Is this a speaker cable?

[Marco]

Lol - Sam, we'll have to agree to differ on that one! It could be that the cables concerned are not aimed at those who see audio equipment as 'jewellery', and nothing to do with how good they are or not.

The cables in my system are mainly professional types, used in recording studios/broadcast houses, and those tend to be black or grey. The 'business end' of their performance, where the quality counts, is top-notch, and revealed 'under their skin', as it were...

Nope, I don't buy into the 'sexy' thing with cables at all. The only non-black cables I've got, apart from as Barry has mentioned, a digital coax lead, is my VDH speaker cables, which are 'peach' coloured, and as they lie on the floor, are now covered in accumulated dust/dirt from over the years, and look black!

Marco.

[Audio Advent]

Lol - Sam, we'll have to agree to differ on that one! It could be that the cables concerned are not aimed at those who see audio equipment as 'jewellery', and nothing to do with how good they are or not.

The cables in my system are mainly professional types, used in recording studios/broadcast houses, and those tend to be black or grey. The 'business end' of their performance, where the quality counts, is top-notch, and revealed 'under their skin', as it were...

Nope, I don't buy into the 'sexy' thing with cables at all. The only non-black cables I've got, apart from as Barry has mentioned, a digital coax lead, is my VDH speaker cables, which are 'peach' coloured, and as they lie on the floor, are now covered in accumulated dust/dirt from over the years and look black!

Marco.

I can understand that kind of anti-foo stance, just a business-like logic to getting the job done well. I would normally assign to that view too if secondhand, more fancy looking ones weren't so cheap, or didn't want to collect a little bit.. (am currently kitting myself out with 90's Deltec Black Slink for no reason in particular!) Just looked at your equipment list - probably a blast from the past from reading the forum before I joined, but I thought you had Yannis Tome interconnects throughout. I see you've changed to Klotz.

It's not to do with what I like to use or what you like to use, I'm just saying that Klotz MC5000 is £3.50/m metre cable.... and it looks like black/grey £3.50/m cable. And if someone were to obtain a load of Klotz MC5000 cable with a system they'd likely dump it all precisely because it's £3.50/m cable and it really won't cost that much to rewire a system again with all new Klotz MC5000 to new lengths that suit them. Of course the RCAs will cost more than the cable and would be kept for the future cables..

Therefore the cables that get kept are going to be the ones which stand out visually, there's some consumer-emotional attachment to them because it's not assumed they are replacable like tires or any other consumable. So it makes sense from a manufacturer's point of view to make them stand out and not be forgettable. If I saw your cables, I wouldn't remember if they were Klotz or Van Damme or whatever... which is no good for any manufacture of interconnects. See what I mean? There's a sound logic to it... but hopefully we do see past it ourselves.

Anyway, most fancy-ish cables look the same these days with black or grey nylon mesh... makes it hard to tell what they are other than the heat shrink tubing.

[Marco]

Therefore the cables that get kept are going to be the ones which stand out visually, there's some consumer-emotional attachment to them because it's not assumed they are replacable like tires or any other consumable.

I know where you're coming from. However, I simply don't view hi-fi equipment, or especially cables, in that way. There is no emotional attachment to it in that sense. It's just simply 'stuff' that does a job. My emotional attachment is with the music reproduced and my physical collection, especially all my records.

The only exception to that is probably my Copper valve amp, as it was hand-built from scratch (as a one-off) by someone who has now become a very good friend, but other than that, I have no 'feelings', as such, for any of my gear.

Marco.

P.S The only Yannis cable I've ever bought (and still use) is his superb tonearm cable, which has outperformed ones costing in their thousands, from so-called prestigious 'high-end' manufacturers.

[Barry]

Many professional audio cables (by professional I mean those used in broadcast and recording environments) are available in a range of colours. This is, I presume, so a particular cable can be distinguished from its companions in the tangle of cables snaking over the floor, or at the cable plug-patch panel.

I'm not interested in brightly coloured cable in my system - I fact I have arranged matters so that they are almost completely hidden from view. I certainly am not interested in the many so-called audiophile cables with stupid names, designed to impress the uninitiated printed along their length and often covered in woven nylon mesh steeving.

I make most of my own interconnects using no-nonsense cable used in the professional audio industry (Gotham, Proel, Klotz, Van Damme) or computer industry (Belden and Hubert & Suhner). And of those, the only cables having anything other than dark grey or black coloured insulation are Neumann and Van Damme cable, and the yellow clad Trompeter triaxial cable metioned by Marco.

[walpurgis]

I don't choose any items of equipment including cables for their appearance. If they look good, that's OK, but the sound is all I really care about. Fortunately, I rather like the understated looks of my system.

[struth]

Speaker cable I made up recently is the best I've used. Not silly cheap but worth doing right. I did finish it in an outer sheath as it needed finishing

[Marco]

I don't choose any items of equipment including cables for their appearance.

Me neither; it's simply a tool to do a job. If equipment happens to look good too, then that's a bonus! Cables I care not a jot about how they look, although I'd probably be disinclined to buy stuff that was covered in gaudy colours. Give me the 'sober studio look' any day!

The only exception, in terms of the appearance thing, might be speakers, as generally being made of wood, they tend also to act as pieces of furniture. Having said that, my Lockies are no 'lookers' - big old 1960s wardrobes, but they're 'retro' and look rather 'purposeful', and I kinda dig that!

Marco.

[Audio Advent]

Many professional audio cables (by professional I mean those used in broadcast and recording environments) are available in a range of colours. This is, I presume, so a particular cable can be distinguished from its companions in the tangle of cables snaking over the floor, or at the cable plug-patch panel.

I wish people would take advantage of that though! They never do... always a mass of black cables to untangle. It's been beneficial on a couple of occasions though because installers on an exhibition stand (for example) can't be bothered to untangle some cables so just leave them behind as rubbish. Have picked up a few good, long balanced cables that way.

[Audio Advent]

I don't choose any items of equipment including cables for their appearance. If they look good, that's OK, but the sound is all I really care about. Fortunately, I rather like the understated looks of my system.

Personally I don't get to find out what they sound like until I've already purchased them and got them home! And interconnects of mine are always hidden behind the gear so once they're plugged in they're forgotten, bling or no bling.

As an ebay buyer of secondhand items I use the photo to quickly trawl through things on there.. it's the photo which catches my eye first. So the very first thing I judge by is looks: decent plugs and some effort in putting them together in an aesthetically pleasing way. The minimum is the standard nylon mesh and heatshrink, the method used by many established sellers as well as one-man-band cable makers. By the time they become secondhand, the name of the maker may be forgotten and the wire used unknown, but go by the attention to detail on their construction for something under £30 and you're often on to a bargain and a no-brainer if the plugs are KLE or Eichman (IMO).

[Barry]

Haha - if cables for sale are fitted with Eichmann plugs then it's a no-brainer for me to dismiss them. RCA phono connectors are a lousy design and the 'bullet plug' development, IMO, makes them worse.