frogman I will let you know as soon as I have time to do it.
I will also try a sub par source as you recommended.
I started with these. Before you scoff at it just know that I have been using regular run of the mill RCA interconnects from the beginning except for my 10 foot long Blue Jeans subwoofer cables. All of my speaker wire (every channel) came from a 14 gauge 100 foot spool with crimped on banana connects throughout.
Here is what I bought which is a big step up from what I had.
RCA's
Amazon.com: BJC LC-1 Stereo Audio Cables, 3 Foot: Electronics
And a review of them from a knowledgeable person:
5.0 out of 5 stars Science speaks for itselfReviewed in the United States on February 6, 2016Verified PurchaseI have compared a variety of cables from all kinds of manufacturers and have learned that only 3 things matter in an interconnect. The first is shielding this is used to stop hiss and hum from getting into your equipment. Any length of wire can become an antenna and cause noise issues. This is solved with what is called a faraday cage. This is the same principle for why you are safer in a car when lightning strikes electricity flows around but not through you. Electricity wants to find the quickest path to ground or the path of least resistance. This is done in a cable by putting a copper braid around the signal conductor so the noise is grounded out before it can reach the center conductor. The next is capacitance, capacitance occurs when you put two pieces of metal next to eachother separated by an insulator. Capacitance is the charge built up and released electrostatically, because this is an out of phase signal (speaker push in it push out or vice versa) that cancels out it will cause high frequency roll off meaning your speakers will be less bright or lose details in the high frequency range. The next is inductance, when a charge moves through a wire it generates a magnetic field. An audio signal is constantly changing therefore its intensity the magnetic field can change as well. The longer the wire the more magnetic field around it. when the signal changes the magnetic field tends to hang around for a small bit of time. because the magnetic field is created after the signal goes through it the current it induces back into the wire is out of phase also causing high frequency roll off. Inductance is lower in priority because it mostly effects current rather then voltage. The next is resistance which because RCA audio is a high impedance the resistance is irrelevant because the resistance of going through the equipment is so high it is literally thousands of time larger then in a cable. How are all these combatted? For capacitance you want to space the conductors away from one another but inductance you want them closer, for shielding you want a thick layer of copper braid or aluminum foil surrounding the center conductor. Ideally you want a precise balance of how close or far the conductors are so the only solution is shrinking the conductor. Decreasing the surface area therefore less capacitance and less inductance for more resistance you make the conductor thicker but with high impedance loads you can make it about as thin as you want with the exception of shielding. Because the shielding has less resistance then the center conductor so the faraday effect can take place which is also helped by the high impedance of the format. With all that said this is by far the best cable you can get all science included sturdy build, thick copper shielding, small center conductor, great connectors and of course USA made. With all that said here are some measurements i did with a DER EE DE-5000 LCR meter at 10khz where i found the best results i compared belkin, acoustic research, monster cable, wireworld audioquest and some DIY ones i had from mogami 2534 mic cable and a shortened monster component cable with new connectors. The lower the numbers here the better :
Cable Test 10khz
Interconnects
BJC LC-1 3ft
cap: 44pf
ind: 0.62uH
ohm: 0.589
AR master series 6ft
cap: 160pf
ind: 1.5uH
ohm: 0.15
AR performance series 3ft
cap: 90pf
Ind: 0.75uH
ohm: 0.117
AR master series comp 3ft
cap: 63pf
Ind: 0.4uH
ohm:0.030
AR master series comp 6ft
cap: 113pf
Ind: 0.7uH
ohm: 0.049
Wireworld Luna 1.5ft
cap: 145pF
ind: 0.3uH
ohm: 0.116
Wireworld solstice 1.5ft
cap:160pF
ind: 0.28uH
ohm: 0.107
Audioquest Chicago 1.5ft
cap: 64.5pF
ind: 0.46uH
ohm: 0.058
Monster 300mk2 3ft
cap: 114pF
ind: 0.86uH
ohm: 0.121
Belkin pureav blue 3ft
cap: 120pF
ind: 0.76uH
ohm: 0.16
Monster m1000comp DIY 1ft
cap: 30pf
ind: 0.26uH
ohm: 0.021
Monster m1000comp 4ft
cap: 71pf
ind: 0.56uH
ohm: 0.035
Mogamj 2534 2ft
cap: 110pF
ind: 0.29uH
ohm: 0.043
The above RCA interconnects bridge my AVR to my 2 channel 250wpc XPA2 Emotiva amp which powers my 2 JBL towers front R and L.
And here is the speaker cables from the amp to the towers.
Amazon.com: Blue Jeans Cable Ten White Speaker Cable, with Welded Locking Bananas, 6 Foot (Single Cable - for one Speaker); Assembled in The USA: Electronics
Some quick reviews
Sound improvement:
I don't quite believe in burning in for cables. I have been using Chord Carnival Silverscreen copper cables and Chord Odyssey 2 silver cables for a couple of years. The BJ ten whites opened up the highs - kind of difficult to describe the experience in words but these cables did make a positive difference and improve sound quality overall. Made me believe much more than ever before that cables actually do make a difference in audio quality. Would highly recommend BJ speaker cables. I have these going from a Marantz PM8005 to Dynaudio Emit M30s with a Oppo UDP as the source. Can't wait to try these on my second system - a Hegel H80, KEF R300 and Marantz CDP.
And the typical tunnel vision audiophile hater:
Can't touch this quality for the price. Companies selling grossly overpriced cables with diminishing returns should be ashamed. If you're looking for an upgrade for a serious hi-fi (I cringe at the term "audiophile") these absolutely do the trick for your kit.
