Thread: Experimenting with Straight Wire Crescendo 3 Interconnects...

In my previous thread "Unbalanced Interconnect Length", someone mentioned that since I am now running unbalanced to my amps, that I should also try unbalanced from my streamer to preamp as well.

Well it just so happens that one of my brothers has a spare pair of 0.5m Straight Wire Crescendo 3 interconnects laying around, so he's letting me try them out in my system.

I'm currently comparing them along side my 10 year old 1m Wire World Oasis 7 XLR cables.

Annoyingly, switching back and forth between input 1 (XLR) and input 3 (RCA), there's a 6 dB difference between the two, making direct comparisons a challenge. When I switch back and forth, I'm having to quickly adjust the volume as well.

My brother has used the Crescendo 3 cables for a year or more (he's got the full loom in his system), but they have sat unused for the past few weeks or so. I've had them playing in my system for the past 24 hours. At this point, I don't think any extra burn-in should make any difference.

Anyway, from what I can tell, there's not a whole lot of difference in sound between my 10 year old, $170 XLR's and his maybe 1.5 year old, $800 RCA's.

From what I can hear, the initial "kick" or "impact" of a bass drum is a bit softer on the leading edge with the Crescendo 3, as well as the midrange possibly being just a bit laid back or ever so slightly recessed. Of course, the difference in midrange could very well be just the fact that I'm not getting the volume levels perfectly the same. But the leading edge softness in the bass is certainly a thing.

Other than that, everything else seems to be the same. Not very impressive to say the least. I would expect a pair of cables that cost nearly 5x as much would offer up some decent improvements in sound. Maybe because I'm comparing balanced to unbalanced?

Just went and did a little digging around, and I have a spare pair of Wire World Oasis 7 RCA's sitting here, probably unused for a couple of years. I'll swap them in place of the Straight Wire RCA's and see what happens. If I get that same kind of soft leading edge and recessed midrange, then it just might be a fact of comparing balanced to unbalanced.

At this point however, it's just pure curiosity as someone else in that other thread of mine also said that I may or may not get any improvements going to RCA or even get any reduced noise. luckily, either way, there's no extra noise, and that was the main point behind this little experiment all along.

Also, as a side note, I find it a bit odd that on any of the hifi forums I'm on, there's pretty much zero mention of Straight Wire cables of any kind. Hmm...

I just pulled the Straight Wire cables and put in the WW Oasis 7 RCA's, and now there's virtually no differences between the two (Oasis 7 XLR and Oasis 7 RCA). Same sharpness and impact in the bass, same type of midrange presence, same everything from what I can tell.

I think there is certainly some gear that works best with balanced cabling. Those devices run "balanced" inside and have separate amplifiers for the hot and the cold (4 in total for stereo). And that mainly when both the components being connected are truely balanced. There are certainly some hum reduction when using balanced in long cable runs. Thats why "pro" connections are balanced.

If your gear works single ended inside, then the xlr cables won't make a difference. You have noticed the one difference, being that balanced cables are twice the voltage (hot to cold) than single ended (hot to ground).

Originally Posted by Bones13

I think there is certainly some gear that works best with balanced cabling. Those devices run "balanced" inside and have separate amplifiers for the hot and the cold (4 in total for stereo). And that mainly when both the components being connected are truely balanced. There are certainly some hum reduction when using balanced in long cable runs. Thats why "pro" connections are balanced.

If your gear works single ended inside, then the xlr cables won't make a difference. You have noticed the one difference, being that balanced cables are twice the voltage (hot to cold) than single ended (hot to ground).

Pretty much exactly what you said in my other thread! LOL

Yes, my preamp and streamer are definitely "true" balanced, and they play very nicely together.

One of the reasons I was wanting to try these two units via RCA was that someone in one of the forums mentioned that one connection favored even harmonics whereas the other favored uneven harmonics, and depending on the system, one may sound better than the other. Whether that's true or not, I don't know, but once I switched over to the WW Oasis 7 RCA's and XLR's, I can't hear a difference other than the 6 dB gain differential which I adjust for.

The second reason I wanted to try the unbalanced connection was to see if doing so would help reduce and/or eliminate that random buzz that still comes through the system. Short answer... It doesn't.

So with this little experiment done, I will be staying with a balanced connection between the streamer and preamp.

Sounds like WW is a good deal.

I haven't read the other thread, sounds like you are mixing XLR and RCA connections through your chain, is that correct? I had a hum in my system I couldn't isolate. I am using the HT pass through and had a RCA connection since the other outputs on my processor was RCA. On a whim I went XLR from my processor to preamp, this eliminated the hum. This could just be my set up or it could be possible that mixing the connections in some instances allows for interference/hum.

You might try inserting XLR cables in other connections to see if it helps. My theory is although every component may not be truly balance there can be benefits to still staying with all XLR connections. Like eliminating a hum, LOL

In my case my 2-channel system is all differentially balanced where the HT units are not. As a side note this happened when I was using a Pass preamp, the same issue remained with the Levinson, meaning I had to use XLR from HT processor to stereo preamp to eliminate a hum.

Originally Posted by Mr Peabody

Sounds like WW is a good deal.

I haven't read the other thread, sounds like you are mixing XLR and RCA connections through your chain, is that correct? I had a hum in my system I couldn't isolate. I am using the HT pass through and had a RCA connection since the other outputs on my processor was RCA. On a whim I went XLR from my processor to preamp, this eliminated the hum. This could just be my set up or it could be possible that mixing the connections in some instances allows for interference/hum.

You might try inserting XLR cables in other connections to see if it helps. My theory is although every component may not be truly balance there can be benefits to still staying with all XLR connections. Like eliminating a hum, LOL

In my case my 2-channel system is all differentially balanced where the HT units are not. As a side note this happened when I was using a Pass preamp, the same issue remained with the Levinson, meaning I had to use XLR from HT processor to stereo preamp to eliminate a hum.

In my situation, I've got this buzzing in my system twice. First when we first moved in and I was running the NuPrime amps, and now with the Odyssey amps, both of which have ground prongs and do not utilize true balanced inputs. There's also a secondary buzz that these amps pick up, but it's a random, louder buzz that almost seems like it's something on a timer as it comes and goes within a minute or two throughout the day, but lasts a bit longer in the evenings.

On the other hand, using the Emotiva amp which does NOT have a ground prong, was completely silent, but it also has true balanced inputs. So no matter what preamp I used, the Emotiva amp was always dead silent, and it was always fed a balanced input.

The NuPrime amps and Odyssey amps were also always fed a balanced signal, but because their inputs are not true balanced, they were picking up a constant buzz from somewhere and feeding that buzz into the amps (I'm guessing through the ground). Galen (ICONOCLAST) and others suggested that I used single ended RCA's to the amps. I got a pair of BJC LC-1's a couple weeks ago and that completely removed the constant buzz. However, that loud random buzz still comes through, but nowhere near as loud as it used to.

BTW, when I first got my system fired up on the day we moved in, all of the gear was in the front of the room, coming off of the front outlets and no cable runs longer than 1m, and I was getting all of that buzzing then as well, so the 30ft long XLR's aren't the culprit. And for the life of me, I could never find the source of that random louder buzz. It's not from the air conditioner, fridge, ice maker, washing machine, etc, etc.

The buzz was loud enough that when it started, I'd jump up and walk around the house to see if something was running and would shut off when the buzz stopped. Absolutely nothing in the house is connected with that annoying buzz. It's probably coming from the neighbor's house or something.

Charles, re: the louder random buzzing...

Try to keep a notepad handy and log the times and duration that you hear it. Would be interesting to see if it is indeed something that is happening with extreme consistency or does it just seem like it. Do you have any neighbors that are welders? Or, perhaps have some sort of industrial / commercial three phase powered equipment running in your neighborhood?

Over the years I've had similar types of extraneous noise find its way to my system as well. In general, its always been outside influences and not gear specific. One such instance drove me to run my dedicated 20 amp circuit years ago. At the time I had a pair of older Conrad Johnson built Motif MS100 mono amps that would suddenly start to buzz. It wasn't buzzing through the loud speakers but a physical buzz in one of the amp chassis coming from the large toroidal transformer itself. After it had been happening for a couple of months on and off I discovered that it correlated with my wife running her hair dryer ha ha! Hence, I acted quickly to get the dedicated 20 amp circuit installed in my listening room and the problem never returned with those amps or any other equipment since.

Originally Posted by MikeCh

Charles, re: the louder random buzzing...

Try to keep a notepad handy and log the times and duration that you hear it. Would be interesting to see if it is indeed something that is happening with extreme consistency or does it just seem like it. Do you have any neighbors that are welders? Or, perhaps have some sort of industrial / commercial three phase powered equipment running in your neighborhood?

The only one consistent seems to be right around 9pm every night, maybe a minute or two before or after. This is one of the ones that lasts for about 10 to 15 minutes. Also, no matter what time this buzz shows up, when it goes away, it stays silent for a few seconds, comes back on for a couple seconds a little quieter, then goes back out again. Think of it like an echo or something. But after that, it's gone for a while, 30 minutes or more before it comes back again.

Very strange.

Not even an 1/8th mile to our left is a church, and about a 1/2 mile to the right of us down one of the side roads is one of those domed ground level water storage tanks. That's the only kind of "industrial/commercial" type buildings we have close by.

That is an odd issue

Straight Wire ... are they still around?

Originally Posted by Elberoth

Straight Wire ... are they still around?

Apparently so. If their TOTL Crescendo 3 performs in others systems as it did in mine, it's no wonder you don't hear of them much these days.

As I stated above, my 10+ year old $170 XLR and $130 RCA interconnects (Wireworld Oasis 7) pretty much bettered the 1 year old $800 Crescendo 3 in every way. That doesn't favor well for Straight Wire.

Originally Posted by chops

The only one consistent seems to be right around 9pm every night, maybe a minute or two before or after. This is one of the ones that lasts for about 10 to 15 minutes. Also, no matter what time this buzz shows up, when it goes away, it stays silent for a few seconds, comes back on for a couple seconds a little quieter, then goes back out again. Think of it like an echo or something. But after that, it's gone for a while, 30 minutes or more before it comes back again.
Very strange. ...............................

Any grow lights hidden in someone's basement?

I had the same thought

Originally Posted by Speedskater

Any grow lights hidden is someone's basement?

If anyone has a basement around here, it's an underground swimming pool. Remember, I live in Florida where the water table is like 5ft below the surface. LOL Then again, I live in Florida, so wouldn't be surprised if there weren't a few grow lights around here either, especially with the ex-hippy looking old broad next door. Ha! Not a very pleasant person either I might add. Very grumpy.

Anyway....

I have no idea what that buzzing noise is or where it's coming from. I don't think it's someone's a/c unit because the buzz sticks around a lot longer in the evenings than during the day, which wouldn't make sense, especially on the weekends when people are home during the day.

It's not from the refrigerator/ice maker as the buzzing is totally independent from the fridge.

It's not the irrigation system because that currently has no power (control unit died).

It's not the Ring camera system nor are there any light dimmers in the house.

And as we all suggested before, it could also be coming from an outside source. If that's the case, the sky's the limit... Unfortunately.


With that said, I do currently have a thread on this topic... Whole Home Surge Protection/Power Conditioning for Dedicated 20A lines...