HI all
My first post here.
I was was wondering if enyone had a oppinion on installing wbt nexgen rca`s on the linn silvers instead of the stock ones ?
thanks
Linn silvers with WBT nextgen
Moderator: Staff
Re: Linn silvers with WBT nextgen
Once we had a meeting to compare Linn silvers with other plugs: Simple WBT, WBT next-gen and Bullet plugs. The result was shattering: Only the one with the simple WBT plugs could compare with an original Linn cable, but not with the silver one, instead it was quite on par with the original Linn black one! The other two were miles apart regarding tune-dem, maybe the next-gen resp. Bullet plugs works well with other Hifi systems, but IMHO not with a Linn one.cremona wrote: I was was wondering if enyone had a oppinion on installing wbt nexgen rca`s on the linn silvers instead of the stock ones ?
hi
Thanks for the replay well i leave them alone then.
the silvers where truly a upgrade compared to the black ones and i have started to speculate about if there maby where other interconnects cables out there that would be a noticbly step up from the silvers.
Eny one that have compare them to other cables like nordost taralabs exc ?
regards
Thanks for the replay well i leave them alone then.
the silvers where truly a upgrade compared to the black ones and i have started to speculate about if there maby where other interconnects cables out there that would be a noticbly step up from the silvers.
Eny one that have compare them to other cables like nordost taralabs exc ?
regards
Welcome here, cremona!
The WBT question is quite interesting: In my experience and according to other people using the Tune Method, it appears that the basic models of WBT perform best, while the more expensive ones all sound considerably worse. This has so far been the case for various signal and speaker connectors from WBT.
The Bullet plug is a nice idea, but those who developed it certainly never paid any attention to what it does to the music when they evaluated it!
Regarding a better interconnect than the Linn Silver (old model with spring is slightly better than the new model without spring), I have heard good things about Nordost Odin. The price of the Odins is so ridiculously high, however, that I try my best to stay away from them.
The WBT question is quite interesting: In my experience and according to other people using the Tune Method, it appears that the basic models of WBT perform best, while the more expensive ones all sound considerably worse. This has so far been the case for various signal and speaker connectors from WBT.
The Bullet plug is a nice idea, but those who developed it certainly never paid any attention to what it does to the music when they evaluated it!
Regarding a better interconnect than the Linn Silver (old model with spring is slightly better than the new model without spring), I have heard good things about Nordost Odin. The price of the Odins is so ridiculously high, however, that I try my best to stay away from them.
I will have to admit here to being at least one source where Fredrik heard good things about Nordost Odin. They are, by a fair margin, the best interconnect cables I have ever heard - but they sell for $16,000US for a one meter pair! (No mistake on the decimal point - sixteen thousand dollars.) I tried a pair in my system from my Lintos to the Klimax Kontrol and couldn't believe how much more music I was hearing - there were layers of musical performance I had never heard before. Even my girlfriend was amazed, while emphatically telling me that I was not allowed to buy them. :( When I said that they seemed to have a similar ability to let you hear the finest nuances of the music - much like the Keel, she said that the improvement was "much bigger than that (the Keel)". Then again, I guess for $16,000 it should be!
Until I heard the Odins I was a firm believer in the Linn Silver interconnects as the best interconnects on the market. I have compared Linn Silvers to Nordost Valhallas (which themselves run $4330US a pair) and I prefer the Linns. I have also heard a number of other brands of interconnects such as MIT, Kimber, AudioQuest, Straight Wire, etc. and have yet to find any that impressed me as the Linn Silver (or the Linn Black for the money) do.
I have not tried the WBTs on Linn Silver although I wondered myself as the Nex-Gens are what come on the Odins. Makes me wonder what Odins with Linn Silver RCAs would sound like! But I did try some bullet plugs on a pair of Linn Silver and was quite disappointed by the sound.
Until I heard the Odins I was a firm believer in the Linn Silver interconnects as the best interconnects on the market. I have compared Linn Silvers to Nordost Valhallas (which themselves run $4330US a pair) and I prefer the Linns. I have also heard a number of other brands of interconnects such as MIT, Kimber, AudioQuest, Straight Wire, etc. and have yet to find any that impressed me as the Linn Silver (or the Linn Black for the money) do.
I have not tried the WBTs on Linn Silver although I wondered myself as the Nex-Gens are what come on the Odins. Makes me wonder what Odins with Linn Silver RCAs would sound like! But I did try some bullet plugs on a pair of Linn Silver and was quite disappointed by the sound.
Hi thomas
That was exactly the kind of replay i was looking for, for some reason its very hard getting linnies to comment on other manufactors components.
Seems like i should just keep the silvers, hmm is there enyway you squees enymore preformans out of the silvers ? i have read somthing about the solodering at the rca plugs is not optimal
That was exactly the kind of replay i was looking for, for some reason its very hard getting linnies to comment on other manufactors components.
Seems like i should just keep the silvers, hmm is there enyway you squees enymore preformans out of the silvers ? i have read somthing about the solodering at the rca plugs is not optimal
Last edited by cremona on 2008-05-07 17:47, edited 1 time in total.
That is what this forum is for, cremona!cremona wrote:for some reason its very hard getting linnies to comment on other manufactors components
What is unique about Linn is their evaluation method - this is the number one key to developing high performance hifi equipment. The other two are endurance and know-how. There are many companies and designers out there who have lots of endurance and know-how, but they don't know how to consistently and reliably evaluate their work.
Do NOT touch those solderings, you will not be able to improve upon them. I have more than a decade of experience with trying to make optimal sounding soldered (and crimped/screwed) connections and I have yet to beat the original soldering of that RCA plug (its high mass is what makes it difficult). I do, however, make Linn Blacks that are better than the originals. I have also listened to many home- and shopmade Linn Silvers and none of them have been close to a good original.is there enyway you squees enymore preformans out of the silvers ? i have head somthing about the soldering at the rca plugs is not optimal
What you should try - which I mentioned above - is to compare the new Linn Silver with the old version. The difference is in the connector, where the old version has a gold plated copper spring inside. The new version has none, it more resembles the Black connector. The new type sounds more impressive and dynamic, but the older one has better flow and performs a bit better evaluated with the Tune Method.
Please note also that there is a certain variation between individual Linn Silvers - as with any cable that is manually soldered. To get an optimal pair, my best advice is to buy several second hand pairs of the old type - making absolutely sure that they are original and not home made! Then compare each single channel cable and keep the two best sounding ones.
This means quite a bit of work, but who said it would be easy?
I will second Fredrik on the soldering front. I am a pretty decent solderer myself, although I haven't taken it to the level of Fredrik's work, and I have also been unable to make a solder connection as good sounding as the factory. When I first looked at the way Linn solder the Silvers I thought for sure I could do a better job. I made several pair trying different things including duplicating the way Linn do it but none of them sound quite as good as the factory cables. While some at my store find mine quite close to the stock cables, I find enough difference that all the standard length cables in my system are factory soldered.
I have not yet tried the newer cables with the slotted shield connector but I do have a pair and will get around to trying them sometime soon. But people whose ears I trust have stated the old style are better which suits me fine.
It does bring up a question, however. The Ekos SE comes with a T.Kable using the newer style RCAs which I didn't pay attention to until it was already on my table. I do have a spare pair of old style Silver RCAs so I could replace them if I wanted to. Any comment whether the difference in RCAs is likely to be greater than the difference in soldering?
There is one thing I recommend to further improve the quality of the Linn Silver (or any other cable) is to burn them in on the Nordost Vidar machine. Nordost claims that burning in on the Vidar for 96 hours is equivalent to over 100 years of normal use in your system. I haven't tried using a pair in my Hi-Fi for 100 years so I can't verify that claim. But I have burned in Linn Silvers that have been in my system for over a year and I was impressed with the improvement. We charge $25US per pair of interconnect or speaker cables. We have also made adapters so we can burn in US and UK power cables for $25US each. It doesn't make as big an improvement on the power cables as it does on interconnects and speaker cables but it is still a worthwhile improvement. I would recommend trying to find a Nordost dealer who offers this service and try it for yourself. I just received two sets of Silvers and a Linn AC cable from Charlie1 for burn-in. I hope he will post his findings once he gets his cables back.
There are other companies who make cable burn-in devices and they may do the job as well. But I only have experience of the Vidar so I can't comment on them.
I have not yet tried the newer cables with the slotted shield connector but I do have a pair and will get around to trying them sometime soon. But people whose ears I trust have stated the old style are better which suits me fine.
It does bring up a question, however. The Ekos SE comes with a T.Kable using the newer style RCAs which I didn't pay attention to until it was already on my table. I do have a spare pair of old style Silver RCAs so I could replace them if I wanted to. Any comment whether the difference in RCAs is likely to be greater than the difference in soldering?
There is one thing I recommend to further improve the quality of the Linn Silver (or any other cable) is to burn them in on the Nordost Vidar machine. Nordost claims that burning in on the Vidar for 96 hours is equivalent to over 100 years of normal use in your system. I haven't tried using a pair in my Hi-Fi for 100 years so I can't verify that claim.
But I have burned in Linn Silvers that have been in my system for over a year and I was impressed with the improvement. We charge $25US per pair of interconnect or speaker cables. We have also made adapters so we can burn in US and UK power cables for $25US each. It doesn't make as big an improvement on the power cables as it does on interconnects and speaker cables but it is still a worthwhile improvement. I would recommend trying to find a Nordost dealer who offers this service and try it for yourself. I just received two sets of Silvers and a Linn AC cable from Charlie1 for burn-in. I hope he will post his findings once he gets his cables back.There are other companies who make cable burn-in devices and they may do the job as well. But I only have experience of the Vidar so I can't comment on them.
Hi all
Thaks for the explanation lejonklou and thomas.
Regarding cabel burn in.
I havent experinced it before or beleived in it for that matter , that was until i got the new silvers.
I got the silvers when i bourgt my klimax kontrol and was using the stock balck ones to my klimax solos wih a moddified squeesbox with very good results, infact it sounded pretty damm amazing.
Havever when i implemmented the kontrol and the two pairs of brand new silvers the sound became flat, borring, and bright , i knew that it couldent be the kontrol because i have heard it before and it is 99% transperant musical delight.
Then i tryed to connect the old linn black , between the source and the kontrol and the sound became ALOT more open smoth and dynamicly free.
Then i knew it was the new silvers.
Then i ran the system 24/7 for around 250 houres turning the amps of at night, and over the days the sound changed dramaticly, one day great bass but bright top , next day the opposit the sound really seemed to change alot until around 200 houres where the sound was consistenly good and then around 250/275 the system bloomed beautifuly and have ever since.
I then tryed to hook the system up with the black ones again and the change was very obvious, the silvers are much more open, more meaty sound , more emotion more music and simply a better sounding cabel.
I also tryed to connect the sb3 straigt to the solos again but now with the silvers to check and learn what the differtences will be . bASICLY running the sb3 with full volume eleminating bit loos into the kontrol was best sound for sure.
In my experince musicaly having no preamp at all in the signal path far overshadows the slight signal to noise degration or bit lose of running the transporter or the squeesbox straight to power amps, you cant beat the transperancy and bass or musicality by putting somthing in front of it.
The kontrol is one of those rare magic hifi things that dossnent degrade the sound, it gets all the music through and casts some slight magic to the music by makinmg the music more open and easy to folllow the artists musical expressions.
Enyway i think i will conntact the nordost dealer in denmark i know he has one of those cabel cookers, and have him toast the silvers.
Il report back with the results.
regards
Thaks for the explanation lejonklou and thomas.
Regarding cabel burn in.
I havent experinced it before or beleived in it for that matter , that was until i got the new silvers.
I got the silvers when i bourgt my klimax kontrol and was using the stock balck ones to my klimax solos wih a moddified squeesbox with very good results, infact it sounded pretty damm amazing.
Havever when i implemmented the kontrol and the two pairs of brand new silvers the sound became flat, borring, and bright , i knew that it couldent be the kontrol because i have heard it before and it is 99% transperant musical delight.
Then i tryed to connect the old linn black , between the source and the kontrol and the sound became ALOT more open smoth and dynamicly free.
Then i knew it was the new silvers.
Then i ran the system 24/7 for around 250 houres turning the amps of at night, and over the days the sound changed dramaticly, one day great bass but bright top , next day the opposit the sound really seemed to change alot until around 200 houres where the sound was consistenly good and then around 250/275 the system bloomed beautifuly and have ever since.
I then tryed to hook the system up with the black ones again and the change was very obvious, the silvers are much more open, more meaty sound , more emotion more music and simply a better sounding cabel.
I also tryed to connect the sb3 straigt to the solos again but now with the silvers to check and learn what the differtences will be . bASICLY running the sb3 with full volume eleminating bit loos into the kontrol was best sound for sure.
In my experince musicaly having no preamp at all in the signal path far overshadows the slight signal to noise degration or bit lose of running the transporter or the squeesbox straight to power amps, you cant beat the transperancy and bass or musicality by putting somthing in front of it.
The kontrol is one of those rare magic hifi things that dossnent degrade the sound, it gets all the music through and casts some slight magic to the music by makinmg the music more open and easy to folllow the artists musical expressions.
Enyway i think i will conntact the nordost dealer in denmark i know he has one of those cabel cookers, and have him toast the silvers.
Il report back with the results.
regards