@kevemaher thanks for the welcome — and for the thoughtful questions.
I’ll start by saying Belden 1505F is an excellent cable. I’ve worked with it and listened to it, and I understand why many people settle on it. At typical interconnect lengths, I don’t think small capacitance differences alone explain what I hear.
Where I personally landed differently had more to do with shielding behavior and perceived noise floor in more critical applications.
For me, Gotham GAC-1 Ultra Pro has been the standout in this category. Their Reussen shield — the counter-wound spiral — is the quietest shielding scheme I’ve encountered in practice. The “black floor” description isn’t hype; it’s repeatable. The moments of silence between notes are simply dead quiet, and that was immediately apparent to me.
Sonically, what I hear is not warmth or coloration, but the opposite: less edge, less glare, and a cleaner background. It doesn’t season the sound at all — it just gets out of the way. What really impressed me is that this character stayed consistent whether the cable was a couple of feet long or closer to 10–15 feet.
As far as workability goes, GAC-1 Ultra Pro does demand patience. The Reussen shield gives it a definite bend memory, and there are thin PVC layers that need to be carefully removed during prep. Initially, I sacrificed a few feet to develop a method, and after that the process became very consistent and manageable. It’s not difficult, just deliberate.
For termination, I handle the shield a bit differently than usual — partly influenced by Japanese practice — folding a portion of the bare shield back under the strain relief for mechanical stability and potential reuse. It’s not required, but it works well for me, and Gotham themselves found it interesting when I discussed it with them.
Compared directly to 1505F in my own system and a few others I’ve worked on, the difference I consistently noticed was in the perceived noise floor. Belden sounds clean and correct; Gotham sounds quieter. That drop in noise was obvious to me and to others listening, including people with very resolving systems.
For context, I use Mogami 2964 regularly as what I’d call a great utility cable — especially for long subwoofer runs or non-critical sources. It’s flexible, easy to route over long distances, inexpensive, and a pleasure to work with. The smaller diameter also makes it easy to sleeve in multifilament, which gives it a great vintage look. For critical sources, though, I keep coming back to GAC-1 Ultra Pro.
If you’re curious and willing to work with a cable that rewards careful handling, I think GAC-1 Ultra Pro is absolutely worth trying. For me, the audible reduction in noise floor was immediate and repeatable.
I’m also about to spend time with Mogami 2497, which I’m genuinely curious about. I try to stay open — I just report what I hear. I’d be interested to hear what else you’ve worked with, or how you specifically landed on 1505F. Sharing experiences like this is how we all learn.