New comer: Interconnects

It has been more than two years since I figured out that my interconnect cables need to be replaced, both analog pairs and digital. The necessity becomes more apparent when others hardware level has increased and some of them encountered a little bit components upgrade here and there. Last replacement is the transport into Rotel RCD 1072. Ever since, although the musical enjoyment is always pleasing even more than before, I realize maybe now is really the time to act. Some branded and quite expensive cables have been tried on the system during the period included Kimber Silverstreak, Spellbinder, Blue Heaven and Audio Note. The only one that left a memorable impression are Blue Heaven Rev II and AN-A, unfortunately never got a chance to tested them at once.

For the reasons that the prices are quite high and I also learn that cables only helping and sometime the improvement doesn’t really linearly correlate with the price so my objective is to get budget cables.

I did some research about digital cable and found lot of folks on the internet using audio professional cable to create their own cable. Canare and Mogami are the hit brand. One aspect of good digital cable is 75 ohm impedance and Canare LV-61S is a superstar cable considering the price vs. performance. Many shops actually sell it for custom DVD component cable with RCAP-C4A plug termination for the true 75 ohm impedance. But reviews of this cable in HiFi setup are scattered everywhere on the internet with positive praise. LV-77S and L-5CFB are also famous. After reading such impressive opinion, a thought came to my mind, “why not create the analog interconnect as well?” And there I was continued googling and found that Mogami 2549 and 2552 microphone cable are widely use for that purpose. Even some rumor says that Mogami 2803 is rebranding by some hi end HiFi cable brand as their own interconnect. Unfortunately that cable type is only sold in roll measurement direct from Japan. Mogami itself is a well know brand for recording studio application. Canare is popular as well in audio professional world. Usage of L-4E6S starquad audio cable and L-2T2S microphone cable can be found everywhere among audio HiFi community.

So after sometimes finding the matching between cable material, the plug and also where to buy the original product, hehehe, I grabbed my friend, Ubi , to join me in this little workshop. Together we hunted the materials. It took one day to do travelling, stop by some shop, buy some other non audio stuff, assembly the cable with some food hunt intermezzo hehe..

For the digital cable I use LV-61S instead of two others because I think L-5CFB is originally designed for long run data transmission and will be overkill. While LV-77S has double shield but the price is higher and recalling the objective of the workshop, cheap giant killer hehehe and also couldn’t found shop that can sell Mogami in short chunk. As a result, I stick with LV-61 for experimentation with canare F10 plug because when buying the material I realized that RCAP-C4A required RG59 coaxial crimp tools to assembly the plug in order to maintain the impedance characteristic. Well, not wise to buy an expensive crimping tool for one time use only. For the analog cable I use L-2T2S with neutrik NYS 373 plug. I pick neutrik in hope of the neutral characteristic and also the plug is well design with the spring relief cable holder. Here some pictures. Pretty nice rite. The man behind the solder gun is my friend, Ubi :)



So how do they sound? I tested the digital cable first on Ubi’s system. Hmm the details is totally at different level with existing yet more expensive interconnect. Much more superior. The next noticeable change is the stage placement, wider and bigger. The analog cable sound so slim, light and dry in Ubi’s system although the details and stage is improved. A little bit disappointed but I brought both of them home.

First, I plugged the digital cable. Wow! It’s like I have done a whole system upgrade. Unbelievable! The detail, transparency, control, speed, tone separation, stage placement, decay is amazing. I still not believe what it has done to my system considering the material price, just about $11! Next, with a little bit anxiousness, I plugged the analog cable and bam, Wow! No cloud, every single tone is just so easy to hear the difference, the bass is more punchy but with good body, and what I like the most is the speed and transient, and not forget that the high level frequency is airy and quite extend but no edgy. So neat. And again, all these improvements become more prominent because I only spend another $11 for 1 m pair analog interconnect :) After one day running time, I added another pair of analog interconnect. Took some picture of it and immediately plugged it to the output of DAC. The low level become more refined, the high is extend even more but still not irritating and all sound is just more powerful and the decay is remarkably nice. Each tone snap especially of percussion feel so pleasant.



I will wait until all cables are totally break-in before trying to reorder between both analog interconnect cables to see what change it can made. For this moment, definitely I can say this cables upgrade is my best upgrade ever and the super best bang for the buck. My system sounds just perfect for my music taste, some rock, fusion, jazz rock, and even jazz or pop vocal still can be delivered with great delight :)