RCA cable subjective comparison

[Marcus]

HIGHER NUMBERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[grev]

Pretty sure the only thing that got me were the custom made headphones, otherwise, the most expensive thing I bought are the LCD-2.

[Drubbing]

I had to get a new guitar cable today, the freebie I got was a bit shit, the plug housings kept coming unscrewed.

So I pondered my choices from $19-199. I went for a Fender because it was longer and it looked decently put together for $25. Then when I read the packaging I was elated to find out the high quality construction provided superior transparency, as well as "Tone-Master Precision-formulated nitrogen-injected foamed polythylen dielectric material enables a stronger signal, which results in better midrange and high-frequency response". I'm almost tempted to go back and see what I'm missing out on for $200.

See, that's why you buy Performance cables. I don't want my cables just lying around letting stuff flow through them, I want them to perform, dammit.

[matt_d_19]

I had to get a new guitar cable today, the freebie I got was a bit shit, the plug housings kept coming unscrewed.

So I pondered my choices from $19-199. I went for a Fender because it was longer and it looked decently put together for $25. Then when I read the packaging I was elated to find out the high quality construction provided superior transparency, as well as "Tone-Master Precision-formulated nitrogen-injected foamed polythylen dielectric material enables a stronger signal, which results in better midrange and high-frequency response". I'm almost tempted to go back and see what I'm missing out on for $200.

See, that's why you buy Performance cables. I don't want my cables just lying around letting stuff flow through them, I want them to perform, dammit.

My freebie cable is good enough for me!

By the way, I've never been "head-fi'd". Do I get an award?

[grev]

No, you don't.

The tubes in my Carvin Legacy half stack matters more than stupid super duper cables.

[BusinessEvolution]

people also rave about how much better the 49720 is compared to the 4562, when they're also the same chip

then ppl pay massive bucks for metal can versions over plastic packs

There were a whole bunch of posts across different forums by an audio engineer detailing the specific reasons why the metal can versions were superior in many cases, such as in the Essence STX. They were rather convincing and still accepted arguements, reading on headfi it usually shuts people up straight away when they link to what that person had written.

>.> Heres the kicker, I was also reading about a bit more today, and that audio Engineer aparently worked for National SemiConductor. Alarm bells raised? No, that means what he wrote is even more authoritative.

*face palm*

[BusinessEvolution]

people also rave about how much better the 49720 is compared to the 4562, when they're also the same chip
[/quote]

I was wondering today why the recommended upgrade for the opamps in the STX from ASUS were two 49720na for the headphone i/v buffer but left the other buffer alone.

Stock buffer was a 4562 op-amp :O

I find it interesting that people were complaining about putting three 49720's in the STX but agreed that leaving the 4562 as the buffer + 2 x 49720 was the best. (same combo??)

Well we will see, I might change out all three for the 'superior' 49860NAs that I accidentally ordered, its obviously the best version of the same combo XD.

I have no clue if there is a better opamp to use as the buff with the two 49720NAs.

People should be careful when ordering opamps off Ebay - this seller has a variety of FAKE 627BP opamps, actually after a bit of research, the majority of 627BP/AU/AP opamps on Ebay are fakes. This one below cracked me up, the picture is like 'look at all my opamps' but they are all different and the faces are all slightly wrong.
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/1pieces-OPA6 ... 1c1e8816ef

[BusinessEvolution]

Oddly enough in Asus's opamp guide they regard the three opamps as performing differently in certain positions. Though I wonder if they just took info from headfi lol, which is actually possible

49720na vs 4562na performing differently to the 4562NA in the I/V buffer positions

48960NA vs 49720NA performing differently in the Buffer position.

Bass 4562NA > 49720NA > 48960NA
Clarity 48960NA > 49820NA > 4562NA

In the buffer position, I found the 49860NA changed the SQ compared to 4562NA. Hard to notice the difference with the 48720NA.

[dc]

Asus don't want to look like audio n00bs do they!?

probably their marketing department rather than technical team is responsible for that...

re: cables. shielding & build quality are mostly what you should be looking/paying for. and cables that are excellent at both don't cost that much...

[BusinessEvolution]

Asus don't want to look like audio n00bs do they!?

probably their marketing department rather than technical team is responsible for that...

re: cables. shielding & build quality are mostly what you should be looking/paying for. and cables that are excellent at both don't cost that much...

If you built a circuit specifically around the LME49860NA, it could/would perform better compared to the LME49720NA.

Its similar to CPUs, where they all use the same design but the production quality determines what minimum specs they are set at and the maximum specs they are capable of. Maximum performance is a probability curve, a bit like i7 processors, 4562NA (like I7 920), LME49720NA (like i7 930), LME49860NA (i7 950), for example they call all probably perform at 3.6ghz, but the i7 950 can possibly go higher. (I7 920 murdered half of Intel's own product line at the time because it could easily be overclocked and save you $200-300 dollars, mine can overclock to 3.8ghz (currently 3.4ghz) but it gets hot so people got theirs to 4.0ghz). EDIT: I forgot to mention that voltage tolerance is what determines how high first gen i7 processors can overclock, not sure how directly that applies to the opamp case, but if you built a circuit specifically around the better opamp it would be capable of better performance.

Where it gets a bit hazy with Opamp rolling, is that circuits are usually optimised for the opamps that they are shipped with. So if you insert a different opamp there probably won't be that much of a difference due to the rest of the build, leaving usually two outcomes performing slightly better, or largely worse. In that way its a bit similar to cable magic where usually the outcomes are the same or worse, (worse being a difference people interpret as better because they were told it was an improvement)

EDIT2: ASUS does let the Marketing department go wild when writing up their product descriptions too lol

[dion]

Where it gets a bit hazy with Opamp rolling, is that circuits are usually optimised for the opamps that they are shipped with. So if you insert a different opamp there probably won't be that much of a difference due to the rest of the build, leaving usually two outcomes performing slightly better, or largely worse. In that way its a bit similar to cable magic where usually the outcomes are the same or worse, (worse being a difference people interpret as better because they were told it was an improvement)

The reason why I leave op-amps in as they were originally designed... If I knew the schematic and could make an informed decision and knew enough theory to apply any changes I could possibly consider it, even then though, I wouldn't see a need unless there was a flaw in the original design and knew how to correct it.

It's far more likely that an expensive op-amp in a circuit that it was not designed for woud likely perform worse than a cheap op-amp in a well designed circuit Some op-amps like the 8397 can get very tempermental in the wrong circuit.

[BusinessEvolution]

Yeah unfortunately some of the expensive op-amps that people roll blindly tend to oscillate and die.

[dc]

it seems the only requirement many people look at in deciding to roll an opamp is whether it is dual channel or single channel

oh and whether or not it has the right number/type of pins

[green_avanti]

Hi
I've tried a lot of cables; from an RCA 1m pair costing $600 to those costing $20 or less. The expensive ones were on trial from a Van Den Hul distributor, and the cheap ones being an ordinary copper pair I bought from Dick Smith's.
One of my best systems had a CD deck to DAC that sounded vastly preferable with a basic copper cable. Another, a portable headamp with an MD Source, sounded vastly superior with a good quality custom 'silver cable' - ie far more transparent, with a cleaner, more transparent and better balanced bass and top end. Some people sya 'silver' can be too bright and a bit sharp, but not always, depends on the componenets and their quality.
The one thing I would always do and very strongly recommend IS TO LISTEN TO IT FIRST before paying good money for it.
As I've said, sometimes a cheap copper cable can sound best, other times a good silver cable is vastly superior..
What it's made of and how much it costs are not deciding factors, you need to listen to it, ie compare it 1:1 with what you normally use and then make a decision.
I've had very expensive cables wipe out and dull the bass on my Pink Floyd and just tone done and thicken the sound overall (made it more valve like ).
Try any cable first before buying it, especially the exotic or expensive ones.
I have bought cables that have been particularly well rated by some magazine, and will probably do that again. Don't know about that.
Kind regards
Graeme

[BusinessEvolution]

Well.... after much research, some expensive high end cables DO change the sound, and people think its an improvement. Usually the change is in the bass region and its actually caused by the cable causing the amp to have issues. Due to either higher capacitance or higher resistance some cables can cause a bass hump or effective boost in bass. With cheaper or poorly made amps this could cause oscillation and your speakers/tweeters blowing out.

RCA cables:
Shielded better quality cables will be better than cheap unshielded cables. On runs less than 1.5-3m, you won't get an improvement over 20-30 dollar quality cables. Higher end cables cause issues with how the amp operates, and some people prefer this sound (just don't blow your speakers). Its technically adding distortion to the final sound that is reproduced by your system XD. Oxygen free copper can be problematic too, standard grade copper is actually better than the next grade of OFC copper, then higher end copper may be better. Whether you can hear a difference or not. Silver was measured as having a different capacitance, and if they aren't careful different impedance (As long as it sounds different who cares? Most people paying a lot probably have a decent amp that won't malfunction to the extent of blowing the speakers). Ther e was a post from headfi about a person that had a completely 'audiophile' setup, audiophile custom 'fire hazard' amp and expensive cables, and lastly blown tweaters two weeks later.

Toslink Optical:
Quality makes a difference which is not always indicated by price
Plastic<multistrand fibre glass<polished fibre<single glass fibre optic

The main impact is on the bandwidth available for audio before there are issues with too much jitter/compression/sq loss. Generally most cables can handle 24/44.8mhz, most good cables can handle 24/96mhz but only the better/higher end cables properly handle 24/192mhz. Some of the lowest end cables have probs with even CD quality audio.