Cheers for the info, that's saved me some messing about :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Jac Hawk
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Cheers for the info, that's saved me some messing about :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Jac Hawk
I just got a pair of these cables as needed a longer cable run as I had to change my set up as should be getting my TT on Friday. These cables has replaced some nice silver cables and I am not missing my old cables, very impressed and a big thank you to everyone for the recommendation as the title says an amazing bargin
Haha bet you all thought this thread had finished. Nope, not yet!
My Belkin cables arrived a few days ago. They are the 'Pure AV' cables, 2.4m long, grey in colour with identity AV50300ea08.
The diagram on the packaging clearly shows them to have a two-core shielded construction. The shielding consists of an aluminium/Mylar foil shield having 100% coverage, over which is a "high-coverage" tinned copper braided shield. The twin conductors themselves are claimed to use hybrid conductor technology, whereby two of the six strands look to be of narrower gauge and may be insulated from the other four of slightly heavier gauge. All conductors are claimed to be of 99.9997% oxygen-free PCOCC copper.
Clearly having two conductors, these cables are of the so called 'semi-balanced type', whereby one of the inner conductors is used for the signal path, with the second forming the return. The shielding is connected to the return at one end of the interconnect only. The cable thus has an asymmetric construction and can be directional.
I have to say that I can't see the point of semi-balanced construction. In my opinion either use a true coaxial (and non-directional) construction or use a true balanced-line construction. The only possible advantage might be that the semi-balanced interconnect might have a lower capacitance per unit length, compared with a coaxial cable. The intention is that semi-balanced cables are installed such that the end where the screen connects with the signal return is at the point of lowest potential. Often this is at the source and the corresponding phono plug is marked with an arrow head pointing in the direction of the cable. However if the '0v' rail of the source is not directly connected to earth (i.e. if the unit is double insulated and uses a two-core mains lead), the '0 volt' rail will not be at the lowest potential. In that situation the interconnects have to be reversed. This is the reason I don't like semi-balanced interconnects.
Some other Belkin cables (the white coloured ones) have a 'quadruple screen', supposedly for better screening. However as long as the screening presents a 100% optical coverage and is reasonably thick, it doesn't matter how many layers there are, especially as they are all in electrical contact along the length of the cable. The only indication of the efficacy of the screening is the surface transfer impedance, and this is never quoted by cable manufacturers. It can be calculated if full details of the screening is known and it can be measured.
The Belkin cables come clad with an anti-abrasion mesh. Again I don't like this as it is not really necessary and makes the cables stiff and unwieldy.
So to the use of these cables in practice - do they live up to all the enthusiasm expressed by contributers to the thread? I used them between the preamp and power amp and have to say I could hear no difference between them and my own assembled cables. I could also not hear any difference when I reversed the direction of the Belkin cables.
Despite my lack of enthusiasm, I do have to acknowledge that thanks to them being Made in China, they are absurdly cheap; £4 for a 2.4m pair. Were I to make up cables using good quality phono plugs (but not as good as say the Neutrik 'ProFi' types), they would work out to ~£9 a stereo metre; over double the cost of the Belkin.
So yes, I can join other posters to this thread and recommend these cables to members.
Out of curiosity I made some electrical measurements on both the Belkin and my own cables.
Belkin
conductor resistance (centre pin to centre pin) 70 - 73mOhm/m
conductor resistance (phono outer to phono outer) 66 - 69mOhm/m
capacitance (measured at 400Hz with cable plugged into a phono socket) 222 - 233pF/m
My own cables (true coaxial, using 'low-noise' microphone cable)
conductor resistance (inner) < 64mOhm/m
conductor resistance (outer) < 60mOhm/m
capacitance (measured as above ) 97 - 100pF/m.
THE END.......?
...............not if I know Aos!
.. you should try some of the white ones Barry. :lol:
What Ali said, especially if you have valve kit which I think they may suit.
I’ve stuck with the RCA twin shielded with my kit as they seem to tune more to my taste.
The cheap RCA plugs I mentioned somewhere work well without the ally outer case. I used PTFE tape, heatshrink and a ferrule.
Ooooo errrrrr just had a thought, has anyone tied making a tone-arm cable from these babies? Reason for asking is I have been messing about with different cables these last few days as I have my SME309 connected with the South West Analogue Pure Silver Litz Tone-Arm Cable into my Graham Slee phono stage and then tried various cables from Slee into my amp, ideally I need the same cable for both duties and again ideally I would choose the Oyaide option for both but at the moment I am jimmy flint so if a tone-arm lead could be made using the belkins and sound 1/2 way decent we could be onto a winner?
I got mine this morning.Thought I had ordered a single co-ax lead but got a pair of leads.Paid £7.99 all in,must admit they sound great.Best value cable ive ever bought,Thanks effem for the recomendation.
Regards Tony.
Being a self confirmed cable believer, l want to try the white ones but l only need a 1m pair- where to buy?:)
doubt if they will beat your tomjive's mate, I have a 2m pair you can borrow?
Can anyone with the grey cables tell me what colour the plug inserts are.I have a pair of red and blue which are the double sheilded ones.I also have a quad sheilde one with a yellow insert.Are folks using two yellows as interconnects.The yellow is a co-ax.The red and blue have directional markers...they sound really good.
Tony,
As you've found out for yourself, this is very confusing - I don't think it's enough to describe them just as the grey ones & the white ones!
From my experience:
.........yes these have the yellow inserts. I've paired them up to make stereo sets. I also have several pairs (5 of these too, actually) of the white type as described in the original post.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Grand Wazoo
The red and blue sound smashing in my system.Ive ordered up another yellow to give it a go as a pair,99p.....I got a bundle deal with another pair or red and blue for all in £8.About the price of one days smoking...magic.
Thanks David,l tried the cables between the Mini-T and the Harbs and they reminded me a bit of the Mark Grant cables l have- very clear with good tonal colour( l am a freak for this) sounded pretty good, then tried the Belkin between my Jungson amp and the Harbs-WOW! This sounds reall really good, great timing, clarity, detail, and tonal colour is off the chart and the soundstage is wide open, me likey:cool:Quote:
Originally Posted by Mains Cables R Us
you just need to get those shivas out of the system now mate and everything will be soooooo much better....:)Quote:
Originally Posted by Tarzan
Got the cable and had the same idea, on the SL1800 it may be a little tight though, so I was thinking about mounting a pair of female RCA's on the back so then i can plug em straight in:eyebrows: being a bit of a newb to TT's i wasn't sure if my idea was a sound one?Quote:
Originally Posted by Mains Cables R Us
Hi Mike, as long as you still have the usual earth connection it should work fine chap. Make sure you use the normal cables rather than the semi balanced ones though ;)
The only misgivings i'd have about doing it is the rather low voltage output of a cartridge & more than just the one connector at the pre amp end. At the kind of voltages you are looking at the less connectors the better ;)
That's what i was thinking, but that belkin cable is kinda thick and there really isn't enough room to bend it without putting strain on the internals of the TT, if i use good quality RCA connectors and cable to connect them to the arm it should be ok, if it isn't i can always revert back to the old lead.Quote:
Originally Posted by Reid Malenfant
Why David?Quote:
Originally Posted by Mains Cables R Us
Late to the party with these cables, but I see there's two versions of the above listed cable on Amazon: AV50300EA08 for £6.99 delivered and AV50300bea08 which can be had for one penny! (and £4.59 postage).Quote:
Originally Posted by Ali Tait
As Harry Hill would say, "but which one is best?" ;)
* bump * Anyone?
Also, if anyone's still after a pair of the Belkin AD80300qn2M cables, there's a guy here selling them for the higher price of £11.74 delivered.
I think I've read on this forum that it's better to have longer interconnects than speaker cables (is that right?) and as I'll be shortly getting a pair of monoblocks that they can sit right behind my speakers so these cables look to be a worthwhile purchase.
Regards,
Jon
The two grey cables in your first post are the latest version of the "all white" cable being sold on your ebay link.
Despite umpteen posts between us, we have still yet to determine whether the later "grey" cables are just a cosmetic overhaul of the earlier "white" ones, or they are a complete revision of their materials and layout :scratch:
From what I have read from those who have ended up with the later "grey" variant, everyone seems happy with their purchases so far.
Cool, thanks for that, Frank. I'll order a couple of them.Quote:
Originally Posted by Effem
At the price, you can't go wrong Jon. I've got the grey ones, and they're very good, even forgetting what a bargain they are.
Alex got his from Big Offers and they still have:
2.4m pairs of AV50300BEA08 for £2.00
AV50300QP08 at an unspecified length for £3.00
(though I think the 08 at the end means 8ft which is 2.4m)
4.8 metre triple runs of AV51000ea16 for £5.00
4.9 metre pairs of AV50300EA16 for £5.00
This URL gives you all Belkin products that Big Offers sell:
http://www.bigoffers.co.uk/search.ph...earch_dept=all
There's all sorts of other stuff there at those sorts of prices.
Best of all, postage is capped at £4.99 for all orders up to 30kg - I bought so many cables from them that they were delivered in two big boxes & all for a fiver.
OK Belkin make or made 2 different types of cable, the original white ones are 2m and are semi balanced, these then had a cosmetic overhaul and grew 40cm, they are now grey but sound exactly the same as the original white ones, (how do i know this? because i have both types and testd them), however the second cable looked the same as the original but was fully balanced and i think was sold singley and not in pairs, the second cable i think was ment to be a digital cable, probably a spdif.Quote:
Originally Posted by Effem
I noticed the supplied pictures on amazon,the plugs have coloured inserts.The dual sheilded 2.4 m cables are supplied as a pair and have red and blue inserts on the plugs.They are sold as a phoho pair.The quad sheilded cable that is 1.2m long is sold as a single spdif.It has a yellow insert on the plug.The CODE for the yellow one is AV51200ea04.The 04 at the end represents the length in feet.The red and blue pair are very good.In comparison a couple of yellows used as phono interconnects yielded even better results.I have not felt the need to change them since installing them.
Any 1.2m audio pairs available anywhere? I really don't need longer ones..
Well i've put a set of the grey cables onto my Techie SL1800, they're a tight fit but with a little bit of work they fit in quite nicely, i found the best way to keep them looking good is to cut the heads off then use shrink tubing over the woven abrasion jacket, using a heat gun to shrink the tubing tightly over the woven mesh and also melting/burning the unwanted mesh off to leave a neat edge, i used black and red heat tubing for obvious reasons. anyway all was going well making the cables up until i stripped off the conductors, ffs what a mess, each conductor is a different size and shape and all seem to be covered in soft plastic, which require burning off before you can tin them. the cable itself has 2 conductors, one white and one red, these are wrapped in foil and then a woven metal sheath, then comes the soft plastic outer casing, then the abrasion resistent jacket. Anyway i connected each conductor to the PCB tag in the deck and plugged it in.
:(not what i had hoped, there is a load of background hum, so i'm thinking i may need to earth the foil and woven metal sheath, if that doesn't work it's back to the drawing board:scratch:
Yes - I was going to make one of my long pairs into two shorter pairs until I read this: http://theartofsound.net/forum/showp...&postcount=182Quote:
Originally Posted by Jac Hawk
If i was you keith i would mount a set of female RCA's on the diecast part of the casing and join those to the small PCB connectin board with some high quality silver wire, that's what i was going to do before i had my brain wave/fart, that way you can use any cables you want, just make sure that you use the best possible wire, solder and RCA connectors, alternatively you could do away with the small PCB mounting board and wire the RCA's direct from the PCB on the arm, on refection that's the way i should have done it:doh:Quote:
Originally Posted by keiths
It is doable Kieth, just need to be careful :)
Cut the outer Teflon wire coating then flame strip the inner conductors, a gas powered soldering iron can be handy for this. Clean the stripped wires carefully with Isopropyl alcohol and if necessary trim away any heated plastic buildup at the base of the stripped wire with a very sharp hobby knife or scalpel.
Feed the ground wires into place first, but solder the centre pin first and then solder the ground and sort out the screen.
Ok my 1st atempt at using the Pure A/V cables on my TT didn't quite go to plan, there was a massive amount of hum, so after having a closer look at things i decided to put some new RCA plugs back on the belkins, and insted of soldering them to the PCB inside the deck, i routed the 2 cables from the arm to a set of female phono plugs which i screwed to the silver part of the plinth at the rear of the deck which allows me to use any phono leads i wan't.
So got it all finished pluged in the belkins and fired her up, WOW!!!! what a huge difference, stereo image is far better, bass is deep and tight, and the mid and high bands are light and airey, instuments can easily be pinpointed, and all that just by swapping the stock Techie leads, ok it was a bit of a mess on, and i cocked it up on my 1st attempt, but it was well worth it in the end.:)
For those interested, the fabled white (AD80300qn2M) cables are back on eBay :¬)
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=300553532773
Good spot, Ross. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Yoga
Found some more for yer fellers http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...=STRK:MEWAX:IT
Honnestly guys, i've done a side by side test and there is no difference between the white ones and the grey ones, if they are sold in pairs they are the same cables just the grey ones are a bit longer and in the newer colours, that's it. Now there is a belkin cable that looks the same as the white ones but it is a different construction and it's sold singley and is ment to be a digital cable, i've never tried this cable as a normal analogue interconnector so don't know if it sounds better or worse
The single grey ones have a yellow coloured insert on the plugs.Model number is AV51200ea04.I have 4 of these which I use as 2 stereo pairs.I found in my system they sound better than the grey stereo pairs with the red and blue plug inserts.The 04 at the end of the code is length in feet.The stereo pairs I got were 2.4m or 8 feet in old money.
Nor have I...but they are excellent as digital cables, I have 2 (1m) at the moment, thoroughly recommended as digital coax cables ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Jac Hawk
Well I ordered some more as I need a pair of balanced cables when my pre-amp arrives so will ask MG to put me some xlr's on these babies, got 2 sets of belkin speaker cables today incidentally, saw them on e-bay and thought let's have a closer inspection, OMG I don't believe it as Victor Meldrew would say, these are serious cables at ridiculous prices.
Are these the ones mate http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...=STRK:MEWAX:IT i got some and they are really goodQuote:
Originally Posted by Mains Cables R Us
I need a cheap 3.5mm jack to 2 x RCA cable for ipod to mini-T - so I guess a Belkin one is as good a place to start as any... :)
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...#ht_1530wt_981
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alex_UK
Is it so you can connect your ipod to your stereo?, if so i would suggest a dock like this http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Pure-i20-Power...item45fa74c4cb it means you can bypass the DAC in the ipod and keep it charged too
Yes, it is - but only for connecting to a system in the dining room for background music - so a lead from the headphone out is fine - but that dock does look value for one that bypasses the ipod DAC.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jac Hawk
Just plugged in my TT for the first time in months thanks to a 5m pair of belkin silvers. Everything sounding sweet.
Thanks Effem.
They do sound rather good as TT cables, i have taken the stock techie cables off and replaced them with the Pure A/V cables and what a difference.Quote:
Originally Posted by colinB
Bloody hell, I folded, bought 2 pairs for 20 quid, yep I could have got them cheaper but needed some interconnects pretty quick for some new gear i'm buying! Will write up my impression later if get time.
Mine arrived today! just plugged them and listening to some soft machine, 1st impression is not bad, will get another 20 hours in before I make any proper conclusions.
They are also available on amazon for a similar price, but you might get a better deal on the postage:Quote:
Originally Posted by Alex_UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...pf_rd_i=468294