Worthy upgrade from Edifier R1600T for <£150?

[Gray2233]

There £20 actually (just checked), and these are better then your typical Amazon Basic / Generic cable as I have shown in that video above, they are made from Van Damme studio cable. He will need a 3M cable pair anyway that would be £10 even for a generic, so we are talking a £10 difference! He does have what was a £200 retail sound card.

You can get decent copper cables for a fiver for the lengths he's probably needing.

 

[Admetos]

You can get decent copper cables for a fiver for the lengths he's probably needing.

Define decent, get me a link with some specs on them? You can't even get good quality RCA plugs for £5! let alone the cable made up also

I'm talking about this stuff for £20, are you really going to down grade an STX II sound card for what is a couple of drinks difference at a pub these days?

Pro Grade Classic XKE Instrument Cable | Van-Damme

Cable is a relatively low capacitance unbalanced audio cable mainly used for guitars, keyboards and other output devices. View the full range.

www.van-damme.com

And that's the cable. Also you can google this cable and it's tried and tested.

https://www.digifunktechnics.co.uk/ Use this cable on all their rebuilt turntables.

 

[Gray2233]

Define decent, get me a link with some specs on them? You can't even get good quality RCA plugs for £5! let alone the cable made up also

I'm talking about this stuff for £20, are you really going to down grade an STX II sound card for what is a couple of drinks difference at a pub these days?

Pro Grade Classic XKE Instrument Cable | Van-Damme

Cable is a relatively low capacitance unbalanced audio cable mainly used for guitars, keyboards and other output devices. View the full range.

www.van-damme.com

And that's the cable. Also you can google this cable and it's tried and tested.

https://www.digifunktechnics.co.uk/ Use this cable on all their rebuilt turntables.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/292577251713?_skw=van+damme+RCA&itmmeta=01JGAK1DWGJFY8CN4JHCAXPPEJ&hash=item441ef69181:g:t2YAAOSw0jten0hu&itmprp=enc:AQAJAAAA0HoV3kP08IDx+KZ9MfhVJKmS8nXVIvKhgQS6qUNJ2VHNOzbLEKqcw7clCxrmHKwfaXa67zuJ896Va3yh2rhEiaV3hCCvaxAdVlEukFzBCMlgLkRx+f6s07tl8NwaiLPy1ZiYK4vfS+o7ma+i1ZCOPA58SetGm3NI1gKC42OtWTLP9oxMFbSsdnK4oEeQGTMKHFwJYSe+GnWQ6UaKQdQTmGZ20bHiSM6wmRGMp1uqP9rufJ9xKnN7JodUnchq04Ko8oP7Ww8O56N1Gb9a/Rtx5hY=|tkp:Bk9SR8DehdOCZQ

You've went from £30 to £20. I'll throw a link in the morning.

Super expensive cables have no benefit to high end setups, why are you speaking this nonsense in a thread with a guy on a budget? You're not well my good man.

Your links are pure marketing propaganda. Please stop. You're suggesting someone spends £20-30 on cables out of a £150 budget, it's ridiculous.

 

[Admetos]

You've went from £30 to £20. I'll throw a link in the morning.

Super expensive cables have no benefit to high end setups, why are you speaking this nonsense in a thread with a guy on a budget? You're not well my good man.

Your links are pure marketing propaganda. Please stop. You're suggesting someone spends £20-30 on cables out of a £150 budget, it's ridiculous.

Actually I only recommended the Van Damme cables if the OP was to purchase Adam Audio studio monitors. And that is correct if connecting a £200 retail sound card to £200+ studio monitors you would want a studio grade cable, by bad I said £30 it's actually under £20.

Look what I wrote on my first post.

Worthy upgrade from Edifier R1600T for <£150?

As per title, anything worthwhile upgrading to in this price range? Will be paired up with an essence STX 2 soundcard (which I have hifi EQ/mode on) 2.0 or 2.1 is fine really. Usage is mostly gaming and youtube.

forums.overclockers.co.uk

I'm certainly not pushing someone's £20 cables,I have components here in the many thousands at today's retail I could post about if I wanted.

 

[Gray2233]

Speaker Cables: Can You Hear the Difference?

The results of blind listening tests with eleven audio experts.

www.soundandvision.com

** ” Speaker Cables: Can You Hear the Difference?”
As the caption says , this was the subject of a in depth testing done by eleven audio experts on several different cables.
Just how different in electrical characteristics do cables have to be before there are audible effects on frequency response and signal level? In order to answer this question, among others, the team embarked on a series of laboratory and listening tests. Because of logistical, time, and budget restrictions, only three cables were exhaustively tested:
(1) 16-gauge heavy-duty lamp cord, purchased from a suburban hardware store for 30 cents a foot;
(2) 30-foot lengths of New Monster Cable, costing $55 a pair; and
(3) 24-gauge “loudspeaker cable,” available from many sources at about 3 cents a foot”.
The 16- and 24-gauge wires were cut to the same 30-foot lengths as the Monster Cable, and all the cables were terminated with Monster’s X-Terminators for consistency in the connections.
The Conclusion of this tests:
After fifty hours of testing, scoring, comparing, and listening to speaker cables amount to? Only that 16-gauge lamp cord and Monster Cable are indistinguishable from each other with music and seem to be superior to the 24-gauge wire commonly sold or given away as “speaker cable.”.
This project was unable to validate the sonic benefits claimed for exotic speaker cables over common 16-gauge zip cord. It concludes, therefore, that there is little advantage besides pride of ownership in using these thick, expensive wires.

Apparently, 3 cent a foot 16 gauge lamp cord is more than good enough.

There's a reason people promoting expensive cables will frequently refuse double blind testing, and in some cases even advise against it.

 

[Admetos]

Speaker Cables: Can You Hear the Difference?

The results of blind listening tests with eleven audio experts.

www.soundandvision.com

Apparently, 3 cent a foot 16 gauge lamp cord is more than good enough.

There's a reason people promoting expensive cables will frequently refuse double blind testing, and in some cases even advise against it.

1) Your talking about speaker cables, YOUR the only person mentioning speaker cables in this thread.

2) That test you referenced was done in 1983 and is completely outdated, we now understand about cable inductance, capacitance, resistance and shielding effecting signals.

Yamaha upgrade to PC-Triple C 2.7mm speaker wire in some amplifiers, Fyne Audio wire crossovers with Van Den Hul silver plated cable, these companies do this to make their products better.

Back to interconnects, Van Damme make different versions of their silver series studio cables to effect high frequency roll off.

Silver Series Session Grade Instrument Cable | Van-Damme

Silver series session grade instrument cables engineered to three specific capacitances used for guitar and ass guitar amplifier applications.

www.van-damme.com

 

[ATIorNvidia]

You definitely need/want shielding on unbalanced cables, but standard RG59 terminated with RCA (easily less than £10 for a pair) is all that is necessary.

 

[Gray2233]

1) Your talking about speaker cables, YOUR the only person mentioning speaker cables in this thread.

2) That test you referenced was done in 1983 and is completely outdated, we now understand about cable inductance, capacitance, resistance and shielding effecting signals.

Yamaha upgrade to PC-Triple C 2.7mm speaker wire in some amplifiers, Fyne Audio wire crossovers with Van Den Hul silver plated cable, these companies do this to make their products better.

Back to interconnects, Van Damme make different versions of their silver series studio cables to effect high frequency roll off.

Silver Series Session Grade Instrument Cable | Van-Damme

Silver series session grade instrument cables engineered to three specific capacitances used for guitar and ass guitar amplifier applications.

www.van-damme.com

I'm actually going to apologise here, not only toward yourself but the OP for derailing the thread to an extent.

I've been loaded up with a cold and reading back I came across as very belligerent, it has me acting like proverbial tyrant. I think in terms of our approach to audio we're simply going to have to agree to disagree, but that didn't warrant my insulting you in the manner that I did.

There is an article that used to be easily searchable from the past 5 or so years that was similar to the one I linked, but dealing with Google and it's utterly awful current (advertisement heavy) search dynamics is beyond me right now. It was essentially a high end speaker manufacturer stating that they couldn't get their high end cables for an event due to a mix up, so they ran across the road to a hardware store, bought a bunch of power extension leads, and jury rigged them into speaker-cables, only to realise they sounded no different to the original test setup they'd intended to use in during the show.

I do feel that cheap cables (RCA, speaker wire etc) are all you need. As mentioned a copper wire with sufficient gauge as speaker wire, RCA cables don't need to be expensive either, but I won't go into that too much given the OP is looking for a fairly budget upgrade to their already decent speakers.

 

[SpellowHouse]

I can't believe this has degraded in to a discussion about cables for a £150 audio system.

I have danced with the best! Systems well in to the £50,000+ mark. Cables do affect the high frequencies, but at best I would describe the difference as tonal. They tweak the upper frequencies for the sonically nitpicky. It's a way to tweak an otherwise perfect system. On £150 pair of all in one speakers it's just insane to even think about it. You are, at best, straightening out one or two strands of a sonic plate of spaghetti.

Don't even get me started on the meatballs.

 

[Admetos]

I can't believe this has degraded in to a discussion about cables for a £150 audio system.

Follow the chain of the posts. I originally told the OP an option is to save up and buy some Adam Audio speakers for under £250, as this would be a proper update over his current Edifiers. He also already owned what was a £200+ sound card, so that would be £450 of gear. I then said he would need a good shielded interconnect as he's running unbalanced into studio monitor's, nothing unreasonable there.

 

[Nexus18]

I can't believe this has degraded in to a discussion about cables for a £150 audio system.

Certainly be an interesting read!





Think I'll stick with what I got till it breaks as can't fault the sound too much tbh especially considering the price I paid, can't really justify spending £150+ atm especially with the 50xx around the corner!

Out of interest, for those who had or still do own the edifier speakers, can you remember what you had your settings set to? What I have mine set to:

 

[Gray2233]

Follow the chain of the posts. I originally told the OP an option is to save up and buy some Adam Audio speakers for under £250, as this would be a proper update over his current Edifiers. He also already owned what was a £200+ sound card, so that would be £450 of gear. I then said he would need a good shielded interconnect as he's running unbalanced into studio monitor's, nothing unreasonable there.

Given the statement about technology moving on, the soundcard in question launched over a decade ago.

May as well suggest the OP replace the OP-Amps on the card if he wants better/more tailored sound on the cheap, and yes that was actually a selling point for that particular soundcard back in the day, alongside the dedicated headphone amp which is why it's a two channel rather than surround card -- aka it was targeting people running higher end stereo headphones rather than the average gamer with a dodgy 5.1 Logitech setup.

OP made the right choice imo, £150 could see an upgrade but I'm not convinced as to how much of one.

 

[Steveocee]

1600Ts were/are legendary a few years back. I splashed out and paid £100 for R2000DB’s and they’ve given me years of enjoyable audio (for what I put through them).
It’s a shame this thread derailed as I’d be interested how much you need to spend now to match or better the legendary 1600s.

 

[ATIorNvidia]

1600Ts were/are legendary a few years back. I splashed out and paid £100 for R2000DB’s and they’ve given me years of enjoyable audio (for what I put through them).
It’s a shame this thread derailed as I’d be interested how much you need to spend now to match or better the legendary 1600s.

Well there's the R1600TIII's for less than £100. They should be as good if not a little better than the old ones.

 

[Rroff]

Out of interest, for those who had or still do own the edifier speakers, can you remember what you had your settings set to? What I have mine set to:

One mine volume position is in same place as yours, bass slightly more wound to the right just passed the filled dot and treble in the default position like yours.

 

[malfunkshun]

M-Audio bx4, or the, previously mentioned, BX5s are even better but twice the money. PreSonus Eris BT range. KRK are ok, but yellow cones? Genelec Depends on what you want to spend.

I don't know why there was such discussion about cables for a soundcard that barely meets Tidal or Amazons HD streaming specs. You'd probably get better results from a £20 USB DAC than a £20 cable, certainly better resolution.

 

[Timber]

Out of interest, for those who had or still do own the edifier speakers, can you remember what you had your settings set to? What I have mine set to:

Just looked at my speakers and set to the exact same volume. Treble/Bass in the middle so neutral.