Here's A Really Good Affordable Cable

[Mr Peabody]

A friend gave me a set of new Tributaries 6 XLR's to try. Affordable is relative but what these cost and when you hear how good they are you will know it's an incredible value. A 1 meter RCA is about $120.00 and the XLR $230.00 retail.
Tributaries Cable (http://www.tributariescable.com/products/6A)
Balanced Trib 6 link: Tributaries Cable (http://www.tributariescable.com/products/6AB)</SPAN>
The set I tried was as Transparent and clear as my current reference which really surprised me, these didn't have much break in, at this point the bass was very tight and detailed, the midrange was natural, each note having it's own space, piano played with no harshness or distortion, acoustic guitar was natural and when a bit of slapping added the sound had a stunning coherency. These cables conveyed emotion and musicality like very few I've heard at any price and to find it in this price is amazing. I didn't jump ship, my current cables bring out certain sounds better like congas and more bass authority but I loved listening to the T6's for letting that sense of toe tapping come through my system and how close they did come to my cables in clarity and transparency was scary. The T6 also have a unique sense of presence, bringing your music to life, I suspect some heightened frequencies in the mids and highs possibly. Overall this Tributaries 6 is a high end sound for budget pricing, for real. Also, made in USA

[Smokey]

You said about Tributaries Cable..


The set I tried was as Transparent and clear as my current reference which really surprised me.

And then you said..


I suspect some heightened frequencies in the mids and highs possibly.

Those two sentences seem to contradict each other. You can't have both transparency and heightened frequencies in the mids and highs :)

[Mr Peabody]

Transparency and frequency response are two different things. Transparency, is the sense of air around instruments and clarity, low noise. "Low noise" may be hard for you to understand as it's not like typical noise, it's more like what isn't there opposed to what is. I'm sure you already understand frequency response, some cables do provide a different representation of the sound quality, more bass or accentuate the high end more etc. When sound is more "transparent" to me it comes closer to a live performance than sounding like electronics. Anticable attributes a lot of the difference in sound to dielectric, I switched to their cables after an audition and found them preferrable to some expensive cables I was using, so to find these Tributaries with dielectric to to rival the clarity of my Anticable is quite an accomplishment and especially for the price.


You said about Tributaries Cable..



And then you said..



Those two sentences seem to contradict each other. You can't have both transparency and heightened frequencies in the mids and highs :)

[Mr Peabody]

Just a quick follow up, I left the Trib 6's in my system for about a week to see what break in may occur, there was an increase in the midbass which is the only change I noticed. When switching back to my Anticable Reference I noticed the sound stage was spread out more, the Trib 6 seemed to bring things more into the center of the sound stage which in my tally sheet was a negative.

[LeRoy]

Mr. P, howdy. Hey, since you are in audio lab mode have you tried to A/B against any kind of toslink cable? Sounds like your having lots of fun over there...

[Mr Peabody]

I haven't done anything much with Toslink, I'm not using that connection any where right now. I have had guys tell me the Wireworld digital cables are very good compared to what else they've used.

[Jack in Wilmington]

What type of digital cable are you using? Are you using a USB cable at the moment?

[boba]

don't know a lot about different cables available, but do know cables make a difference. using some silver sonic t-14 speaker cables myself. make my klipsch speakers sound so nice and smooth with great bass. super nice improvement. love the decision i made to invest in these. i am able to see just how nice my jolida amp is too. i love the klipsch with the jolida and the silver sonic cables brought it all together.

[LeRoy]

It's neat to discover how cabling can affect the nuances of all the perceived sound quality and sound wave. All this time that I have had the Stello units I never bothered with the toslink. Well, much to my surprise I found the toslink to provide a darker background and better separation between instruments and vocals. The BMA cable provides more bass weight, bass slam, and upper frequency extension over the toslink. I just got 4 new toslink today to do my own A/B comparisons and so far I am getting the same result...greater clarity via toslink but losing out on slam and upper end sparkle....still fun and a good listen though..

L

[StevenSurprenant]

don't know a lot about different cables available, but do know cables make a difference. using some silver sonic t-14 speaker cables myself. make my klipsch speakers sound so nice and smooth with great bass. super nice improvement. love the decision i made to invest in these. i am able to see just how nice my jolida amp is too. i love the klipsch with the jolida and the silver sonic cables brought it all together.

I too use Silver Sonic. To me, these are one of the better cables and after I got mine, I quit looking. I use the Q10 for the speakers and the Revelation for interconnects. I also have their digital cables.

I also have used DIY teflon coated 20 guage solid core wire that also sounds very good at a fraction of the cost of the Silver Sonic.

I compared DIY 20 guage wire in both silver and copper and had mixed feelings. I liked the brightness of the silver, but the copper sounded more balanced, but lacked the sharpness at heigher frequencies. These are very cheap to make and they do sound very good.

[Bill K Davis]

Interested in your Diy solid core cables. How difficult? Can you give a recipe? Solid core seems like a good thing in my experience.

[Mr Peabody]

Once you see what DIY would cost you might want to check the Anticable website, these are solid core and Speltz says one of the reason cables sound different is the dielectric, I know from comparing his cables are hard to beat and the dielectric theory is true, I see others trying to use techniques to now minimize the effect of the dielectric. Also, after using Anticables for a while then trying other cables with dielectric you will hear what Speltz teaches. He is making cables now where the cost is getting up there but his basic entry copper is still affordable IMO.


Interested in your Diy solid core cables. How difficult? Can you give a recipe? Solid core seems like a good thing in my experience.