Truly amazed

[Ali Tait]

No problem

My cable has a flat measured response, an image of some measurements from ages ago:


G1000HD flat response by Mark G. in England, on Flickr

(I have cropped some stuff out as cant give too much away.)

Comment from an old email from someone that measures lots of stuff that produced the measurements above :


certainly flat.

All that matters is that people like how anything sounds in their own systems of course.

Not saying your cables are not very good Mark, they are! I have these as well as one of your HDMI cables, which was a big upgrade on my previous cable.

Things like this are always very system dependent, in mine I did prefer the slightly better top end with air and space of the Belkin, but to be fair there was very little in it. Other systems may find the opposite.

[Marco]

Hi Ali,

Indeed. I'm not at all surprised that Mark's cable measures as flat as a witches tit.

However, aside from that, any adverse sonic effect, however slight, you heard with the G1000HDs, I would suggest is not as a result of the characteristics of cable itself, but rather of the Canare plugs supplied. I should've made that clearer in my post on your ad. I will amend it shortly.

I can say this because I've heard exactly what you describe, and it is completely absent in the G2000HDs, or the G1500HDs supplied with Neutrik Pro-fi plugs.

The Canare plugs are of good quality (and Mark could hardly fit any better on his already excellent value for money entry-level cable), and are well constructed, but they do contain a large amount of metal, which a number of us have discovered recently is, sonically, a no-no.

It's to do with metal storing eddy currents. There are papers about this on the web, should you wish to read them.

This effect was discovered recently when comparing WBT 0102cu plugs (which contain metal in their internal construction) and WBT 0110cu plugs (which contain no metal, other than on the necessary conductors).

The 0102s are slightly more expensive, due only to the metal contained in their construction, yet when used in conjunction with Mark's excellent G1000HD cable, the sound is notably worse than with the 0110s...... Basically, high frequency extension is curtailed, and so the overall sound is somewhat 'softened'.

You can clearly hear the effect on a high quality, neutral-sounding system.

As for the Neutrik Pro-fi plugs, I can't recall their internal construction, but I suspect that overall there will be less metal used than on the Canares. Plus, in any case, the design is better, in terms of how contact is made.

Therefore, what I'm saying is not necessary to attribute what you've heard as being an effect of the G1000HD interconnects as a whole, but rather of the Canare plugs used.

It's something that I'd ask others and you to consider. It's long been my belief that the sonic effect of cables in a hi-fi system is more often than not attributable to the plugs used than the wire.

To that end, Mark should perhaps consider supplying his G1000HDs as standard with Neutrik Pro-fis (as priced on his site) and perhaps drop the Canares, making the choice offered then between the G1500 and G2000HDs. I'm sure that most people willing to spend £65 on interconnects would stretch to £90 for the same ones with much better plugs, and consequently significantly improved sonic performance.

This would then improve the quality of Mark's best selling entry-level cable, and the overall reputation of his products accordingly.

I'd be interested to hear what Mark's thoughts are on this?

Marco.

[MartinT]

I'm going for the upgrade from G1000HD to G2000HD as my step-up to phono preamp is such a sensitive run and you've convinced me that I will hear the benefit.

[Marco]

In your system, Martin, which acts as a wide-open window, you'll hear it no problem!

Marco.

[Ali Tait]

Hi Ali,

Indeed. I'm not at all surprised that Mark's cable measures as flat as a witches tit.

However, aside from that, any adverse sonic effect, however slight, you heard with the G1000HDs, I would suggest is not as a result of the characteristics of cable itself, but rather of the Canare plugs supplied. I should've made that clearer in my post on your ad. I will amend it shortly.

I can say this because I've heard exactly what you describe, and it is completely absent in the G2000HDs, or the cables supplied with Neutrik Pro-fi plugs.

The Canare plugs are of good quality (and Mark could hardly fit any better on his already great value for money entry-level cable), and are well constructed, but they do contain a large amount of metal, which a number of us have discovered recently is, sonically, a no-no.

It's to do with metal storing eddy currents. There are papers about this on the web, should you wish to read them.

This effect was discovered recently when comparing WBT 0102cu plugs (which contain metal in their internal construction) and WBT 0110cu plugs (which contain no metal, other than on the necessary conductors).

The 0102s are slightly more expensive, due only to the metal contained in their construction, yet when used in conjunction with Mark's excellent G1000HD cable, the sound is notably worse than with the 0110s...... Basically, the top-end is curtailed, and so the sound is somewhat 'softened'.

You can clearly hear the effect in a high quality, neutral-sounding system.

As for the Neutrik Pro-fi plugs, I can't recall their internal construction, but I suspect that overall there will be less metal used than on the Canares. Plus also, their design is better, in terms of how contact is made, in any case.

Therefore, what I'm saying is not necessary to attribute what you've heard as being an effect of the G1000HD interconnects as a whole, but rather of the Canare plugs used.

It's something that I'd ask others and you to consider. It's long been my belief that the sonic effect of cables in a hi-fi system is more often than not as a result of the plugs used than the wire.

To that end, Mark should perhaps consider making his G1000HDs come supplied as standard with Neutrik Pro-fis (as priced on his site) and consider dropping the Canares. I'm sure that most people willing to spend £65 on interconnects would spend £90 on the same ones with much better plugs, and consequently significantly improved sonic performance.

This would then improve the quality of Mark's best selling entry-level cable - and the overall reputation of his products accordingly.

I'd be interested to hear what Mark's thoughts are on this?

Marco.

I'd like to compare the different types sometime Marco.

[Marco]

No worries, dude - I'm sure we can do that

Marco.

[Mark Grant]

Not saying your cables are not very good Mark, they are! I have these as well as one of your HDMI cables, which was a big upgrade on my previous cable.

Things like this are always very system dependent, in mine I did prefer the slightly better top end with air and space of the Belkin, but to be fair there was very little in it. Other systems may find the opposite.

No problem Ali, all that matters is how your system sounds to your own ears

[Marco]

Hi Mark,

What do you think of the suggestion I made above?

Do you think if you could obtain the best price possible on a quantity purchase of Neutrik Pro-fis, you could provide them as standard on your entry-level cables at not too much more cost than what you charge at the moment for the G1000HDs with Canares?

If you could, I think in the long term it would be a winner for you.

Just a thought, dude!

Marco.

[WAD62]

My 2.4m belkin cable arrived today, I also purchased a 1m length, which sould be with me shortly...I know a good bandwagon when I see one

My DAC (Audiolab 8000DAX) has 2 sets of analogue outputs which feed into an 8000Q, so I've inserted it alongside the Chord Chameleon (0.5M) I normally use. So when it's burned in a bit I should be able to do some nice A/B comparisons...at £3.50 (2.4M) Vs £120 (0.5M) it should make for an interesting test

I actually bought it to feed my AV amp into my pre amp, but I'll try this little comparison first...

[Effem]

Hi Mark,

What do you think of the suggestion I made above?

Do you think if you could obtain the best price possible on a quantity purchase of Neutrik Pro-fis, you could provide them as standard on your entry-level cables at not too much more cost than what you charge at the moment for the G1000HDs with Canares?

If you could, I think in the long term it would be a winner for you.

Just a thought, dude!

Marco.

Neutrik Profi? Not the easiest plug to solder and the wire has to be trimmed JUST SO otherwise it looks a mess. As for an O/D of cable above 5mm it gets mighty tricky to fit in the shell with that daft cable grip. It's made out of plated brass, so nowt special about it from the electrical point of view.

Just my opinion of course