What Mains Lead /Interconnect do you use (AV32R/100X5R)?

GrahamMG said:
Or you could just read the manufacturer spec, proper broadcast cable specs are almost believable and as I said Canare come closest to a proper 75 Ohm connector (nominal naturally).
I've dug out a rough guide if your up for reading the incredibly dull.... See attached file....

GrahamMG, given that Neutrik does not publish the impedance value of their RCAs I decided to ask them. Look at the answer:

"Dear Mr. Alves

The impedance of a RCA connector is usually not very important.
On low frequencies (as usually applied) an impedance mismatch has a little influence onto transmission results.
When using high frequencies like HDTV or other video signals we suggest to use our BNC connectors which are true 75 OHM connectors.

Nevertheless we would like to answer your question.
It is very hard to seriously test the impedance of an RCA connector since there are no existing terminations and N-Type adapter for network analyzers.
In order to serve your request we can use an improvised test setup to give you at least an idea about the impedance of our Profi.
I expect that I can present you the test result in about one week.

Best regards,

Christian Ganahl "


Is this customer service or what? I am impressed.... Running tests because some guy asked for a number!

Luis
 
laalves said:
Is this customer service or what? I am impressed.... Running tests because some guy asked for a number!

Or simply because they want to know it too !
Luis, no manufacturer in the world will do anything just because of users, it is all profit driven, nothing more than that. The only exception can be good will or intention of some particular person!

Apart from that, Neutrik can be put rather on the serious side along with few others.
 
Neutrik are a professional firm, they deal with very large corporations and broadcasters all the time, this approach obviously also applies to the general public which is good......
As my document says, all this is so dependent on so many influences I'd still say that a good spec cable terminated properly is all we need to worry about after all even TAG's finest Chief software engineer (hi Steve) got caught out measuring a speaker's distortion values once.......

I have heard several times now that Mark Grant does seem to do a good job with no voodoo involved.....
 
GrahamMG said:
I have heard several times now that Mark Grant does seem to do a good job with no voodoo involved.....

Yes, I got convinced too, so that I have ordered one sub and one component cable from him.

Won't be able to test any of those in the next month or so, since I ahaven't got the receiving ends yet for any of the cables :oops:

But I wouldn't be willing to receive the new toys without the cables, so I got the cables first! :clap: :clap:

Luis
 
GrahamMG said:
:smashin: :smashin: :smashin: 10/10 post, made me smile as well......
Canare connectors (the RCA type) do have the advantage of almost being 75 Ohm, I've not seen another RCA that comes anwhere close to 75 Ohm, now whether that makes any difference or not I won;lt get drawn into...

There's no need to get drawn into it, because its not even open to debate:

The OP was asking about audio interconnects. Since that isn't even a 75 Ohm connection, then whether the plugs are 75 Ohm is a bit irrelevant, isn't it.

For *digital* or *video* connections, yes its debatable. But for audio? No. It makes no differece, period.

Chip
 
Chippy99 said:
There's no need to get drawn into it, because its not even open to debate:

The OP was asking about audio interconnects. Since that isn't even a 75 Ohm connection, then whether the plugs are 75 Ohm is a bit irrelevant, isn't it.

For *digital* or *video* connections, yes its debatable. But for audio? No. It makes no differece, period.

Chip
You would be surprised how many "audio interconnects" require matched connectors...... No-one mentioned "analogue", that would have been a bit closer to what you are describing. Digital audio needs to get from a to B as well of course (I'm pulling your leg now!)
I must say that for digital or video connections it is very very relevent. What you say is far too sweeping for me not to comment on......
 
Power chords the one out the box, interconnects are Belden terminated with Canare plugs made by Mark Grant here on the forum :)
 
GrahamMG said:
You would be surprised how many "audio interconnects" require matched connectors...... No-one mentioned "analogue", that would have been a bit closer to what you are describing. Digital audio needs to get from a to B as well of course (I'm pulling your leg now!)
I must say that for digital or video connections it is very very relevent. What you say is far too sweeping for me not to comment on......

I think you just re-stated exactly what I said.

Chip
 
Chippy99 said:
I think you just re-stated exactly what I said.

Chip

Nope..... ;)

Thunder sums it up nicely, nothing exotic just good cable, good connectors terminated properly is all anyone needs......
 
GrahamMG said:
Or you could just read the manufacturer spec, proper broadcast cable specs are almost believable and as I said Canare come closest to a proper 75 Ohm connector (nominal naturally).
I've dug out a rough guide if your up for reading the incredibly dull.... See attached file....

Well let's see what Neutrik has to say, quite interesting:

"Dear Mr. Alves

Find attached the requested test report.
I would like to add a few things.
As mentioned below, the result of such a test depends very much to the used RCA socket and the way of termination.
To perform an exact measurement a true 75OHM adapter from N-type to RCA and a true 75OHM RCA termination would be necessary.

We have also compared the Canare connector you mentioned with our Profi.
The result is very comparable what we have expected since the given diameter difference (defined in IEC standards) is not even in theory a true 75 OHM relation.
Because of this it's always not very serious to call a RCA connector true 75 OHM, the impedance will always be a lot lower than that.
To crimp the shield (like Canare does) is only a drop in a bucket and can not essentially improve the impedance of an RCA connector.

To be honest, the Canare design is to me more a marketing argument ...

I hope that this information had been helpful to you.

Very best regards,
Christian Ganahl
Product Manager "
 

Attachments

  • PRO_01.pdf
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I use a mixture of Kimber and standard leads for the mains here,preferring to use the expensive stuff only where it makes a difference,and I've found that it can be useful for the low level parts of the system.
As for interconnects,again,like others here,something of a quality suitable for good AV/HiFi gear...mainly Kimber and Nordost.
 
In my testing the Canare is closer to the ideal, but as stated many times by me non of these plugs are true 75ohm. They can't be. I therefore use them as the best available. The other BIG advantage is the crimping. This for me is the best method of connection as most don't do the soldering bit very well (another reason to morn Tag).

Having said that I use more Neutrik plugs than any other and think they are really good but they would not be my first choice for 75ohm RCAs but I would use them if I had to. My solution is to use BNCs where ever possible for video and digital (75 ohm ones) activities.
 
Yep!
 
Nic Rhodes said:
My solution is to use BNCs where ever possible for video and digital (75 ohm ones) activities.

Agree with that! The only thing I missed in swapping my old TAG DAC and transport for the DVD32FLR and AV32R pair was the ability to use a BNC-BNC cable for the digital audio link. Still, I can't argue with the results, as it sure does sound good (with Canare RCAs/coaxial cable). By the way, for what it's worth, before I sold my old BNC-BNC cable which was a TAG digital cable (those were the days before the internet gave me access to good people who could assemble Canare/Belden cables!) I Googled the part number on the BNC connector and it was a Trompeter part (www.trompeter.com). I would imagine with TAG's attention to detail that Trompeter BNCs a) measure extremely well in their own right and b) are a great electrical and mechanical match when used with the BNC sockets on the back of TAG kit (eg component video outputs for those not using DVI, as well as the digital audio link on CDT20s and DAC20s), and may therefore be worth bearing in mind if your friendly cable assembler offers a choice of components. Note I'm not saying you'd hear/see any difference vs say a Canare BNC connector, just that they are likely a great match for the sockets on your kit which can only be a good thing all other things being equal. Oh and of course they only cost about $2 each, which is well worth remembering the next time you're tempted to splash out for some exotic video cable...
 
75 Ohm BNC's are all made to a very closely defined spec, assuming you match metals in both halves, gold to gold and nickel to nickel etc. you won't go wrong..... About the only thing you can get wrong is using 50 Ohm BNC's instead as they also fit (well at least once anyway.........!)
 
GrahamMG said:
Nope..... ;)

Thunder sums it up nicely, nothing exotic just good cable, good connectors terminated properly is all anyone needs......

Er, yes, actually.

Let me quote from the OP,

"I would also like to know what people use as the pre/power amp interconnect?"

How many digital audio or video connections do you see between a pre and a power amp? Not many. The OP was talking about analogue audio, which as I said is not impedance matched, so the idea of using an impedance matched interconnect is irrelevant and potty.

You said it doesn't matter for analogue audio, but it does for digital and for video.

I think you will find that's *exactly* what I said in the first place.

Chip
 
rdhir said:
Hello,

Although there is a cable forum which I have been reading and I think I will now make my own mains cable and save the money I was going to spend on a Van Den Hul Mainstream on a proper mains regeneration system...

I was kind of wondering what people were using for a mains lead and what they thought they had got best results from?

I would also like to know what people use as the pre/power amp interconnect?

Cheers

Rajiv

This is exactly what the OP asked.

Asking clearly about mains leads,AND interconnects.

All can play an important part in the final sound of a system,and if any one is poor in quality,then the overall sound can also suffer.

This applies to poorly made or incorrectly terminated cables(or both!)but the point about correctly terminated digital cables is often missed,with many people still using either cables better suited to analogue signals or with poor terminations/impedances.
 
I use an "F-10 DIG" cable from Tag McLaren for Transport-DAC, and Chord Co "Solid" (Not sure if they make them now?) analogue interconnects, as for Mains - it's out-of-the-box leads that came with the Tag kit. All mains are connected to a Belkin 7-way surge protector, and surprisingly I don't seem to have an issue with Hum or RF Interference - A reply from Udo on another thread Re Long Speaker cable lengths vs long analogue cable lengths helped me confirm this.
 
Chippy99 said:
The OP was talking about analogue audio, which as I said is not impedance matched, so the idea of using an impedance matched interconnect is irrelevant and potty.

You said it doesn't matter for analogue audio, but it does for digital and for video.

I think you will find that's *exactly* what I said in the first place.

Chip

Chip.
Please read the posts carefully as Alexs2 has pointed out.
I certianly did not say that "it doesn't matter for analogue audio" at all..... Connectors and their correct assembly always matter.
What you say is your opinion of which you are entitled, I am saying that it is too sweeping to not comment on...... Some elements of what you say have merit, some others may not..... Please accept that the more informed a person is the less likely they are to use words like "irrelevent and potty" when previous posts didn't really warrent it eh?
Off out to have a beer now in the sunshine :clap: :clap: :clap:
 
GrahamMG said:
Chip.
Please read the posts carefully as Alexs2 has pointed out.
I certianly did not say that "it doesn't matter for analogue audio" at all..... Connectors and their correct assembly always matter.
What you say is your opinion of which you are entitled, I am saying that it is too sweeping to not comment on...... Some elements of what you say have merit, some others may not..... Please accept that the more informed a person is the less likely they are to use words like "irrelevent and potty" when previous posts didn't really warrent it eh?
Off out to have a beer now in the sunshine :clap: :clap: :clap:

Graham, you are being condescending.... and argumentative for that matter.

Impedence matching of analogue interconnects IS irrelevant and potty. I think that sums it up quite nicely. People can debate it all they like, but they will be wasting their time.

Chip
 
Chippy99 said:
Graham, you are being condescending.... and argumentative for that matter.

Impedence matching of analogue interconnects IS irrelevant and potty. I think that sums it up quite nicely. People can debate it all they like, but they will be wasting their time.

Chip

No more so than your own reply,Chippy....perhaps it can be kept on the original topic rather than bickering.
 
alexs2 said:
No more so than your own reply,Chippy....perhaps it can be kept on the original topic rather than bickering.

I don't share your opinion.

The OP asked about analogue interconnects and people have started going on about the importance of impedance matched components.

Since the analogue audio connections are not themselves of specific impedances, I have merely pointed out that worrying about the impedance of the connectors and cables is - frankly - ridiculous.

Chip/
 
It wasnt an opinion...it was reminding the 2 of you to keep from bickering.

The OP asked about mains leads and interconnects.

Your point about the relevance or otherwise of cable impedance and analogue connections has been noted.
 

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