A nice surprise

[Taz]

Just recently I have changed my kit, wife bought me some monitor audio GS20 speakers and I flogged my old marantz kit in favour of a Bel Canto set up of which is all new to me.
having never heard any of their kit but reading some promising reviews around, especialy on their older Evo amps etc. anyway it was cheap enough and I took the plunge and bought blind (foolish I know) however I decided a £4k CD player and £3k amp (new prices) was hardley likley to be rubbish. it could have been not to my taste I grant you but rarely have I come across named gear at these prices that are rubbish. anyway I got a good deal, So I got them home, made a few basic tweaks but I quickley decided that the marraige between speakers and cd and amp where not the match made in heaven I had hoped for, (hindsight is a wonderfull thing) the thing was I was broke now but needed some cables, so I managed to buy a pair of mains cables from evilbay, they where cheap but came well made and used decent quality stuff. I then had an old mains conditioner from Tacima lying about that got put into a new sheilded box and wired to a good silver plated twin mains socket, this did make a slightly better sound, reducing the noise floor to a degree. the speaker cable I had was plain ole van damme concert grade 4 x 4mm high purity ofc copper, it may not be the last word in cable but at £4.50 a meter and used by most bands and gigs to say nothing of all the studios who use the stuff it's not bad.
I also had some Van damme XKE Mic cable (i think) twin sheilded stuff designed for balanced cables, I put my new system together using the van damme speaker cable and the only I/C's I had left, a Pair of Van den hul D102 mk III single ended rca's, the sound was OK but there was a big "hole" around the midrange, upper base :scratch: so I checked my box, dug out 2 sets of neutrik xlr silver plated jobs and using the van damme mic cable made some balanced xlr's, totally different sound, louder, slightly more detail but an even bigger "hole" in the mid/upper base :scratch: I contacted Bel Canto in the USA where I learned the Evo amps are ripe for upgrades that can really take their performance to totally new levels (don't they always say that when they are trying to sell you something :rolleyes:) anyway for now at least the amp mods will have to wait until I can afford them, so I thought what about playing with cables, now making cables has never been a problem for me until I became disabled, but now while I can still manage (just) it's a strugle, but since I have no dosh you have to make savings where you can, the thing is when I looked at commercial cables it always seems that xlr - xlr are double the rca -rca price :rolleyes: dunno why
anyway I decided that as the van den hul D102 mkIII sounded a bit phoo as single ended I thought bugger it and today I re terminated them into xlr balanced cables, it was very fiddley and took me all day but I have just sat down to give them a try, WOW what a change, I seemed to have gained about 15% - 20% more mid range/upper bass compared to the van damme mic cables :scratch: not sure why, now don't get me wrong they aint perfect but my whole system seems to have taken a largish step forward, giving me more of what I liked about the bel canto gear, it just goes to show, so from now on I rekon I will just buy the cheaper rca cables and re-terminate to xlr myself saving half the price in some cases, it's turned out as quite a supprise to me with the vdh cables I have, has anyone else tried this approach ?
thanks
Taz

[MartinT]

When I first experimented with balanced connection I did try XLR microphone cables and found them to sound flat and lifeless. I then moved on to Kimber balanced cables, which sounded (and still sound) superb. Like you, I love balanced XLR connections throughout my system, but not all balanced cables sound the same.

[Stratmangler]

Hi Keith

Welcome to the forum :)
Without wanting to come across as a smartass/killjoy, what's with the sea change in equipment, especially unknown/unheard stuff ?

Components change here at my place, but the pace of change is slower than Continental Drift.

One other minor point, one that is a constructive criticism, is that spaces make text less impenetrable.
I haven't read the bulk of your post, due entirely to the word density.

[Taz]

what's with the sea change in equipment, especially unknown/unheard stuff ?
ehh I don't understand that bit sorry ?
as for the block of text, I appologise if my punctuation makes it difficult to read, I do sometimes ramble on a bit and my written word does sometimes leave room for improvement
however chris with this being about cables and while I understand your frustration I don't 100% understand your post, is it just a polite dig at my writing style ? or have I missed something ? I have edited my post but not sure if it's still hard to read or not ? sorry
nope your right it does make for difficult reading even after editing it sorry

[Tim]

I have edited my post but not sure if it's still hard to read or not ? sorry
It's a bit like staring into bright headlights, rather overwhelming so you have to look away I guess is what Chris maybe means?

I felt like I needed to come up for a breath after the first two lines, so to be perfectly frank I gave up and clicked away to another section - sorry :(

[zanash]

yeah ...

split your lines up ...

double spaced ..I think its called ..

much easier on the eye

[Stratmangler]

ehh I don't understand that bit sorry ?
as for the block of text, I appologise if my punctuation makes it difficult to read, I do sometimes ramble on a bit and my written word does sometimes leave room for improvement
however chris with this being about cables and while I understand your frustration I don't 100% understand your post, is it just a polite dig at my writing style ? or have I missed something ? I have edited my post but not sure if it's still hard to read or not ? sorry
nope your right it does make for difficult reading even after editing it sorry

It was a polite dig, and a bit of advice - I just found your OP very difficult to read because of the lack of spacing.
In fact I've still not read your OP through for the reason pointed out.


yeah ...

split your lines up ...

double spaced ..I think its called ..

much easier on the eye

That's better, just don't overdo it ;)

Otherwise we end up with a line space after each sentence.

And that can be just as bad :lolsign:


It's a bit like staring into bright headlights, rather overwhelming so you have to look away I guess is what Chris maybe means?

I felt like I needed to come up for a breath after the first two lines, so to be perfectly frank I gave up and clicked away to another section - sorry :(

I can see that Tim's reaction was exactly the same as mine.

[Taz]

Ok chaps sorry about that and thanks for the polite explanation
I do see what you mean and will in future try and make my post's more readable
thank you

[Alex_UK]

Keith - you just need to break it up into paragraphs I think - i.e.:


Just recently I have changed my kit, wife bought me some monitor audio GS20 speakers and I flogged my old marantz kit in favour of a Bel Canto set up of which is all new to me having never heard any of their kit but reading some promising reviews around, especialy on their older Evo amps etc.

Anyway it was cheap enough and I took the plunge and bought blind (foolish I know) however I decided a £4k CD player and £3k amp (new prices) was hardly likley to be rubbish. It could have been not to my taste I grant you but rarely have I come across named gear at these prices that are rubbish.

Anyway I got a good deal, so I got them home, made a few basic tweaks but I quickley decided that the marraige between speakers and cd and amp where not the match made in heaven I had hoped for, (hindsight is a wonderfull thing) the thing was I was broke now but needed some cables, so I managed to buy a pair of mains cables from evilbay.

They where cheap but came well made and used decent quality stuff. I then had an old mains conditioner from Tacima lying about that got put into a new sheilded box and wired to a good silver plated twin mains socket, this did make a slightly better sound, reducing the noise floor to a degree. The speaker cable I had was plain ole van damme concert grade 4 x 4mm high purity ofc copper, it may not be the last word in cable but at £4.50 a meter and used by most bands and gigs to say nothing of all the studios who use the stuff it's not bad.

I also had some Van damme XKE Mic cable (i think) twin sheilded stuff designed for balanced cables, I put my new system together using the van damme speaker cable and the only I/C's I had left, a Pair of Van den hul D102 mk III single ended rca's, the sound was OK but there was a big "hole" around the midrange, upper base :scratch:

So I checked my box, dug out 2 sets of neutrik xlr silver plated jobs and using the van damme mic cable made some balanced xlr's, totally different sound, louder, slightly more detail but an even bigger "hole" in the mid/upper base :scratch:

I contacted Bel Canto in the USA where I learned the Evo amps are ripe for upgrades that can really take their performance to totally new levels (don't they always say that when they are trying to sell you something :rolleyes:) anyway for now at least the amp mods will have to wait until I can afford them, so I thought what about playing with cables.

Now making cables has never been a problem for me until I became disabled, but now while I can still manage (just) it's a strugle, but since I have no dosh you have to make savings where you can, the thing is when I looked at commercial cables it always seems that xlr - xlr are double the rca -rca price :rolleyes: dunno why. Anyway I decided that as the van den hul D102 mkIII sounded a bit phoo as single ended I thought bugger it and today I re terminated them into xlr balanced cables.

It was very fiddley and took me all day but I have just sat down to give them a try, WOW what a change, I seemed to have gained about 15% - 20% more mid range/upper bass compared to the van damme mic cables :scratch: not sure why, now don't get me wrong they aint perfect but my whole system seems to have taken a largish step forward, giving me more of what I liked about the bel canto gear, it just goes to show.

So from now on I rekon I will just buy the cheaper rca cables and re-terminate to xlr myself saving half the price in some cases, it's turned out as quite a supprise to me with the vdh cables I have, has anyone else tried this approach ?

thanks

Taz

It makes the post look bigger, but is an easier read. Don't worry about it too much though, we'd rather have you post than not!

Great story, though - and well done for giving it a go which looks to have paid dividends. :)