Truly amazed

Ha! I knew I'd getchyer Alex.
There's all sorts of stuff on that site - take a look at the Boffer sister site where they reveal a new much reduced bargain with limited availability at 11:59 pm every night. could be a laptop or it could be a covert recording device cunningly concealed in what looks like a lipstick!

Also appealing to my bargain sniffing proclivities is the thing they called the 'Bag of Crap' but has now changed into the 'Sack of Crap' - One minute to midnight on an unspecified day close to Chrimbo, they unleash the sack of crap offer which is 50 items. Here's what you get for a fiver postage:

"The rules of the sack of crap are as follows.

1) You expect nothing more than 25 crappy items.

2) You should not whine and complain when some people`s crap turns out to be less crappier.

3) You should take a moment to consider whether you might be better off just not buying this crap.

We make absolutely no promises about the quality or the desirability of these bags or their contents, except to promise that their quality will be low and their desirability will be non-existent. We will take your hard earned cash and send you literal crap in return.

Your sack will contain at least 25 items.

At least one of the 25 items you will receive will count as the sack so in other words one of the items you will receive will be a sack or bag of some description. It may be a laptop bag, a school bag, a blow up beach bag, my Alexander Mcqueen handbag .If you are really unlucky you may get a pack of bin bags or a colostomy and they will count as your sack!!"

People have posted videos of them opening their sack - there's usually something pretty valuable in there -and the lucky one or two get something like an ipod, computer monitor or something like that.
The address of the website is:

http://www.crapshop.co.uk



Enjoy playing with your cables Alex

Quote:

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Originally Posted by The Grand Wazoo

The address of the website is:

http://www.crapshop.co.uk

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Proprietor one Reginald Iolanthe Perrin I presume ?



Sent from my HTC Tattoo using Tapatalk

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Alex_UK

passed on the Ear Pick Earwax Remover though - yeuch! - some others might find it useful though - could be the next big upgrade!)

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This device is quite alarming - you shouldn't attempt to put anything smaller than your elbow into your ear canal:eek:

Righto fellas, I've had a 2m pair of these Belkin cables(same as Alex MCR's) sitting around at home doing sod all for about 5 months now. I bought 'em from eBay simply due to the description: "Double shielded, Silver soldered, balanced cable construction etc, etc", they looked rather good too, and for £2.99 for 2x2m lengths I thought, "Why the hell not".

http://i1019.photobucket.com/albums/...erconnects.jpg

After stumbling over this thread tonight I whipped out the cables above which cost £11.99 from Gear City in Hong Kong and are no mean performers in their own right, and slotted the Belkin's in between my Pre/Power amps.

I began with an excellent lossless recording of ELO's Discovery played via VLC player on my netbook which is connected to my Caiman via an excellent quality Belkin shielded USB lead with gold plated connectors. First impressions are mixed: Clarity and definition throughout the frequency range is excellent. As noted in an earlier post, drum skins in particular took on an almost ethereal quality, as if the drummer was sitting in the room with me. Depth and breadth of the soundstage is staggering and can only be put down to the Belkin leads. The theory as to how cables can make such a difference is beyond me, but these Belkin's certainly do. As commented previously, I've lost a little bass weight, but it is so much more tuneful.

I then moved on to the Happy Feet OST (don't laugh, it's a terrific production and a fun listen too, hehe), which is also a lossless recording (wav). This fared much better. There is some excellent percussion recorded on this album and it was delivered with amazing clarity and impact. Both Mrs 'S' and myself were tapping away with our (webbed?) feet to every beat. I'm currently listening to Aerial by Kate Bush. This is a 320kbs mpeg file and it too is sounding new and improved, although not to such an extent as the two lossless recordings. I'm sure this isn't down to the Belkins though. It's probably due to the difference in quality between the two formats.

I should qualify these comments by saying I have only been running these IC's for about 3hrs so I am fully expecting further improvements over the next 16 to 17 hours. I have another 2 pairs on order from a seller on the 'Bay so I will offer further insights once they have arrived and been installed in my system... ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Alex_UK

Curses, you pesky lumberjack, I'd have been alright if it wasn't for you and your tempting links... pair of each duly ordered

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Well, cables arrived today. One was in a proper Retail pack, and is the 2.4m (8ft) one, but there is no mention of them being "silver" series or any reference to silver soldering or anything on the pack. The cables are grey in colour, with a kind of "net" covering - exactly the same as Alex's (Magiccarpetride) photo.

The second cable just came in a polythene bag, and was supposed to be the 4.9m pair, but in actual fact they are exactly the same length as the 2.4m pair... which is slightly annoying as I didn't really want either 2.4m pair, although I wanted to have a play, and the 4.9m one was going to replace a crappy cable from TV to stereo and so needed to be that long... Oh, and the tadpole "mobile phone alert thingy" doesn't work, either! Can't be bothered faffing around complaining (in any case I hadn't realised how bloody thick these cables are - running one from TV to amp and still maintaining some domestic aesthetic isn't going to happen!)

So, not overly impresses with bigoffers, but then I suppose there's no such thing as a free lunch, and 2 x decent quality 2.4m interconnects for less than £15 delivered isn't to be sniffed at, I guess. Not sure I can be bothered to pull the system apart to try them, so I might stick them in the second system which is easier to mess around with, or wait until we have the wood floor fitted and I have to take it all apart then.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Alex_UK

Well, cables arrived today. One was in a proper Retail pack, and is the 2.4m (8ft) one, but there is no mention of them being "silver" series or any reference to silver soldering or anything on the pack. The cables are grey in colour, with a kind of "net" covering - exactly the same as Alex's (Magiccarpetride) photo.

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They differ from the cables I have here :(

Mine are covered in a WHITE "net" and have WHITE mouldings on all the plugs :scratch:

I did say there are TWO variants of this interconnect; The grey one I believe is a plain RCA audio interconnect and the "Silver Series" has the white shroud with white plugs. Mind you, it also seems all the latest "Silver Series" interconnects have grey mouldings on the plugs, so I am confused as heck now :scratch:

Are you sure you lot are allowed out shopping without mums :lolsign:

If you look at the cables; either type, what the cables are is written on the jacket (that’s the bit under the anti scuff mesh) :doh:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Welder

Are you sure you lot are allowed out shopping without mums :lolsign:

If you look at the cables; either type, what the cables are is written on the jacket (that’s the bit under the anti scuff mesh) :doh:

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I have looked and then looked some more, but I am donald ducked if I can see any markings under the braid :confused:

Just remember, white is right :eyebrows:

ok guys these cables are back on ebay again but from a different seller, i ordered a set, they arrived the next day in a sealed plastic display box, they are light gey in colour, and have a mesh covering each cable, after reading the blurb on the back of the box i notice they are silver soldered here's the link http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BELKIN-Pure-AV...item519059168a

Sod it! I just can't stand it any more: 16 pages and 160 posts concerning a £4 pair of inteconnects? I have just bought a pair to see what all the fuss is about.

Regards (your's, a cable sceptic)

Wrong type Barry, the OP Frank was on about the white cables with white plastic sleeving & silver soldered. It appears that they are not all the same, someone took some apart & discovered this ;)

The type you are looking for if interested in getting the same as the OP is:- AD80300qn2M

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Reid Malenfant

The type you are looking for if interested in getting the same as the OP is:- AD80300qn2M

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The last two characters of the product code is the length, so could also end 1M or 5M

Quote:

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Originally Posted by keiths

The last two characters of the product code is the length, so could also end 1M or 5M

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Agreed, i should have mentioned that ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Reid Malenfant

Wrong type Barry, the OP Frank was on about the white cables with white plastic sleeving & silver soldered. It appears that they are not all the same, someone took some apart & discovered this ;)

The type you are looking for if interested in getting the same as the OP is:- AD80300qn2M

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Frank’s cables were advertised as the ‘Belkin Pure AV Silver Series Super premium Audio Dual RCA cable’, type AD80300qn2M and claim the following:

“PureAV Silver Series RCA Audio Cables give you exceptional clarity and a more natural-sounding midrange using superior-grade materials and advanced technologies.”

Their features are (with spelling corrected):

· Drastically reduces signal distortion for unrivalled audio clarity using 99.9997% oxygen-free, PCOCC conductors and high-purity, silver solder joints
· Optimizes performance at all frequencies for consistent, exact sound reproduction using hybrid-conductor technology
· Maintains stronger signals that yield superior sonic accuracy with precision-formulated, polyethylene dielectric material
· Isolates from outside noise for superior clarity through double-shielded construction
· Protects against wire damage for consistently high-quality audio with integrated strain relief
· Creates precise contact for low loss with split-tip, centre-pin, and 8-cut, 24k gold-plated connectors
· Provides comfort and ease of install with non-slip rubber grip and integrated colour-coding


And here is the description of the cables I’ve bought: the ‘Belkin “Silver Series Pure AV Dual Audio cables’, type AV50300ea08 (again with spelling corrected): -

“Pure AV Silver Series RCA Audio Cables give you exceptional clarity and a more natural-sounding midrange using superior-grade materials and advanced technologies.”

These cables feature:

· Drastically reduces signal distortion for unrivalled audio clarity using 99.9997% oxygen-free, PCOCC conductors and high-purity, silver solder joints
· Optimizes performance at all frequencies for consistent, exact sound reproduction using hybrid-conductor technology
· Maintains stronger signals that yield superior sonic accuracy with precision-formulated, polyethylene dielectric material
· Isolates from outside noise for superior clarity through double-shielded construction
· Protects against wire damage for consistently high-quality audio with integrated strain relief
· Creates precise contact for low loss with split-tip, centre-pin, and 8-cut, 24k gold-plated connectors
· Provides comfort and ease of install with non-slip rubber grip and integrated colour-coding

Spot the difference? The important parts are the quality of the conductors and of the soldering to the connectors, and the type and quality of the dielectric insulation. I don’t think the colour of the external sheath or anti-abrasion webbing will make any difference.

Anyway we shall see.

Regards

Hi Barry, the internal construction may well be different though chap ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Reid Malenfant

Hi Barry, the internal construction may well be different though chap ;)

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Yet the wording describing the construction is identical.

Are the covers of the phono plugs easy to remove so as to inspect the internal assembly? If one is a true coaxial and the other 'semi-balanced', there might be a difference.

You measure the capacitance/unit length for your 'white' cables and I'll do the same for my 'grey ones'. Also do the same for the resistance/unit length for both the inner and outer conductors (to a resolution and accuracy of a mOhm). We'll compare notes.

Regards

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Barry

Yet the wording describing the construction is identical.

Are the covers of the phono plugs easy to remove so as to inspect the internal assembly? If one is a true coaxial and the other 'semi-balanced', there might be a difference.

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From what someone posted on here that is indeed the case. The white beasties are also quadruple shielded if i remember correctly. I don't think you'll be able to remove the covers without destroying the things :rolleyes:

The rest i can do without a problem :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Barry

Yet the wording describing the construction is identical.

Are the covers of the phono plugs easy to remove so as to inspect the internal assembly? If one is a true coaxial and the other 'semi-balanced', there might be a difference.

You measure the capacitance/unit length for your 'white' cables and I'll do the same for my 'grey ones'. Also do the same for the resistance/unit length for both the inner and outer conductors (to a resolution and accuracy of a mOhm). We'll compare notes.

Regards

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you are gonna do all that for a £4 pair of interconnects, :)

Has anyone asked anyone why they are so cheap?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mains Cables R Us

Has anyone asked anyone why they are so cheap?

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Who gives a monkees if they do a good job :eyebrows:

Stock that was sold off I guess, much like the PF30's. I have several pairs, and actually prefer them to my MG's.

Cannot see how these and the PF30 and 40's can be sold so cheap and be profitable, after all why would anyone sell something at less than cost, unless belkin are going blob and getting rid of stocks? The PF30 cannot possibly be manufactured for £25

My white ones were used for a while but are back in the box now, must get time to do a proper listening session with them.

Are there any white ones left then?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mains Cables R Us

you are gonna do all that for a £4 pair of interconnects, :)

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Yes why not? I have the gear to do it.

I don't believe cables have an intrinsic sound of their own, rather it is probably due to how the cables interact with the items between which they connect. In that respect it is the intrinsic properties such as capacitance per unit length and possibly their loop resistance that is important.

I shall of course listen to them and will compare them with cables I made myself.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ali Tait

I have several pairs, and actually prefer them to my MG's.

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That is the first time i have actually seen someone say that! It has been inferred by another member though on a couple of occasions :)

I've completely re-plumbed my system front to back with them (except for tonearm & mains cabling) & am very, very happy indeed.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by The Grand Wazoo

I've completely re-plumbed my system front to back with them (except for tonearm & mains cabling) & am very, very happy indeed.

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& strangely that is precisely the impression i kept getting Chris :) Nice to see another one back it up.

I'll be honest, i haven't tried them yet as i was going to use them in other systems & I run mainly balanced this way on the main one, perhaps they ought to be tried in place of my homemade single ended stuff where i do use it :eyebrows:

I reckon yes, mad not to at least try the stuff :cool:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by The Grand Wazoo

I've completely re-plumbed my system front to back with them (except for tonearm & mains cabling) & am very, very happy indeed.

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Yep, me too!

Must admit I'm becoming excited about hearing mine, though I expect they will make my system a bit 'grey sounding'! :eyebrows:

Regards

I am using these at the moment and they are very good for me anyway, pays your money and takes your choice................
http://i622.photobucket.com/albums/t...I/IMG_2834.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Reid Malenfant

That is the first time i have actually seen someone say that! It has been inferred by another member though on a couple of occasions :)

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I speak as I find mate. I always have. :)

Made 5 sets now; 2 sets from the quad shielded and 3 from the AV RCA twin shield and I think they’re amazing. I just wish they weren’t such a pain in the arse to work with. You have to be really careful stripping the plastic coating off the individual conductors :(

I have some Eichmann bullet plugs. Might try them on one of the sets to see if I can hear any difference.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ali Tait

I have some Eichmann bullet plugs. Might try them on one of the sets to see if I can hear any difference.

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Stupid question time...are you guys chopping these cables up or using them as standard?

At 2.4m they're a bit long to be ideal aren't they (I have bought a set by the way at £5 it's worth a punt) ;)

All as standard at the moment, though as I said, I may try the Eichmanns on one pair to see if there is any improvement.

I'm sticking with the plugs as they come.

How hard is it to put new plugs on, at 2.4M I could make 5 sets!!! ;)

Pretty tricky, by all accounts. Read Anthony's experiences way back up there.

I thought you guys might be interested in a deal I found yesterday at Microdirect in Manchester, although looking on the site it looks available online too.

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Pr...dio-Cable-3-6m

Not sure how good these are, they look like the blue series but for £1 they seem pretty good.

Worth a punt at that price.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Reid Malenfant

Wrong type Barry, the OP Frank was on about the white cables with white plastic sleeving & silver soldered. It appears that they are not all the same, someone took some apart & discovered this ;)

The type you are looking for if interested in getting the same as the OP is:- AD80300qn2M

---

Sorry mate ther ARE the same cables the blurb on the back of the pack says "99.9997% pcocc conductors anh high purity silver solder joints drastically reduce signal distortion for unrivalled audio clarity" i think they have just been playing with the cosmetics, it actually says as well that they are "Pure A/V Silver series interconnectors"

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jac Hawk

Sorry mate they ARE the same cables the blurb on the back of the pack says "99.9997% pcocc conductors and high purity silver solder joints drastically reduce signal distortion for unrivalled audio clarity" i think they have just been playing with the cosmetics, it actually says as well that they are "Pure A/V Silver series interconnectors"

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:lol: See my post (#165) :)

Regards

Mike, Anthony has taken apart both the White & Grey cables ;) Anthony says they are different, as far as i know the White cables are quadruple screened & the Grey cables are double screened :) The White cables are semi balanced, meaning they are directional where as the Grey cables are just standard coaxial...

Therefore they are not the same ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Reid Malenfant

Mike, Anthony has taken apart both the White & Grey cables ;) Anthony says they are different, as far as i know the White cables are quadruple screened & the Grey cables are double screened :) The White cables are semi balanced, meaning they are directional where as the Grey cables are just standard coaxial...

Therefore they are not the same ;)

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Strange then, why do my cables have direction arrows on them if they're not directional :scratch:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by The Grand Wazoo

Pretty tricky, by all accounts. Read Anthony's experiences way back up there.

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Ah...in which case I have single 2.4 M cable, oh well we'll see how it sounds anyway. ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jac Hawk

Strange then, why do my cables have direction arrows on them if they're not directional :scratch:

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I bought a load of twin core screened cable from Maplin to make a load of balanced interconnects, this cable also has directional arrows on it & yet it doesn't even have connectors :D

Make your own mind up :eyebrows:

"Mike, Anthony has taken apart both the White & Grey cables Anthony says they are different, as far as i know the White cables are quadruple screened & the Grey cables are double screened The White cables are semi balanced, meaning they are directional where as the Grey cables are just standard coaxial..."

Nope, wrong, try again ;)
Ffs, how can this be so difficult.
1) every Belkin cable I've come accross has the cable details written on the jacket.
2)I've taken both types to bits and they are differnt but niether is coaxial.
3)Everything you could possibly want to know about these cables has been written in earlier posts.

Look John, have you considered the possibility that there are more than one type of grey cable?

Nope, i see not :doh:

Yep, but not under the links originally posted.
See 1) ;)

Is your name Anthony? I didn't think so :lol:

It doesn't matter to an extent what you found John, as i say another forum member took a pair to bits & found different things to what you did on your grey cable - that's what i said earlier :cool: