![]() ![]() I’ve tried entry level, middle of the pack, and top of the line cables from many of those companies, and also heard a host of other brands at shows. Since then, other cables from AudioQuest, Harmonic Technologies, WireWorld, Nordost, Acoustic Zen, Kimber, Bybee, HighWire, PS Audio, Echole, and Elrod have passed in and out of my system. With my head hanging low, I first returned the MITs, then visited my dealer to plop down $118 or so dollars for a meter pair of AQ interconnects. In short order, it became so obvious that the $110 interconnects transmitted far more full-range sound than the rest. Then I trotted over to a competitor’s establishment, borrowed a $55 pair of MIT interconnects, and took all three pairs home for a listen. Ever the inquisitive one, I also made a near-fatal error, and asked to try the next level up ($110 plus tax), whose casing was blue. But $84 for one lousy pair of interconnects? Wasn’t the stuff from the Shack good enough?įit to be tied rather than cabled, I reluctantly marched out of the store with a loaner pair of Rubys. In fact, way before I had heard of “high-end audio,” I used to thank people who would put me up for a few nights by buying them $25 worth of better speaker cable, and watching their mouths drop as their sound improved. I already knew that speaker cables made a difference, because I had once gone from lamp cord to 12-gauge silver wire on my old Advent loudspeakers, and immediately heard an extra octave (or so it seemed) of bass, and far more substance in the midrange. I was incensed that he would even dare suggest that I had to spend an extra $84 (with tax) in order to get good sound. As I was about to cart it home, the dealer declared that I would have to spend at least $78 on an AudioQuest Ruby interconnect in order to get the most out of the player. My history with cable comparisons goes back at least 15 years, to the time when I began to upgrade a fledgling high-end system by purchasing a $550 Rotel CD player. (The Argentum power cable is not necessarily just for audio, but we include it as such here.) Since I thrive on comparisons, be they of cabling, amplifiers, or sopranos, I welcomed the assignment. Sometime in ancient history, when snakes freely roamed the earth without fear that their oil would be disparaged, John Johnson asked me if I wanted to review the complete line of Ultralink/XLO Argentum audio cables. When we wrote our original version of this guide, we read complaints about the receiver’s supposedly inadequate power, but our tests showed that perception to be incorrect.Up Next Kordz EVO, EVS, and EVX HDMI Cables The ASR review also notes that the unit failed during a stress test however, the conditions of this test were extreme and would not be encountered even in very loud music listening. That’s a barely noticeable difference, but it means the bass may sound subtly thinner when you crank the system up to loud levels (with a typical set of speakers, that means above about 95 dB, which is about as loud as a gas lawn mower at close range). The first is that a bass limiter circuit seems to become active at about 10 watts according to the measurements we took later, it reduces output below 200 Hz (roughly the G note below middle C on a piano) by about 1 decibel. That test involved a much more extensive batch of measurements than we usually perform, and it uncovered two things we didn’t. Since we originally published this guide, one other professional review of the STR-DH190 has emerged: a test posted on Audio Science Review.
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