Truly amazed

[Ali Tait]

I think the "silver" refers to the silver solder used in these cables.

[Reid Malenfant]

Please don't shoot the messenger, but some reviewers claim that it takes 15 to 20 hours of burn in time before these cables are ready to be auditioned. Snake oil or honest-to-god truth?

I'd certainly suggest that they will improve over a period of time & as they are non active (no powered electronics) it won't take too long for them to get to there best.

I don't think it's snake oil at all. The very same thing happened when i installed a Mark Grant HDMI cable between my blu ray player & TV (i know it's digital & a video picture but the same thing applies). The difference between the MG cable & the original was obvious as soon as i tried it, but over a period of a few days the picture kept on improving

The same can be said of audio cables imo. You'll notice (hopefully) differences between what you are using now & the new cable when first installed. Things will improve further given a suitable amount of use. I'd suggest 20 hours will get it to where it's going to be

[DSJR]

I've been distressed recently by how my Crowns have been sounding compared to either of the Quads and have been pointing a sneaky finger at the little used replacement Neutrik equipped MG cables (course it's not the amps ). I carried on with the 303 and connected the MG cables to the phono outs on the CD player, switching the Crowns on with no speakers connected in the hope that several months of disuse hadn't upset anything (any viewers from the HDD forum will be having heart failure about now). I returned the Crowns fully back in the system yesterday and thought things were "on the mend," with some of the spatial info returning - no problems at all about timbre and fine details, just the way these three amps have with "3-D" information - a valve strong point in any case and something the Crofted II's are really strong on.

I didn't really care about cable burn-in as it's the least of our audio worries tbh, but I HAVE found that any disturbance in a system seems to need some hours playing for everything to settle back down, and this even if one isn't listening to it, so I doubt it could all be classed as imagination/expectation..

[anthonyTD]

I've been distressed recently by how my Crowns have been sounding compared to either of the Quads and have been pointing a sneaky finger at the little used replacement Neutrik equipped MG cables (course it's not the amps ). I carried on with the 303 and connected the MG cables to the phono outs on the CD player, switching the Crowns on with no speakers connected in the hope that several months of disuse hadn't upset anything (any viewers from the HDD forum will be having heart failure about now). I returned the Crowns fully back in the system yesterday and thought things were "on the mend," with some of the spatial info returning - no problems at all about timbre and fine details, just the way these three amps have with "3-D" information - a valve strong point in any case and something the Crofted II's are really strong on.

I didn't really care about cable burn-in as it's the least of our audio worries tbh, but I HAVE found that any disturbance in a system seems to need some hours playing for everything to settle back down, and this even if one isn't listening to it, so I doubt it could all be classed as imagination/expectation..

hi Dave,
i agree about the disturbance thing, this is why i think its difficult to know at first listen if a cable or indeed another piece of equipment substituted in is actualy better or worse, as you say you need to give your system time to settle again before making a final assesment, by that time it is easy for one to forget how the system sounded before, hence this is i feel the main reason why people keep swapping back and forth.
Anthony,TD...

[Welder]

I was wondering how everyone else got on with these Belkin cables.
I bought 3 sets; one from Frank’s original link, silver series 1.2m AV, quad shielded.
The others I bought (Ali’s link) are the RCA Audio Silver Series (1.2m & 2.4m) double shielded, a full mylar foil and outer braid polyethylene dielectric and similar hybrid conductors.
They are not the same cables!

The two cables types sound different; annoying isn’t it
I prefer the RCA audio cables (not AV) in my system. The quad shielded AV cables may suit the softer, faster and more coloured sound of a valve/analogue setup better.

I dissected a pair of the 2.4 RCA audio cables (I only want a 0.4m pairs, so it was going to happen anyway) and re-plugged one end. I’m not sure why, but I expected to find a semi balanced construction but these are completely unbalanced. I was wondering if the AV quad shielded were also unbalanced (AnthonyTD?) I don’t really want to hack these up.

I made two sets of cables from out of the 2.4 metre RCA set.
I used these connectors to replace one end for each pair I made.
http://www.thatcable.com/acatalog/in...onnectors.html

I used solder with silver content on all joints. I made both sets 0.4 metres in length but one set semi balanced. The idea is that with the screen connected at source any RFI crap the shield picks up isn’t transferred to the amp and on to the speakers. Anyone else tried this and if so what do you think; any noticeable difference in sound?

[The Grand Wazoo]

I tried the 75 ohm quad shielded ones and found them to be not as good in my system as the silver series ones. I haven't hacked any of them about, though.

[magiccarpetride]

I was wondering how everyone else got on with these Belkin cables.
I bought 3 sets; one from Frank’s original link, silver series 1.2m AV, quad shielded.
The others I bought (Ali’s link) are the RCA Audio Silver Series (1.2m & 2.4m) double shielded, a full mylar foil and outer braid polyethylene dielectric and similar hybrid conductors.
They are not the same cables!

The two cables types sound different; annoying isn’t it
I prefer the RCA audio cables (not AV) in my system. The quad shielded AV cables may suit the softer, faster and more coloured sound of a valve/analogue setup better.

I dissected a pair of the 2.4 RCA audio cables (I only want a 0.4m pairs, so it was going to happen anyway) and re-plugged one end. I’m not sure why, but I expected to find a semi balanced construction but these are completely unbalanced. I was wondering if the AV quad shielded were also unbalanced (AnthonyTD?) I don’t really want to hack these up.

I made two sets of cables from out of the 2.4 metre RCA set.
I used these connectors to replace one end for each pair I made.
http://www.thatcable.com/acatalog/in...onnectors.html

I used solder with silver content on all joints. I made both sets 0.4 metres in length but one set semi balanced. The idea is that with the screen connected at source any RFI crap the shield picks up isn’t transferred to the amp and on to the speakers. Anyone else tried this and if so what do you think; any noticeable difference in sound?

Still waiting on mine to be delivered (I've ordered a couple of pairs on December 20th)

[Ali Tait]

Just put two more pairs into the system. AFAIK all the ones I have are silver series (can you tell the difference by looking at the cables?). I'll leave them in for a while and then go back to the MG's to see what's what.

[Welder]

Which ones did you order Alex and what may I ask are you using now?

Ali, the quad core AV are white and a bit thicker than the RCA twin shielded audio cables. If you’ve bought from the Amazon link you originally posted you’ve bought the RCA audio. They are all called Silver Series.

[magiccarpetride]

Which ones did you order Alex and what may I ask are you using now?

Ali, the quad core AV are white and a bit thicker than the RCA twin shielded audio cables. If you’ve bought from the Amazon link you originally posted you’ve bought the RCA audio. They are all called Silver Series.

Yes, I've ordered from that Amazon link. I can't remember off the top of my head which interconnects I'm using; me think something I bought nine years ago, some Nordost crap....