Mark Grant 6mm UP-LCOFC speaker cable

[Filterlab]

Blimey, they are good cables. Better than anything I've ever used, at any price. I can see what all the hype is about now. If they were ten times the price I'd consider them a bargain.

I'm staggered.

Thanks Barry and Marco (and others) for the recommendation.

'Nuff said.

[beermaniac]

Hi

Is that these cables ? £8 a metre

https://www.markgrantcables.co.uk/uk/speaker-cables/van-damme-2-x-6mm-hi-fi-speaker-cable-up-lcofc-unterminated/


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[JohnJo]

I use them too, supplied by MG, excellent foo-free cables. The bi-wire links were also an improvement over the metal plates which came with my speakers.

[beermaniac]

Sounds interesting - what have you compared them with ??


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Filterlab]

Those are the ones, but terminated by Mark.

Last in were Chord Clearway, but I've had countless cables of all sorts - too many to remember, of all price ranges. These are by far the most open and balanced I've heard.

As perfectly put by JohnJo, completely foo-free. No nonsense cables that do what a cable should; not get in the way. Worth a shot for the pennies they cost.


I use them too, supplied by MG, excellent foo-free cables. The bi-wire links were also an improvement over the metal plates which came with my speakers.

Indeed. My speakers aren't bi-wirable so no need for jumpers.

[beermaniac]

Ok cheers [emoji106]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Marco]

Glad you're happy with them, Rob. I now wouldn't use anything else. They just 'do what they say on the tin', plus Mark's not only a great guy to deal with, but an absolute stickler for quality. Everything he sells is made from quality UK-sourced parts and assembled with consummate professionalism:)

Aside from anything else, how often can you say that these days? As you say, for the money they're remarkable value, and perfect if you don't use speaker cables as tone controls!:cool:

Marco.

[Pieoftheday]

How do the differing sizes differ sound wise? I mean how would the 2.5mm be different to the 4mm, 6mm?

[Filterlab]

I have some old lengths of 4mm unterminated knocking around somewhere which I used briefly with my B&Ws a while back. They're good cables, very serviceable, but nothing like the 6mm. However they aren't the 'hi-fi' variant so it's not a good comparison at all.

[Lawrence001]

Glad you're happy with them, Rob. I now wouldn't use anything else. They just 'do what they say on the tin', plus Mark's not only a great guy to deal with, but an absolute stickler for quality. Everything he sells is made from quality UK-sourced parts and assembled with consummate professionalism:)

Aside from anything else, how often can you say that these days? As you say, for the money they're remarkable value, and perfect if you don't use speaker cables as tone controls!:cool:

Marco.That's a very interesting point, didn't the whole fancy cable market kick off around the same time as certain members of the hifi press were telling us we didn't want tone controls in the 80s [emoji38]

Around the same time as the "Jap crap" movement [emoji23]

Sent from my HRY-LX1 using Tapatalk

[Barry]

Glad you are pleased with them Rob. As you quoted:


As perfectly put by JohnJo, completely foo-free. No nonsense cables that do what a cable should; not get in the way. Worth a shot for the pennies they cost.

Couldn't have put it much better myself - and that's from a cable sceptic!

[Marco]

How do the differing sizes differ sound wise? I mean how would the 2.5mm be different to the 4mm, 6mm?

The thicker the conductor, James, generally the better the signal transfer, and thus sound:)

Marco.

[Marco]

That's a very interesting point, didn't the whole fancy cable market kick off around the same time as certain members of the hifi press were telling us we didn't want tone controls in the 80s [emoji38]

Around the same time as the "Jap crap" movement [emoji23]


Lol - there could be a connection Lawrence. I've just never been the type to use ANY cables in that way. For me, it's always about maximum resolution/faithfulness to the source signal, so that they just 'disappear'. I've never liked cables with an obvious and overt sonic signature.

Often expensive 'high-end' cables are like that, as they've been designed to alter the sound in some (often crazy) way, simply to justify their extortionate price! 'Studio quality' cables, IME, tend to be blissfully free of that nonsense, so less coloured sounding, thus more transparent.

Marco.

[Barry]

Agreed - speakers are current driven; they operate in the current domain, so the thicker the cable the better (up to a point). Also thicker cables will have a lower loop resistance. From the speaker's point of view this cable resistance appears in series with the output impedance of the driving amplifier, so affects the ability of the amplifier to dampen the back emf generated by the speaker (i.e. stops "the tail wagging the dog").

Furthermore, the reduced resistance of a thick speaker cable means there is less power lost within the cable - though this effect is very small and I doubt one would notice it. All speakers have an impedance which varies significantly with frequency, so another effect of the cable resistance is that a cable having a high loop resistance will exacerbate irregularities of the speaker's frequency response.

A general rule of thumb is that a speakers loop resistance (i.e the combined resistance of both conductors) should be no more than 5% of the nominal speaker impedance; thus offering a damping factor of ~20, which is quite sufficient.

[Filterlab]

And of course, the better the current to the speakers, the more easily it is to diagnose issues elsewhere in the chain. As far as I'm concerned, I now have no issues anywhere now. After swapping the XLRs (coming from Brian soon) for longer ones, I'm done for a good long while. Just going to sit back and enjoy! :D

Besides which, to get a significant gain in any of my components, I'm going to have to be spending thousands of pounds per item, and I just don't want to do that for an 'nth' of improvement - yet. :lol:

[Pieoftheday]

The thicker the conductor, James, generally the better the signal transfer, and thus sound:)

Marco.

I've recently bought the 2.5mm version ,yet to be installed, just 1.5mtr each side, would the 6mm version be a noticeable improvement over such a short length, in theory?

[Barry]

I have used 1m lengths of both the 4mm2 and 6mm2 cable. Can't say I've noticed any difference, so I doubt you would with 1.5m lengths.

For longer lengths I would prefer to use the 6mm2 variant - but that is only based on theoretical differences, rather than a possible improvement in SQ.

[Pieoftheday]

I have used 1m lengths of both the 4mm2 and 6mm2 cable. Can't say I've noticed any difference, so I doubt you would with 1.5m lengths.

For longer lengths I would prefer to use the 6mm2 variant - but that is only based on theoretical differences, rather than a possible improvement in SQ.

Thank you :)

[Marco]

I've recently bought the 2.5mm version ,yet to be installed, just 1.5mtr each side, would the 6mm version be a noticeable improvement over such a short length, in theory?

No, as Barry says I can't see there being much difference over that length.

Marco.

[The Black Adder]

I've been using 2x 4mm VD Black per channel for over 4 years now. It's brilliant stuff.

Mine was made up by Mark Grant... again, excellent service as ever.

[bronzeage]

I have a pair of these, and also LS-25. The 25 smokes the Van Damme in bass control and texture, but if I never heard the 25, I could happily live with Van Damme, certainly great value for money.