ok, youse guyses are gonna roll your eyes...

mhardy6647

A while back, I bought a pair of Canare speaker cables
http://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/174458/canare-wire-it-just-keeps-showing-up

I've been using them here of late with the Nelson Pass/First Watt/DIY "Amp Camp Amp" variant that nearly magically showed up recently on my doorstep.

OK, today I did - finally - A/B the amp with my normal amp (a slight variant of the JE Labs "Simple 2A3" design) with the "Amp Camp" amplifier.

Being one lazy m - of - o, I just switched the cables I hadn't tried the Canare cabling on the 2A3 amp before.

holy moly.

I was using "interesting" cabling on the SE 2A3 amp before (some cryo-treated 18 AWG magnet wire stuff from an actual brand of some sort) - that I thought sounded pretty good (i.e., better than zip cord).

I am in a very different place now.

OK?

teekay0007

Rolling my eyes alright...how did you get dkfreebird's cables?

Congrats on your new find! Now, you need to start at one end of that warehouse of yours and see what a difference the cables make on all things functional.

That should keep you busy for a while.

mhardy6647

I'm not actually cabling naive; just loath to spend big bucks on small pieces of wire.
If I started now, I'd die of old age before I got all of the LPs here cleaned and listened to. I don't need another set of tasks to do

heiney9

ALL212

Who made that stuff? Obviously anything sold by the OP on that cable must have been underpriced!

txcoastal1

Instead of rolling eyes, can I just laugh

[Deleted User]

Great! Their stuff is not so bad and of course cheap!

ALL212

On the other serious side - what are your takes on those amps?

FTGV

mhardy6647 wrote: »

I am in a very different place now.

OK?

I guess you get to stay.

motorstereo

So if I'm reading this correctly the canare is the better sounding cable?

mhardy6647

ALL212 wrote: »

On the other serious side - what are your takes on those amps?

The "amp camp" amplifier is a very good sounding piece of hardware, top to bottom. It has the finesse and immediacy of "any" good single-ended* amplifier.

To my ears, on the current, slightly bizarre configuration of my Franken-Duplexes, and using the same preamplifer, the single ended 2A3 amp outdoes the ACA. However, the 2A3 amp (also DIY) was about 5x the cost of the ACA (both DIYs, so that's a rough estimate of the delta). The output impedance of the preamp I am using may not be optimal for the ACA (or maybe for the 2A3 amp, either, truth be told).

Oh, and the ACA certainly has better HF extension/output than the 2A3 amp (which has good, but not great OPTs on it).

The Canare wire has improved the depth, spaciousness ('separation'), and clarity compared to the cabling I've been using on the 2A3 amp.

The ACA had sounded so good with the Canare cables that I decided that, when I went back to try the 2A3 amp (an "A/B" test, which I've been meaning to do) I knew I wanted to try them on the tube amp. Glad I did.

You guys can laugh, poke fun, whatever --- just please, please please don't goad me into putting $2k cabling on a $1.5-ish k amplifier

Please?

---

* Remember, all single-ended amps are Class A, but not all Class A amps are single-ended.

tonyb

OK.....I just fell off my chair. Lol I'm laughing so hard I have To go pee. LMAO.

mhardy6647

motorstereo wrote: »

So if I'm reading this correctly the canare is the better sounding cable?

Yes.
Better than what, you may ask?
I am glad you asked.

http://www.jwaudio.net/Cryo-Nova-Speaker-Cables.html


(from their website -- which still exists, it appears)

lightman1

tonyb wrote: »

OK.....I just fell off my chair. Lol I'm laughing so hard I have To go pee. LMAO.

Get the net, Tony.....this one might fight a little before landing in the boat.

vmaxer

Too funny.

teekay0007

The CryoNovas must have just thawed out, Mark! You should have put them outside in the NE winter weather for a little while to get them prepped for action again. No wonder they lost it.

stuwee

I haven't laughed this hard in days, great thread guys!! What were we talkin' about? O, cables...or was it amps? Anyhoo, great fun!!

tonyb

lightman1 wrote: »

tonyb wrote: »

OK.....I just fell off my chair. Lol I'm laughing so hard I have To go pee. LMAO.

Get the net, Tony.....this one might fight a little before landing in the boat.

This one is mantel material Russ. lol

Oh crap Mark, if you ever wanted to explore cables you don't have to sell 20 acres to get there. So much on the used markets for a couple hundies it's ridiculous.

You know my theory to keep the other half from snuffing you out in your sleep, if you want something, sell something. Judging by the looks of that audio room of yours, your not shy of things to sell either.

mhardy6647

tonyb wrote: »

...
You know my theory to keep the other half from snuffing you out in your sleep, if you want something, sell something. Judging by the looks of that audio room of yours, your not shy of things to sell either.

Yeah, Mrs. H subscribes to that theory, too. I haven't bought into it yet, unfortunately

mrbiron

You want me to send you some IC's to go with the Canares? You can use them to hookup that "common law" phono amp you got.

What i am doing here is just prepping you for when you send me the ACA and you never see it again. That's a fair trade in my book....

mhardy6647

At the moment, as best I can figure it, the ACA sort of belongs to the Forum -- although, as of now, one kind benefactor is "all in" for its purchase price (and it ain't me)!

I am going to post a separate thread -- probably two, actually -- on that subject anon. Still fomenting.

I look at that little Reduction, sittin' there like an eager puppy, very often and get a good ol' tinge of guilt goin' about that, too.

Again, there's a thread to be born around that topic, too.
Since I know our buddy Halo's entered the phono preamp fray, now (or soon) is probably a good time.

Does any of the above make any sense at all?

BlueMDPicker

mhardy6647 wrote: »

Does any of the above make any sense at all?

No.

tonyb

BlueMDPicker wrote: »

mhardy6647 wrote: »

Does any of the above make any sense at all?

No.

Lmao.....and coming from a professor one has to ask how many former students left his class scratching their heads.

Just bustin' balls Mark, but ya have to admit....it is pretty darn funny.

mhardy6647

Even as a teacher/lecturer, I always figure that if I cannot inform, I can at least entertain.

Actually, my previous, ill-focused post (actually this whole thread) is my tongue-tied way to express my deep & sincere appreciation for the incredible generosity that is shown by so many people on this forum.

... and words really do fail me when I try to do so.

oh -- and -- both of the amplifiers mentioned in the original post really do sound mighty fine with them Canare cables.

but now I'm repeating myself

halo

mhardy6647 wrote: »

At the moment, as best I can figure it, the ACA sort of belongs to the Forum -- although, as of now, one kind benefactor is "all in" for its purchase price (and it ain't me)!

I am going to post a separate thread -- probably two, actually -- on that subject anon. Still fomenting.

I look at that little Reduction, sittin' there like an eager puppy, very often and get a good ol' tinge of guilt goin' about that, too.

Again, there's a thread to be born around that topic, too.
Since I know our buddy Halo's entered the phono preamp fray, now (or soon) is probably a good time.

Does any of the above make any sense at all?

I'm slightly confused. lol. What is the Reduction? This? http://bottlehead.com/product/reduction-phono-preamplifier-kit/

I remember hearing @SCompRacer posting something about the bottlehead gear, I think with a custom made wood base that looked really nice. I found the photo:

mhardy6647

Yes, the Reduction is the second generation of Bottlehead's Seduction two-stage 6DJ8 passive RIAA (MM) phono preamp. I built a very early Seduction kit long ago; mrbiron built a Reduction some while back, then entered what biologists refer to as "log phase" with his family

This is a Seduction:

DSCN5316 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr
P1020763 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

This is mrbiron's Reduction (still being held hostage at an undisclosed location as of this writing):

DSC_2913 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

mrbiron lent his Reduction to me to compare to some of the other "phonostages" here in the frozen white North -- having no idea that it would disappear for year upon year as he waited, patiently, for a formal report on how it compares to other stuff.

I am actually planning to fire it up again today & spend some quality vinyl time (Mrs. H has a birding thing today on the North Shore down in MA). Further details as events warrant.

Back on-topic (is there a topic?):
That Eros is freaking beautiful -- that's Doc Bottlehead's higher-end phono preamp, if memory serves.

yeppers. http://bottlehead.com/?product=eros-phono-preamplifier-kit