those are definitely too much. but I’d say headphone cables have a much higher jewellery designation than what you run between your amp and speakers.
only time a price like that can be justified, in my mind, is if it’s a really long run cause you can’t put your chair where the gear is (and let’s hope your headphone amp has a remote, LoL!).
and there are a number of factors that need to be taken into consideration. cable length, materials, shielding, connectors and such. one system will need a substantial cable for the power it’s moving while another doesn’t need much more than standard 12 gauge.
that’s actually something that stood out to me about Axiom. they sell speaker wire…standard bulk 12 gauge. they could try to take advantage of people since they do sell $10K speakers, but no, they don’t.
Most restaurants make like 10% on meals, and over 50% on alcohol or dips or addons. Soft drinks are like 1000% margin.
The iFi Zen series is one of the most cost effective entry models out there, and then they sell a $90 4.4 Pentacon connector, and $100 power adapters.
Have to be competitively priced on the big ticket item as that’s what people will compare, but then try to make up margin on the addons. I just see at is the people who buy all the high margin addons helping subsidize the big ticket items for the rest of us! Can’t blame anyone for trying!
Because I play guitar and have been in bands and been around professional audio equipment all my life, I learned at a young age that quality cable do make a difference. Especially when you want to save some money, go cheap and it starts dying within a year. You decide to go with something that will last or with a real warranty, and everything about it is the difference between night and day. Sound, clarity, feel. It’s literally like the faucet was dripping water with your old shitty cable and the new good quality cable opens it all the way up. Even the frequency range opened up. I remember getting much better extension and detail from the low and high end frequencies. Not a little, but a large improvement. It was nuts.
Ever since, I haven’t screwed around with cables. After years of reading about what pros use, I landed on Mogami for being high quality, great sound and longevity. To me, it’s worth it so they won’t need to be replaced. I don’t think I’ve ever had a Mogami go bad on me.
i mean yeah i agree but i was more referring to when does something go from “premium” to “overpriced”… like is a 100 dollar cable, is it a 50 dollar cable, does it depend on if its an analog or digital cable? im just curious
Measure it and find out. That’s the best way to find out. It is said certain materials bring out certain qualities in the music. I can’t really say I’ve ever heard a difference and I own all kinds of cables.
Check this thread out…
Good question. It should matter when it comes to analog only. Digital cables are only sending ones and zeros. They aren’t actually sending an audio signal. Some will argue that bad USB cables can introduce noise from interference. I personally don’t believe it. More snake oil.
personally i dont really like the idea of all measurements… this kind of “objective scientific” review kinda boils down the entire idea of music to a numbers game and statistics game instead of what i like about music and thats how it feels alive and what impact it gives, i enjoy the subjective elements like sound signature (which cables im pretty sure dont affect but im talking in general with stuff like DACs and amps) or how reliable something is or it feels on you
Cables don’t impact the emotional expressiveness of music, unless you’re literally in love with a cable. Then it might? lol
i said that… i was mostly riffing on the ASR’s of the world
Yes the Golds are,… Well gold! The platinum im thankful i didnt pay that much but like i said i couldnt tell a difference SQ wise but physical build and cable thickness was better. I have them hooked up to an amp that ive been trying to sell and is in a show room.
If you want them theyre all yours once the amp sells. Im trying to just downgrade and sell all my guitar stuff outside my acoustic, which maybe ill trade that for fancy cables.
I wont disagree regarding shielding, build quality, aesthetics, and other non SQ needs. Kimber Kables are very pretty imho and the connectors on the Mogami were much better spec and fit, so much better than anything else. But in the end the only use imho for these high priced cables is insurance. If i was spending 50k plus on a chain and cables were ONLY another few $k, then ok maybe it may not do anything but do i want to risk the rest over what is a small percent of the total cost. I am NOT im that group.
Oh, thanks bro but I’m all set. I have more crap than I need. I have an Axe FX II and am usually recording through an Universal Audio Apollo interface through VST amp sims. They are so good today and so much easier than micing an amp. I actually prefer their sound anymore to a real amp. lol
When it comes to quality cables, I just want to know that I’m not losing anything (signal) in-between anything. The less you can remove from the chain, the better and more pure your sound will be. It is so nice to be able to plug directly into an interface and be able to do everything digitally in the box. No shitty patch cables running from pedal to pedal.
I still think real tubes and a good amp are better and respond to touch so much but…
- can you get the sound you want and tame their volume
- space, weight, and durability if giging
- 1 amp is basically maybe only one or two sounds
- modelers have come so far is that extra 5% worth it
I had a 35w friedman copy made with a scumback 1×12. I can tell you i was not worthy of it but when real players ripped into it… Oooooooooooooooo!
Fractal was always the dream set up. Billy Howerdel used them and a custom Friedman and even live he could layer his guitar sounds so much. Which to bring this all back to the topic, i dont remember ANY rig overviews ever paying much mind to the cables being used in an artists rig. I viewed them as a give me what you can that is the length i need.
I propose the Monoprice/Amazon Basics Cable Law:
If it costs less than the Monoprice Cable, it’s probably trash.
If it costs up to triple the Monoprice Cable, it’s probably a good buy, and you’re getting what you pay for.
If it costs anything more than triple the Monoprice Cable, you’re getting hustled.
Some more antidotes…
My hfi 780 were fully rewired and recabled. When i bought them it was way after the craze on these headphones came and went and many of the places doing mods on them (ie ALO) stopped dealing with it. But i convinced S2 to do just one more pair just for me and add his special dampening.
I get them back and the cable is nice, i actually had it redone shorter so i can commute with it. But i listen to it and something is wrong. What i liked about the headphone is still there but there was the 1-3k pressure that my ears could not handle. It gives me ear fatigue and makes me feel like i just changed altitudes and my ears need to pop.
I contacted the guy asking what he did to my beloved cans. I probably was a little hard on him iirc, but it was the pair i used daily now “ruined”. In the end i scraped the dampening off the inside of the housing and it was back to normal. I think the cable added some extra clarity but was much better able to withstand NYC all weather walking and the default ultrasone cable was very not good. This was a mod people praised as godlike and one of the best thing in headphones at the time. But it didnt work for me.
I also broke that connector on a flight where the plugs faced inward on the seat and my wide body bent the tip. In the end it was also a neutriks fake plug that i replaced too so who knows.
I have a Mesa Boogie MKV with Mesa cab, but rarely use it. I’m addicted to Neural DSP plug ins. I don’t use the Axe FX II anymore at all. Compared to the Neural stuff, my amp sounds like an out of control beast that’s hard to tame. I’m usually spending time recording so using the amp really doesn’t make much sense anymore. The amp will always be the better choice for touch sensitivity due to digital latency, but it’s worth it to me for the convenience.
In my experience for interconnects, 4 to 10€ for the connectors and 0.8 to 1.5€ per meter are reasonable.
So a 2 meter (= 6ft) cable is 9€ to 25€ range.
With more specialised or properly certified cables, there is only the “If it is too good to be true, it is too good to be true”.
As said earlier, careful with shielding introducing parasitic capacitance.
Texas Instruments has this nice report on the matter.
In a more understandable form:
…
i agree with this for the most part but it also seems to imply that blue jeans cable (a much more respected cable company that is based on its statistics and no bullshit stance on price and quality and stuff) is hustling you on RCA cables as you can get a monoprice RCA for 5 bucks a metre and they cost about 30 for a metre
The man is talking about capacitors, if you add capacitors or resistor it chances the signal. Like shown but if you just have a simple audio cable, shielded audio cable.
How the outside shielding of the cable, effects the + and - signals? How it comes a extra capacitor there, why would it change the signal cause it’s not doing anything to it?
I dont get it.