Clarity

for HT none

The absolute BEST interconnect for HT use, the price and value can not be beat by anyone.

Similar Products Used:

Kimber: PBJ, Silver Streak, Silver, Select
XLO, Monster, AudioQuest

Sturdy, well-constructed, excellent audio characteristics, and all at a low price.

None

After I finished this, I realized it was a book, so bear with me.

Ok, I think very few people would argue with the statement that the cables included with your components are crap, and an investment in interconnects that are sturdy, corrosion-resistant, and well-sheilded is wise. Beyond that, things loose clarity, people start arguing over what is best, no one has any real numbers or measurements to back it up.

I do not consider myself a golden-eared audiophile by any means. What I am, however is an electrical engineer with a knowledge of the circuitry and principles behind the audio components we listen to and access to the equipment neccessary to put actual measurements behind my arguements. I understand what goes into hi-end components and I do not have any qualms spending the necessary amount of money to get good components. I also know that the more$=better equation is true, to an extent, but is also used to peddle outrageously expensive equipment with "benefits" that are beyond the perception of must of us mere humans. I've also observed that listening to equipment in your typical showroom is just about useless as the acoustics of most stores differ greatly from those of your living room. Generally, stuff actually sounds better once you've got it home. Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that I've taken the approach of shopping with my brain an not so much with my ears. I have yet to be disappointed.

I originally purched a number of the Radio Shack cable when I bought the system that would take me through my college days. They worked quite well with my Kenwood/MTX setup, which was comparitively inexpensive, extremely loud, and tolerably noisy and imprecise; in other words, perfect for a college kid. Well, I've now graduated from college and moved up to a considerably better sounding Denon/Jamo system. As I was doing extensive research, some of it on this site, I decided to look into the issue of "better" interconnects.

At best, all I could find was conjecture. Every self-described audiophile had some pet "hi-end" cable that he would swear were the best that could be had and everything else was garbage. I couldn't pick out much of any agreement. Somewhat confused, I decided to start by taking a set of my good-'ol Rad Shacks down to the lab and throw them on the network analyser to see what their frequency response was. From there, I could determine what "flaws" they might have. What I saw was very revealing. I decided to test out to 50kHz, more than twice the audible range. At 50k the attenuation is less than .5dB, and the phase shift is less than two degrees. These distortions are going to be considerably less at 20k, which is the limit of human hearing. Quite simply, any alterations to the sound made by these cables is below the threshold of human perception. Period.

Interconnect cables are really fairly simple devices. The cable for each channel consists of two wires, one signal wire, and a ground shield surrounding it. The braided or foil outer conductor serves as a barrier to radiant waves and fields from the outside environment, shuntin most of them to ground, and reducing the overall noise to inaudible levels. Since these wires are not coiled, and essenially straight, inductance is essentially negligible. The only electrical parameter of a cable that has any bearng ic capacitance. Simply put, if you put two conductiors close to each other and you have a capacitance that is an inverse function of the distance between them. A piece of interconnect wire electrically looks loke a small capacitor across the output terminals of your source. A capacitor across two terminals is the simples form of a first-order low-pass crossover. By convention, it is considered to pass all frequencies below the -3dB "cutoff" point, and block all frequencies above it. There is no absolute cutoff point. For a 2 meter pair of Radio Shack cables, the capacitance is something in the 250-280 nF range, meaning that the -3dB "cutoff" point is somewhere in the neighborhood of 10Mhz. Way down at 20kHz, it is essentially non-existant. All crossovers also produce a phase shift, which starts at zero degrees and gradually increases as you approach the cutoff point. Once again, down at 20k, this is much less than you could possibly detect. By way of comparison, video cables are consrtucted the same way, with the exception that the plastic or foam surrounding the signal conductor is made thicker, thus increasing the distance between the conductors and decreasing the capacitance, thereby moving the cutoff point further up the spectrum. This is done to accomodate the much larger 6Mhz bandwidth of NTSC video signals. If you really want the piece of mind of having the best signal connection, buy the Radio Shach video cables and use them as audio interconnects. I've done this with the analog output from my DVD/CD player which I use to take advantage of the player's advanced sound processing capabilities for CDs.

As for exotic designs such as Kimber's twisted wires, I have no idea what benifit they could possibly have and can see where their shielding might be inferior. I showed a picture of a set of PBJs to my professor. This man holds a doctorate specializing in electromagnetic and transmission line theory and taught me everything I know about the subject. I asked him if there could be some solid theiry behind the design. He took one look at the cables and their price tag and laughed. Nuff said.

Basically, buy these cables, spend your money on components with large, clean power supplies and solid consruction and a pair them with a good line conditioner and be happy.

Similar Products Used:

cheap cables included with components

This review is for both the 16awg & 14awg Megacable since reviews on the net are nill.The 16awg is exc. for $16.99/50ft. The 14awg flat is also exc. for $19.99/50ft. Use the RS Mega connectors(Banana or Pin both are solderless!) The sound is warm but dynamic. The ease of cutting & assembly is a No Brainer. The cost is a No Banker.

The only weakness it has are its competitors but you will have to Buy Monster Z-1 to Match it. incidentally th 12awg speaker cables sound is not as good.

There is no cable so readily available out there as Megacable. You don't have to Special Order it & A 50 ft roll(16awg) with Megaconnectors(2 packs of Banana) you are ready to go with a simple wire stripper & box cutter. The total cost is $37.00.

Even Monster cable(which I also use on all RCA interconnects) is more expensive. I listened to a blind test thru Martin Logan Aerius's & little if any difference was there. The only other wire True Bargain out there is the Monster Z-1. Megacable for Dollar Value Rates # 1.

Similar Products Used:

Monster XP, Tara Labs KLara,Standard 16awg Cable