BetterCables.Com Products

[aceman400]

Has anybody on the forum used Bettercables.com Interconnects?
I am looking at getting some balanced XLR cables to connect from my amp to my preamp. Any drawbacks? excessive hum? Their prices seem reasonable.
Thanks!

[Sckott]

I can say whole heartedly that building your own cables, if you're really looking for something sturdy and heavy duty (for almost dirt) try looking here:

http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/cat5questions_e.html

I thought it was a bunch of fluff, but I now swear by it. I did interconnects this way as well, shortened recipe.

Other than that, what's your amp and pre?

[aceman400]

I am Running a Lexicon NT512 5 channel amp and an Anthem AVM 20 Preamp (both Solid State).
Thanks

[Sckott]

Ah, yeah I think you're on the right track. XLR from BetterConnects or you can even try www.partsexpress.com for some XLRs. They're my favorite for this kind of thing, if I don't do it myself via hand-woven madness.

BC's prices is also decent. Excessive hum? Shouldn't happen.

[srigby]

I have dealt with Better Cables several times and have quite a bit of their product. I firmly believe that you will not find a fairer person to deal with than Brad at Better Cables and I feel their product is first rate. I do not know of any other vendor that will let you try their product for 6 months, and if you don't like it or it doesn't perform the way you want, will let you return the product for a full refund (except shipping). Better Cables does. Better Cables is a great company to do business with.

Scott

[KeithH]

I use two pairs of BetterCables Premium speaker cables with Vampire banana plug terminations in my main stereo system (biamped). At $180 a pair, I have been very happy with them. In fact, I am going to buy a pair for the speakers in my second stereo system as well.

[aceman400]

Thanks very much for the positive comments and input. I'll be ordering the XLR'sfrom Bettercables in the next two weeks and I'll report my findings in the future.

[Dave]

Sorry to butt in here guys.

aceman400,

How many feet away is your pre-amp from your amp? If it's under 25ft. I don't see any need to use balanced XLR's. In fact Steve had advised me against using balanced lines because RCA's are more musical, better tonality.

[aceman400]

I don't think I need more than .5m or 1.0m.
Would you have more information ( a link perhaps) on how XLR's do not perform as well? I am not that savvy on interconnects so any advice is appreciated.
Thanks in advance

[Ronald]

Take a look at Markertek.com (http://www.markertek.com) . There are good quality cables and interconnects for good prices. If you want to build your own, they have the cable and any type of connects you would ever want too. XLR, unbalanced, AES, BNC etc.

I have the Tecnec unbalanced audio cables and S/PDIF cables for my D/A converter. I have been satisfied with their construction and performance.

[Dave]

aceman400,

Well I tend to believe what Steve Hoffman says but I tried balanced lines for comparison purposes and Steve was right. No comparison between my Kimber Silver Streaks and the balanced (MIT, I believe) lines. The Kimbers were muuuuch more alive and musical than the MIT's.

Hope this helps.;)

Kimbers are available at www.kimberkable.com

[Metralla]

Dave,

That doesn't sound like a fair comparison. The only way to be able to judge would be if the cables were identical, and even so there could be minor differences due to the connectors. I only have XLR connectors on my BAT preamp so I have no choice but to use XLRs, but the CDP and the monoblocks I have are both single-ended so I'm not using balanced interconnects. One of my cables (pre->power) has XLRs on the preamp ends and RCAs on the power amp ends. The other i/cs have RCAs on the SACD player end and RCAs on the preamp ends, so these run into BAT adaptors. They are high quality but I'd like to drop them; I'm working on that.

I think the Kimber's have a better reputation for sonics than the MITs, but I haven't heard a head-to-head on these two so I can't pass judgement.

Regards,
Metralla

[Dave]

Metralla,

All that I can really say about interconnects and the like is that I've compared MIT, Kimber, Coincident, Transparent, and Monster all mid-ranged (high mid-range actually, both balanced and RCA) and Kimber gets my hard earned dollar.;)