Bought some new Blue Jeans! Woohoo!

Bought some 10 gauge speaker wire with banana plugs and an RCA to 1/8" cable. The price matched up with people's reviews was too good to pass up.

 

They are not a foo foo cable company.

 

I kinda liked that. Felt comfortable using this brand as a base if I want to compare any other cables. I hope to be pleasantly surprised.

 

Yes they are. Blue Jeans is quite happy to assemble Belden Iconoclast cables that cost $426 or $610 for a three foot RCA pair.

 

I have a set of their basic RCA cables.

$500 is a lot, but its not $5000 (or more). I was not aware of that, guess it is their TOTL with wire made by Belden.

 

I think it might also be $400 more than $100.

 

Which should certainly be of importance when you don't hear any difference like you've told me a couple of times.

 

As long as you're OK with buying cables from a company that also sells $600 RCA cables then that's fine. But if you're willing to accept that then don't be critical of other cable companies selling $600 RCA cables. Blue Jeans aren't the saints of pure objective low cost cables that many objectivist audio aficionados make them to be. Blue Jeans assembles cables. And asks Belden to design some custom cables for them. But they're also willing to assemble Belden's foo-foo audio cables that cost $500+. If you're going to promote Blue Jeans just know who and what they are.

For the record, I own two pairs of the Blue Jeans LC-1 RCA cables and two pairs of their 1505F RCA cables, and one pair of their balanced 1800F XLR cables. I prefer their 1505F RCA cables over their LC-1 cables in my system. I've replaced the LC-1 cables with the 1505F cables. When I put a turntable in my system I'll try the LC-1 between the TT and phono stage and decide if I want to use them or not. But for me the LC-1 cables I have are currently unused and I regret having two pairs of them since my only use for them now is to try them between a TT and phono stage that I don't own yet.

 

Congratulations on the new speaker wire.
I am using the BJC 12 White, which is Beleden 5000UE, 12awg connected to 200wpc amp.

Impertinent question: why is the woman in your Avatar photo sleeping?

 

That is one seriously picked nit. Unlike "foo-foo" cable companies there is no flowery prose, no pages of psuedo-science and no hiding what their costs are. Belden essentially said they are too big to economically make custom wire. Don't know why they bothered but by selling through Blue Jeans they kept the costs as low as they could. 99% of Blue Jeans sales (volume wise) are most likely the old fashioned cables they have been selling for years.

While your point may be true it's absurd to throw Blue Jeans in with the cable shysters.

 

Here you have the link to the introduction to their Iconoclast line. I now feel dizzy, I don't know what hit me and to top it all up I don't think I've learn anything about the product but if you like them I trust you actually do.

Introducing Iconoclast Cable from Belden -- Blue Jeans Cable

I personally prefer the stuff I read from other companies, it's generally better presented and easier to read without exhausting you.

 

Let us know if you hear a difference.

 

Blinking

 

Belden will tell you exactly what their cable specs are -- they're a big, spec driven, global wire and cable company, not an audiophile company. Yeah, they have this Iconoclast cable line, but they'll also tell you exactly how those are made, what they specs are. The Belden Iconoclast white papers are actual in depth technical design notes and white papers, not marketing pieces. Much more useful and interesting to read than anything I've ever read from any other cable company. Personally, the papers and transparency from Galen Gareis and Iconoclast are exactly what I'd like to see from every audiophile company.

Did that get me to buy the cables? Hell no, I'm not in that financial class. Am I curious to hear them? Yeah, if someone would loan me some I'd sure listen. Belden isn't a company that makes its money selling cable to audiophiles and I can't imagine it is a company that would throw away its professional reputation chasing the meagre audiophile market with cables with dubious science and construction behind them. Would I expect an enormous difference in sound? No. I don't think cables can made an enormous difference in most home hifi applications.

 

I knew I left myself vulnerable with that $500/$5000 comment so thanks for the reminder ugly and ham! I hear you both loud and clear! Mostly I was referring to their site which I did not spend too much time on yesterday, but it seems they used to publish a lot more info/specs on their cables (mostly made with wire from Belden as I recall). Maybe I didnt spend enough time on it yesterday, but I remember the old site was no-nonsense and they did not speculate on stuff (with flowery wine descriptions) like the "foo foo" cable sites tend to.

 

I have the $45 and under 12 gauge speaker cables with banana plugs from BJC and am sufficiently pleased that I just don't think about cables, pleased enough that I might get their interconnects.

 

I particularly like their CAT5e/6/6a cables. Any length you need. Any color you want. Well made and very robust. Each comes with a page of individualized measurements.

Blue Jeans subwoofer cable, speaker cables, and coax digital cables all have worked well for me. I returned a set of custom speaker cables and they were easy to deal with about that also. Good company.

 

This statement makes no sense to me. Of course I can be critical of other companies selling $600 RCA cables since most of them will not tell you the specs or how they are made or deigned. Belden will tell you all of that. That level of transparency is commendable.

 

I may add their balanced cables to the mix eventually

 

I run their balanced cables from my phono preamp to my integrated. I personally find the idea of "listening to cables" preposterous but they certainly aren't degrading the sound to any detectable degree, and are available in custom lengths for completely reasonable prices. Long story but I ended up with a pair of $500 audioquest XLRs and they made absolutely no difference so I went back to the Blue Jeans. I can strongly recommend them.

 

For those interested, Belden/Iconoclast also has their "BAV" line that has some of the Iconoclast tech in a more affordable package.

Belden Audio/Video (BAV) Products -- Iconoclast Cable

 

1) I certainly would like to more detailed specs provided, most companies lack in that regard. Do I make my purchases based on that? No! I don't do it with cables neither with any other audio product. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Zero capacitance or resistance won't tell me how a cable will sound.

2) If you haven't discovered yet how much different cables can sound you should try any cable that fall in your hands regardless of cost. Eventually you'll find some that are sufficiently different to notice.

3) Belden might not make a great percentage of money selling cables used by the audiophile community but they still sell them.
You have very well respected companies like Furutech that started off producing cables for medical equipment and now ended up being pretty big in the audiophile market. In their website they talk about the grain structure, oxygen free etc, etc and they obviously have people who are paying attention to what their cables are doing to the sound. Would you deny the differences at molecular level of a cable can affect their performance? There is no reason why they should not talk about it just because some people here think that is snake oil talk.
For me, as an individual it requires a lot of time and often waste of money to try different cables and I need to try to minimize that waste. Is Belden making cables I might like? May be but together with others which are probably not for me because they go only on specs.
I personally much rather risk money and time buying from companies that pay attention to the sonic qualities of cables and rather than getting a nice set of spec that might bring disappointment to my ears.

 

Well, you know how I feel about it. When a company sells cables at $500 and that is pointed out to a crowd of cheerleaders that generally deny cables make a difference in sound. I find it hilarious the same crowd comes in defense of that company because their cables are worth the $500. I've ended up being left with lots of questions with no answers and lots of excuses.
I do get your point that you are not 24hrs a day following how their sales tactics evolve.

 

Furutech makes some nice RCA connectors.

FT-111（R）/（G） | FURUTECH

Same basic idea as these(single point/low mass return contact).

Eichmann BULLET PLUG - First Review of Keith Eichmann's RCA Bullet Plug Online

 

My main point is that their site is not full of a lot of BS. Plain and simple.