Would you abandon your expensive cables if there was a much cheaper alternative?

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Mike B.

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In my experience the rising cost usually means better performance. But occasionally a product comes along which defies this axiom. Two cables I think do it are the Duelund tinned copper wire in oiled cloth and the Audio Envy cables. The Duelund wire is small in stature and does not look like the typical expensive offering. No active shielding, etc. Would looks and low cost bother you?
 
In answer to your original question, absolutely.
However after trying many many cables, including the ones you mention, I have not found any of the truly inexpensive cables that perform well in MY SYSTEM.
I have found moderately priced cables from boutique companies that punch way above their pay grade.
I have found cables to be very system dependent. What works in your system may not work in mine.
Cables are like spice is to cooking.
The better cables have traits that any of the entry/diy cables that I have tried don't.
YMMV
 
Yes. I did.. I've owned many expensive cables. I now use Furutech NCF products. About 25% of the cost of most "average" priced brands. I'm also getting better results. I recently saw the same Furutech NCF products used on a $15K power cord......
 
If I was offered the choice of any expensive audiophile cables or Blue Jeans Cables ( with the understanding that I had to keep them and couldn't resell them) I would chose the Blue Jeans Cables.
 
I wouldn’t abandon my cables, I would sell my cables under the premise newco comes over sets them up and leaves them until I am satisfied, then assuming the case writes me a check upon a mutually agreed upon price thinking there will be a difference - short of that I’m done, in a positive way.


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Mike B. said:
In my experience the rising cost usually means better performance. But occasionally a product comes along which defies this axiom. Two cables I think do it are the Duelund tinned copper wire in oiled cloth and the Audio Envy cables. The Duelund wire is small in stature and does not look like the typical expensive offering. No active shielding, etc. Would looks and low cost bother you?
Click to expand...

Already have. Not that mine were very expensive to begin with but they were custom built pure copper cables.
After trying Western Electric and Duelund, I'm now trying out Belden 8477 as speaker cable.

It's a 12 awg Tinned Copper design that will make you smile from cheek to cheek when you see the price.
https://catalog.belden.com/index.cfm?event=pd&p=PF_8477



.
 
i have been surfing this wave for a few years now... and, i am loving my relatively inexpensive speaker and interconnect cables from a small, boutique manufacturer. both use tinned-copper conductor wires and the IC cables are shielded.

imo, they offer a very good price/performance ratio and there is no compromise on looks / aesthetics.

note: jeff day has done a tremendous amount of work and writing on the tinned-copper conductor wires from dueland coherent audio (see this positve feedback article) which inspired me to give them a try... it was love at first listen although i have since switched to cables using the western electric tinned-copper wire, which i prefer.

always open to alternatives -- but, i am pretty darn happy with my current analog cables which are in line with the OPs thesis.
 
I bought all of my Duelunds because I liked them best. In my case, they replaced my previous favorite Western Electric cables. The fact that they were inexpensive was not in the equation, but it didn't hurt...

As far as speaker cables go, I need to hear if the much less efficient Joseph Audios - estimated @88dB 1w/1m vs. my previous Tannoys @96 db 1w/1m - might benefit from another cable.
 
Jim Smith said:
I bought all of my Duelunds because I liked them best. The fact that they were inexpensive was not in the equation, but it didn't hurt...
Click to expand...

+1 ...exactly what i was trying to say - just much more succinct and straight to the point. :)
 
After trying several cables in my equipment (expensive and cheap) I came to a conclusion, no matter the price of the cables, you have to find cables that work well with the equipment.
 
Yes. My expensive cables were BJC. I ended up abandoning them for cheaper Duelund cables.
 
Absolutely. I use Belden 8402 XLR's which sound better than my AQ Columbia 72v DBS. They were a revelation. But I have never tried $1K or better cables in my system.
 
I don't want it to sound like a blurb, I tested the cables (balanced and for the speakers) PAD Aqueous Aureas and I loved how it sounded in my set, but unfortunately I could not buy it, therefore I bought the Musaeus Revision Luminist, they sound good but they are already for sale, if I sell them I buy the Aqueous Aureas.
 
My posting this thread was partly motivated by a person who posted at another site. He was embarrassed by the diminutive size of the Duelund speaker wires he loves. So he placed them inside larger tubing and put some attractive flexible covers on them and nice gold plated spades. Said they didn't look audiophile enough bare:rolleyes:
 
Mike B. said:
....
So he placed them inside larger tubing and put some attractive flexible covers on them and nice gold plated spades. Said they didn't look audiophile enough bare:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

He should start a cable business! [emoji23]
 
Mike B. said:
So he placed them inside larger tubing and put some attractive flexible covers on them and nice gold plated spades. Said they didn't look audiophile enough bare:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Probably he made a mistake.

One day i tried to separate the conductors of the speaker cable i had.
The sound became strange, thin, but more dynamic with more air and much less compression.
Then i put them close again. The bass has return but i can´t stand it anymore. It was no bass. :doubtful:It was a shadow, a veil in the sound. Reading, :reading: i discovery they call it crosstalk.
Then, i tried to put some shielding around each conductor. And at first it seems to work well. Everything seems to be more liquid and the background was now really dark. With time became clear ir was horrible, it become compressed. Strange, because without shield it was dirty and mixed and with it was clean but compressed. But much, much better when putting the shield at some distance from the conductor.

And i thinked to myself: ah, that´s because of that some cables are so wide. Now that i understand i wiil never make fun of the big hoses. :facepalm:

After these experiences, almost all the market cables that i tried seemed to had these problems. Some of them were to thin, while most of others had that horrible shadow in the mids. And i think, what the hell, it seems nobody knows exactly what they are doing. :D Manufacturers are doing it by trial and error. Why can´t I do the same? So i keep on trying by myself. :popcorn:

Yes, i never tried really expensive market cables except my indispensable interconnect Ortofon (about 1.500 € - can we say that is expensive?) but i found some of these issues (dark; veil sound) in so many big systems that i can almost swear that they were cable problems.
So...

 
Yes, Better is better regardless of cost. At one time my cables were all silver. I loved the liveliness and extension. In time this became tiresome. Presently I have zero silver cables in my rig, I found copper cables that were simply the “right” balance. And surprisingly cheaper. I am using all Burley IC’s (originally from Pass Labs). I just “downgraded” my speaker cable to Analysis Plus. Beside being sick of garden hose variety speaker cable, the thinner, more manageable cables sound better. My eyes were opened when I borrowed a pair of Mapleshade speaker cables from a friend. Although they ended up not to be the best fit, these super thin, solid core cables were amazing. I loved their ease of use so much, I went on a quest to find a flexible, user friendly cable. The A+ did this. A significant sound improvement was icing on the cake.
 
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