Dayton Audio Interconnects

[nightflier]

I've read a few posts about the Dayton Audio cables from Parts Express, some positive, others indifferent. I'm setting up a system for a friend and he's run out of money, or rather his wife has decided that this hobby is getting expensive, so they are looking to cut costs. I suggested Dayton Audio cables, although he prefers to stick with Monster, or at the very least a brand he recognizes.

Has anyone done any blind testing between Dayton and more expensive brands?

[Tony_Montana]

When it comes to cables, name brand doesn't matter. But quality does.

Monster cable are good, but are slightly too expensive. You didn't say if you are looking for IC or speaker wire, but there are several options. For IC, AR cable from Bestbuy or Golden/Fusion cable from Radioshack offer quality cables at reasonable price.

Or for IC and speaker cable, check out this site which uses Belden cables throuout. Very high quality stuff, good price and fast service.

http://www.bluejeanscable.com

[ToddB]

The least expensive commercial speaker cable I have heard and can recommend is Kimber Kable KWIK-16. It retails for $0.80/foot in bulk.

As for interconnects, you can always use Radio Shack Gold, although IME their connectors are really tight. I haven't heard the Dayton ICs, but they're about the same price, so they might be worth checking out. The least expensive IC I've heard that I can recommend is XLO Twinax Plus, which retails for $30, but I believe that Tara Labs and Wireworld have ICs around that price, too.

Monster Cable's stuff seems overpriced. I don't like the company anyway, they're ridiculously litigious.

[kexodusc]

Just to add, you can buy some very inexpensive AR cables that are as good as any of the Monster, Nordost, XLO, and Dayton Interconnects I own very cheap. Sometimes you can find good deals on Dayton's IC's though.
One of the betters ebay stores is Mooseco, they've got tons of bulk AR cable stuff..I've bought from them a few times for myself and some others. No packaging, but the cables always come in MINT.
I'm actually quite fond of AR's cables, they do the job quite well and can be found for a mere fraction of the price of equivalent Monster and others. Great for your friend who's on a budget.

[FLZapped]

The least expensive commercial speaker cable I have heard and can recommend is Kimber Kable KWIK-16. It retails for $0.80/foot in bulk.

As for interconnects, you can always use Radio Shack Gold, although IME their connectors are really tight. I haven't heard the Dayton ICs, but they're about the same price, so they might be worth checking out. The least expensive IC I've heard that I can recommend is XLO Twinax Plus, which retails for $30, but I believe that Tara Labs and Wireworld have ICs around that price, too.

Monster Cable's stuff seems overpriced. I don't like the company anyway, they're ridiculously litigious.

I agree, Monster is overpriced standard wire and cable.

I have seen reports of trouble with RS quality in the past, including connectors that were too tight.

-Bruce

[nightflier]

Is AR owned by Radio Shack now? The reason I asked is because I've had back luck with RS. Their cables are very tight and I've damaged a DVD player with them.

Any Dayton users out there? What's your take on the cables?

[poneal]

dayton subwoofer cable. It fits very tight also. Sounds fine but to tell you the truth I really can't discern that much difference in cables.

[ciscokid1970]

Is AR owned by Radio Shack now? The reason I asked is because I've had back luck with RS. Their cables are very tight and I've damaged a DVD player with them.

Any Dayton users out there? What's your take on the cables?


Recoton has become a large company:
They own AR cables, AR speakers, Jensen, mac audio, ross and NHT speakers and many many more companies.

Just about every thing they have incorporated is built in china ... so certainly there are many knock-offs of their products...I am sure radio shack is buying from them or one of the knockoffs.

[bargainseeker]

I do not have any experience with Dayton Audio interconnects. However, an inexpensive brand of interconnects that I can recommend from personal experience is NXG Technology. I have never had any problems with an NXG interconnect or connector. I can't say the same for the Radio Shack Gold series or Recoton/AR cables.

You can see the NXG product line of interconnects and banana plugs at HiFi for Less (http://www.hififorless.com/categories.php?categoryid=181). They can be purchased there or they can be purchased for slightly less at the Accessory King eBay store (http://stores.ebay.com/ACCESSORYKING-COM). Other eBay sellers also carry NXG cables, but I do not have any personal experience buying from them.

I don't recommend Monster cables because they are overpriced IMHO.

[nightflier]

Just a follow up:

We purchased three pairs of Dayton interconnect cables to connect a DVD-A player. There was no audible difference that we could tell between these and my own AudioQuest cables (diamondbacks, bought on eBay). I performed some measurements using a laptop-based spectrum analyzer and a mic. While I could see that there were slight differences in the peaks in the middle of the spectrum, these were not audible at all (maybe all those rock concerts have taken a toll on my ears). The upper frequencies as well as the lower frequencies, particularly the bass, which is what I tend to focus on, was virtually identical.

Just for kicks we had a Monster M850i interconnect (albeit a much longer 2M cable) that we compared to the Dayton's using the two-channel outs, and there was no visible difference in the spectrum. Of course, this is all very subjective in that we were not testing these in ideal conditions with exactly the same cables, but I just thought it might be of interest.