Interconnects - original or not (split from Playground)

[OscarH]

Your clips are the most enjoyable on this forum. The view is such a delight! :-)

Whenever you’re in Copenhagen, beck!

The view gives me peace of mind which improves the listening experience.

But I’m also very aware that the glass backing is somewhat controversial.

Different sides of the expectation bias, I suppose. Plenty of scope to elaborate on the psychological side of music listening.

[Spannko]

7FF536F4-B855-494B-9B44-2A5D0C9CAFE4.jpeg

This is the solder “bridge” I was referring to. All factory assembled cables and some dealer/diy cables will have this bridge.

[beck]

Listening again OscarH I most say that BlackB to my ears is very close to both being clearer and satisfying musically.
If BlackB is the newly bought pair they might just need some more time in the system.

[donuk]

OK, so while we are talking about plugs and little tweaks, I have been told of this a couple of times over the years. My experiments have been inconclusive:

Simply, do not push your plugs all the way into the sockets on your speakers. That is, leave a few mms between the plastic collar (i.e. red or black bit) on the plug and the socket on the speaker.

I have received no explanations, simply that it sounds better. One possible explanation could be that by removing direct contact between the outer plastic insulating coverings, the inner metal plug sitting in its socket is unsupported and in effect has to do more work as the inevitable force of gravity pulls it down and small movements in the cable move it around very slightly. This might serve to keep the plug/socket interface polished and conducting well.

But who knows?

Donuk

[Discodave]

Would that leave it more exposed to oxidization?

[Ron The Mon]

Having inspected them I think these silvers are custom made. They are shorter and appear hand soldered.

Pete,
Definitely not factory.

It appears only about 15% of the shield wires are soldered. The rest were shredded off by improper stripping of the outer sheath. If shield wires aren't needed, they can be trimmed with a set of flush-cut dykes. In this case, I wouldn't even call the person who assembled this an amateur; hack is more like it.

On the white insulation, you can see a piece of solder splatter and evidence hot splatter melted the insulation and was picked away.

For those playing along at home, when buying these cables online, ask for photos of all connections. A photo with a tape measure alongside for length as well.

Ron The Mon

[Ron The Mon]

Seems I’ve inadvertently opened a can of worms. Well worth opening though.

A bit further info, the original pair is exactly 120cm barrel to barrel while the pair of unknown provenance is 122. A further indication on top of Ron’s impressive review that something’s not quite right.

Hereby the two pitted against each other. Source is still the hakai.


https://www.dropbox.com/sh/lk8ky9qh2v7i ... t1OPa?dl=0

(I’ve also made clips of the original black vs QED, but let’s not have all the fun straight away)

Oscar,
I first listened on my phone to just the guitar w/Hammond intro. Definitely A.

Then I listened on my computer into Isobarik system, again just the intro, using strict tune-dem. Definitely A.

Then I played the whole thing and couldn't believe how much more bass is on A! Do you hear a lot more bass in person with A?

Ron The Mon

[donuk]

Would that leave it more exposed to oxidization?

Probably!

[Discodave]

Maybe not so good then lol?

[Defender]

thank you Ron for this extensive - impressive analysis it really helps a lot to find out if you got a real factory made cable.
Thank you for taking the time to write that down.

[Spannko]

Brand new Linn Blacks from eBay?

I would inspect the joints. It's easy to tell if they're originals or something else.

In my experience, it's very rare for original Blacks to "go bad" (like some old Silvers have, for unknown reasons).

Interesting theory that I hadn’t contemplated.

Here’s a picture showing one Linn Black bought from a Copenhagen hifi store (hence for practical purposes presumed original) and the one recently purchased off eBay.

To me they look similar but not identical. I don’t have enough experience to know what kind of tolerances Linn operate with on this product.

You don’t actually say which is which!

The left plug looks like it has a solder bridge (but it’s hard to know for sure) and the right looks like it hasn’t got a solder bridge. Can you confirm?

[OscarH]

Brand new Linn Blacks from eBay?

I would inspect the joints. It's easy to tell if they're originals or something else.

In my experience, it's very rare for original Blacks to "go bad" (like some old Silvers have, for unknown reasons).

Interesting theory that I hadn’t contemplated.

Here’s a picture showing one Linn Black bought from a Copenhagen hifi store (hence for practical purposes presumed original) and the one recently purchased off eBay.

To me they look similar but not identical. I don’t have enough experience to know what kind of tolerances Linn operate with on this product.

You don’t actually say which is which!

The left plug looks like it has a solder bridge (but it’s hard to know for sure) and the right looks like it hasn’t got a solder bridge. Can you confirm?

You’re right - I intentionally didn’t say which was which as it was suggested that a non-original cable would be easily identifiable.

The one identified by Ron, in no uncertain terms, as non-original is indeed the one off eBay.

Here’s a new picture (taken in too dark a room) showing the “rear” of the joints. The original is again on the right.

This is in fact the red cable, whereas the previous picture was the white.

To me it seems that both cables are consistently finished across the four joints, which is interesting as one would expect a less skilled person to work with larger tolerances.

Any more takers in the A-B of these two cables?

[Spannko]

Hmm. My factory blacks look like both of yours! I’ll post a photo in the morning.

[beck]

It might be a good idea to move the interconnect discussion elsewhere to make room for OscarH’s comparison and let him get some more answers.

[OscarH]

Seems I’ve inadvertently opened a can of worms. Well worth opening though.

A bit further info, the original pair is exactly 120cm barrel to barrel while the pair of unknown provenance is 122. A further indication on top of Ron’s impressive review that something’s not quite right.

Hereby the two pitted against each other. Source is still the hakai.


https://www.dropbox.com/sh/lk8ky9qh2v7i ... t1OPa?dl=0

(I’ve also made clips of the original black vs QED, but let’s not have all the fun straight away)

Oscar,
I first listened on my phone to just the guitar w/Hammond intro. Definitely A.

Then I listened on my computer into Isobarik system, again just the intro, using strict tune-dem. Definitely A.

Then I played the whole thing and couldn't believe how much more bass is on A! Do you hear a lot more bass in person with A?

Ron The Mon

Hi Ron,

Nothing that stood out in the room. I’ll have to hook them both back up for a new comparison.

The few responses on this aren’t conclusive either.

Tempted to launch the clips of “original vs QED”.

[Ron The Mon]

Hereby the two pitted against each other. Source is still the hakai.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/lk8ky9qh2v7i ... t1OPa?dl=0

The few responses on this aren’t conclusive either.

Oscar,
There is only one solid response. The other is from some wishy-washy guy In need of good ears who can't make up his mind..

When I heard clip A on my phone, I immediately thought to myself; "Nice. A 1960 Les Paul through a cranked Marshall amp." After listening further into the song through Isobariks, I recognized David Coverdale's voice and assumed this was early Whitesnake. Then I looked up Whitesnake songs and couldn't find yours. Hmmmm.

Then I looked up "The Beast", which is Bernie Marsden's Les Paul and found it is a 1959 model. Hmmm.

Whitesnake had two guitarists as well. But it sounded like Jon Lord's organ after re-listening to your clips. Double Hmmm.

That led me to this website. BINGO. This is the guitar used in the song you played; "Love Child". What sounded to me like an '80s Marshall is actually an early Hi-Watt amp.

I am a huge fan of early Deep Purple; I've probably played In Rock a thousand times. I don't even have a copy of Come Taste The Band, as I never rated it. Interestingly, I was once in a band and when we were making our first album cover, we photographed our faces through pint glasses of beer. Our album was called Come Taste The Beer.

Ron The Mon
Tommy Bolin Convert

[Discodave]

Where can I hear "Come taste the beer" Ron?

[lejonklou]

They are usually much too tight and need to be loosened. I do this with a pair of thin pointy pliers, which I open on the inside of the slotted barrel. There are six slots, which makes three pairs of "flaps" that I gently bend apart several times. Gently! If overdone, the metal cracks. What you want is to flex them a little, until the fitting is "just right".

There is an improvement in sound when they fit "just right". When they're too tight, the sound gets very sharp and almost distorted. When they're too loose, the sound gets distorted in a sloppy way.

The overly tight fitting is a problem because when one uses too much force connecting and disconnecting, it can crack the soldered joints between the female connector and the circuit board. It had happened a bunch of times over the years, twice on my own products.

Interesting! Do you feel this applies to the T-Kable as well? The RCAs on my T-Kable are extremely tight. I hate having to disconnect them because I feel like I'm going to rip the jacks right out of the Linto's back panel. I always figured the T-Kable was noticeably tighter than Linn's other interconnects because it handles much weaker signals.

Yes, it's very common with newer T-kables. You should loosen them up.

[markiteight]

Yes, it's very common with newer T-kables. You should loosen them up.

Thanks, Fredrik! Out of curiosity, what qualifies as "newer"? Mine is at least 15-ish years old.

[OscarH]

The few responses on this aren’t conclusive either.

Oscar,
There is only one solid response. The other is from some wishy-washy guy In need of good ears who can't make up his mind..

When I heard clip A on my phone, I immediately thought to myself; "Nice. A 1960 Les Paul through a cranked Marshall amp." After listening further into the song through Isobariks, I recognized David Coverdale's voice and assumed this was early Whitesnake. Then I looked up Whitesnake songs and couldn't find yours. Hmmmm.

Then I looked up "The Beast", which is Bernie Marsden's Les Paul and found it is a 1959 model. Hmmm.

Whitesnake had two guitarists as well. But it sounded like Jon Lord's organ after re-listening to your clips. Double Hmmm.

That led me to this website. BINGO. This is the guitar used in the song you played; "Love Child". What sounded to me like an '80s Marshall is actually an early Hi-Watt amp.

I am a huge fan of early Deep Purple; I've probably played In Rock a thousand times. I don't even have a copy of Come Taste The Band, as I never rated it. Interestingly, I was once in a band and when we were making our first album cover, we photographed our faces through pint glasses of beer. Our album was called Come Taste The Beer.

Ron The Mon
Tommy Bolin Convert

Ron,

Very pleased to have picked a sufficiently obscure track to send you on a (re)discovery of Deep Purple’s short lived MkIV line up.

My go to album has always been Machine Head, but Smoke on the Water would have been far too obvious and using Lazy for a clip would severely challenge people’s patience.

For the Swedish forum members among us the alias ‘Tommy Bolin’ has a further 1990’s comedy connotation... which could easily be used to sidetrack to (amongst others) Cliff Burton of Metallica. Anyway...

Your favorite clip A is the interconnect you convincingly identified as “non-original”, which lost 5-0 to a very affordable QED earlier this week.

beck thus narrowly preferred the original black.

So that opens up a number of possibilities...
Maybe my QED really is very good?
Maybe my original black is very bad?
Maybe my clips are very confusing/bad?
Maybe this is another (see Karousel thread) situation where clips come up short?

To at least cover all options here’s the blind A-B (actually C-D) of the original black vs. QED.

Still the Hakai playing, but again an entirely different song to keep you all on your toes.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/r76g7i5q1rjb ... QSnfa?dl=0

[beck]

Yes, you are right OscarH. Many different things can happen making clips. Sometimes a changed setup has to play for a while to settle and do its best. Other slight changes can also disturb the comparison.

I hear C as the original blacks and D as the QED interconnects having heard your former clips (and depending on repeated sound quality in the clips).

I prefer C here finding them slightly more open. They satisfy me musically too. D also has musical qualities I like (the vocal among other things) but compared to C slightly less open sounding.

I also find your Hakai to perform really well! :-)


....and wishy-washy as I am I think I could live with both sets of interconnects!

[Spannko]

No beck. It is I what is wishy washy! 🤣

[Charlie1]

I'm Wishy-Washicus!!!

[lejonklou]

Yes, it's very common with newer T-kables. You should loosen them up.

Thanks, Fredrik! Out of curiosity, what qualifies as "newer"? Mine is at least 15-ish years old.

With newer I meant most T-kables with slotted RCA's. One of the advantages of the original connector, with no slots but instead a gold plated spring inside the barrel, was that its tightness was always perfect. Even after decades of use, the contact pressure still seems perfect.

[Spannko]

I'm Wishy-Washicus!!!

😂🤣😂