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Herman's Responses in Cables	Posts
directional cables? Arrows on all other kinds of cables -- XLR, speaker, power, and data -- are utterly meaningless from an electrical standpoint, since audio signals (and wall voltage) are . . .	133
Which cables go with what????? Ok, which cables do you consider to be neutral	98
Ungrounded power cord: Will I die? . The danger is getting shocked, not bursting into flames. Wall warts and many other devices have plastic cases so even if the case contacts the line voltage you can't get . . .	65
Home made cable lifters. -styrofoam cups -pieces of wood -rocks	55
Powercord to tame brightness and add musicality I'm not familiar with Krell model numbers. When you say "all Krell" does that include speakers and cables? Just wondering how you determined that the power cord for the . . .	43
"romantic" sounding cabling No disrespect, but IMHO trying to tune a system in this way with cables is ridiculous. You ask for advice on the sound of your system and don't even bother to let us know what . . .	35
New to Analog and just played my first record in So you are willing to invest $150 and want it to beat your $1,500 player that beats $4,000 players. There is a minimum buy-in to get decent analog and $150 isn't even close. I . . .	34
Do cables really need "breaking in"? I agree with paulwp for this reason. After reading hundreds of testimonials in the usual magazines and online for several years now about the benefits of burning in cables, I have . . .	32
Riddle me this: how is carbon a conductor? On the other hand, why do you feel that lower resistance would be better	31
W and M Interconnects Are you seriously recommending that I buy a cable because from the outside they appear to be well constructed?? You haven't even taken 5 minutes to hook them up and get any kind of. . .	30
Stereophile test CD2 In/Out of Phase test:question That test shows whether your speakers are in phase with each other, it doesn't show absolute phase. That means if they are being fed the same signal the cones will be moving in and. . .	26
Kimber Select 3033 versus 3035 and 3038 A Kimber dealer told me that even though the 38 was better than the 33, it wasn't that much better for the price unless the rest of your system had been taken up to or beyond that . . .	25
Speaker Cables, One side longer- bad idea? Hi Bwhite, Any job openings at your company? If you have the time to post all that at work AND get paid enough to afford this hobby, I'm in. Interesting thoughts though	24
Power cord that improve the soundstage the most? It is inconceivable to me that $3,500 spent on a component upgrade won't do more to improve your system than a $3,500 power cord. For a system in the + $200,000 range then maybe. . .	23
Against everything that high end cables stand for After years of trial and error I have found that cables are highly system dependent no matter what they cost. The cost of $40 or $4000 has little to do with how they sound with . . .	22
XLR-RCA: Adapters or Custom Cable? Which Lavry Dac do you have, some have SE outputs. Adapters do not "always ruin the sound." That is audiophile paranoia taken to the extreme. How can you make such a . . .	21
What is the advantage of a balanced interconnect? S earch the archives for BALANCED and you'll find more than you need	21
XLR or SE cable? The manual for your integrated says the preamp out is SE only. That leads me to suspect that if you do use the balanced inputs it is going to be converted to SE inside the . . .	20
Transparent Interconnect Question.... I agree that noise should not be a concern, but choosing a cable because it is louder at a given volume setting makes no sense to me. You can always just turn the preamp up a bit. . . .	19
The best digital audio out of coaxial, or optical? search the net. You will get answers like that above who claim toslink sucks to it is the best thing since sliced bread. Sorry, you will never get an answer here. Try it and see . . .	18
Best interconnect under$400 for Jolida JD100 What length do you need? With some cables, twice as long means twice the price, so it is impossible to make a recommendation for $400 without knowing the length	18
XLR vs RCA I am with Warrenh. Even though Audioengr's points are valid, the last one is the biggest concern with balanced systems, the impossibility of designing a truly balanced system. A. . .	18
Why is high capacitance good? Do you mean that higher capacitance equates to lower resistance? If so.........wrong	17
Different lengths of interconnects ?????? The reason the price is right is because he can't sell this odd pair. When you get ready to move on you'll be stuck with them too. At the speed of light it would take the signal .. . .	17
How's my imaging? I don't know what causes it, but a dealer who I respect once told me that within reason the lower the speakers are in respect to your listening height the higher the image will be. . .	17
Getting all new cables and need sugestions Can you solder? For speaker and IC cables, some Radio Shack connectors and some CAT5 cable from Home Depot will make some pretty good cables for a whole lot less than you are . . .	16
where to buy a BNC to RCA component cable? I hate to point out the obvious but if you google "BNC RCA COMPONENT" you will get a few hundred choices	15
Cardas Interconnect Placement I disagree with Artistic Audio. There are very few absolutes in this hobby. I would be wary of someone who uses the term always when making a recommendation. Ingvar is correct. . . .	15
Would you sleep better at night if..... $2500 is a lot of money. I can't imagine that you would be better off spending that on some other component than cables. You could buy a decent analog rig and a bunch of albums for. . .	15
XLR to RCA conversion You can certainly use an XLR-RCA adapter to feed your amp a single ended signal. Just put them on the input to the amp as Tvad says. However, you would lose the noise rejection . . .	14
BNC to RCA Get a female BNC, a male RCA, 2 paper clips, some twine, super glue, an alligator clip, 3 feet of coaxial cable, a one pound roll of solder, asbestos gloves, a welders mask, steel . . .	12
What can you do about a nonselling seller? Forget about it. It's irritating but life is too short to worry about such things	12
Good and bad w/ replacing stock preamp jumpers? My experience has been that when someone states it seems as though there has been a sonic improvement there hasn't been any change, just what they had hoped to hear. You . . .	11
Un-equal length speaker cable advice?? If using expensive cables, use equal lengths because you'll take a beating trying to sell an un-equal pair. I'd go with equal lengths of the Au24, a very nice cable	11
Another look at directionality in cables I would like to get on the Bundus bandwagon here. Energy in the form of electromagnetic waves travel down the cable from the amp to the speaker where they are converted into . . .	11
I'm Getting Unbalanced About Balanced Hi Mejames, there is really no such thing as a "truly balanced" output from a digital player. There is only one signal per channel stored on the disc, so every player . . .	11
money AND time. How do I get both? That's 12 hours a day 7 days week. That is also ridiculous. I don't know what your definition of "plenty of money" is, but there is not enough money in the world to make. . .	11
Cable shoot-out: Part IV I would offer the following for your consideration. You are putting the cart before the horse. It sounds like the room is the weak link and that should be your focus at this point. . .	11
Cardas Golden Reference - Reterminate? Once you are done the cables are essentially worthless i.e. they will have no resale value. I had Cardas do the same job for me a few years ago and what they charged was well worth. . .	10
Help My AC line voltage is 128V Yeah, what GS said. I had the same situation and the power company retapped the transformer on the pole outside my house to bring it down	10
Transparent Reference XL or Nordost Valhalla Mikelavigne offers wise advice. I would take his last statement one step further and say that synergy is important at any level. There is absolutely no way to predict which cable . . .	10
How's This Sound ? - Cable Testing Unclejeff is right on the money. Try them in conjuction with a good cabernet and it won't make much difference. I suggest Caymus, expensive but oh so nice	9
Polarity issue If I understand your post you can't access both ends of the wire so a meter isn't going to do you any good. The battery idea is your best bet	8
Speaker Cables - Optimal Length I too once thought that the shorter the better until I actually tried it. I had some 8TC and monoblocks so I figured why not put the monoblocks directly behind the speakers and use. . .	8
Stunning cable comparison I don't find it strange in any way that cheaper cables of one design (manufacturer) sound better in your system than more expensive cables of another. You are looking for cables . . .	8
what does it mean by The idea that a dedicated line is isolated from the rest of the devices in the home like TVs is incorrect. Everything is tied together at the breaker box so they are not isolated. . . .	7
adaptors for BNC termination to RCA Radio Shack	7
Why does this Biwire set-up not work? What do you mean by "not right?"	7
Hardwiring? I am confused. How would you do away with separate cables unless you built everything into the speaker cabinet? These systems exist, they are typically called boomboxes, but the . . .	7
DIY connectors for a VOLEX power cable Maybe the connectors are part of the magic. Why screw with a good thing	6
floating ground on ICs? That would be a floating shield, not a floating ground. It's not a safety issue because you have to have a ground connection from one component to the other with single ended . . .	6
Capacative cable? A capacitor is formed whenever you have 2 conductors separated by a dielectric. Since a cable fits that description, 2 wires with an insulator to keep them from touching, the cable. . .	6
Locking RCAs are stuck Don't know about yours but some are reverse threaded. Try going the opposite direction	6
Where to buy unterminated speaker wire http://www.percyaudio.com has some	6
too much power now-dump active for passive pre? There is nothing wrong with the situation you describe. It is very rare that the maximum reasonable volume from the speakers works out to be the maximum setting on the volume . . .	6
Equipment priority for powercords Unless I misunderstand your question, there can only be one possible answer. If your goal is to get the best sound, put it where it makes your system sound the best. There are no ". . .	6
Ground loop feedback Are you sure it is a ground loop? Perhaps the amps just hum. Go to Radio shack and get 2 RCA connectors. Short the center connection to the ground connection with a clip lead or . . .	5
Effects of brading interconnect wire The orientation of the wires in a speaker cable is one of the biggest factors that determines the "sound" of that cable, so it is logical to conclude that braiding the . . .	5
Transparent Reference XL question Sorry, no easy answers. You will hear a difference but it may or may not be better. I once had a system with Ultra and when I tried the reference I didn't like it as much. Better . . .	5
Need an advice about phono cable. RCA-RCA I agree with TWL. There is no way a properly set up and functioning analog setup like yours can be beat by that CD player, even with lousy cables. These arms are a bit unusual to . . .	5
"Load" end of IC s, which direction? The amp is the load for the preamp, so they are designed to have the load end hooked up to the amp	5
RCA, Balanced, Krell CAST, Status Quo to Nirvana? the cables null out the "SOUND" of single ended cables No, balanced cables null out common mode noise picked up by the cables, they still have a sonic signature just . . .	4
RCA Splice Radio Shack has a variety of couplers like this http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2102696&cp=&sr=1&origkw=rca+coupler&kw=rca+coupler&parentPage=search	3
Speed of Light? You can actually calculate the speed from just the physical parameters of the cable; spacing of conductors, materials, etc. It is very common to measure the delay of a signal . . .	3
Cables with 75 ohm connectors for analog audio?	2
Reaching out for some help on cables Stick with the stock Naim cables that come with the equipment. They don't call it a Naim system for nothing. You'll save a small fortune. Get the Naim recommended power strip too. . . .	1