Zu Audio Interconnects

[DaveyF]

I would prefer single-ended, sonically, myself. But at 17m I think balanced is highly advisable.

Actually, a very good experiment would be to get Mogami balanced and Mogami single-ended and assemble a panel of WBF members to compare the wires. (I will provide snacks and alcohol.)

Ok, but you would still be comparing Mogami to Mogami, question is whether these results would translate to other..shall we say..more accurate and resolving cables.

Years ago,I owned a cable called Highwire, for its time I thought it was unbeatable. The designer ( Don Palmer) had included an online RFI device as part of the cable that allowed for long runs with no possibility of RFI interference. Wonder why others don't seem to do the same thing today.

 

[KeithR]

Ok, but you would still be comparing Mogami to Mogami, question is whether these results would translate to other..shall we say..more accurate and resolving cables.

Any Mogami experience in a fully balanced system? or are you just speculating.

I am trying Mogami non-quad balanced simply because my MSB/Music First/ARC is fully balanced and I'm unclear if there will be significant differences per Ralph and others historical comments. When I initially received my ARC amp, I replaced quad balanced Mogami (which I used for a PA/DJ system, so just transferred in a pinch) with my reterminated WyWires and the differences were slight.

This shall be a far more interesting experiment, but certainly $40/pair was worth it compared to hifi cable - that most use the same Neutrik gold connectors anyway. From our conversations with Sean the other night - he actually thought a more interesting experiment might be 300ohm antenna wire with soldered Neutriks if Mogami is 100ohm cable.

 

[knghifi]

I was using Zu Varial XLRs many moons ago. It's uncolored, neutral but lacks bloom, extension, kinda dry ... nothing special. A friend using Zu Events with similar SQ. There're superior alternatives if looking for a value XLR especially for a tube guy.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Knghifi, pretty much sums up my experience w Zu Event.
I'm a massive Zu FanBoi, their spkrs and modded Denon 103 carts, but the cables didn't float my boat ultimately.

 

[marty]

Any Mogami experience in a fully balanced system? or are you just speculating.

If you really want to explore this area, you should look at blogs by the recording engineers on Gearslutz to see what they use. They are all over this subject.

Keith, I have used a 25 ft pair of Mogami 2549 in balanced configuration with Neutrik Gold XLRs in my system for quite some time while I was waiting for my current uber-expensive interconnects to be made. I learned 3 things from this exercise.

1) Mogami 2549 is a very good cable for long distances. Pay great attention to the cable capacitance. Capacitance will have nominal effect on rolling off the high frequencies at standard lengths of 1 or 2m, but at 25 ft, their effect is far more significant. Again no secret here. The recording engineer community understands this very well.
http://www.mogamicable.com/pdf/Mogami_Tech_cat2014.pdf

2) Expensive interconnects are a ridiculously lavish and in most cases, unnecessary expenditure. Are my current IC's better? Yes, in many ways, but not all. They are hardly a good value. Much better for most folks to spend their money elsewhere. You can get a 25 ft run of Mogami 2549 for about 35 bucks. This makes audiophiles like us look...well, stupid is the word that comes to mind.

https://www.performanceaudio.com/it...de-from-mogami-2549-neutrik-connectors/64834/

3) Cable terminations are just as important than the wire itself. The Neutrik gold XLRs are marvelous, particularly for high frequencies. This is an area in which I think rhodium plated interconnects frankly suck, although there does seem to be a difference among rhodium terminations depending on which substrate the rhodium is plated. Still, not my favorite material for audio but YMMV. (Better used for plating jewelry IMHO!)

 

[KeithR]

If you really want to explore this area, you should look at blogs by the recording engineers on Gearslutz to see what they use. They are all over this subject.

Keith, I have used a 25 ft pair of Mogami 2549 in balanced configuration with Neutrik Gold XLRs in my system for quite some time while I was waiting for my current uber-expensive interconnects to be made. I learned 3 things from this exercise.

1) Mogami 2549 is a very good cable for long distances. Pay great attention to the cable capacitance. Capacitance will have nominal effect on rolling off the high frequencies at standard lengths of 1 or 2m, but at 25 ft, their effect is far more significant. Again no secret here. The recording engineer community understands this very well.
http://www.mogamicable.com/pdf/Mogami_Tech_cat2014.pdf

Marty, thank you for the helpful, detailed response. I am using 1M cables, so no capacitance questions here.

Today, I did a number of swaps using only vinyl, a single ended source (MSB dac hasn't arrived), but found the Mogamis very competitive to my WyWires references. The latter may have been a hair smoother, but boy differences were hard to discern today unlike single-ended ICs. I'll let them sit for a week and revisit.