A while back I asked about concentric speaker cable by Mogami- the 3082. No one answered. I searched in the Usenet and at the Audio Asylum. I found nothing really useful. A couple of mentions but no real opinions. It's inexpensive enough ($0.77/ft) so I decided to give it a shot. Yesterday it arrived and today I soldeded up a custom cable for use with my new AKG K-1000 headphones. BTW, I grew to love these things. They sound like very nice speakers, less room effects and transient perfect on top of it!
Anyway, when I first switched from the factory 10' cable to my 7' Mogami home-brew I thought that something was not right. The cable seemed to attenuate the signal by a dB or so. If anything the music should get louder. The Mogami is a 15AWG-14AWG cable and the factory is at most 18AWG, plus it's about 3' longer. The series resistance has to be higher. Also, the low end seemed to be more pronounced with the thin factory wire. Some investigation was in order. First I checked my connections at the amp. The factory cable (which came with bare ends) was tightened using the binding posts, for the Mogami I used Banana plugs. The amp is an older Adcom. I don't know when the binding posts were used last with banana plugs, so I decided to spray them with Caig Deoxit. That took care of the low end. It was now on par with either cable, or at least very close. The treble still was more pronounced with the factory cable making it seem a bit louder. I started to listen for the particulars. When I put on some big band jazz with prominent drums and a lot of cymbal splashes, the difference became obvious. The factory cable is mushing the treble making it harder and noisier sounding, which I at first perceived as "louder". The Mogami cable is resolving the detail in the treble much better. The cymbals sound like cymbals even when hit hard and fighting for aural space with a brass section at the same time. The factory cable has trouble handling it making these passages lose detail. The last time I heard similar difference was when I swapped inexpensive op-amps (4580 if I remember correctly) for some Burr Brown OPA2134s in my Rolls line balancing box. The sound is more laid back, but more detailed at the same time.
Anyway, from the short and addmitedly limited experience with the Mogami 3082 wire, I would agree with it's descrition on the manufacturer's website- "high definition speaker wire". It costs about as much as entry level Monster stuff, but for sure it's not inferior to it. If the connector on my headphones was bigger (its a 4 pin XLR) I would love to try it in the cross-wired configuration: two strands per channel, shield to center and center to shield connection. Something easily done with banana connectors.
Anyway, I bought it from Performance Audio in Utah. They shipped it from stock the same day.
For all you guys who like to try different tweaks like cables and connectors, this one will not break the bank and you might end up liking it.
Anyway, when I first switched from the factory 10' cable to my 7' Mogami home-brew I thought that something was not right. The cable seemed to attenuate the signal by a dB or so. If anything the music should get louder. The Mogami is a 15AWG-14AWG cable and the factory is at most 18AWG, plus it's about 3' longer. The series resistance has to be higher. Also, the low end seemed to be more pronounced with the thin factory wire. Some investigation was in order. First I checked my connections at the amp. The factory cable (which came with bare ends) was tightened using the binding posts, for the Mogami I used Banana plugs. The amp is an older Adcom. I don't know when the binding posts were used last with banana plugs, so I decided to spray them with Caig Deoxit. That took care of the low end. It was now on par with either cable, or at least very close. The treble still was more pronounced with the factory cable making it seem a bit louder. I started to listen for the particulars. When I put on some big band jazz with prominent drums and a lot of cymbal splashes, the difference became obvious. The factory cable is mushing the treble making it harder and noisier sounding, which I at first perceived as "louder". The Mogami cable is resolving the detail in the treble much better. The cymbals sound like cymbals even when hit hard and fighting for aural space with a brass section at the same time. The factory cable has trouble handling it making these passages lose detail. The last time I heard similar difference was when I swapped inexpensive op-amps (4580 if I remember correctly) for some Burr Brown OPA2134s in my Rolls line balancing box. The sound is more laid back, but more detailed at the same time.
Anyway, from the short and addmitedly limited experience with the Mogami 3082 wire, I would agree with it's descrition on the manufacturer's website- "high definition speaker wire". It costs about as much as entry level Monster stuff, but for sure it's not inferior to it. If the connector on my headphones was bigger (its a 4 pin XLR) I would love to try it in the cross-wired configuration: two strands per channel, shield to center and center to shield connection. Something easily done with banana connectors.
Anyway, I bought it from Performance Audio in Utah. They shipped it from stock the same day.
For all you guys who like to try different tweaks like cables and connectors, this one will not break the bank and you might end up liking it.
If I were you, I would remove the banana plugs, a connection using bare wire is always better for the signal.
I once used banana plugs all over the place until I wanted to try and hear what the effect without would be. I removed them and the sound got much more open and the low end extended a lot!
I once used banana plugs all over the place until I wanted to try and hear what the effect without would be. I removed them and the sound got much more open and the low end extended a lot!
Thunau said:
Thanks for your purchase! I have been curious about this particular cable as well, but have not tried it yet. Another cable you may want to investigate is the Canare 4S11 or the 4S8. These are quad cables. You twist the pairs together, and terminate the ends with you favorite connector. I have been using this in my home theater and recording studio for a while, and have been very happy.
Cheers,
Zach
Zach,
Do you work for Performance Audio or own it? In any case, congratulations on the good job you do. I was very happy with the service. I work for a prominent AVL installation company and could have bought the Mogami wire direct from Marshall, but it's sometimes just too much hassle with all the paperwork plus I would have had to buy at least a roll, so I usually get the smaller stuff from online retailers like PA.
If you get a chance try some Mogami 3082 coax and tell us if you hear any difference between it and a typical twisted pair or zip style wire.
I was looking at the Canare wire before too, but didn't have an application for it yet. My main speakers are 3-way actives and I'm using a fat 12 AWG 6 conductor wire designed for touring PA systems on them. The loads are so simple, that I doubt if I can get any audible improvement by using fancier cables. OTOH, Mogami topped the AKG wire into a simple load. So, maybe I'll try and order a roll of the Canare stuff (we use their video wire almost exclusively).
Do you work for Performance Audio or own it? In any case, congratulations on the good job you do. I was very happy with the service. I work for a prominent AVL installation company and could have bought the Mogami wire direct from Marshall, but it's sometimes just too much hassle with all the paperwork plus I would have had to buy at least a roll, so I usually get the smaller stuff from online retailers like PA.
If you get a chance try some Mogami 3082 coax and tell us if you hear any difference between it and a typical twisted pair or zip style wire.
I was looking at the Canare wire before too, but didn't have an application for it yet. My main speakers are 3-way actives and I'm using a fat 12 AWG 6 conductor wire designed for touring PA systems on them. The loads are so simple, that I doubt if I can get any audible improvement by using fancier cables. OTOH, Mogami topped the AKG wire into a simple load. So, maybe I'll try and order a roll of the Canare stuff (we use their video wire almost exclusively).
I work for Performance Audio. We actually have a department dedicated to building and supplying custom cabling for most any application. We don't generally get in to the audiophile stuff, but we are looking at carrying the Cardas line of connectors. I also use Canare exclusively for my video and unbalanced line level connections. I will usually use the LV-61 or LV-77 for composite video and SPDIF. I used Canare L-5CFB (RG-6) for my satalite TV connections. I use GS-6 for unbalanced lines and guitar cables. For balanced lines I usually use Mogami 2534 quad microphone cable, terminated with Neutrik NC3FX/NC3MX. Lastly, for component video, I use the Canare V3-5CFB which is a three channel 75 ohm digital video snake.
When I use headphones, it is generally in a pro environment so really can't hear a difference between cables. When I'm doing live sound, I use the Sony MDR-7506 because of their excellent noise rejection. In the studio I usually use either the AKG K-240S or the AKG K-270S (sadly discontinued). In general, I don't listen to music on headphones. I have some really great speakers at my disposal, and can usually turn them up to the volume levels that I like. As for my speakers, they are fairly easy to drive and I have never hap a problem with cheap cable mucking anything up too badly. Yes.......Even the audio pro's have to use zip-cord once in a while. Happy listening!
Cheers,
Zach
When I use headphones, it is generally in a pro environment so really can't hear a difference between cables. When I'm doing live sound, I use the Sony MDR-7506 because of their excellent noise rejection. In the studio I usually use either the AKG K-240S or the AKG K-270S (sadly discontinued). In general, I don't listen to music on headphones. I have some really great speakers at my disposal, and can usually turn them up to the volume levels that I like. As for my speakers, they are fairly easy to drive and I have never hap a problem with cheap cable mucking anything up too badly. Yes.......Even the audio pro's have to use zip-cord once in a while. Happy listening!
Cheers,
Zach
Maybe you should give your new wire a chance to break in before making a serious assessment.- Status
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