Sensible Audio Cables? Introducing Audio Sensibility...

Mike

Mike

Audioshark
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Location
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I will be the first to admit, I'm a bit of a sceptic when it comes to cables costing more than cars - and I own some, but its undeniable that cables DO make a difference.

That being said, I have been trying to peel back the onion a little and really try to understand the differences in cables from a metallurgical standpoint. For example, I was quite impressed to read about the specs on the Nordost Odin cables, only to realize "silver plated" means, "about 1% silver".

I've also come to realize that it doesn't matter much what's in the middle, if the two ends are substandard (I'm a big fan of Furutech ends in that regard).

That being said, I've been researching and speaking to people about companies that allegedly make great cables at a fair price. I'm looking forward to trying some in my system.

I would like to introduce you to a few:

High-End OCC Silver and OCC Copper Audio Cables - Audio Sensibility
(background on the owner: Audio Sensibility | Stereophile.com)

Avanti Audio affordably priced audio interconnects (our very own Mike Chadwell)

welcome to unity audio design located in pleasanton california (our very own Jeff Whitlock)

Welcome to VooDoo Cable (aren't they all Voodoo cables? :) )

Of the more well known companies, I've been paying close attention to Kimber. Their Select Series seems like an excellent value as well and I know we have quite a few folks here who use their cables.
 
Mike... Those Audio Sensibility - Signature Silver XLR Interconnects look very reasonably priced. 3 core Ohno Continuous Cast (OCC) silver with a purity of 99.99998% (7N), plus shielding, Furutech terminations, cryo treatment, TechFlex braid.

They would be worth a go! Given the specification, could compete with other brands many times the price. Would love to see someone fairdinkum do a shakedown. :D

Does anyone here use their products?
 
Steve said:
Mike... Those Audio Sensibility - Signature Silver XLR Interconnects look very reasonably priced. 3 core Ohno Continuous Cast (OCC) silver with a purity of 99.99998% (7N), plus shielding, Furutech terminations, cryo treatment, TechFlex braid.

They would be worth a go! Given the specification, could compete with other brands many times the price. Would love to see someone fairdinkum do a shakedown. :D

Does anyone here use their products?
Click to expand...

Steve, you should talk with Steve....just don't expect any kind of sales pitch. He spent most of our call apologizing for the price of silver! He's about to release an all silver power cable....but kept saying, "I'm sorry, the price of pure silver is so expensive". I pressed him, "well, how much?" "Oh boy, the price of silver..." "yeah, yeah...how much?"...about "$2000 for a pure silver power cable with Furutech FI50 connectors." The cable will be 9AWG OCC silver. Here is a picture of it:

XPCSE.JPG

He's working on pure silver speaker cables as well.

Steve - you may find this page (and videos) interesting: Manufacturing + Audio Sensibility
 
Mike, I wonder what he thinks of carbon filament braid. I am a fan of TechFlex Flexo Conductive braid too especially when it comes to power connects.

9AWG OCC Silver PC with Furutech Flux termination is something that would interest me very much.
 
im using mikech's avanti allegro cables(sc's,ic's,and pc) and love them. im almost ready to get the full loom which would only be another pc and a tonearm cable.
how can you go wrong with quality cable, attractive cover, sweet high quality connectors, all at a great price!! and the fact that knowing mike is sitting there with his solder gun and probably a light making these by hand for you.
i once told him if his speaker cables were $10k instead of $325 he would sell more.lmao!!!
 
Mike said:
Steve, you should talk with Steve....just don't expect any kind of sales pitch. He spent most of our call apologizing for the price of silver! He's about to release an all silver power cable....but kept saying, "I'm sorry, the price of pure silver is so expensive". I pressed him, "well, how much?" "Oh boy, the price of silver..." "yeah, yeah...how much?"...about "$2000 for a pure silver power cable with Furutech FI50 connectors." The cable will be 9AWG OCC silver. Here is a picture of it:

View attachment 7269

He's working on pure silver speaker cables as well.

Steve - you may find this page (and videos) interesting: Manufacturing + Audio Sensibility
Click to expand...

Now I like this. If it is too bright you can give to your wife to wear as necklace. Alternatively my wife would put it around my neck and twist. Too rich for me.
 
I have been using Audio Sensibility cables for a number of years now. I know when I first tried it made an instant change in the sound. What I haven't figured out is am I just listening to a change or different sound of the same thing. I'm going to follow this thread see If I can learn how to better evaluate cables.
Steve is great guy. Knows his stuff and extremely dedicated to his product. I recommend his product line. Very sensible prices.
I would compare Audio Sensibilities and Moon Audio equals I have owned both their products. Moon Audio has more flash and Audio Sensibilities more laid back. Both have great passion for what they are doing and do it well.
 
Another high value line of cables worthy of consideration is Cabledyne. They have many favorable user reviews for reference on their site and are very reasonably priced. Construction quality is very high and their customer support is both responsive and helpful. They also provide a 40-day money back evaluation period on their stock cables.
 
I'm in the process of reviewing some new, more real world priced cables from MG Audio. Unfortunately, their site seems down tonight.

Www.mgaudiodesign.com.

I'll also have some of Paul Kaplan's new Waveform Fidelity cables coming in soon. His older Kaplan cables were very nice and really liked his speaker cables and power cords.

High-End Audiophile Systems, Personalized Service - Waveform Fidelity (formerly Kaplan Cable)

Also while I haven't tried all their cables, the Audience phono cable is reasonably prices and quite a god performer. Review should be up shortly.
 
I've had the opportunity to demo AS's Statement USB cable in my system and like it so much I ended up buying it. I had 2 other Wireworld USB cables, the Starlight and Ultraviolet, on hand to compare (plus a POS stock cable just for kicks) and the Statement far surpassed them aurally in resolution & detail, soundstage and transparency. I bought the Ultraviolet a few years and recently got the Starlight which was about 20% better than the former but the Statement truly left them in the dust.

A big downside was the cable having handshake problems with my Schitt Gungnir DAC. Music would play for maybe a minute then immediately fade out. The problem seemed to resolve byhaving an iFi iusbpower in my signal chain but this also acquiring using another usb cable -- dealbreaker to many I'm sure. Well, in my case with a $300 usb and another $250 iFi device seemed to make a significant improvement in resolution, deepening soundstage and instrument separation so I'm a happy (but poorer) camper.
 
Cables can be a great improvement, although the effect should not be overrated. Influence of acoustical measures or improvement of the power supply / power filtering are way bigger. Nevertheless good cables are valuable but unfortunately shamelessly high priced!
I have concluded that self assembly is a huge cost saving. As an example:
This great SinnOxx plug
stekker.jpg

Carbon grip, rhodium plated contacts: very solid construction: 50 Euro

Same story for the gear side of the cable: 50 Euro
contra.jpg


This Furutech Alpha 3 OCC cable: 154 Euro / meter
1318943319-24353.3.jpg


This means that I can assemble a super duper mains cable for 250 - 300 Euros!

Oh, you want cable braiding around it:
1165070753-32287.3.jpg

Less than 2 Euro's per meter.

Pure Silver? No problem. This cable is not more than 40 Euro per meter.
1349791044-20836.3.jpg


And these are just examples from materials I like. The bottom line is that you can create great cables for a couple of hundreds if you are willing to spend a couple of hours and is you have the tools and skills to do this.
 
Unlike an amp or speaker which is made from many components and parts, audio cable is a metal wire, shielding, sheath and connector at both ends. So it is very possible that almost all of the audio cables companies would buy the wires from cable manufacturers and outsource the parts to component manufacturers.

I have been browsing many audio cable web sites to determine as to how the cables are manufactured, but most are marketing speak peppered with the latest technology, but few talks about the MANUFACTURING of the product from the ground up.

I applaud Cabledyne for stating their World Class Suppliers, I would think that most cable companies will have their own suppliers for final assembly of the final ASSEMBLY.

The cables that I am using is claimed to be made in UK, now that the owner is dead, I have been informed that the wires are made in UK but the complete cable is assembled locally or in a building in UK. In a sense, assembly of audio cables has been around for many years, it is just that audio cable companies have managed to sex it up today. I can understand why as a business model needs a very high profit margin as there may not be enough volume to be sustainable. And they need to recover their R&D and IP as well.

Very rarely would you be able to find a MANUFACTURER of audio cables, but there is one high end German company that actually does manufacture the wires and components and make the final product in-house. They actually posts pictures of their manufacturing of the wires. I would be certain that a large proportion of audio cable companies buys from them. I would most certainly buy cables from them.

This post have provided me a glimpse of many audio cable companies that I may consider in upgrading my cables. I know that when I upgrade, the system would not sound better, it would just sound different, and there will be compromises.

Mike, thank you for posting this. I have more reasonable options now.
 
I have just recently got into cables and I like Black Cat cables. I have their LectraLine Xe ic's, Dragon Warlord power cords and Silverheart speaker cables (that I installed yesterday). They have a high silver content, are well made and reasonably priced compared to other cables.

LectraLine | STEREOLAB --
 
I agree. I just purchased a Black Cat BNC cable for my Lumin to DAC connection and it's a very nice cable. I needed a way to compare the Lumin with my AMR Dp-777.



Albert said:
I have just recently got into cables and I like Black Cat cables. I have their LectraLine Xe ic's, Dragon Warlord power cords and Silverheart speaker cables (that I installed yesterday). They have a high silver content, are well made and reasonably priced compared to other cables.

LectraLine | STEREOLAB --
Click to expand...
 
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