Cheap vs Expensive Interconnect Cable with SOUND DEMO

This video and sound recording was meant to show that cables do make a perceptible difference in the final sound of your system. As usual, the amount of difference you can notice this way is not comparable to the one in real life, which is even greater. Hope you'll enjoy it!

The cheap cable is a generic one ~ $2
The expensive cable is Atlas Hyper Integra ~ $200

00:00 Intro
04:12 Sound demo
07:03 Cable reveal and afterthoughts
09:00 "War stories" and Personal thoughts

Other gear used in this test:

Raspberry Pi + Allo DigiOne + Allo Shanti
Cyrus 8vs2 Integrated Amp

#hifi #audiophile #cables #stereo

[DrRobbo-igkn]

We need more people like you covering these topics - simply a great job. Keep on with the videos. Your methods of explaining some of the finer points of enjoying audio should help many of your viewers in making good choices. It makes the topics you cover so much more entertaining.

[mrfrosty]

Listening on phone speaker at arms length and difference is very obvious. Great video.

[jawbfl]

In this case I knew there will be a difference before listening and there definitely was. What most people don't understand about cables is they don't add anything, they just take. The cheap cable has poor shielding if any thus the high noise (well, they can add in the case of noise), also has a higher resistance thus the weak lows, a poor cable can act a bit like a low pass filter or high pass filter so it will either make the sound warmer or bright *but that's by removing frequencies from the signal not adding to it, that what people need to understand!*

You don't need to spend $200 to get good shielding and low resistance, as iiWi said the difference between that $10 and the expensive cables will be very hard to hear. Like anything in life avoid the cheap crap and don't go insane with diminishing returns and you'll be just fine.

[jasonscarlett]

Thank you so much for telling us your truth.💯 I'm a rookie to all of this. I'm just putting together a 5.1 surround home theater. I got myself 2 SMSL dacs and some nice new bookshelf speakers. Nothing crazy. But after watching this, I'm going to save some more pennies 😅 and get some good cables👍🏼 🇨🇦❤️🇯🇲👊🏽

[kodiak]

Very well done. Very simple experiment and pretty darn obvious. I will be upgrading my cheap generic cables to mid grade ones for all my setups. Totally agree with your comment about investment into good quality gear. 12:52 . Also agree with measurements comment at 13:36. It’s OK to believe our ears even if we can’t confirm with the current measurements. Laughed at “ for gods sake! “. Nice job overall.

[JoeCoolSD]

Just me, but I heard a considerable difference.
The beauty is you can create what sounds good to you...
Who's to say what sounds good in your scull
Have fun experimenting with sound.
What a great gift of life !!!!

[sevsev]

It just remind me my first cable change when started my journey with hi-fi system and that was Yamaha Piano Craft 20 years ago. And now thanks to your video I could hear exactly the same difference. And I have to tell you what. I am so glad you done it this way as I think nobody done it before. You can hear black and white the difference. Ofcourse set B sounded better. Set A sounded completely flat like vintage radio. Set B sounded 3 dimensional even via YT. But couldn't really pick up any specific sharpness of the cheap cables on my headphones due to compressed signal on YT perhaps. BRAVO and thank you for this video. Amazing job. 👍🙃

[nir]

Clear difference absolutely. Cable B sounded more "full bodied" I'd say and cable A sounds sort of bright. Amazing video mate, well done !

[halrichard]

People had been complaining about a hissing type feedback noise from the Eris E7 studio monitors. I went ahead and bought a pair anyway. When I ordered, I ordered a pair of 2 meter decent quality XLR connectors, silver/copper, shielded. I also ordered a high quality shielded USB connector to go from my PC to my SMSL SU-9n DAC. The first thing I did upon setting up on my PC Desk was listen for any type of noise emissions from my Monitors. They are Dead Quiet at idle. I also have a dedicated AC power box with backup that also filters the current from the wall. I was careful upon laying out my cabling to have as little crossover interference as possible. So yeah Your Fiend was quick to blame the DAC and I am guessing that many of those not happy with the Eris E7s were suffering from some kind of interference. I am so very satisfied with the results. I look to your channel because of the honesty that you project and the concise explanations of what ever is the topic. Thanks for That.

[PBlaik]

Great video - objective without any obvious biases.... more video's like this are needed!

[snowrangr]

Right now I'm a big fan of Blue Jean Cables because they seem to be well built for the price and share a lot of specs (their interconnects the LC-1 has super low capacitance). Maybe one day I'll try even more expensive and see if I can tell a difference but I feel better using something above the cheap amazon/monoprice cables.

[trashyaudiophile]

This was the first example of a cable making a difference. People saying cable "A" sounds better. I think they are only listening to the bass volume. Cable "B" opens up, like it is a completely different stereo all together. It became more spacious. I even heard something with the acoustic guitar in the right (Possibly Left, Think I had my headphones on backwards) in the first track change. It jumped out at me. Also it gave a very holographic soundstage in which cable "A" was very box-ie sounding. Cable "B" is where its at.

[tckoppang]

This video is great, if for no other reason than to demonstrate that analog cables do make a difference. Other factors like price, construction quality, sonic effect (even placebo effect) aside — what you prefer is up to you — you can't claim that cables don't matter.

[brynybach]

I could easily here a difference just on my phone. Cable B did sound better to me. Nice video, keep them coming.

You're a musician as am I .. Easy for us to hear difference .. but in this extreme example the proof is an undeniable FACT .. well done Bravo amico ..

[sqgrqul]

Wow! Just Wow! Thank you so much for doing that my friend! I have already watched like 3 or 4 videos of yours (basically your cheap dacs reviews) but for this video alone, i just hit the subscribe button.For me, that was super informative! I knew speaker cables can make a huge difference, but interconnects? Wow! Being able to hear that via youtube...that much of a difference just from interconnects i did not expect! That was eye opening for me! Thank you so much!

[neonspecter]

Initially I thought A sounded better and more open, and the first switch to B made it sound "squashed". But after more listening I realized that B was much more "full bodied", and the "openness" I thought I was hearing with A was just a result of the brightness and the lack of bass.

Personally I think you only need to spend around £30 to get properly good cables. You just need something well made and properly shielded.

[JAYDAM]

To me, cable A sounded more forward and full in its presentation with a narrower soundstage while cable B sounded recessed with a wider soundstage.

I tended to like cable A in the first track and cable B on the second track. Even after hearing which one was which, it didn’t really change my opinion or my preference. I’m sure the harshness you mentioned on cable A was more apparent in person but it wasn’t audible in this demo once it reached my end.

[kas]

Huge difference. Blindly, cable A sounded better. It sounded more forward, transparent and clearer. B sounded like somebody increased the mid tones and didn’t sound right to me at all. Much more hiss noise level.

Interestingly, the moment you mention B was the more expensive one, mentally I try to rejustify everything, trying to change my perspective that B was actually better than A. I am pretty sure most people here did the exact same thing. Don’t kid ourselves guys!

[rickspyder]

Killer video ...short and sweet and to the point...the difference was beyond what I anticipated...cheers