MIT StyleLine Cable Demo/Review Round 5 USA

mrbiron

Nice job on the review! Don't worry to much about the USB, I had a hard time with that one as well. Everything seems spot on.

cmy330go

Was relieved to see I'm not the only one that had a somewhat critical review.

As I said before, these really are good cables, it's just all about synergy, and personal taste.

erniejade

"it's just all about synergy, and personal taste" Agree 10000000%

F1nut

If there is anyone else that would like to demo these cables before I wrap this one up, you'd better speak now.

BlueFox

This afternoon I installed the speaker cables on my fronts and center in the HT. I have the HDMI between my Oppo and pre. Tonight I will start my evaluation with my reference Bluerays, Terminator 3 for audio and Avatar for video. Unfortunately, my file player is out for repair so I will not be able to try music. On the other hand, my HT is mostly two channel hand me downs so if it works for movies it will work for music.

BlueFox

I just found a bug in this c r a p forum software. A post to a thread marked "Announcement" does not show up on Recent Discussions". Amazing.

BlueFox

Plus you can't use c r a p (without spaces). Unbelievable.

BlueFox wrote: »

I just found a bug in this c r a p forum software. A post to a thread marked "Announcement" does not show up on Recent Discussions". Amazing.

F1nut

Dos anyone know what happened to zane77? He was suppose to post his review by the 10th, but as of the 15th has disappeared.

xsmi

Have the cables moved along?

F1nut

Yes, BlueFox has them now.

BlueFox

I took part in this cable review since I have been thinking of upgrading the speaker cables in my HT. My HT primarily consists of hand-me-downs from my two channel system, and as such is a pretty good system for HT sound, multi-channel sound, and stereo. At this point I feel the weak links in this system are the speaker cables.

The speaker cables are the first ‘high-end’ speaker cables I put in my two-channel system years ago. They are Mapleshade Clearview Double Helix Speaker Cable with PLUS Upgrade, and retail between $400-$600 for the lengths used in my HT. When I first got them they replaced the generic 12 gauge twisted copper I had been using, and did bring a new dimension of sound to the system. That was when I realized cables can make a difference. Later I upgraded to another cable, and these moved into the HT, where, again, they replaced generic 12 gauge twisted copper. Plus I ordered a longer pair for the right front and right rear, and a single for the center.

http://shop.mapleshadestore.com/prodinfo.asp?number=DHELIX-PL

Anyway, over the years I upgraded the HT electronics, interconnects, speakers, power conditioner, and power cables, but didn’t touch the speaker cables. While they did sound good, I am at the point where I suspect they are the weakest link.

So, I took advantage of this cable demo to check if a ‘better’ cable made any difference.

The MIT cables in the demo are SL12, and list retail at $1200, but MIT sells at big discounts through their dealers. I guess the size of the discount is up to the dealer. So, I would guess a final price to be a little more than what the Mapleshade cables cost.

http://www.mitcables.com/available-in-stores/speaker-interfaces/styleline-sl-12-speaker-interface.html

I used all three cables; two for the front, and one for the center. They all had bananas, except for the amp side of the center, which required spades.

After it was hooked up, and allowed to settle in for a bit, I played my reference BR DVD, Terminator 3. This DVD has some great audio scenes; such as when the Terminatrix arrives and walks barefoot on the sidewalk. Her steps were now much more clear. Another scene is where John Conner drops a beer bottle off a bridge, and it hits a skull on the river bottom. The clink is now very distinct. The chase scene later on is much more vivid with the improved sound, along with the shootout in the cemetery.

So, I have to admit my gut feeling was correct. The Mapleshade cables are the weak link in this system, no contest. Later, I played music through the system, and it too was better, but I think the added audio detail in movies had a more obvious presence. It seemed louder, had more detail and clarity, and just stood out.

Another cable I tried was the HDMI cable. I have two HDMI cables in my system, one cable is the included HDMI with a new Oppo 103 connected to the Onkyo SC5509 pre, and the other is a 5 meter cable from the Onkyo to the Hitachi monitor. I replaced the Oppo cable with the MIT.

To be honest, I was not expecting much, but changing this one link bought the picture quality up a notch. While I cannot say the picture is ‘better’ with the MIT, I can say the colors are darker. That is, there is more color to the color, if that makes any sense.

To test the picture, I used the BR DVD Avatar. This DVD has fantastic colors, and this cable made watching it like seeing it new. I was noticing insects in the background I had never noticed before, and even the scenes I have memorized were just better because of the more color. This surprised me more than the speaker cables, which I pretty much expected to be better.

I didn’t try either the USB, interconnects, or speaker jumpers.

This demo convinced me it is time to upgrade my speaker cables, and HDMI cable, although I am looking at Shunyata for these components.

Gear:

TV:
Hitachi 57” RPTV, calibrated, with a Shunyata Zitron Cobra power cord. This is on a shared circuit.

Electronics:
Onkyo SC5509 preamp
Cambridge-Audio 840W left channel amp
Cambridge-Audio 840W right channel amp
Sunfire TGA-5400 center, rear channel amp
Onkyo 103 Blue Ray
Bryston BDP-1 file player
Bryston BDA-2 DAC
Xbox 360

Speakers:
Aerial Acoustics 7T fronts
PSB Synchrony One tower for surrounds
PSB Synchrony One Center

Cables:
All Shunyata Zitron power cables (Anaconda, Python, Cobra, Alpha Digital)
MIT Shotgun S1.3 XLR interconnects
Mapleshade speaker cables
Shunyata Anaconda AES digital between two Bryston components

Power:
20 amp dedicated line
Shunyata Hydra AV power conditioner

erniejade

Nice review. Thanks for sharing.

BlueFox

I see from the Fed-Ex tracker that the cables have been delivered to the next evaluator. Have fun.

dromunds

Well? (He says, sufficiently breathless.....)

F1nut

TNTsTunes has them now. They will be going to another shortly.

TNTsTunes

MIT StyleLine Cable Demo Review

I was fortunate enough to be involved with the MIT cables demo and review. Up until now I’ve run whatever I had around that sounded the best as cables in my systems. Up until this year that was good enough until I scored a set of Polk SRS 2.3’s. They sent me into the rabbit hole… After having the chance to test these cables out, new ones are high on my list of upgrades now.

The main system I tested them out on consists of an OPPO BRP- 93 Blu-ray player, a Sherbourn PRE- 1 preamplifier, a Adcom 5802 amplifier, a 1000V AI-1 Dreadnaught, Polk SRS 2.3 speakers, a 50” Visio M series LED TV and a Panamax 5100 power conditioner. All totaled I have about 30 hours of time spent testing the MIT cables.

Upon receiving the MIT cables I inspected them and was impressed with the quality of them. The speaker cables seemed thinner than expected, but the quality was there. The banana plug combination seems to make a long connector, but this wasn’t an issue for me. I just thought I would mention this.

I tested the front speaker cables, speaker jumpers, the RCA cables and the HDMI cable. I installed them one at a time just to see how much difference there was. I was pleasantly surprised that every cable made a noticeable improvement. Once the MIT cables were all installed the difference was pretty dramatic.

First up were the jumpers since I still had the stock Polk jumpers in use. They improved the clarity from the tweeters and increased the output slightly. This wasn’t a big surprise since the stock jumpers leave room for improvement.

Next up was the speaker cables. They replaced some Belden speaker cables I was using. They made a big difference across the board. The sound stage was wider with more bass and the midrange was fuller. Combined with the MIT jumpers cables they truly let my SRS 2.3‘s open up like I haven’t heard them before.

I replaced the RCA interconnects next and had another listening session. They didn’t make as much of a difference as the speaker cables, it was more like fine tuning the system. They have a sense of transparency that was lacking and they also cleaned up some bass lines that were slightly muddy. Overall they opened up the sound stage, increased the separation between instruments and made it sound tighter than ever.

The other cable I tried was the HDMI cable. It seemed well made, but seemed to unplug easily compared to the OPPO cable I was using. It would unplug when I would move the TV, but it was easy to plug back in and stayed put until I moved things again. Using it was a different story, the black level was improved and the action scenes were very smooth. Overall there was a nice increase in picture quality.

I was quite impressed with the MIT cables and will be saving to upgrade my cables in the future. After removing the cables I was kind of left with a blah feeling. I now know what the system is missing at least. I spent a few days swapping different cables I have around until I had the best combination of cheap wires I have.
Overall I’m left green with envy… I’ve started to set aside funds for my up and coming cable upgrades.

tonyb

Nice write up there chief. Goes back to F1NUTS assertion that gains in SQ expand as you wire up the whole system with the same.

Welcome to the "cables matter" side of the fence. Hearing is believing eh ?

tonyb

Couple side notes for those wanting to upgrade but are scared off by the new prices.

Buy used....period. I bought some S3 shotgun IC's right here on Polk's FM for 125 clams. That's cheaper than the a lot of Audioquest cables.

Also, as an experiment, I threw the S3's on my casual listening system. Consists of an old Sony avr, a Sonos, and Tad bookies. It was like I added a dac to this system. The detail flowed out, musicality increased....bass notes had the hit. Really liked them there.

New, these S3's retailed for more than the whole system is worth today, who does that anyway ? Use IC cables worth more than the system ? But at a used price, you don't feel so much like an idiot and the sound has improved tremendously.

TNTsTunes

tonyb wrote: »

Couple side notes for those wanting to upgrade but are scared off by the new prices.

Buy used....period. I bought some S3 shotgun IC's right here on Polk's FM for 125 clams. That's cheaper than the a lot of Audioquest cables.

Also, as an experiment, I threw the S3's on my casual listening system. Consists of an old Sony avr, a Sonos, and Tad bookies. It was like I added a dac to this system. The detail flowed out, musicality increased....bass notes had the hit. Really liked them there.

New, these S3's retailed for more than the whole system is worth today, who does that anyway ? Use IC cables worth more than the system ? But at a used price, you don't feel so much like an idiot and the sound has improved tremendously.

I'm hoping to catch a clearance or used set of MIT speaker cables. I have some cheaper MIT IC's I'm using now. Being on basically a fixed income sucks. It all takes time.

I'd even be interested in buying this set of demo cables if MIT would like to sell them...

My question is what wire should I use with my 1000V AI-1 Dreadnaught? What would be a good match for MIT speaker cables? Would using 4S411 Canare cable wired to all posts of the Speak-on connectors be a good choice? I can easily rewire the connectors to use all of the contacts for increased contact area as a bonus.

Or should I be using a better cable then that?

F1nut

MIT has a bunch of product on sale every week, check their site. Also, check with Joe Abrams on Audiogon. He's got some great deals on AVT and Shotgun cables.

I think it makes sense to use the same cable for the Dreadnought, but MIT cables with the network boxes are directional, so I bought some of the same cable in bulk, no boxes.

I don't know what they will want to do with the cables once the demo ends, but I can ask.

TNTsTunes

Have you heard anything about what they will be doing with the cables once the demo is over?

If you could find out it would be greatly appreciated.


I can now use every cable in my systems and I bought some MIT AVT Proline 8 pole XLR's interconnects from the super low priced Christmas deal that should match great too. They were half the price that they are on clearance for now.

The Styleline interconnects are 8 pole also.

F1nut

The demo is still ongoing, so I haven't checked yet.

BlueFox

Well, I will be darned. They fixed the bug where posts to a sticky thread would not show up in Recent Discussions.

TNTsTunes

F1nut wrote: »

The demo is still ongoing, so I haven't checked yet.

Thanks for the update,

I just wanted check in since I figured the demo would be ending soon. I'm really hoping something can be arranged since I'm on a fixed income. I'm disabled and music is my main escape.

I'm basically a train wreak with a brain tumor, multiple back fusions, heart problems and more. I actually have one Monster RCA cable left in my best system and 12 gauge cheapo speaker wire in my other system along with a couple more Monster RCA's.

All I would need is one new speaker cable if something can be arranged for these, then both systems would have all MIT cables and interconnects, other then for my Dreadnaught.

I liked the sound of these cables and have been beyond green with envy ever since. I really miss them...

F1nut

Is there anyone else that would like to take part in this demo before it ends?

F1nut

This demo has ended.

Thank you to all who participated and a huge thank you to MIT for providing the cables and giving so many the opportunity to try them. Perhaps we'll do another one down the road.

ZLTFUL

Thank you for putting this together, Jess.

xsmi

Jesse,

It was my pleasure to participate. It let me know that cables are a weak link in my system and the next thing on my list to fix.

mrbiron

Thanks Jesse. You da man!

Do you know anyone at Ferrari??? Maybe Lambo