Cables

Cables make a huge difference, I've sold my kit and bought an entry level system with £20k worth of wire, wow



Discuss

[snapper]

But your kit is entry level

at least it's wired correctly, nice wanky wire and in phase

[Duvet]

Bit too early to light the fuse AK . CJ and Tones probably tucked up in bed now with a nice cup of Horlicks or Ovaltine reading the "The power of the mind and aural imaginations ;);)

[Rory]

you won't put Pirelli P6000s on a Ferrari so you don't wire up a good system with bellwire and freebies. If the tyres should need cryogenically treatment or other kind of treatment then so be it. Cables are an integral part of a system. Whatever makes the hifi portray music better. End of subject.

[hifiwigwam]

Rory wrote:

you won't put Pirelli P6000s on a Ferrari so you don't wire up a good system with bellwire and freebies. If the tyres should need cryogenically treatment or other kind of treatment then so be it. Cables are an integral part of a system. Whatever makes the hifi portray music better. End of subject.

I agree that cables are important. I can't help rolling my eyes at some of the prices charged though. FFS, how long can it really take to terminate some machine produced wire?

[Rory]

the profit margins on cables is typically 55-70% IME from working in retail. Thats not what the store sees- they have to deduct VAT from that.

Speakers on the other hand, are typically 35-50%. The VAT still applies to this.

Electronics are 'only' 25-35%. So thats why cables are more expensive. People make more money from them!

[Effem]

hifiwigwam wrote:

I agree that cables are important. I can't help rolling my eyes at some of the prices charged though. FFS, how long can it really take to terminate some machine produced wire?

Longer than you might think when done PROPERLY ;)

Had a set of Black Rhodium XLR's sent to me a while ago to be repaired cos they were decomposing and you shoulda seen the soldering in that

0.5m pair at £1200 too

[hifiwigwam]

Effem wrote:

hifiwigwam wrote:

I agree that cables are important. I can't help rolling my eyes at some of the prices charged though. FFS, how long can it really take to terminate some machine produced wire?

0.5m pair at £1200 too

£1200.00 0.5m Fer Fucks sake!

I know what you mean about doing it properly, but Frank your prices are quite sensible. And they suit a Market. Even Tony's cables (which are way out of my league) suit a market. But it is the £1200.00 rip off merchants that make me laugh.

[Geordie]

analoguekid wrote:

Cables make a huge difference

They do indeed - certainly in my system, its the difference between getting sound and no sound ;)

[Rory]

they sound nice now though frank and thanks for that once again ;)

BR didn't terminate those though- i suspect the original purchaser bought one as a 1m digital interconnect and then got a 2nd hifi dealer to reterminate them as 2x xlr 0.5m leads so I wouldn't blame BR. Oh, and they were £1500 new

[Sony6million]

Paul, familiar with Ghost cables? As an alternative to JPS?

Hi Phil, never heard of them, happy with what I have, if it aint broke......



next time your down here, pop over, it's now less bright than the last time you heard it.

[Umberto]

Frank. Tried your silver cable XLRs a couple of days ago and then swoppped back to my Atlas navigator RCAs. Sound was smoother with the RCAs (hmmm...might be a problem with my primare CD player balanced output as i had similar results with another pair of XLRs).

The plot thickens

[Effem]

Umberto Vanni wrote:

Frank. Tried your silver cable XLRs a couple of days ago and then swoppped back to my Atlas navigator RCAs. Sound was smoother with the RCAs (hmmm...might be a problem with my primare CD player balanced output as i had similar results with another pair of XLRs).

The plot thickens

I've been playing with silver speaker cables tonight and they are a lot more quicker and cleaner sounding than I'm used to with my copper jobs. Having said that, the slight bass boom with the Canton's thatI've had andI blamed the room for has also disappeared.

Will follow my own good advice and leave the seriouslistening now until tomorrow.

[SSM]

Duvet wrote:

Bit too early to light the fuse AK . CJ and Tones probably tucked up in bed now with a nice cup of Horlicks or Ovaltine reading the "The power of the mind and aural imaginations ;);)

Hmm. That is also how I picture them too. Can't ever imagine them having sex.

BTW what's with some messages here using repeats of the same emoticon in their posts? Is this a carry over effect from that HFC double-post bug?

[Sastusbulbas]

And still we are sure , no not sure wait ......... no I think they do/dont /maybe Aggggggggh what that the any is isnt any different difference doesnt doseny work.


Different ?

alcholol helps

[mosfet]

Official Cost of Cables Breakdown:

5% Cost of buying the cable from RS or Farnell

5% Labour time adding some good looking heatshrink and/or plugs

30% Bribing magazines to say nice things about your cables

60% Time spent thinking of new phrases like “organic fluidicious solidity” and various pseudoscientific cock

[Sastusbulbas]

Thats no as funny as the F of the week pics , but on a serious note............ How do you increase ones organic fluidicious solidity ? I have heard that things like Tuna and sesame seeds help ? But Brocilli makes it bitter ?

[FrontFloater]

Breakdown of Mosfet's "Official Cost of Cables Breakdown" -

10% accuracy

40% cynicism

50% ignorance.

I'm awarding a generous 10% accuracy in relation to certain commercial cable manufacturer's markups. But in relation to us smaller privateers, do you have any idea how much, say,a set of 4 WBT Topline plugs costs? And have you any concept of how expensive magazine advertising is? The smallestadvert in Hi-Fi Plus (one-sixth page) costs £125 per issue! Where do these sorts of costsfactor into your equation?

The actual breakdown in my own case is - 50% on world-class components bought from people who actually know how to make the stuff ; 5% on advertising ; and 45% markup to compensate for the loss of my own evening or weekend free time. In the case of a complex set of biwire or shotgunned speaker cables, that's about 6 hours worthand wipes outa whole Saturday or Sunday.

If you think it's unreasonable to make a buck this way,don't buy the product ; but equally, don't tarall cable makers with the same brush. I recently sold a customer a complex set of6 speaker cables to use with 4 monoblocks. It cost him around £1300. The equivalent silver/teflonKimber products from Russ Andrewswould have totalled over £53,000.Are you going to try & argue that both vendors are subject to your same equation, and both deserving of the same criticism? If not, cast your aspersions a bit more accurately from now on.

BOB