and see. Would be interested in the results. ICs would be tricky and when you look at the price of a terminated finished product its hard to argue at thier cost.

Nando , agree cables can be system dependant particularly if your system tends toward one or other end of the spectrum. If you've an essentially neutral system a cable like A-Cs should work wonders, especially given the cost of the competition.
 
defride said:
The premise is that its the dielectric (plastic casing/shielding) around cables that is a major source of sound degradation in cables. Seeing the effort (and extreme expense!) Nordost are going too to make air the dialetric in thier cables perhaps A-c are on the right track.

Anti-cables are high purity solid core copper cables with a form of anodised finish for insulation rather than plastics.
Click to expand...

I'm a cable sceptic, I don't believe that one performs any better than the other, so I generally avoid threads involving cables. However, the passage above attracted my attention purely from the chemicals/materials engineering side of things.

It cannot be anodising, because copper doesn't anodise to any extent (aluminium does). The website says that the wire is "lightly tinned", i.e., has a fine coat of metallic tin applied thereto.

However, it needs an insulator. From the colour, it seems to me (and this is purely my opinion) that what it is is insulating varnish. Insulating varnish, applied to motor windings, etc. is generally a two-pack polymeric coating, probably an epoxy or a urethane. In other words, a "plastic". Certainly a different "plastic" than what is usually applied to cable, certainly a thinner "plastic", but a "plastic" nevertherless.

So, since insulating varnish has been known for nearly forever, why does everyone simply not use insulated wire? I suspect because its long-term durability would be suspect, unless it is put in place and not moved again. I wouldn't want to bend/unbend it too often. The major advantage of conventional insulation is its flexibility. This reduces with time (especially in plasticised polymers, such as PVC), but it is certainly better than insulating varnish in the regular bending test.

The following bit from the website

We believe the Anti-Cables are sonically transparent and neutral because they virtually eliminate the most common source that give speaker cable their sonic signature, the plastic dielectric material. Beyond the extremely thin red coating, there is nothing left but air, and air is a near ideal insulation dielectric because it causes virtually no dielectric effect! Air is also why break-in time is not so nasty sounding with the Anti-Cables. This is because "break-in" is actually the bad sounding plastic dielectric material, which simply sounds less bad with time. Since the Anti-Cables have much less dielectric material, the break-in period is easier to get through. If you have ever experienced a typical speaker cable breaking-in, you understand how much the dielectric material affects the sound. Again, it gets better with time, but the dielectric effect will never fully go away (unless you mostly remove it, like the Anti-Cables).

is pure, unexpurgated piffle. Cables and insulators do not, have never and never will "break in".

Anyway, the important thing, indeed the only thing that matters, is that you like what they do for your hi-fi.
 
Called ears...

Not been on this forum long but have noticed most nay-sayers seem to read books and spend little time experimenting or trying good stuff themselves. Delve around and there are plenty of studies that measure differences in cables. Hifi Portal has some bits and bobs as an example. Having said that wasn't it in the
70s the amp that measured perfectly was built? Didn't it sound good! An hypothesis is all very well, it might even be proved but only if you can come up with the all parameters test...

To the nay-sayers; A-c's are cheap, unblock your ears and predjudices give them a try and you may be surprised, or not. If not you'll lose little shifting them. One mans piffle is often just anothers unresolved inquiry into an unexplained phenomena.
 
defride said:
Called ears...

Not been on this forum long but have noticed most nay-sayers seem to read books and spend little time experimenting or trying good stuff themselves. Delve around and there are plenty of studies that measure differences in cables. Hifi Portal has some bits and bobs as an example. Having said that wasn't it in the
70s the amp that measured perfectly was built? Didn't it sound good! An hypothesis is all very well, it might even be proved but only if you can come up with the all parameters test...

To the nay-sayers; A-c's are cheap, unblock your ears and predjudices give them a try and you may be surprised, or not. If not you'll lose little shifting them. One mans piffle is often just anothers unresolved inquiry into an unexplained phenomena.
Click to expand...

The nay sayers might just be listening to music rather than indulging in the seemingly limitless pursuit of the unexplained.

For me to think cable "burn-in" was unexplained, I'd have to have heard it. Which I haven't. That's all. I'm not into trying to 'prove' negatives anyway - for that matter I don't believe in pixies either.

What is it about the physics of cables that changes with use? As opposed to measurable differences in cable construction. Just curious.

Steve
 
aquapiranha said:
I know a couple of people who have used this successfully, but am I right in thinking this is simply "magnet wire" and therefore available pretty cheaply?
Click to expand...
No, because it's tinned. Common magnet wire is plain copper. But it (magnet wire) works very well, I've tried it.
SteveS1 said:
What is it about the physics of cables that changes with use? As opposed to measurable differences in cable construction. Just curious. Steve
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Good question, I for one don't know. Maybe the connections & the solder? Anyway a cable takes some time to settle in -- try diy-ing an IC and connecting it: there's a noticeable sonic difference about 10-15mins down the line
 
SteveS1 said:
The nay sayers might just be listening to music rather than indulging in the seemingly limitless pursuit of the unexplained.

For me to think cable "burn-in" was unexplained, I'd have to have heard it. Which I haven't. That's all. I'm not into trying to 'prove' negatives anyway - for that matter I don't believe in pixies either.

What is it about the physics of cables that changes with use? As opposed to measurable differences in cable construction. Just curious.

Steve
Click to expand...

Listening to the Pixies as I write. Really rather good if a little loud for this time of the week.

Unfortunately I don't have a partical accelerator the size of Didcot to attempt to figure out the nature of matter and its interactions (nor the knowhow to use one, its true). I'll just have to stick to the subjective until someone comes to the rescue I guess. Can you enlighten us?

Having had a number of QED products over the years my experience has been a bass response that was initially lightweight and developed into a much fuller presentation over a couple of weeks or so in my system. Why? Guess I'd better start the excavations!

Since I put the A-cs into my system the dog has started reacting to sounds coming from it again - no shit. Can't ask him unfortunately but there is an observable difference in his behaviour. Go figure
 
Unfortunately I don't have a partical accelerator the size of Didcot to attempt to figure out the nature of matter and its interactions (nor the knowhow to use one, its true). I'll just have to stick to the subjective until someone comes to the rescue I guess. Can you enlighten us?
Click to expand...

I can't I'm afraid. Nor can any of the labs that do have such equipment, so I don't feel too bad. Guess we'll have to wait for the magic measurement - until then, I'll not worry about the fact that my various (Chord, Flashback, Van Damme) ICs don't appear to have changed since I bought them.

:p
 

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