Has anyone tried these?

jmwest1

I've been looking for a decent yet inexpensive pair of bi-wire speaker cables and ran across these: https://www.amazon.com/Foot-Audiophile-Star-Quad-Eminence-Connectors/dp/B09W2VL1RL?ref_=ast_sto_dp

Has anyone tried this brand? If so, what was your experience with them?

Emlyn

I've bought several of their products including speaker cables and sets of their XLR cables for home theater use. They're quality procucts for that purpose. They use high quality cabling and genuine connectors normally found in professional recording environments and assemble the cables solidly. I haven't had any problems with them. They produce a mix of cables for use in professional environments, recording studios, and for home audio use.

For comparison I'd put them on par or a notch above Blue Jeans Cable products depending on the product. I can't say they put money into research since they're mainly taking well regarded cable and properly attaching reliable connectors to it.

I don't know much about the company but they seem to have some connection with a business in the country of Sri Lanka. Their products ship from Amazon in the US though.

Gardenstater

I like the PE insulation. Must be standard ETP (electrolytic tough pitch) grade of copper though. Can you get the same cable from them, but in a 4N (OFC) or 4N5 (OFHC) grade of copper?

The pitch of the quad is specified as <4.73in. Kind of low rate of twist, ie. Chris Venhaus now recommends 1in. pitch on his power cables. JAT.

Turns out there is an OFC version, which is 4S11G. Kind of hard to find for sale though with terminations. Etsy seller (Soundlab) has it, terminated or in bulk. They say ultrasonic welded which is pretty cool.

https://www.canare.com/speakercable

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1168483417/soundlab-canare-4s11g-speaker-cable-pair

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1140189579/canare-4s11g-speaker-cable-ofc-jis-h3510

https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/canare-4s11g-is-there-a-better-cable.1124177/

engie490

Canare 4S11 is a nice, cheap option for speaker wire. I've purchased Canare L-4E6S interconnects from the same company and they have held up well.

jmwest1

I ordered them today. Hopefully they'll deliver!

Emlyn

I ordered a pair of the WBC's Gotham RCA cables with locking connectors today. Figure can't go far wrong for $54 a five foot pair.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01I38C2DS/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A2JAH816F3JQTD&psc=1

msg

I also like the WBC cables, too, though not particularly a fan of the Canare star quad due to a crunchy experience in earlier days. That said, it likely warrants revisit.

@Clipdat recommended some Mogami'd ICs a while back, and picked up a pair of the WBC jumpers that @Emlyn recommended. Quality builds, great bang for buck.

Also a BJC fan.

msg

Emlyn wrote: »

I ordered a pair of the WBC's Gotham RCA cables with locking connectors today. Figure can't go far wrong for $54 a five foot pair.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01I38C2DS/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A2JAH816F3JQTD&psc=1

Let us know what you think of those locking connectors.

Clipdat

Split tips! BUYER BEWARE!

pitdogg2

Clipdat wrote: »

Split tips! BUYER BEWARE!

I've got several pairs of cables that lost one of those split petals. From My experience they tend to compress and not make good contact. When you try to spilt them open enough to then make better contact they break like a porcelain doll. I agree with @clipdat I avoid them.

Not those particlur cables just similar RCA ends.

Clipdat

They're good for nothing.

Clipdat

Most female RCA connectors use this simple cheap design where the signal contact point inside is just a flat piece of stamped metal.

This inadvertently creates a situation where the flat metal piece can actually get slightly inserted into the split tip of the RCA cable. Say, when you are trying to twist/secure the cable upon insertion, or just by chance.

Flat piece of metal going into your tip?! Ouch! Nobody wants that!

Clipdat

IMO, you should only ever consider using split RCA cables if you're going to be using them with higher quality female RCA connectors where the shaft of the cable bottoms out against a 360degree metal surface.

Even then, I don't see any benefit whatsoever in using a split pin/shaft to "increase contact area/pressure" as they claim it does.

So really wtf is the point of split tip cables at all? They shouldn't ever be used for any reason.

Clipdat

Who decided split tip RCA cables were a good idea in the first place and actually came to market with this inherently flawed design? Probably someone at Monster Cable as a matter of fact...

Clipdat

We covered this here where I was deemed a lunatic AND a schmuck: https://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/181871/proper-orientation-of-male-split-pin-rca-plug/p1

Which I don't necessarily disagree with, but not because of my stance of split tip RCA cables.

Emlyn

The only issue I see with the Eminence branded "locking" RCA's is they're designed for the barrel to turn only one turn and WBC recommends only using light pressure on them. Consequently they don't really lock on fully but are just a little more difficult to pull off than if they didn't have a rotating barrel. It's easy to pull the cable off the RCA jacks like it would be with a normal non locking connector. There's no movement on the center pin when the barrel is fully hand tightened and a tiny bit of movement on the outside edge. Much better than the old Monster Cable grip of death approach. I consider their approach one to just make contact a little bit better and provide a cable that's easy to attach and disconnect without causing damage. Good design really.

They do appear to be pretty solid connectors, but fair warning on the general idea that split center pin connectors can be bad. I wouldn't really call them fully locking like other locking RCA cables I've used from MIT, WBT, and others. At least not on the jacks I tried them on.

Clipdat

I wish you the best of luck with them, but if things go south, it was nice knowing you!

Clipdat

Haha, bs marketing that doesn't even make any sense based on the design of 95%+ of female RCA jacks these will likely be used with:

msg

@Emlyn - this is exactly what I was wondering, because I found the same with connectors like those.

They're a little more snug, but you can still pull them off. Better than loose, and it's nice to have an option like this for more affordable ICs.

I've had some cables from some quality manufacturers with which the grip is a little loose on some RCAs.
It's rare, but has happened. I typically try to go for some kind of locking RCA when cost makes sense. That's a great extra to have on ICs that price.

Emlyn

I put the WBC Gotham RCA cables in place of a set of MIT S1s this morning between a Marantz SACD player and Parasound JC2. As expected they're definitely a bit "tizzy" out of the box like most cables of this type but overall would work for me on a budget stereo system or in a home theater system. The RCA connectors definitely don't lock on anything but they look cool and most people would likely be happy with them.

msg

"tizzy" - to me, that sounds like a bit forward, high-accentuated, maybe thinner sounding than your MITs mostly in mids and maybe edging into the lows?

What about after burn in? Any better?

One thing I'm (very, very loosely) trying to figure out is how I lost some "disappearing speakers imaging magic" on a desktop system with Audioengine HD3s and Schiit stack, where I was using a worse cable combination before. I had a couple of the standard included/generic RCA cables running, along with only one decent cable, AQ Forest RCAs.

Everything in that setup now is WBC Mogami RCAs with Amphenol connectors. Fuzzy now. I may have changed something else at the same time.

Side note though, as I was looking - the Mediabridge sub cables are decent for the money, too. Nothing I'd kick outta the bed. Nice snug connectors, and flexible.

Emlyn

Mostly in the treble region there's a smearing of instruments that borders on harsh. This is with no time for burn in at all so I expect them to improve and smooth out a little over time but not a tremendous amount. Bass is well controlled. Midrange is a little more hollow but sounds good for the most part. Of course this is compared to MIT S1s so I'm not surprised. The rest of the cabling in the system is still MIT S1 so there was synergy there that's now missing.

msg

Yeah, that makes perfect sense, going from S1s to WBC made with Mogami or Canare. These seem to be the brands they use in their builds, typically.

I've come to similar conclusion with the WBC cables. I have found near every new cable to exhibit similar characteristics initially, as well.

Also have to say, I've been pleased with the Blue Jeans stuff, even with testing in primary systems alongside MIT.

Most recent consolidation, though, I've not had the baseline of MIT, end to end. I have S3s in the primary paths, but haven't hooked up the S3 speaker cables in this setup yet. No particular reason, except curiosity with other cables. As is, it's been very pleasing.

jmwest1

After having the cables I linked in the original post for almost a month I can say they're not bad. I'm sure they're no MIT shotgun, but they work well for me. I give them a thumbs up for use in a mid-fi rig.