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[Jim Williams]

If you buy new, it will cost ya. It's military,
with precious metals at military qual prices.
I buy surplus at a place called Apex electronics
in Sun Valley, CA. I pay $6.50 per pound. I use this
in all gear including microphones when I don't use exotic
wire.
Even my AC transformers
are made with silver teflon wire.

So, once again, when are the "hosts" going to fix
this stupid text editor so the words don't go off
the edge of the page??? Really, how hard is it to
return to what once worked???
Sorry, had to rant.

the "host" of this forum is as much in the loop about any forum format changes, good or bad, as you are!
So it would not hurt to express yourself directly to the management. K.H.

[T.RayBullard]

Mr. Fuston,

www.alliedelec.com

or go to ebay and search for "mil grade silver,wire teflon jacket" some spectacular deals there..

 http://www.google.com/search?as_q=%22mil+spec%22+%22silver-p  lated+copper+wire%22+teflon+jacket&num=50&hl=en&  btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&lr=  lang_en&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_o  cct=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=&as_rights=&sa fe=images

[mdemeyer]

Jim said:

"A 3-braid of military surplus silver/teflon 20 awg wire sounds better than Kimber's PBJ teflon/copper wire that sells for $4 per foot. Try it yourself and see.

I've been using silver/teflon wire in all my work for at least the last 20 years. Glad to see some of you coming around..."

Jim,

Do you mean silver plated copper, or solid silver.  Easy to find the first one, hard to find the second.

Michael

[Jim Williams]

mdemeyer wrote on Thu, 30 March 2006 21:31

Do you mean silver plated copper, or solid silver.  Easy to find the first one, hard to find the second. Michael

Silver plated copper. Pure silver wire is expensive.
For pure silver wire, I use Kimber Black Pearls solid
core or the AGSS stranded silver wire.

[Markus Aalto]

I haven't used Gotham cables for many years except GAC-7 tube mic cable. Anyway because Gotham has been often subject of discussion here i bought their cable (GAC-2) couple of months ago. It's especially good for making adapter cables for small Tuchel to XLR because the diameter of the cable is quite small, but....

Because Gotham cables have quite small diameter it means the outer jacket is thin. The cable is very flexible. When the cable is new it feels nice. I've used my new Gotham cables carefully in studio use only but after some months cables became lumpy. I think the cable materials are too flexible and in use when cable bends the strands of "Reussen shield" pile up in lumps. Especially couple of feets near the connectors.

One cable i like personally is Sommercable Galileo 238. It has two millimeter larger diameter (thicker than average mic cables) but it is still easy to install it to normal XLR's. The shield construction is very similar than in Gotham. It's double wound too but they doesn't call it "Reussen". Because the cable is more thicker and upright it keeps it's shape without visual changes in use. The name Sommercable is not very old name in cables but many persons there have long experience in cable manufacturing. They manufactures many innovative products and had co operation with Schoeps in some cable design.

I'm really interested to hear what other people likes about this cable compared to other brands if some of you got experience too. I think it is not bad cable audibly but i personally haven't made A/B tests in enough equal conditions.

[maarvold]

Amazing!  I skimmed this entire topic--start to finish--this morning.  11 pages (and 45 minutes later) and still extremely few real world conclusions.  Talk about the law of diminishing returns.  I've gotta say, I think William Wittman is on the right track: make a decision and move on (before you're trapped in the quicksand).  Jim Williams, I will keep the Apex silver/copper/teflon in mind.  Thanks.  
One last thing: unfortunately with the music business economy the way it is, my #1 priority lately is that when I plug a cable in, it MUST pass signal (and, preferably, not invert phase); this in spite of the fact that I carry most of my own Gotham GAC 4/1 mic cables.  YMMV.

[Klaus Heyne]

As for 'real world' experience:
I never found Gotham's GAC2 worthy. It seemed too thin and anemic to me. Quite a departure from my still-favorite: GAC3. (As of a few months ago, I deliver all my FET modifications with 25ft. of this cable, to keep control over the audible result at the client's end)

P.S.: Maarvold is right: this thread still ranks as one of the most out-of-control, lowest s/n of all the threads on this forum, but I never had the balls to kill it. I am welcoming anyone who can turn it around and make it more 'real word' applicable.

[Markus Aalto]

Klaus,

May i ask which type of the GAC-3 do you use? There are two versions: 10702 5mm diameter and 10801 5.8mm diameter. In Finland the importer stocks only 5mm version unfortunately. Basic GAC-2 is 5.4mm. Maybe third conductor makes the cable slightly more stiff so the cable doesn't bend and twist wrong that easy (?).

Do you have tested / personal opinion about Sommercable?

[Andy Simpson]

As I said before (though there seems to be no remaining record), I strongly urge anybody interested to try a direct connection to their pre-amp.

This is the only reasonable way to avoid the endlessly subjective confusion and get a real reference.

Andy

[Andy Peters]

Plush wrote on Sun, 03 April 2005 09:15

We have abandoned Canare Star Quad because of its high capacitance and generally bright sound.

Higher capacitance would result in duller sound as the highs are rolled off. Your statement doesn't make much sense.

-a

edit: whoops, a three-year old thread.

[Andy Peters]

Klaus Heyne wrote on Sun, 03 April 2005 19:36

I am not able to correlate definitions of slew and transient response to what I hear:  it is often the case that a cable may have more speed at a certain frequency band than at another. How would you measure that in slew or transient terms, other than plotting a sine wave?

A transfer function measurement will show differences in "speed" vs frequency in the phase response.

One can use pink or white noise, or even music, as the stimulus source.

-a

edit: Hey, this thread is three years old

[Klaus Heyne]

Markus Aalto wrote on Mon, 28 January 2008 02:59

Klaus, May i ask which type of the GAC-3 do you use? There are two versions: 10702 5mm diameter and 10801 5.8mm diameter. In Finland the importer stocks only 5mm version unfortunately. Basic GAC-2 is 5.4mm.

Both GAC-3 versions have identical conductors and, from what I can hear, identical performance. GAC 2 uses different (thinner) stranding on its (thinner) conductors, even if the overall (jacket) diameter may be thicker or equal to one version of GAC-3.

For obvious reasons, the 5.8mm jacket version of GAC-3 would be preferable when hanging mics from their cables.

Still, what matters most to me is the sound.

[Andy Simpson]

For what it is worth, here is a minor demonstration of cables VS direct connection.

This is a 'stereo' recording of nylon string acoustic guitar, strummed enthusiastically.

The (matched) mics were as close together as possible.

One channel is via 50ft of cheap mic cable and the other channel is direct-to-pre-amp (via a back-to-back XLR connector which I put together).

For comparison, the stereo file must be loaded into an editor/daw and be compared as two seperate mono recordings.

clip

Andy