I do not believe in cable sound differences, but I think that connectors are bottleneck of ultimate sound quality. They should approach direct soldered connection. Try soldering directly tonearm cable to phono preamp PCB-improvement is often dramatic and disturbing for listeners who realize what they had lost all the years. Market is full of bad connectors of every type with poor metals, soft plastic, and fake gold plating. RCA connectors should have teflon insulation. Only way to buy good connectors is to find honest parts seller,and good feeling of how connectors should be made. There are no good connectors under say 5 Euros.
I have bought recently a pair of WBT Nextgen 0102 RCA phono plugs which are extremely expensive just to see if they will make any differences.
Unfortunately, I am tempted to buy more WBT connectors since they made really big improvement in every aspect of sound reproduction. They are worth the high price I may say. Cable I use is 2 Euros/m good quality balanced microphone cable, 30 times cheaper than connectors.
I have bought recently a pair of WBT Nextgen 0102 RCA phono plugs which are extremely expensive just to see if they will make any differences.
Unfortunately, I am tempted to buy more WBT connectors since they made really big improvement in every aspect of sound reproduction. They are worth the high price I may say. Cable I use is 2 Euros/m good quality balanced microphone cable, 30 times cheaper than connectors.
Probably you are considering the turntable manufacturers as idiots regarding their selections in cables and connectors which they offer as standard.
I will agree up to a point that Tonearm cable has some significance because the transferred energy is at the range of mV and in this magnitude it is sensitive to losses due cable issues.
But as cable issues we can consider the damaged cables due lots of pulling, and damaged connections inside molded RCA plugs also caused by allot of pulling and misuse.
Even if your connect the turntable pick-up needle with gold Wands to your preamp you only gain would be a bit of higher volume, but not better sound.
The job of preamp is to amplify the incoming signal, therefore all that it does is raising the volume output.
Interesting what kamis wrote, there is much difference in connectors but little difference in cables. It might have a physical reason: metal contacts have a contact potential, i.e. measurable voltage. Perhaps this phenomenon is not investigated enough in relation to audio.
There is no perhaps in 2014 that we have spaceships and satellites and smart phones.
Some people like to believe that there is unknown corners in the subject named as sound transfer, well there is none.
Not so much "idiots" as "constrained." First, by the convention of running phono single-ended; IMO, that's a beautiful example of progress halted by convention and installed base. But that's what the market is. Second, capacitance; for MCs, not so much of a big deal, but for MMs, critical. Since there's no standard there, changing out those cables can actually make an improvement, though not from magic.
The metallurgy stuff is both highly unlikely and totally unsupported by any evidence.
A long time ago, British made DNM preamps had double pair of connectors at MC input on the back of the enclosure-one ordinary pair of RCA connector and other were soldering lugs terminals as a better solution for improved sound quality.
MC signal is nominally 0.2 to 0.8mv but in fact much lower in some spatial signals engraved in disc.Every contact , even the best one taking a little of poor MC cartridge signal. I am talking about ultimate sound quality, not practicality. IC sockets are practical , but harmful to sound.Turntables and tonearm manufacturers care about ergonomics of their product. Extremely expensive cables is a snake oil approach. Do not blindly believe manufacturers.Buy a better soldering iron instead of one meter of fancy interconnect.
MC signal is nominally 0.2 to 0.8mv but in fact much lower in some spatial signals engraved in disc.Every contact , even the best one taking a little of poor MC cartridge signal. I am talking about ultimate sound quality, not practicality. IC sockets are practical , but harmful to sound.Turntables and tonearm manufacturers care about ergonomics of their product. Extremely expensive cables is a snake oil approach. Do not blindly believe manufacturers.Buy a better soldering iron instead of one meter of fancy interconnect.
Personally I did feel the difference by switching from a Stanton D6800AL needle (spherical) to a Stanton D6800EL (elliptical), but never feel "constrained." due cables.
Now this conversation it did bring back memories of my, I will setup tomorrow my Sanyo direct drive turntable just to see it spinning again.
In 2002 I recorded most of favorite LP songs in MP3 and I have not use it since them.
Now this conversation it did bring back memories of my, I will setup tomorrow my Sanyo direct drive turntable just to see it spinning again.
In 2002 I recorded most of favorite LP songs in MP3 and I have not use it since them.
No way a 0.05 or 0.01 ohm or lower resistance connector is going to modify signal passing through it, not matter the metals involved.
After all, signal is a particular case of electrical current.
If it comes from a relatively low impedance generator (say, a preamp out) and feeds a relatively high impedance load (say 5 or 10K or higher amp input) , contact resistance is nil/despicable/infinitesimal, pick one or more, all apply, and so is its possible influence.
Now if you cover the mating surfaces in mud, seawater, blood, ketchup, paint, etc. , let it almost dry, and then plug said connectors, yes, you will probably have audible differences.
Same if said audio equipment sits in the rain, exposed to sea drizzle, in a very damp basement or chicken house for years.
But in a clean metal to metal contact? ... forget it.
After all, signal is a particular case of electrical current.
If it comes from a relatively low impedance generator (say, a preamp out) and feeds a relatively high impedance load (say 5 or 10K or higher amp input) , contact resistance is nil/despicable/infinitesimal, pick one or more, all apply, and so is its possible influence.
Now if you cover the mating surfaces in mud, seawater, blood, ketchup, paint, etc. , let it almost dry, and then plug said connectors, yes, you will probably have audible differences.
Same if said audio equipment sits in the rain, exposed to sea drizzle, in a very damp basement or chicken house for years.
But in a clean metal to metal contact? ... forget it.
And what about the thermocouple and millions of microscopic rectifiers, formed by the different metals contact of the connector male and female part? Even the metal oxide layer could play a part here, think about metal oxide semiconductors. All in microscopic dimensions. No connector is perfect.
OP - sorry, cannot help you. For non-critical applications i use gold plated brass and for critical - branded stuff. I think all the Chinese connectors claiming to be copper are brass and some of them sound bad beyond belief.
For nearly everyone else on this thread - what the hell is wrong with you guys? Do you have to spam every single thread? Does anyone really want to know whether you can hear connectors? Is it the economics? Too many early retired engineers with nothing better on their hands but proudly proclaim their deafness to the world?
For nearly everyone else on this thread - what the hell is wrong with you guys? Do you have to spam every single thread? Does anyone really want to know whether you can hear connectors? Is it the economics? Too many early retired engineers with nothing better on their hands but proudly proclaim their deafness to the world?
He talks about thermocouple manufacturing principals in which two different in composition metals can create voltage when environmental temperature changes.
What he forgot to mention is the composition of those metals which has no relation with metals used for manufacturing sound equipment connectors.
Connectors are made of different metals or alloys . These will have different properties . It is theoretically possible these could "effect" the electrical signal to the speakers .
There is a body of opinion on forums that express a preference for solid copper connectors .
Empirically , i have removed every single connector from my system and my entire system is hard wired . This as reaped SQ rewards.
I bet anyone £100 I could repeatedly tell the difference between the same system but not hard wired in the same room . Yes i know that's empty rhetoric not a genuine bet , but i had fun typing it 😉
There is a body of opinion on forums that express a preference for solid copper connectors .
Empirically , i have removed every single connector from my system and my entire system is hard wired . This as reaped SQ rewards.
I bet anyone £100 I could repeatedly tell the difference between the same system but not hard wired in the same room . Yes i know that's empty rhetoric not a genuine bet , but i had fun typing it 😉
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If you can also listen harmonics I am hiring you as spectrum analyzer and you will receive 100 EUR per month.
... and you are telling me you can head difference in Oyaide and Furutech power plug ?
I can hear difference also between Oyaide connectors.
So a few good and interesting suggestions were written.
I have found all sort of connectors for fair price at one place here.
Audiophonics : Achats de Produits Hi-Fi Audio Electroniques et DIY - Audiophonics
Ebay and non ebay material at one shop... nice.
I will order some parts and will report. It will be middle class and will satisfied all cryterias described at beginning.
And i will also buy top class rca ...nonsolder type, because i have some different types of wires to compare... silver occ, silver mixture into copper-not silver over copper, and for me top...Mundorf silver-gold foil. Isolation cotton, or teflon.
If someone will be interested can we discuss.
I have made foil cotton cable with xhadow connectors.... it was tested on 30000€ system. Result head to head with 1000+ euro cable from famous american firm wich uses patented technollogy called MAGNETIC CONDUCTION.
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I am 53 years old and i think i see and hear everything [rom Balcan to West Europe all the way to North Carolina] - BUT ...
I was thinking you are looking for cheap stuff like you mention in first post ...
How ever, i can agree with you in one thing, Mundorf silver-gold teflon insulated wire is good for everything ... internal wirring - interconnects etc etc .. and is not too expensive, even 1mm diam ... U use in all my builds ...
I have tried using a speaker and a sig gen to very roughly measure what highest frequency I can hear. It's round about 12k5Hz to 13kHz. Even using a ribbon I get a similar result.
I recently completed a headphone driver.
Now I can just about detect/hear 15.4kHz.
Maybe the signal is a bit loud, it difficult to tell, since I can only just hear it.
Seems odd that headphones and speakers should give such a different result.
I recently completed a headphone driver.
Now I can just about detect/hear 15.4kHz.
Maybe the signal is a bit loud, it difficult to tell, since I can only just hear it.
Seems odd that headphones and speakers should give such a different result.
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