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Re: Monster Cables

If this is the meeting held during CES, you recollection isn't

> entirely accurate. Yes, the goal was to tell if something had changed. > However, some in the audience not only could tell the difference, but > could identify which amp was being used. One amp was from VTL, but I > recall several brands being tested in this manner. > > The gold contacts are to prevent corrosion which can lead to > rectification. Not likely, but it could happen.

I've observed it. I have a Heathkit Audio Analyzer, the old IM-22, which measures intermodulation distortion. For a while I used it with double-banana-plug cables; when I wasn't using it I plugged the output into the input to keep the cables out of the way. The plugs were cheap surplus jobs.

One time I didn't use it for a month or so. When I turned it on, I did my routine residual distortion test, and got about 0.75% distortion at 0dBu. "Oh, really?" I said, or words to that effect, and unplugged the cables, then plugged them back in again. The residual distortion dropped to 0.07%, its normal figure. It was at that point that I decided bananas were not a good way to connect things (low pressure, not particularly gas-tight) unless they were gold plated, and the plating was real plating. Or you pulled them out and plugged them in again fairly often.

Peace, Paul

Reply to
Paul Stamler
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I saw similiar things going on an order or so lower, using the later Heath SS THD analyzer.

However, the banana plugs in question had become visibly worn, and replacement with new Pomonas made a big difference. You got to watch the springiness of the leaves and the integrity of the plating. If you see yellow, time to replace!

Reply to
Arny Krueger

There bananas were about a year old, light use, but cheap.

Peace, Paul

Reply to
Paul Stamler

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banana plugs, phono plugs, phone plugs; they all get sucky, at least in the atmosphere here in the northeast. phono plugs are the worst, so of course we use them for the lowest level signals. then we get to buy fancy ones that don't suck as bad, for big $$.

My cable lesson was learned when I saw a pair of medium grade fancy interconnects used for a decent price so I decided to give them a shot between preamp and power amp. of course, in those days I used to leave the power amp on all the time with the preamp on mute. one day the shitty phono plugs on the expensive interconnects finally degraded far enough to spontaneously start humming loud enough to convert the crossover on one speaker into charcoal bricquets when i wasn't home. Frankly, I think a person who was really concerned would do better to just solder the cables into the components than get fancy cables. Lots of people have a hot solder iron at all times anyway. Or maybe just solder the interconnects to one component, if they wanted instant unpluggability.

Reply to
z

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