MIT Shotgun S3 Cables

Freak When C

So I just scored a pair of these MIT Shotgun S3 Interconnect Cables off Audiogon. The seller states they're new and I reckon I gota good deal at half price (274.50 including shipping). :eek:

I have some Zu Gede IC's and now that I've used them for a while they sound pretty good, but:

1.) Will I notice a difference with the MIT Shotguns vs. the Zu cables?
2.) Any idea why they're called Shotguns, i.e., is it just a name?
3.) What's with those boxes in the middle of the cables?
4.) Since they're supposedly new, will break-in be needed?
5.) can I use the Shotguns between my preamp and amp or are they better used between my CDP and preamp?

I know, a lot of noob type questions. I just thought I'd ask for your thoughts and any advice y'all can offer since these are by far the most expensive cables I've ever purchased. :rolleyes:

Thanks

F1nut

1. If you don't, you're deaf.
2. Just a name.
3. Magic.
4. Yes, at least 200 hours. They will sound terrible at first.
5. Try both. You will get better results if all your IC's are MIT.

hearingimpared

Freak When C wrote: »

3.) What's with those boxes in the middle of the cables?

Thanks

The boxes are network boxes. The have a switch on each box with three impedance matching settings. Typically you will set to the switch to the impedance that best matches the input impedance of your target component. As Jesse stated they take atleast 200 hrs to break in. I set mine between my CD player and preamp and set a CD to a loop mode and just let it burnin for two weeks. Just as an FYI I use S3s alll the way around in my rig.

thsmith

Freak I just scored the same Deal. I talked with Joe and he seems like a straight up guy.

Freak When C

hearingimpared wrote: »

The boxes are network boxes. The have a switch on each box with three impedance matching settings. Typically you will set to the switch to the impedance that best matches the input impedance of your target component.

And how would I obtain that information to discover what impedance matches the input impedance of my target component?

reeltrouble1

good deal. Awesome cables. You can look in your manual or the company website, if all else fails call the company and ask, in the meantime if you cannot find it use the center setting.

RT1

hearingimpared

Freak When C wrote: »

And how would I obtain that information to discover what impedance matches the input impedance of my target component?

Look at the specifications sheet on your target device and see what the input impedance is. That is the setting you want to select on the S3 network box.

Freak When C

thsmith wrote: »

Freak I just scored the same Deal. I talked with Joe and he seems like a straight up guy.

I'm not totally convinced this is a "deal" but we'll see. I did see a pair of the exact same cables on the 'Gon for $250 in 9/10 condition that remain unsold. So this doesn't appear to be a "steal of the century" type deal but I figured I'd jump on them anyway to see (hear) if all the hype is justified.

hearingimpared

Freak When C wrote: »

I'm not totally convinced this is a "deal" but we'll see. I did see a pair of the exact same cables on the 'Gon for $250 in 9/10 condition that remain unsold. So this doesn't appear to be a "steal of the century" type deal but I figured I'd jump on them anyway to see (hear) if all the hype is justified.

They retail for over $600 so it is a great deal.

thsmith

Freak When C wrote: »

I'm not totally convinced this is a "deal" but we'll see. I did see a pair of the exact same cables on the 'Gon for $250 in 9/10 condition that remain unsold. So this doesn't appear to be a "steal of the century" type deal but I figured I'd jump on them anyway to see (hear) if all the hype is justified.

I looked at buying the used ones but for a bit more I had rather experience the burn in and the final sound.

I wish I could afford to buy the used set as well but not this week.

Freak When C

thsmith wrote: »

I looked at buying the used ones but for a bit more I had rather experience the burn in and the final sound.

Yeah I agree, for a few more bucks buying new directly from Joe is the way to go!

Concerning break-in, does anyone have any experience with Morrow Audio's BREAK-IN SERVICE?

hearingimpared

Freak When C wrote: »

Yeah I agree, for a few more bucks buying new directly from Joe is the way to go!

Concerning break-in, does anyone have any experience with Morrow Audio's BREAK-IN SERVICE?

IIRC MIT does not recommend using a burnin device to burnin their cables. I could however be mistaken.

F1nut

Joe is right, do NOT use any type of burn in device/service with MIT cables, period.

Freak When C

Thanks for the advice/warning on using a burn-in service with MIT cables.

I don't have the extra cash to buy another set of MIT Shotguns right now. So considering I do have the Zu Gede IC's I take it I should still at least run the Zu's between my amp and preamp for now. Would there be other MIT cables though that would do a better job than the Zu cables but cost less than the Shotgun S3 cables?

heiney9

Freak When C wrote: »

I'm not totally convinced this is a "deal" but we'll see. I did see a pair of the exact same cables on the 'Gon for $250 in 9/10 condition that remain unsold. So this doesn't appear to be a "steal of the century" type deal but I figured I'd jump on them anyway to see (hear) if all the hype is justified.

Joe Abrams works for MIT so yes, it's a damn good deal because he will warranty the product and you don't have to worry about being ripped off.

hearingimpared

I didn't think Joe worked directly for MIT.

heiney9

hearingimpared wrote: »

I didn't think Joe worked directly for MIT.

Ah.........that's the impression I always had. Good to know, still from what I've heard he's a stand up guy as you probably know.

hearingimpared

heiney9 wrote: »

Ah.........that's the impression I always had. Good to know, still from what I've heard he's a stand up guy as you probably know.

Yeah he is as good as they come.

gavn8r

Freak When C wrote: »

2.) Any idea why they're called Shotguns, i.e., is it just a name?

The story is actually not that exciting, but I thought I'd share. When Bruce redesigned the winding geometry of the Music Hose, he looked at a cutaway of the cable and said, "It looks like a double barrel shotgun!" From that moment on, the cable has been known as the shotgun Cable.

Gavin Fish
MIT Cables

Freak When C

hearingimpared wrote: »

As Jesse stated they take atleast 200 hrs to break in. I set mine between my CD player and preamp and set a CD to a loop mode and just let it burnin for two weeks. Just as an FYI I use S3s alll the way around in my rig.

Man that's quite a lengthy process for burn-in. My cables will get burned-in but my CD player is going to get burned out! :eek:

Is there other ways to do this burn-in procedure? Any suggestions for making this less painless and less stressful on my audio components? Now I see the value in the burn-in service I linked to earlier, but I've been advised NOT to use any such service with MIT cables. I don't understand why but I will heed the advice I was given. Just wondering if there's any tricks or shortcuts that some of you use to make the process easier on gear and/or simpler to perform.

marvda1

you can do it with a tuner.

gavn8r

Freak When C wrote: »

Is there other ways to do this burn-in procedure? Any suggestions for making this less painless and less stressful on my audio components? Now I see the value in the burn-in service I linked to earlier, but I've been advised NOT to use any such service with MIT cables. I don't understand why but I will heed the advice I was given. Just wondering if there's any tricks or shortcuts that some of you use to make the process easier on gear and/or simpler to perform.

You want to avoid using a cable burner with MIT Cables. The reason for this is that most of them use DC power to burn in the cables. While that is fine for "just wire," they burn out the electronic circuits inside the network enclosures.

The best way to burn in an MIT cable is exactly what has been said before. Stick on a CD on loop, turn the volume down very low and let it go for a couple of weeks. Just make sure that there is a signal going through the cables (if your transducers are moving, however little, you have a signal).

Gavin Fish
MIT Cables

Freak When C

Thanks for the help and advice, Gavin. I just have a few questions:

1.) Will a tuner work just as well for burn-in, as marvda1 suggested?
2.) Do I need to have my preamp and amp powered on the whole time I'm performing the burn-in process?
3.) I'm not the most electronically versed audiophile. Can you please explain how to know if the transducers are moving and where exactly they're located. Are they inside those network boxes?

Thanks

P.S. I was looking into possibly upgrading my power cable on my Lexicon RT-20 and was considering the Z-Cord II. Can you tell me if the network boxes on the Z-Cord II AC cable is the same technology used in the Shotgun S3 cables?

F1nut

Freak, it's not rocket science. Turn your system on and let it play. 200 hours works out to 8 days at 24/7. It's not going to hurt your gear as it likes to be on.

Transducers are the parts in your speakers that produce sound.

hearingimpared

F1nut wrote: »

Freak, it's not rocket science. Turn your system on and let it play. 200 hours works out to 8 days at 24/7. It's not going to hurt your gear as it likes to be on.

Transducers are the parts in your speakers that produce sound.

Just to expound . . . I leave all my gear, including tubes, on all the time. Electronics hate being powered off and on it shortens their life span.

Freak When C

OK, thanks for the help guys. It's quite obvious I'm new to this stuff but yeah, rocket science it's not. I just was unsure what a transducer is.

So that takes care of my questions but correct me if I'm wrong:

1.) Yes, a tuner will also due the job of burn-in.
2.) Yes, my preamp and amp need to be powered on.
3.) Ummm... I take it those mysterious parts called "transducers" must be moving in order for my speakers to be producing sound but I can't see them unless I take my speakers apart.

So get ready, here comes another super-noob type question; I take it that the volume level on my preamp needs to be in an un-muted state during this burn-in process otherwise my transducers aint gona be moving. Is that correct? I need to have the volume up to a certain degree for the cables to be properly burned-in?

hearingimpared

Freak When C wrote: »

OK, thanks for the help guys. It's quite obvious I'm new to this stuff but yeah, rocket science it's not. I just was unsure what a transducer is.

So that takes care of my questions but correct me if I'm wrong:

1.) Yes, a tuner will also due the job of burn-in.
2.) Yes, my preamp and amp need to be powered on.
3.) Ummm... I take it those mysterious parts called "transducers" must be moving in order for my speakers to be producing sound but I can't see them unless I take my speakers apart.

So get ready, here comes another super-noob type question; I take it that the volume level on my preamp needs to be in an un-muted state during this burn-in process otherwise my transducers aint gona be moving. Is that correct? I need to have the volume up to a certain degree for the cables to be properly burned-in?

If you are not burning in speaker cables you don't need the volume up. Set it to a low level. If you have the cable between your CD player or turner and your preamp the volume level is irrelevant.

Freak When C

Thanks, much appreciated. Hey we were all a little new to this stuff at one time. You guys are very helpful though and I hope others will benefit from this thread as well.

Can any of you comment on the MIT Z-Cord II AC cable? Is this a worthy upgrade for my Lexicon RT-20 universal disc player or would that likely be just a very minor improvement?

By the way, I'm going to run the new MIT Shotgun cable between my Rotel tuner and my preamp for now. But if I were to want to run upgraded cables between my RT-20 and preamp, that would require 5 sets for SACD, DVD-A and DVD discs with 5.1 sound tracks. That gets expensive! Any suggestions for less costly cables or other configurations to help keep cost down?

reeltrouble1

yea, long live 2-channel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

RT1

hearingimpared

Freak When C wrote: »

By the way, I'm going to run the new MIT Shotgun cable between my Rotel tuner and my preamp for now. But if I were to want to run upgraded cables between my RT-20 and preamp, that would require 5 sets for SACD, DVD-A and DVD discs with 5.1 sound tracks. That gets expensive! Any suggestions for less costly cables or other configurations to help keep cost down?

I did it right the first time and saved up for 5 sets of MIT S3s.

Norm Apter

hearingimpared wrote: »

I did it right the first time and saved up for 5 sets of MIT S3s.

Yeah, you did it the wise way. I first bought one pair of the S-3 ICs for the amp/pre-amp connection just for testing purposes (I had never heard them before and didn't know anyone locally who has a pair).

Impressed with the results, I thought about it: a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. So, I then acquired a second set for the pre/CDP connection. Then last week got my hands on a pair of S-3 (bi-wired) speaker cables, and the seller who had gotten a package deal from Joe Abrahams offered to sell me an additional two pair of S-3 ICs for a very nice price (all or nothing, I guess he decided). So now I have them on every connection in the 2 channel rig. Still burning in (in some areas) but I doubt I'll ever need to upgrade.

Norm