Belden 8402

Petro85

Petro85

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so im testing cables i have a few from friends to try. before i sold them i had a decent collection of IC's to compare. i also picked up a $75 pair of Belden 8402. some good cables were here. i was using the belden for about a month straight. Everytime i put another cable in i felt like something was just not right, so id go back to the belden, then i get to my best AQ sky and zen silver ref and i paid alot of money for those, and cant believe this belden is better than all of them. then i get to shindo cable, lent to me by Paul. i look at it, same color same connectors it looks like. plug it in same sound. i had 3 people check my hearing and they all agreed this is the same cable or they thought i never switched it. i believe that was a $1000 shindo cable, so i asked Paul he agreed. so whether or not it is or not, this damn Belden cable for $75 is a world beater. and i also thank Paul for turning me on to them. i now also wired my xovers and speakers with Belden 9497 and laugh at how good this dbl run wire is for speaker cables as well. so good i sold everything else.
 
Steve,

I've been using Belden 8402, Dueland and Avanti Audio cables. Love them all.
 
joeinid said:
Steve,

I've been using Belden 8402, Dueland and Avanti Audio cables. Love them all.
Click to expand...
Nice Joe!!!! im a believer most cables are either not as good with nice wrappers, or just repurposing belden to collect old porsches quicker :D
 
Belden 8402 is a Shielded Twisted Pair (STP) cable. Very nice for an XLR balanced interconnect, not so much for a RCA unbalanced interconnect.

For a RCA unbalanced interconnect, think Belden 1505F and 1695A (and others).
 
Another fan of the Belden 8402 here.
I use them terminated with Eichmann bullet plugs.

Easily one of the better cables in my setup and for the value a clear slam dunk.
 
in a general sense, this is my exact my experience as well. two things i have noticed which might be worth pointing out here:

both belden 8402 and 9497 use tinned-copper conductors, while the other interconnects in the OP's testing are either silver or straight copper. there is a large sonic difference between tinned-copper and straight copper conductors -- even more so between tinned-copper and silver conductors. in my system and to my ears, tinned-copper is by far the best giving a very rich tone that is detailed and with smooth highs. other listeners with other systems might have different conductor preferences.

so, i think the causal factor for the differences noticed in the OPs testing is the conductor metal... which brings me to the second point: quality materials in simple designs that allow the conductor to do its signal transmission job without interference also result in great sounding audio cables. so, it is no surprise to me that modestly priced cables can be just as good as those costing as much as a car.
 
An interesting read on different sonic values of metals can be found on the Viablue website. They offer several levels of cables made from a mixed combination of metals. They claim Bare copper for bass, tinned copper for mids and silver for highs. FWIW, YMMV
 
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