A kindly gent borrowed me a pair of Blue Jeans LC1 RCA cables and I wanted to share my thoughts. Especially since many here hold them in high regard. My review will be some what backwards.

First, let me state that if all I had was $35.00 give or take BJC is a no brainer. They have actually some of the best build of any cable I've had. They also excel and hold their own with more expensive cables in the midrange. Although BJC boasts of low capacitance and the result, not having rolled off highs, per their website. I was surprised the first characteristic that hit me in the face was lack of highs in comparison to all most everything I compared them to. I'm sure I just gave the fanboys a twinge but that will be obvious to any one with ears. Overall the BJC's sound quality is balanced which means the bass is also not pronounced. Hold on, I said, "not pronounced", this doesn't mean it's not there. The bass is tight and defined but not strong and I'm sure it's probably that way to maintain balance as the highs do sound rolled off. The midrange of the BJC is it's strong point and strong it is, as in quality, dialog is on par with more expensive cables and the tonal quality is very natural sounding.

I compared the BJC to a pair of Radio Shack, Ixos, Transparent and my Siltech. The Siltech was clearly far superior and I won't say any more about those as they are roughly 10 times the price of BJC. The Radio Shack cables were like none I've seen from them before, they seemed to have a network or some type of cylinder thing built into them. I thought they were cool and tried them first. OK, first lesson class, looks are not everything. Despite the fancy look the RS about the same price as the BJC pale in comparison. We'll also forget those. The Ixos had some what better bass and a lot more high end but I preferred the BJC. The Ixos was to bright and the midrange not natural, too edgy. The best competition was the BJC and the Transparent. The Transparent are the older style and new years ago were $75.00. I think between the two it would come down to system and preference, or need. The Transparent had tons more bass AND maintained the bass definition while being more ample. The Transparent had much better extention in the highs. Again, the BJC kicked butt in the midrange, making vocals easier to understand and easier to listen to.

The first comparison I put the cables between my T+A CD player and Musical Fidelity headphone amp. The second test was just BJC and Transparent between my Audio Note DAC and Adcom gfa-450 preamp. An interesting side note, and this could be because the BJC wasn't overly emphasized in the extreme frequencies, but I was able to turn my Adcom system up to levels of volume not reached before. Not reached because, I stopped, couldn't tolerate it past a certain point. But the BJC remained clean as the volume went up. If the highs weren't there though to pierce the ear drums though you could see how this might happen. It was more than that though, I think the excellent midrange helped keep the distortion from creeping in as soon.

Despite the faults I think I found, the BJC have a sound I can't help enjoying. Some one once told me in regard to good sound that you have to get the midrange right and worry about the rest after. I think BJC followed that philosophy. If nothing else the BJC perform way beyond their price in the midrange. I have no problem recommending these cables to a point but when your gear starts getting beyond the mid-fi range you should borrow some more expensive cables just to see what you think. To be honest with you in my Adcom system I plan to take the Transparent out and replace them with BJC. I play that system at high volume while on the treadmill and the BJC isn't as aggressive at high volume and as mentioned before remains clearer. But maybe I'm looking at this wrong, if the Transparent had significantly better bass I wonder what would happen if you tried them on a modest system. I really just think for those who care should ignore price, try the BJC and a more expensive cable to see which you will put in your system.

To sum up, the BJC trounce cables in the same price range, hold their own in certain areas with more expensive cables and build quality second to none. I wish I had a pair of typical Monster to put in the mix, but from using a pair in other comparison listening I think they may fair better than the Radio Shack but out classed by the others in the group I've been talking about.