Signal Cable Analog 2 - Review/Demo

dorokusai

It's ok, a review is a review, whether its flattering or not. Go ahead and let us know what you thought. Thanks man

dcarlson

It's not all bad.

When playing less demanding/more mellow music they were nicely detailed, large and wide soundstage and did a very good job. However, when it came to more difficult material they really seemed to loose control and sibilance became very pronounced to point of unbearable. I thought maybe they needed to warm up so I let them play for a couple days while I was at work with no improvement. Bass was plentiful but a little on the loose side and the overall soundstage while large was generally flat.

Of course I can't help comparing them to the Kimber Hero's which are a my mainstay I/Cs. I wasn't expecting the SCs to replace the Kimbers but I was optimistic they would compete and I guess depending on the material fed they can in some ways. Just not with my taste in music.

My equipment:
Rotel RCD1070 CD player - Signal Cable Magic Power cord
Musical Fidelity A3 integrated - Cardas Cross power cord
Kimber 4vs speaker cable
Polk RT1000i

Some of the test material:
The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Pink Floyd - DSOTM remastered
Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magic
Radiohead - Amnesiac and OK Computer

shack

I've just finished with the Signal Cable Analog 2s. I probably kept them longer than I should have because I hated to take them out of my rig. That in and of itself should tell one what I think of these cables.

The setup I used was a Cambridge Audio D500SE CDP and a NAD C270 stereo amp. NO preamp, just a direct connection with the SC2s. I moved various pairs of speakers in and out of the mix (all hooked up via Signal Cable Ultra Single-wire speaker cables). I did a few direct comparisons with my AudioQuest Diamondbacks, but for the most part I simply left them in the rig and enjoyed them.

When first listening, my impression was not so much of a "WOW!" but more of a "gee...these sound really nice". They are probably less "bright" in the upper ranges than the Diamondbacks. Mid and Bass are similar in SQ to the AQs. IMO this is a cable that could be used to tame a rig that has a tendency to be harsh and/or bright. These and the Diamondbacks (while different) are my co-favorites of the interconnect cables I have demoed via the Cable Swap. In my mind this is significant since I really like the Diamondbacks (so much so that I purchased a pair) and the SC2s are about half the price of the AQs. They are nothing fancy....just a well constructed cable. Frank has a winner here and I can highly recommend these to anyone intersted in a VERY GOOD, moderately priced, interconnect cable.

halo

The Signal Cable Analog Two’s arrived right before a chain of unfortunate events began. I had them in between my Rotel RC-972 pre and Kenwood DP-R5070 CDP for three days before my Rotel RB980BX amplifier went and died on me. Those three days were enough for me to know exactly what the SC’s are all about. More, more, more baby. There was more bass, more detail, smooth top end, and a more solid construction than I noticed with the Audioquest Sidewinders I was testing them against. I knew these were for me and then down went the cable demo program.

When Mark decided to close the demo program I asked him if I could purchase these. The answer was yes and I was on my way to rebuilding my rig.

Due to a lack of funds, a month went by before I was able to sell the Rotel (to the tech savvy Polkie anonymouse) and I replaced it with a Parasound Halo A23.

I decided it was time to do a little upgrading to the rest of the rig but my RTA11t's had been damaged during shipping and I was waiting on a claim from UPS before I could do anything to them. The speakers were functioning properly but they had suffered some cosmetic damage. After another couple of weeks the claim was approved and I was issued a partial refund.

I started the upgrades by changing out the 16AWG RatShack wire I’d been using with Ten White 10AWG wire from Blue Jeans Cable. I ordered the new silk dome tweeters (RDO194-1) and installed them (which provided a huge difference all by themselves) and SCompRacer was nice enough to rebuild the crossovers for me about a week later (Solen caps and Mill’s resistors). Finally, I had the damage repaired and had some new bases with spikes made to complete the package.

I’d been using the SC between the CDP and the pre with an AQ Sidewinder between the pre and the amp the whole time. I just purchased a new pair of SC A2’s from Frank at SC (really nice guy BTW) so now I finally have all SC. Everything sounds much better now – a definite overall improvement compared to what I started with - but I don’t see how I can give you a valid review of the SC’s since so much has changed in such a short time.

All I can say is that they made my Rotel + Rotel + Kenwood rig sound better and that was enough for me to go with SC. Thanks for the program Mark and thanks for selling me the A2’s.