A discussion about high end hook up wire

Ric puts it all out there for all to see. Check his Web site.

But CCM you may be right that "they" (I'm speaking of Ric because I know him and have his work) haven't tried the latest wires. My modified XA777ES is uses silver wire in Teflon tubes for all the point to point wiring, and I believe he still uses this. Maybe the gains are to be found elsewhere.

But he is pretty extreme otherwise - naked Vishays and Black Gates throughout, headphone socket wiring removed, radical changes to the power connection, hand-made analogue output stage - all discrete (this is where the magic is), damping strips in the strangest of places.

I actually think you would like Ric's attitude. I can safely say of him that your comment "Whenever there is money involved, the objectivity goes to crap" is miles away from where Ric's head is at.

 

You're right, Metralla. I didn't mean to sass Ric and the mod dudes at all.

Quite the contrary. If anything, I admire them as the pioneers. I have no doubt that their work is excellent.

I should amend my statement to "Wherever there is money involved, I have to be more careful about considering incentives for viewpoints expressed"

I love it when anyone gets extreme about anything. The world needs more enthusiasm and passion, it already has way too much whatever.

ccm

 

No worries.

 

What about the sonic limitations of the recordings we listen to? Can you rewire those? Hobbies are great but the extensiveness of perfection sometimes sucks the life out of the listening experience. Hope you don't take this as a TC.

 

Regardless of the sonic limitations of the recordings, the goal about upgrading wire or anything else in the signal path is to get as close as possible to the music pressed into the record groove or CD. Good, bad, or ugly, I want to hear whatever is on the record, and if I can eliminate a poorer performing part in the path, I will. What sucks the life out of the listening experience is poor performing parts.

Indeed, through continuous upgrades of the internal components of my system, some of the records I play with the worst sonic limitations are some of the most improved sounding.

 

Nothing wrong with seeking perfection. But honestly how much time, money and effort that it requires is endless. Tweaking never stops for some sadly. Rewiring the guts of existing equipment is a brave adventure. Too much for me too undertake but i'm kinda glad about that. Rather discover some new music.

 

My friend, that's exactly what the tweaking is all about; discovering new music that one already has.

 

Are referring to the NUANCES?

 

One often reads here as a mild (sometimes not so mild) rebuke to audiophiles who are keen to improve the sound of their system, no matter what this involves, that they would rather "discover some new music".

What is this endless search for new music and why is it something one has to work at?

We all have, in our collections, some of the greatest music ever made. Like tubesandvinyl just said.

 

Jeffrey, if you can't figure it out for yourself, these comments of yours are not productive towards the goals of this thread, and are not welcome.

I will ask you a second time, please stop posting in it.

This is a thread for people who already agree that this is a worthwhile task. If you're not on board with that, this thread isn't for you.

ccm

 

ccman, the naysayers just can't help themselves. Since they hear what we hear with our ears and they perceive better than we do with our peceptions , we are doomed. We should just sit in the corner and listen to a transistor radio. We'd be much better off.

 

As far as I am concerned, we must have a reading comprehension issue. Because I have been nothing if not clear about what this thread is for and what it is not for. Several times.

ccm

 

Years back I rewired my Infinity RSIIa with the same wire as speaker wires

I was able to buy a few hundred feet of the wire making up the AudioQuest Midnight cables.. (this was back in 1985.. dark days compared to now for wire)
I rewired the internal wiring of my Infinity RSIIa (the smallest infinity with EMIMs) with the AQ wire.
The results were worth the bother.
(I also soldered directly to the EMIMS and EMITS)
Now i am just too old to mess around with all that on my Magnepans and the Kimber 8TC i use for speaker cables.

 

Hi ccm,

responding to your questions:

my favorite cost-no-object cable is Schnerzinger audio cable, I mentioned in another thread and don't need to repeat details here: http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=277347

Unfortunately I don't have experience with one of the hook up cables you mentioned, but I'd take one of the cheaper good hook up cables you like with the best suited construction for internal wiring and let them go over it with their molecular processing.

The copper/silver/gold material questions you mentioned seem to be more than secondary in comparison to the optimization of the molecular structure (no it's not the usual cyrogenic stuff they do). I bet the cheapest cable modified in that way will better anything else by far. I don't know at what rates this starts for custom cable, you'd have to ask. But it's possible, that this only makes sence for audio companies, doing lots of internal wiring within their production, because I'm not sure if the still do this for custom cable of single customers.

 

That's interesting, Blue. I forgot about this company.

I will keep them in mind. Yes, perhaps it would be interesting to see if, after I did my own internal wire shoot-outs, I could send them a length of my favorite and see what they could do with it.

It couldn't hurt.

I would certainly like to hear these cables at an audio show sometime.

Thanks for your input,
Paul

 

Thanks, ElizabethH. That's a good story.

It seems to be a tougher job with speaker cable. There seem to be more exotic offerings by the foot for internal wiring than there are for speaker cable. Maybe I'm just missing them.

I like Audioquest very much. A friend of mine has Redwood speaker cables and they are really exceptional. I also really respect that they have written that great pdf on wire and cable available on their website. That is a really helpful document, and started me thinking about a lot of interesting stuff.

I wonder if they'd still sell their wire by the foot for internal speaker wiring. They might, they're very cool people.

ccm

 

Time to train some kids to do it for you! I'm sure there are lots of people starting out who would love to solder your Maggies in exchange for some of your high end audio mentoring.

I would go through quite a bit of pain and suffering for the guys who showed (and continue to show) me the way.

ccm

 

Nope—musical lines. Whole cloth, stuff you never heard before.

 

Hi ccm,
I just ordered some Duelund 0.5 Silver Foil & Silk-Oil to try. I'll be able to give some unreliable impressions as it compares to the Jupiter silver/cotton and Neotech copper/teflon in my 300B amp used as a signal wire.

 

NOW we're talkin'! GO HENRY!!!

ccm

 

Go Henry! I'm very curious to hear your impressions of the Duelund.

 

But you said you don't like silver much.

 

What I like is that someone is trying.

I know you winked, but I should clarify:

I said my experience so far has not yielded a preference for silver. But that doesn't mean silver is out, or that it can't ultimately be the best solution. It's a hypothesis, not a conclusion.

The wire material is only part of the equation. And Duelund is a company who seems to do a lot of things well, so I'm curious to hear about Henry's results. Perhaps he will find the silver that changes our game.

ccm

 

Don't get me wrong - I'm interested too and laud Henry's efforts.

 

No problems for trying the wire. I just happen to be in the midst of tweaking a new amp.

I hope there are some interesting revelations. Parts Connexion states that the Duelund has been their best sounding signal wire. And it has an equivalent guage of 18; pretty large for signals. We'll see what happens...