If you are getting hum or noise, try a better cable.
If not, I doubt there will be a significant difference by changing cables.
Especially in audio, and especially on Audiogon, what is "significant" depends entirely on the listener. To me, "significant" means a bigger effect than moving the speakers or my listening chair by six inches, and by that definition, I'm confident the answer is "no."
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If your system is quiet you have have good start. The signal needs to get to the consumer without picking up NOISE.
Hook up a sub and get a hiss from the tweeters. That noise..
I’ve also seen RCAs pass a signal BUT one end to the other it would lose a strong enough signal to make the sub respond correctly. Turn it up and it would work better. Correctly, I would question. Usually with copper as a clad OVER aluminum or simular conductive alloys. That type of IC is real common in Auto audio gear.
A good copper IC with good terminal ends. I usually solder BASS stuff and use gold clad over the terminals.. Just works great. Copper/gold for bass.. Peas and Carrots.. :-)
I use a weave works perfect.. 3 meters is about 30.00 usd with locking ends.. Copper/silver clad PTFE. or OCC PTFE. Cooking a bunch right now..
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Cables do make a difference with subs, especially if you have a really good sub. But. The difference is small. |
OP a Spdif cable works fine especially for longer runs or multiple subs. Save all the money you would spend on exotic metal conductors and fancy connectors where it can make a difference, a single ended line level interconnect.
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@grapeleap,
I am using Blue Jeans Cables Mogami 16 foot pair of interconnects to my SVS sub. Cost was less than $50.00. Bass is phenomenal. Wouldn’t waste more on that as my sub cuts out at 60hz at 18 dB per octave. |
Has anyone actually done listening tests? I am just hearing mostly spitballing here. I have not, but always wondered. I always bought something cheap from a real audio company just to be careful. After hundreds of hours of comparing interconnects and speaker cables and noting such profound differences, I was tired and never found the time to do systematic tests. ... so would just hedge my bets. I’d really like to hear if someone with high end audio skill and experience has done some serious work. |
Put it this way. I am really thorough and do an amazing number of things in the name of sound quality. The quality of the interconnect used for my subs is so critically important it is by far the cheapest and worst in my whole system. That's how much difference it makes. |
@millercarbon Good to hear... this has always made sense to me... but so frequently the differences I hear do not make sense. For instance, I just switched the power cord on my Aurender W20SE from a Shunyatta Venom 14 D to a Cardas Clear Beyond and it produced a noticable improvement in bass and detail... the Aurender audio circuits run on battery power to avoid line current... it just plain shouldn’t matter. So for fun, I switched to a WireWorld Silver Electra 7... harsh... You just have to listen. |
I think WW did develop cables specifically for subwoofers
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If the power cord affects it like that this tells me the Aurender is using batteries to avoid building a more expensive power supply. But if the batteries are connected to AC then all the AC line noise can ride across the batteries same as it rides across even a very expensive power supply. Think about it. If power supplies worked perfectly power cords would not work at all.
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Well, it would not be the first time something in high end audio defied my intuition. i remember my first digital interconnect... 1989?... it couldn’t possibly effect the sound, but the largest difference I ever heard. I long ago gave up, and just try it. How about this... the shielding is actually protecting nearby digital interconnects that are actually downstream from the streamer from the power cords magnetic field? Or... who knows what else. It is not day and night, but is noticable. |
A line level cable, analog out to pre/receiver, will allow you to hear differences in conductors, shielding, and connectors. I have repurposed four fairly expensive Spdif cables at this spot, each cable had their own individual sound characteristics. I have never heard much of a difference swapping good quality cables from pre/receiver to a powered sub.
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As long as cable is not picking up noise, as was stated above there won't be a significant difference. A better power cable and isolating it from the floor will make a bigger difference.
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A line level cable, analog out to pre/receiver, will allow you to hear differences in conductors, shielding, and connectors. I have repurposed four fairly expensive Spdif cables at this spot, each cable had their own individual sound characteristics. I have never heard much of a difference swapping good quality cables from pre/receiver to a powered sub.
Please don’t write things like "pre/receiver" without clarification. No one should ever give the impression of a receiver being equivalent to a pre-amp. Door-stop/receiver, boat-anchor/receiver, POC/receiver, even POS/receiver, are the preferred terms. |
Thank you for the laugh, pre/receiver is my current system/past systems I used for my evaluations.
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