Post by Owen Y on May 10, 2020 20:58:13 GMT 12
ANALOG PLANET (Michael Fremer), for reasons that he explains, has recorded a short extract of music (a rather sweet bit of Norah Jones I believe) in 4 versions, to demonstrate that cables make a difference to the sound reproduction. Fremer asks his readers to listen to these 4 different phono cables (from US$15 to >$5k in price), attached to a Fuuga MC1 cartridge (US$9k) on a Kuzma 4-Point tonearm (US$7k),SUT (US$5.7k), Ypsilon VPS-100 phono preamp (US$26k).... Can you hear the difference between the 4 phono cables - in Fremer's uncompressed AIFF track samples? With this high-end level of gear, you should be impressed. I know which one/s impress me & which does not.
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Post by michaelw on May 11, 2020 11:46:08 GMT 12
Surprised i can easily hear a difference on my desktop speakers  Two really good, one good, one stinker. 
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Post by Owen Y on May 11, 2020 12:15:34 GMT 12
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Post by michaelw on May 11, 2020 14:43:35 GMT 12
had a listen on the hifi system.
file 3 doesn't want to play ?
file 1 has the most impact so far.
more listening when time allows.
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Post by Citroen on May 11, 2020 18:30:21 GMT 12
The USB DAC in my pre-amp has decided to play up, after the latest "upgrade"  So its the AQ Red and headphones. File 1 sounds very bright/sibilant and very much in the middle of your head. File 2 sounds dull and quieter in comparison. File 3 and 4 have the Left and Right channels reversed, not as dull as File 2. Wider soundstage. Does make me wonder though what else is amiss if a basic thing like Left and Right channel is wrong!
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Post by michaelw on May 11, 2020 19:10:32 GMT 12
ha ! easy to do when you're swapping between many cables. did i tell you about the time i connected two speakers together ?
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Post by Citroen on May 11, 2020 19:24:48 GMT 12
Red is right, black is left. How basic is that? 
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Post by michaelw on May 11, 2020 20:42:24 GMT 12
shop guy told me to hook up the speakers so i picked up the two sets of plugs from the mess of cables on the floor and plugged them in. unfortunately the plugs were on the ends of the same length of cable.
it was a decent system too, sota with sumiko arm and carnegie cartridge, counterpoint electronics, martin logan cls1, kimber kable !
back to the test... something funky is going with those files, streaming from pc to ca752bd, i couldn't get track 3 to play. fixed by copying the files to a usb stick fixed.
on the hi-fi it was 1, 3, 4, 2
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Post by Owen Y on May 12, 2020 14:19:41 GMT 12
Well spotted Citroen.... Michael Fremer has now posted revised/corrected files: " Thanks to all who listened and participated (so far) including those who correctly criticized me for having channels reversed on two files. I posted in haste. Also I should not have "normalized" the files and should have instead posted them "as-is" so the only possible variable was the cable. Also the track lengths are now as close to identical as possible. " " If there are level differences they are caused only by the cables. If there are variable inter-channel level differences, those too are from the cables. "
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Post by Citroen on May 12, 2020 16:04:47 GMT 12
Am I missing something?
I just downloaded them and the first two are still reverse of the second two.
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Post by Graham on May 12, 2020 16:23:58 GMT 12
I'm afraid Mr Fremer made such a mess of this comparison test that it is worthless.  Maybe he should take a deep breath and start again as a genuine accurate comparison would be very interesting.
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Post by Citroen on May 12, 2020 16:41:38 GMT 12
Indeed.
How often do we get to compare 4 different phono cables? The concept is great and I wish more would do these sorts of comparisons. But of course, there does appear to be quite a few hurdles to cross before they are meaningful.
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Post by michaelw on May 12, 2020 17:08:49 GMT 12
poor mikey
i compared the revised samples against my original classic records 180g vinyl and the results changed slightly, now 3,1,4,2
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Post by Citroen on May 12, 2020 17:12:00 GMT 12
Did you find the channel reversed as well? Or have I done something amiss?
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Post by michaelw on May 12, 2020 18:23:26 GMT 12
original files 1,2 had the channels reversed. on the revised set all files have correct channel orientation. for comparison i played the same track off my us sacd, it shares the same overblown quality as track 1...
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Post by Citroen on May 13, 2020 10:44:24 GMT 12
I've tried downloading again and i still get files 1 and 2 with reversed channels
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Post by michaelw on May 13, 2020 10:57:01 GMT 12
clear site cookies and try again ?
the revised files have different filenames and sizes
old were
052020Comeaway1 36mb
052020ComeAway2 35.1mb 052020Comeaway3 34.2mb 052020ComeAway4 38.2mb
revised files are
052020ComeAwaye1 36.6mb 052020ComeAwaye2 36.1mb 052020ComeAwaye3A 36.3mb 052020ComeAwaye4A 36.7mb
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Post by Citroen on May 13, 2020 13:05:53 GMT 12
Yeah, I did that before.
Just checked now and the new files are named as per your revised list. But the first two files still sound swapped cf the last two.
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Post by michaelw on May 13, 2020 20:11:35 GMT 12
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Post by Owen Y on May 13, 2020 21:22:50 GMT 12
(I have a blocked ear at the mo', but as soon as I get myself sorted post lockdown, I must join this deep-geek discussion )
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Post by Owen Y on May 20, 2020 12:27:40 GMT 12
ANALOG PLANET (Michael Fremer) reveals the list of 4 different phono cables used above: File #1 is the “straight run” on the Kuzma arm - specification to be confirmed by Kuzma. File #2 is a prototype cable, not identified - " probably the most costly of the four " File #3 is “Beyond” from RSX Technology. File #4 is Hosa CRA-200AU manufactured by HosaTech (US$9 per 1m pair from Amazon).
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Post by michaelw on May 20, 2020 16:02:08 GMT 12
i liked the $9 more than the megabuck prototype
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