Poll: Can I hear differences between cables?
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Yes
76.92%
170 76.92%
No
23.08%
51 23.08%
Total 221 vote(s) 100%
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CABLE SURVEY
#21
Hi,

I have my home brewed loudspeaker cable that has seen off cables costing up to 4000 GBP for 2x2 meter single run. From the 10 tested cables some have been in ways equal good but different. So I haven't really explored this area yet and at the same time why when it probably need some serious cash injection.
My own cost, omitting the cost of 8 hollow banana contacts, was about 50 GBP. Used this cable for 5 years.
Anyway it is a Belden made cable, solid single core 10 AWG copper, can't remember which model.

To my surprise and to un explainable effect, power cables have shown the biggest changes when mixing and matching.

/Mike
Ex D400 Now Aavik U-300/Feickert Woodpecker2-Kuzma 4P-Kondo silver-Benz LPS-Teddy Pardo PSU/Naim Unitiserve-Teddy Pardo PSU/SF Guarneri Homage/Whole system decoupled by Ansuz DTC/Cables from Ansuz, DYI and other commercial/Dedicated mains and spur-Lampizator SILK
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#22
I had the opportunity to audition three different coaxial cables this past week which would hopefully compliment my recently purchased Moon Mind 180 connected to my 120. Nothing exotic and very high end was used. All cables are modestly priced (well below $400) and assembled by a local dealer who specializes in making interconnect and power cables of all sorts.

Two of the three were made from a pure silver Furutech coaxial cable, one fitted with Furutech rhodium RCA connectors and one with the same connectors but with a gold finish. The third cable was also made from a Furutech cable and fitted with silver RCA connectors.

The cables using the rhodium and silver RCA connectors sounded much better than the USB input I was previously using. It seemed to convey vocals in a more natural manner with some nice top end and more relaxed presentation. However, the third cable using the Furutech gold connectors and pure silver Furutech coaxial cable provided even more natural sounding vocals, a lesser top end, larger imaging and just drew me into the music. In the end, I selected this cable, which just happened to be the more expensive ! Funny how that is...

It makes me appreciate the Devialet a little more (given all the issues with AIR) and realize that it has a mighty fine DAC and is a solid sounding amplifier.
Naim NAC-N 272 ➣ Naim XPSDR ➣ Naim NAP 200DR  ➣ Kudos Super 10 ➣ Siltech Explorer 90L  (Montreal, CA)
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#23
Not Yet voted. I have ordered audioquest power cable. Currently I have a cable whose power rating is about 5Amps. I m not using Devialet Power cable as it does not have three pin without earth pin on it. Once I replace with the audiquest I will let know if it mattered at all. I believe it will because the dynamics of the current flowing through a cable which could be bottle neck based on the cable power rating. Once the rating of the cable has enough head-room to support the load (Devialet), then it does not matter how pricey the cable can be. But it should have enough head room. My personal thought process is double the power rating. Not sure whats right/exactly needed. After that its matter of "prestige" - this could my personal controversial statement Smile. Dont beat me up here.

Personally I think Analog Cable matters more than Digital cables. Just an example - As for cable length is concerned, USB cable length determines the speed of operation.
Rock OS (Roon) on NUC 2016 Model (ETH Wired to Router) > Cat8 from Router to switch to 220Pro (CI) > RAAT/AIR > Monitor Audio PL300 II
Ipad Mini 4/iPhone for Roon Remote"
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#24
New to the forum and not yet voted. Apologies in advance for the long preamble...

I still have an (old!) D Premier, not upgraded and sadly already destined to be passed up with future upgrades; early adopters always get left behind and forgotten. I did consider upgrading since it included an ethernet connection which I thought would be a solution to my problems with Air but in the end I decided against it.

Up until now I've only used the coax and optical inputs with reasonably good cables (Atlas, QED) connecting Blu-Ray, Sky HD, Apple TV, Sonos and CD Player. But I thought I'd have another go at Air as I wanted to play some high res files directly from my Mac and I recently bought a better wifi router. It was better but I did experience the occasional drop-out which I can't really live with for serious listening.

And then I thought about cabling my MacBook Pro to the D Premier and realised I could connect it with an HDMI cable since it still has the HDMI input and output, so I connected the computer and the Devialet with a cheap HDMI cable and it sounded pretty good to me and quite similar to the Air connection, although I didn't do a proper comparison.

I've ordered a Hi Face 2 USB/Coax interface so that I can connect the computer to one of the D Premier's coax inputs and I will be testing a couple of cables: one costing £5 and one of my Atlas cables at around £200. I will also compare this to my HDMI connection. I may have to enlist some help switching the cables since I don't want to know which is which to prevent my own natural bias towards the more expensive one -  no one likes post purchase dissonance and I've duped myself many times to justify an expensive piece of kit...

I will let you know the results and vote accordingly!

I'm interested to hear comments about power cables though. I fear more expensive purchases ahead. Smile
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#25
I switched from Crystal Microdiamond speaker cable to Chord Signature on my D-200 into ProAc K6 speakers and found the sound was more rounded and enjoyable.
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#26
LessLoss DFPC cables, but especially the Reference cable. This power cable with bring life to your Devialet! It makes the sound more organic and lifelike and improves the bass. Highly recommended!!

And yes, I've done A-B tests with a Devialet 400 and LessLoss vs. Nordost/Purist Audio power cables (Valhalla level cables)... the difference was like night and day. Nordost and PA made the D400 into an amp I didnt want to listen to.
Devialet Expert 1000 Pro CI / Magico A1 / ROON Nucleus w Farad Super 3 / Innuos Phoenix NET / Torus RM 16 / Acrolink Mexcel 7N-S 9000
Wireworld digital and power cables / Harmonix tuning feet / SMT acoustic 
treatment
- SWEDEN -
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#27
Not tested enough cables with my brand new Devialet to be able to make a statement in this field. I just wanted to share a piece (http://www.realhd-audio.com/?p=5565) which is a little polemic on this subject : food for thought :-)
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#28
It's Mark's daily emails and statements from others who claim to hear clear differences in cables that made me want to do my own research. I'm a bit tired of the two arguments that are always the same; The pro-cable crowd says have a listen and the anti-cable crowd says all well made cables measure the same.

And then there's Audioquest putting themselves right in the firing line with the most obvious misleading advertising possible. I know, they didn't do it themselves but just by knowing about it and not doing anything they did themselves a tremendous disfavour.

Anyway, still listening so I can come to a conclusion  Rolleyes
                                                    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.
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#29
I wish there was an 'unsure', or 'maybe sometimes, but then I think I might be deluding myself' category… Wink

>>> 1st Place Award: Devialet, last decades most disappointing technology purchase.  <<<

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#30
Most of the people in the "anti-cable" have listened, and came to their own conclusion. I used to think there were differences, and now I've reached a conclusion that if I've heard differences, there were other factors which had a bigger impact on what I've heard (Expectation bias and such). To each his (or her) own. The main thing is what you personally believe and what you're happy with.
Devialet 200 <> Bowers & Wilkins 805 Diamond <> Aurender N100 <> Clearaudio Concept MC <> Audioquest Rocket 44/Coffee USB

The Netherlands
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