coax for interconnects

[karma67]

ive just been reading up on interconnects,from what ive learnt the best cable for unbalanced use is coax.
does anyone use this or do we all go for fancy mic cable these days?
lets discuss

[karma67]

No one got anything to say ? That’s a first!

[JohnG]

I don't think the balanced cables regularly referred today are fancy, but good quality affordable cable , that can be purchased unterminated. The RCA plugs are more of the
exotic and some brands of these, do come with a above average cost.
I,ve tried Coax and Balanced Microphone Cable, Unshielded Silver and Unshielded Copper Ribbon.
The most appealing to me at present is the Unshielded Copper.

[CageyH]

It all depends on the cable in question, and how you make up the balanced cable.
There are so many variables that it is very much a suck it and see exercise, in my opinion.

[karma67]

It’s not a balanced cable, it interested me that so many people on the diy audio forum advocated the use of coax rather than mic or twisted pair types of cable for interconnects.

[CageyH]

No, a coax cable is not balanced. We agree.
My point was it depends on how you make up a balanced cable into an interconnect.
The best type of cable to use is the one you like the sound of best.

If you have a noisy environment a coax may not the best.

[Bigman80]

"My point was it depends on how you make up a balanced cable into an interconnect.

The best type of cable to use is the one you like the sound of best.

If you have a noisy environment a coax may not the best."


Exactly.

Sent from my VKY-L09 using Tapatalk

[Svend N]

ive just been reading up on interconnects,from what ive learnt the best cable for unbalanced use is coax.
does anyone use this or do we all go for fancy mic cable these days?
lets discuss

Jamie, I did some experimenting with various unbalanced DIY cables recently -- probably tried at least 6 different ones, incl. a couple commercially-made. If I recall, three of the lot were coax, the rest were twisted pair with shield. These were all used between cd player and preamp. To my ears the coax sounded worst in all cases -- thin and harsh, smaller soundstage...they were really holding back the capabilities of the source. All the twisted pair ones were noticeably better - fuller, rounder, warmer sound; bigger soundstage. I finally settled on a Gotham twisted pair cable as having the cleanest, smoothest sound (very sweet), but a Belden pair also sounded very good, perhaps slightly coarser sounding than the Gotham. I haven't tried a quad cable, and may do that over the winter just to satisfy my curiosity. Also haven't tried a roll-yer-own phono cable as yet, but I have some bulk Mogami in the bin that would do nicely for that.

Hope this helps. I can dig out some model nos. for you if you're really curious.

Cheers,
Svend

[karma67]

Jamie, I did some experimenting with various unbalanced DIY cables recently -- probably tried at least 6 different ones, incl. a couple commercially-made. If I recall, three of the lot were coax, the rest were twisted pair with shield. These were all used between cd player and preamp. To my ears the coax sounded worst in all cases -- thin and harsh, smaller soundstage...they were really holding back the capabilities of the source. All the twisted pair ones were noticeably better - fuller, rounder, warmer sound; bigger soundstage. I finally settled on a Gotham twisted pair cable as having the cleanest, smoothest sound (very sweet), but a Belden pair also sounded very good, perhaps slightly coarser sounding than the Gotham. I haven't tried a quad cable, and may do that over the winter just to satisfy my curiosity. Also haven't tried a roll-yer-own phono cable as yet, but I have some bulk Mogami in the bin that would do nicely for that.

Hope this helps. I can dig out some model nos. for you if you're really curious.

Cheers,
Svend

cheers svend,
ive heard good reports of Gotham cable.

[struth]

still got some gotham speaker cable somewhere.. was very good