08-Feb-2016, 08:02
Well, I've received my cable. I was going to have a listen to my old cable first but I just couldn't wait and just plugged the new one in.
Does it sound different? Yes. And my neighbour across the road is mowing the lawn. He's actually started doing my next door neighbour's now so he's even closer. He does that now he's got a ride on...
Does it sound better? Yes. I hear more detail already and there's a bleeding lawnmower in the 'background'
So what sounds better? First there's a fair bit of glare gone. The kind of glare that gives digital a bad name. Harshness would be another name for it. I did a little test between the old and new cable. I played one of my favourite songs; Ellis Island by Mary Black live. It takes about 14 minutes and has a few things in it that can be used for testing. First there's Mary's voice. If played loud it can be a bit unforgiving, especially in the first part of the song. Then there's a 'drum' solo (not with sticks but with brushes) and a guitar solo. The guitar solo has another few not so forgiving highs at times. I remember taking this song when I went to audition the Vivid G3's behind a D250. I was waiting for the brightness to start but it didn't happen.... is it as good in my set as then? Nope. I did play it very loud though. On purpose I played it so loud with the old cable so it would hurt my ears and then changed to the new cable and played at the same volume. It still hurt a bit but less so.
The other thing that I think is better is the depth of the bass. There were a few moments where the bass 'locked the room' in the guitar solo with the new cable that wasn't there with the old cable. This one though, I want to have another go at because by the time that happened the lawnmower was in full force...
Depth in soundstage and longer decay I think is a given when you lose glare. I've always been of the opinion that when highs take forefront, the rest gets obscured. The soundstage might be there but you can't hear it as well.
I've got a bit more 'work' to do to prove to some of you and, in part, myself that this is not the placebo effect. An easy test is swapping from USB to AIR. For some reason AIR has worked flawlessly since I've been home and I've done a bit of swapping from USB to AIR and back with the old cable. I found AIR to be the slightest bit more relaxed but it seemed to miss a bit of body in the bass. I'll get back once I've compared between my new USB cable and AIR.
Does it sound different? Yes. And my neighbour across the road is mowing the lawn. He's actually started doing my next door neighbour's now so he's even closer. He does that now he's got a ride on...
Does it sound better? Yes. I hear more detail already and there's a bleeding lawnmower in the 'background'
So what sounds better? First there's a fair bit of glare gone. The kind of glare that gives digital a bad name. Harshness would be another name for it. I did a little test between the old and new cable. I played one of my favourite songs; Ellis Island by Mary Black live. It takes about 14 minutes and has a few things in it that can be used for testing. First there's Mary's voice. If played loud it can be a bit unforgiving, especially in the first part of the song. Then there's a 'drum' solo (not with sticks but with brushes) and a guitar solo. The guitar solo has another few not so forgiving highs at times. I remember taking this song when I went to audition the Vivid G3's behind a D250. I was waiting for the brightness to start but it didn't happen.... is it as good in my set as then? Nope. I did play it very loud though. On purpose I played it so loud with the old cable so it would hurt my ears and then changed to the new cable and played at the same volume. It still hurt a bit but less so.
The other thing that I think is better is the depth of the bass. There were a few moments where the bass 'locked the room' in the guitar solo with the new cable that wasn't there with the old cable. This one though, I want to have another go at because by the time that happened the lawnmower was in full force...
Depth in soundstage and longer decay I think is a given when you lose glare. I've always been of the opinion that when highs take forefront, the rest gets obscured. The soundstage might be there but you can't hear it as well.
I've got a bit more 'work' to do to prove to some of you and, in part, myself that this is not the placebo effect. An easy test is swapping from USB to AIR. For some reason AIR has worked flawlessly since I've been home and I've done a bit of swapping from USB to AIR and back with the old cable. I found AIR to be the slightest bit more relaxed but it seemed to miss a bit of body in the bass. I'll get back once I've compared between my new USB cable and AIR.
Lifetime Roon, Mac mini, int. SSD, ext. HDD, tv as monitor, key board and track pad on bean bag as remote,Devialet 200, Od'A #097, Blue jeans speaker cable,
Dynaudio C1 MkII.
Jim Smith's GBS.
Northern NSW Australia.
Dynaudio C1 MkII.
Jim Smith's GBS.
Northern NSW Australia.
