Good cheap high quality audio interconnects

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Chaos

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Just for the info of those who have good audio systems and are looking for decent but not exorbitantly priced interconnects, I found these MX ones for 515 bucks. They are really nice... shielded and the plugs are of excellent quality. Highly recommended if you don't wanna spend more. I go on to say that these are probably better than the entry level QED/Straightwire and the like.



 
MX is a good brand when it comes to Connectors & Cables. I always demand for MX connectors if building any cables myself. Neat price by the way for the above cable.........
 
I got the same interconnects, really good quality stuff....

but i think the price here was lower...

250 for 5 feet 2RCA and 250 for 15 feet single RCA
 
thats the cable me and mano got today in chennai .. they had a few different grades starting from rs.150 (excluding the cheapo 50rs ones)
 
superczar said:
I got the same interconnects, really good quality stuff....

but i think the price here was lower...
250 for 5 feet 2RCA and 250 for 15 feet single RCA
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Naa then probably you got a lower grade. This one is 515 bucks for 1m pair. I got it from the disty and he would not go even a rupee lower.
 
even the turbine style connectors :O

chaos , seriously.Do you think they are they the same ? I mean , same oem or something similar, like the EP 630/cx300 story
 
I'm not 100% sure but looking at the quality of the cable, it can very well be rebadged as a monster.
 
Saiyan had asked the MX distri fella in Ritchie for the best interconnects ...

Maybe he gave Saiyan a raw deal :P

Anyway, I'll post back the pics...
 
Umm, I have to differ. The 'Monster' type RCA is not springy enough and deteriorates contacts - it may pull the plating off some sockets. Also the connector is machined brass (all entry level connectors are). This adds a lot of hardness to the midrange. Their higher end plugs are marginally better, but are still based on brass. AFAIK only the 'Digital' range are copper stock, but I could be wrong. Those cost as much as 200 bucks/pair though, so I assume copper they are.

I prefer making my own - the plugs come in from Australia and the cable is some excellent teflon-coated OFC signal cable from the local market. A little stiff to work with, but excellent construction.

Not expensive - the plugs are some 1000 bucks/4, and the wire 100 bucks / meter. This is the link to the plugs: DIY Fidelity

You don't even need soldering, the plugs are screw terminated so a small screwdriver and stripper (teeth, razor blade or scissors also work well) are enough.

The plugs are WBT style gold plated copper stock, with a manually tightened barrel. Those contacts will never loosen up on their own, and they're very gentle on plating (as long as you loosen them before removing them, or they'll pull the socket clean off the chassis).

Total cost for a 2 meter interconnect is about 1200 bucks and half an hour of time, they beat every other including some fancy cable I was offered for 25K.

The only negative is they don't have polarity (Red/White) markings so are better for fit and forget type installations.

Not to dump on Chaos's parade, but I tried this interconnect about two years ago and stripped the plating clean off a jack by wringing it around. I guess if you never remove interconnects or use them in semi-permanent installations, this would be a good buy. But we're always experimenting with interconnects, no?

On the plus side the wire used is pretty good, non-microphonic and heavily shielded. For about 700 bucks more, I prefer my DIY IC, and they don't need complex engineering to put together either.

Edit: That Monster thing's not OEM, that is fake. Nobody's come crashing down on them yet which is why they can get away with it.
 
Also the connector is machined brass (all entry level connectors are). This adds a lot of hardness to the midrange.
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I seriously wonder how in heaven's name can an interconnect make a really discernible impact on the sonics

Assuming the cable is well shielded to prevent in/out EMI interference/leakage, and the connectors aren't loose

My rusty memories of electrical engineering tell me the difference in the IR of the 5-7 mm (?) length of a brass/silver/copper interconnect would be of the order of 1/10000 ohms, give or take a few basis point between brass/copper/silver

or perhaps it is my bronze ears :huh:
 
sangram said:
with a manually tightened barrel
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just a fyi rather than a counter argument but i think these too had the screw type connectors.. will need mano to check
 
The problem is not the electrical or sonic properties of brass, and I'm not really a subjectivist.

If you stretch the 'electrical properties' argument, I could argue that there is no difference between the Rs 50 interconnect and a Alpha-core platinum anniversary interconnect. Would you buy that argument? If you don't, then the whole thread is pointless, as there is no such thing as a 'high quality' interconnect, since the resistance differences between a 28 ga wire and 20ga wire is also a few milliohms, if that. There are other properties such as the total cable reactance, but those come into effect in the gigahertz range, not in the audio band.

In any case there are few, if any measurable differences. Maybe it's my fickle golden (sarcasm) ears - of which one is kind of not working too well. But I can hear a difference between these homebrew ICs and a decent midrange component. It's not too large a difference, but for 700 bucks I don't mind.

If that 700 became 7000, I would have questions, as then you reach the point of diminishing return. I cannot identify the source of the audible differences, but hopefully there is an answer. I have a hint what it is, but I'm not saying for lack of proof. Just FYI, the Rs 40K interconnect (yes, 40K! and I have no idea what it was called) and this were indistinguishable. I think it's proof of the inaudibility of differences between two interconnects of very good construction, rather than a boast of the quality to the homebrew.

@Bottle, I'm talking about the mechanism used to secure the plug to the jack, not the wire to the plug. These (WBT style) plugs have to be fitted by loosening the barrel. Once the connector is on (it's a*very* loose fit), the barrel is tightened back up. The ground connection basically clamps down on the jack ground. The barrel has a tapered design which compresses the inner barrel of the plug around the barrel of the jack. The resulting connection is essentially gas-tight, and can tear jacks from plastic panels if not loosened before removal.

The Monster, on the other hand, uses a modified spring clamping mechanism to secure the barrel. The connectors are thicker so they don't deform easily, but over time even that kind of stress will push the barrel 'open'. Also the Monster having a very high initial clamping pressure, put strain on all underlying components to which the jack is secured. Lastly, the contact point is a sharp edge instead of a straight edge, so the contact surface deteriorates over time and a few insertions later the plating disappears. MX Digital uses the same format, but with less flanges and a wider surface area per contact, so are mildly better. The regular 4-flange RCA plugs 'open' over time, so they are not a viable solution either. The WBT is indeed an elegant mechanism, and you don't have to buy WBTs (40 USD each!) to find out.

FWIW the ones Chaos bought *do* have a different wire from the 200 buck IC I own. I suspect they are very similar to the wire I like to use, and if the inner jacket is a three-layer jacket of Teflon and clear PU over the wire core, then it the same high quality wire I use myself.

Edit: Sorry just thought of an additional thing: I cannot hear a difference between plugs and wire of reasonable quality - for example a Neutrik RCA and an Eichmann RCA. It may just be the plugs MX uses. I've a few plugs from 1980 lying around, maybe I'll give those a spin. I can hear a difference between 12 guage speaker wire and 18 guage, but am deaf to different kinds of speaker wire. Maybe I do have golden ears, or maybe there is some truth to the cable wars.
 
sangram said:
@Bottle, I'm talking about the mechanism used to secure the plug to the jack, not the wire to the plug. These (WBT style) plugs have to be fitted by loosening the barrel. Once the connector is on (it's a*very* loose fit), the barrel is tightened back up. The ground connection basically clamps down on the jack ground. The barrel has a tapered design which compresses the inner barrel of the plug around the barrel of the jack. The resulting connection is essentially gas-tight, and can tear jacks from plastic panels if not loosened before removal.

The Monster, on the other hand, uses a modified spring clamping mechanism to secure the barrel. The connectors are thicker so they don't deform easily, but over time even that kind of stress will push the barrel 'open'. Also the Monster having a very high initial clamping pressure, put strain on all underlying components to which the jack is secured. Lastly, the contact point is a sharp edge instead of a straight edge, so the contact surface deteriorates over time and a few insertions later the plating disappears. MX Digital uses the same format, but with less flanges and a wider surface area per contact, so are mildly better. The regular 4-flange RCA plugs 'open' over time, so they are not a viable solution either. The WBT is indeed an elegant mechanism, and you don't have to buy WBTs (40 USD each!) to find out.

FWIW the ones Chaos bought *do* have a different wire from the 200 buck IC I own. I suspect they are very similar to the wire I like to use, and if the inner jacket is a three-layer jacket of Teflon and clear PU over the wire core, then it the same high quality wire I use myself.

Edit: Sorry just thought of an additional thing: I cannot hear a difference between plugs and wire of reasonable quality - for example a Neutrik RCA and an Eichmann RCA. It may just be the plugs MX uses. I've a few plugs from 1980 lying around, maybe I'll give those a spin. I can hear a difference between 12 guage speaker wire and 18 guage, but am deaf to different kinds of speaker wire. Maybe I do have golden ears, or maybe there is some truth to the cable wars.
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Sangram these are screw type barrels too... They don't have a spring. The flyer that comes with the cable states that the plugs are made of gold plated copper and the wire is OFC as well.
 
If you stretch the 'electrical properties' argument, I could argue that there is no difference between the Rs 50 interconnect and a Alpha-core platinum anniversary interconnect. Would you buy that argument? If you don't, then the whole thread is pointless, as there is no such thing as a 'high quality' interconnect, since the resistance differences between a 28 ga wire and 20ga wire is also a few milliohms, if that. There are other properties such as the total cable reactance, but those come into effect in the gigahertz range, not in the audio band.
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I wouldn't buy that argument coz of the simple fact that those 50/- ICs use low quality barely shielded cables which are prone to picking up all sorts of intereferences, esp. when the cable is routed via the backside of your console which has tonnes of EMI interefrence from equipment transformers/power cables and the likes

In addition, these metal connects (not sure what material) are prone to corrosion on the tips leading to the formation of oxide deposits which can wreak havoc on the connections' electrical properties

The cable reactance and the effect of what is sometimes termed as the skin effect is pretty much negligible in short wire runs, esp when the wire is handling analog signals under 20khz

In any case there are few, if any measurable differences. Maybe it's my fickle golden (sarcasm) ears - of which one is kind of not working too well. But I can hear a difference between these homebrew ICs and a decent midrange component. It's not too large a difference, but for 700 bucks I don't mind. If that 700 became 7000, I would have questions, as then you reach the point of diminishing return
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amen to that! esp. the last line :D
 
Chaos said:
Sangram these are screw type barrels too... They don't have a spring. The flyer that comes with the cable states that the plugs are made of gold plated copper and the wire is OFC as well.
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Then I'm gonna have to get myself a set, as the last I remember they were brass.

When I talk about a screw on barrel, this is what I mean:



All RCA jacks' barrel screw on, this one screws on over the ground connector. This is totally different from the push-insert-leave method for 99% RCA connectors, including this 'Monster'. IIRC the bullets use a similar mechanism.

@superczar: Exactly my point. The question is at what level those differences start becoming audible, which is dependent on the room, equipment and ears. And at what point the improvements start tapering off. I have tried and arrived, and all the fancy silver cable in the world can't convince me I need them, but I do stay away from some basic interconnects.

Then again, I haven't bought an interconnect in two years, as my main equipment needs 1/4" balanced jacks. No readymade interconnects give me 1/4" to RCA or XLR, so I have no option but to make them myself.
 
yes thats what i think these are too.. coz they wouldnt go on the amp jacks till i unscrewed it a bit. i first thought it was the screw for the wire but looks like its not

but as i said i ll need mano or chaos to confirm since i dont have the cables on me
 
since i don't have much experience:S.....i would like to ask how is the idea of using belden RG-6/U Dual Shield Coaxial Cable with canare RCA crimp connectors...
 
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