This article continues from "The power cable Edison Coil - Paradoxal cable fun - first act."
This especially concerns cables from the pickup to the RIAA, but also elsewhere. Until recently I have operated with separate pre amp and power amp. Cables here can be important but not always. I have an impression that some transistor based amps don't care at all what cables they are given, and others are really critical to what you feed them.
From the signal source to the pre amp shielding is very crucial, so that the equipments trafo, power cables or other electrical equipment don't create interference. Some of my reference cables (installation cables with massive copper conductors and Eichmann Bullet terminations made by Stig Arne Skilbrei) are more sensitive from interference than Viablue f.ex. (Viablue can lay in a real hornets' nest without picking up interference). From this perspective was Stig Arne's otherwise excellent cables held away from the comparison when I made the final conclusion to the signal cables. Also it's always important to think about how the cables are to be placed if the system are to perform at its best. I have experienced cables that didn't sound good due to their high price, but this was due to bad end plug termination. Bad craftsmanship is also a key factor you have to worry about. I have experienced throwing away cables that from the starting point felt solid but after many years of usage they have worn out and there was no longer good enough connection. So cable quality goes further than what you can get out from a A/B-comparison at the stereo system at the local store.
Signal cable from the LP-player to the RIAA.
First listening test was done by playing vinyl on an already warm system, half an hour or so, and that I also changed the cable from the pickup arm to the RIAA, and further on to the cable to the amp. Here I use in both stages the Viablue cable, a reasonably priced cable with OK terminations which is well tested, and switched from this to Paradox Audio.
Here I could clearly hear the difference, but not as much that I could applaud the many times more expensive cable from Paradox. The sound moved a little in characteristics and was more distinctive. Tones of shades was a little more noticeable as in f.ex. how "Harry Belafonte in Carnegie Hall twists his head when he sings. As a first impression it seemed as the system sounded more neutral and it had the ability to separate the small shades of tone. But I also got the impression that some of the explosive energy in powerful musical parts was a little toned down. This was noteworthy on recordings with remarkable bass as in "Dance with a stranger" while it was barely noticeable on recordings with high quality of symphonic music, not that it was like turning off "bass boost" on the mp3 player to the teenager or a loudness button, we are talking about much smaller differences, but still noticeable on my system.
I switched the cables from Viablue to Paradox several times, and after a while I also switched the cable from RIAA to power amp, it seemed as the most important cable was the one from the pickup to the RIAA, as experienced from earlier tests. But the degree of impact and the way the cables affected the sound was different after what kind of pickup I used and after the settings I used on the "Chinook", these differences had more impact on the sound than switching cables.
A small experiment.
Switching cables have to be put in a perspective where you hunt the last obstacles before perfection. So to remember what I was looking for I also made a listening session with the worst of all cables, yes, I'm talking about the cables that usually follows when you buy a system, the thin liquorice cables that can be bought for 10 dollars at any electronic store. And yes, the sound was different, no doubt about it, but the sound wasn't unbearable, not as much impact on characteristics from when I changed the pickup, or a 15 min listening session to get used to the sound, the cheapest of all cables still managed to do an ok job.
Switch back again to Paradox from the 10-dollar cables, more dynamic, all noise disappears, noteworthy differences in the characteristics throughout the whole frequency register, especially the bass was more striking and clear, and a more natural mid tone. But even this pretty extreme jump in cable quality is difficult to call an extreme difference, only a bigger difference of shades and a more harmonically rendering than between the Viablue and Paradox.
For fun I took a very short set of Viablue cables (40cm), this had me move the RIAA in a risky way, but here I registered better dynamics and even more remarkable bass. Now it's unfair to not do the same with Paradox cables and use shorter lengths on the cables, but it's reasonable to believe that the same impact would happen for Paradox too. Short cables are the best, as long as you keep the signal away from interference and other plagues.
Between the source of signal and power amp.
The signal has to go on from the RIAA, and here I probably have the weakest link in my setup, almost 3 meters (15feet) from the LP-player to the ASR integrated amps that can't be placed anywhere. This long a cable stretch is critical. When I earlier tested cables here it's been really important to have control of interference from all the cables in the same area. I find it extremely positive to not have the cable between pre and power amps, but it comes with a price, a long cable from the LP-player. That's why I place the RIAA just beneath the LP-player, instead of having the disadvantage of letting the pickup signal travel a long distance I give this job to the line signal. At this point 10-dollar cables won't do, (yes I have tried, lots of noise which is unacceptable, I am thinking about balanced cables here).
The switch between Paradox and Viablue was as expected less here than before the RIAA. But both kept the noise away perfectly, even when they lay next to the power cables.
Further on the nuance of differences was hard to put a word too. It seems as Paradox have a more natural and including rendering. Viablue also does a good job but with a hint of the "loudness" button (Yes I'm exaggerating a bit). It would be a challenge to hear what was connected if I wasn't clear about this from the beginning.
Is a switch between cables this small considering there is a 3m stretch here, in that case the switch of cables between the CD player will be very interesting, which was my next step.
When I started this listening session, I had already changed to Paradox. At first it was difficult to hear any differences from what I was used to and what I had as reference, when I switched to Viablue again I could hear the differences better, and with a switch once again it was like a small noticeable difference in sound, as previous experienced from the 3 meter stretch to the RIAA. Also with the 1m stretch Paradox lets through a hint of more nuances in the midst and highs, while the Viablue has this careful focus in the bass area, this was noteworthy on the 30 year anniversary CD to "Kirkelig kulturverksted", where the female vocals was more laid back than Viablue, and a hint more defined when using Paradox. Choir songs also gets a better sound characteristic. But remember we are talking about small nuances here.
Since I had a lot of cables stretches to try out, it felt natural to test the difference between 1 and 3 m signal cables from Paradox, and unlike a lot of other cables I have tested I couldn't hear any difference from the 1 to 3m stretch, even when I compared two separate mono blocks with one stereo cable, unfortunately I didn't get to test if this was the case with the RIAA signal but here I didn't have short enough cables.
The last signal source I tested was the Sonos box. Here I stream from hard drive and Spotify, this was a waste of time, despite Sonos many qualities, usage of many times more expensive cables was like throwing pearls after swine, especially when playing from Spotify, when playing from hard drive there was a little more to achieve but no, this was an incredible overkill.
Price Thel Link RCA Stereo: NOK. 19.990,-
Produsent: Paradox Audio.
