Cable Guy ;)-

HzTweaker · January 28

Who is our resident cable dealer?

I need a few cables to make the next audio experiment work. All this talk/internet reviews about R2R dacs is giving me the "itch".

Heres what I'm looking for:

Two matching pair of 1-1.5m XLRs

One 3+m USB A to USB C of similar quality to the XLRs.

Any help would be great!

Thanks

billbillw · January 29

I went through this about 2 years ago and I ended up buying a 4 pack of WBC Mogami cables from Amazon. Unfortunately, Amazon is no longer stocking them, most likely due to tariffs making the product unprofitable for WBC. FYI, they were only ~$60 in Jan 2024. Maybe you can find a similar pair with Canare Quad wire or something that isn't made in Asia. I'm not sure if Doug @helipilotdoug is still doing custom cables, but he could possibly make something for you. This was the pack I bought. Maybe you can find another vendor that still has them at a reasonable price.
I don't have any advice for the USB cable. I still use an old Belkin Gold USB-A>USB-B cable that has been reliable for 10+ years.

Edit: After checking around Amazon's WBC 'store', they are selling a different version which has a self branded cable instead of the Mogami. www.amazon.com/Units-WBC-PRO-QUAD-Ultra-Silent-Ultra-Flexible-Star-Quad/dp/B0CV9K8W85

skipshot12 · January 29

What price range are you looking at?

I have some Monster Cable Sigma M2000 XLR's that I no longer use. They may be 2m runs, I'd have to verify that, if you're interested.
Not cheap but are really good cables.

Also have a bunch of regular XLR's that are 1m in length.
The seller I purchased them from said they were from Bryston but, they look like generic XLR's to me.

I was using them years ago when doing a Legacy Audio surround system. Would let those go on the cheap.

Also have a pair of 20' Monster Sigma M2000 XLR's if anyone needs a long pair. Have no idea why I purchased them as I've never used them, must have been a really good deal.
If anyone's good at terminating, these could be made into 6 pairs of 1m runs.
Would sell those for a very reasonable price.

The Blue one in the bag and one of those red ones are the 20' Monster Sigma's XLR's.

HzTweaker · January 29

Thanks for the responses guys! & That's a really nice deal/gesture Skip. I like the idea of making shorter runs of the Monster Sigma M2000. I also like the looks of the WBCs. Any cable I choose will end up in an A/B listening comparison to my WW Equinox 7s. Heres what I was looking at last night:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/126095154964?

@ 1m with XLRs ~$100 a pair. Thoughts?

The usb is going to be a challenge. I mean I already have a monoprice A to C unit but this cable is going in the hifi so I'd Like it to be more elevated in quality. Plus it'll be fun to do another cable comparison.

HzTweaker · January 29

@skipshot12 PM incoming.

HzTweaker · January 29

Okay maybe the usb A to C isn't that hard to find after some digging around lol.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/196154698466?

HzTweaker · January 29

I went a head and bought the AQ Forest USB A to C. I'll do an A/B comparison in the lofi rig with the AQ and monoprice cable once the AQ arrives.

I'm assembling all of this because @heiney9 and the rest of you guys peeked my curiosity in the R2R dac thread:

https://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/202342/r2r-dac-vs-delta-sigma-type-dac/p1

And considering the FiiO K13 R2R dac to compare it to the Burr Brown chip dac that's already in my pre. Which is a nice way of saying "Thanks for helping me spend more money on the rig" lol

HzTweaker · January 30

Has anyone here bought from audio46? If so how was your experience?

skipshot12 · January 30

Be cautious and do your research... be aware that lot's of folks are selling counterfeit stereo stuff on ebay.

heiney9 · January 30

HzTweaker wrote: »

Okay maybe the usb A to C isn't that hard to find after some digging around lol.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/196154698466?

It seems to be one extreme to the other. Either high priced "audiophile" offerings or inexpensive charging cords for cell phones. Nothing in between.

I am on the lookout for a decent cable usb A to C, but it needs to be around 2M or more and I'm not paying AQ prices for a cable.

H9

billbillw · January 30

heiney9 wrote: »

HzTweaker wrote: »

Okay maybe the usb A to C isn't that hard to find after some digging around lol.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/196154698466?

It seems to be one extreme to the other. Either high priced "audiophile" offerings or inexpensive charging cords for cell phones. Nothing in between.

I am on the lookout for a decent cable usb A to C, but it needs to be around 2M or more and I'm not paying AQ prices for a cable.

H9

Honestly, I'd go for a quality brand that advertises good data rates and is built well. This comes to mind: https://www.amazon.com/Anker-Carplay-Upcycled-Braided-Charger/dp/B0F5926WHB?th=1
Available in a few colors. It shows 480Mbps data rate, which is USB2.0 and faster than any high resolution audio that you are going to stream. Even a 32/384khz stereo signal is only ~25Mbps.
There is another one that is nice from Anker called the Powerline+, but it looks like only the 3ft version is still available.
I've never had issues with Anker cables going back 10+ years. Other odd brands from Amazon, yes, but not Anker.

heiney9 · January 30

Funny you mention Anker, I was looking at one of those and this one

https://www.ebay.com/itm/116017314734?_skw=audiophile+usb+a+to+c+cable&itmmeta=01KG7XBVB74PJ2JV9P2PWXR5ZA&itmprp=enc:AQALAAABAO7PUuNWmJ++UShgI9tQz/qgif4FXk14QKXPYuXygyelAXpdR8a/kEmUtiT9qjYQRH5MbY/Ug+amnDfQAKTtS6wRGYlYkf6t6YUIPd5V1W00n7OrDFszUl40dAeejjqmcCWNvtD7YWnwQ3aAPnTla/4JvRqfIhXL5Xn6B2f+26pax9gv0Hrvq6trxLheGP/ZV3ueaaUciqmi8u5PIo5gtuCgQwmhOD6hk85W5mRx6FHk26AYHGrEVB/tDoEreX2SFKcdvTYKyey2+HZoO3bJByTxmpqk0fdYzZQoY0k8TuuJ5Zs+544SszdpYSF+vYXZIlhVh5ymmGWqoyXdq4bkuEk=|tkp:Bk9SR9q1r_2BZw

billbillw · January 30

I don't think I'd order from China on a cable like that. They might have made it pretty with the gold plating, but the chokes are a gimmick and I bet the internal construction is no better than a basic charging cable. They don't even certify it to USB2.0.

heiney9 · January 30

I have been getting these types of cables from ghentaudio. They have an ebay store. They don't list any USB A to USB C cables. They use Canare Star Quad with high quality connectors. I have several A to B cables as well as dc cables for my LPS from them.

Bummer.

H9

HzTweaker · January 30

skipshot12 wrote: »

Be cautious and do your research... be aware that lot's of folks are selling counterfeit stereo stuff on ebay.

This is good advice! I was nervus when I bought some used AQ Q2 speaker cables from the "Bay" fearing that they might be counterfeit. I can't say that they are or aren't but when doing an A/B between the AQs and my Monster XPs they won their place in my hifi by a long way!

The AQ Forest A to C usb (from the "bay") will get the same A/B comparison to my Monoprice A to C usb cable as the speaker cables. I'll let you know what I hear.

Has anyone purchased from the site: audio46.com ?

HzTweaker · February 3

I went ahead a ordered a lightly use Fiio K13 R2R DAC (from the "Bay") for the rig alongside some XLR connectors from sweetwater. Now to purchase the Monster Sigmas from @skipshot12.

skipshot12 · February 3

^Cool^
You'll love them.

HzTweaker · February 3

One of the things that excites me about the K13 is the ability to use an external DC power supply. Once I get a pretty good idea of what the unit sounds like with it's built in PS I'll have to try it out with my LPS. Another thing I plan on trying is swapping the stock PC with an AQ NRG unit I have laying around.

Lots of potential with this update to the rig.

HzTweaker · February 14

A massive shoutout goes to @mantis & @skipshot12 ! These guys came through. Mantis the speaker cables arrived when you said they would and the packing was great. Skip hooked me up with some XLRs and he definitely went above and beyond with the packing. I'll defiantly do business with these cats again!

HzTweaker · February 14

Now for the XLRs. I didn't need a 20' pair to accomplish what I was trying to do. That was to hook up the Fiio K13 r2r dac up to my preamp. So I modified one of the cables by cutting one meter lengths from each end of the cable. Then proceeded to put new corresponding connectors from Neutrik on the cut ends. My reasoning for doing it this way was to shorten my trouble shooting down to there only being two new ends. The connectors I installed lol. I double checked each pin for continuity and checked that there wasn't any one of the pins that shouldn't. Now to put them in the rig and see how it sounds.

Cable Guy ;)-

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