On interconnect cables....

[PlacervilleGuy]

Thought I'd share what I learned yesterday about analog interconnect cables.
(This may seem obvious to some people here, but others may benefit)

I've had a Panasonic S-77 DVD/DVD-A player for quite a few years. Does a GREAT job of playing and up-converting DVDs, plus, it's a DVD-Audio disk player. When I finally got a few DVD-A disks, I had to connect the multi-channel outputs from the player to the multi-channel analog inputs on my AVR. Bingo bango, done. All has been well for years.

Then, the other day, I sit down to listen (again) to the DVD-A of Dark Side of the Moon, (yes, you read that right, a DVD-A of DSOTM, search this forum, you'll find info) and something wasn't right. Just a few days ago when playing this disk, the sax on the song "Us & Them" sounded like the guy was standing in my livingroom playing. Now, it sounded like the guy took 15 steps back from the mic! Listening longer, I determined that the high-freqs for the front right channel were not there! Had I just blown a tweeter?

A check of all connections found nothing wrong. I switched from the DVD-A audio track to the DTS track on the disk and played "Us & Them" again. While the resolution wasn't there, the high-freqs WERE. Ah HA! I had just isolated the problem I was hearing to the analog outputs on the player. I decided to try swapping-out the RCA cables for the front R & L channels with a pair of old Cardas cables I had layin' around. THAT fixed it, the sax was back! I apparently had a bad RCA cable!

What I don't get is, these cables have been in place for years and have not even been breathed on. How can they just spontaneously go bad? And they didn't just quit working altogether, they started rolling-off the high-freqs! What has degraded to cause this and why?

Yes, the cables in question are the el-cheapo variety that come in the box with audio components. Admitedly, not the best build quality by any stretch, but, wire is wire, and should get the signal from Point A to Point B without muss or fuss. And the signal is either there, or it's not. (i.e. broken wire) And I've NEVER been a believer in the mega-buck fancy-shmancy interconnects some people swear that they can hear a difference with (between two perfectly working cables, mind you). Especially those goofy "battery-biased" jobs that cost hundreds of dollars. Sorry, but you guys are smokin' crack.

But, with this little experience, I HAVE proven to myself that paying for a good set of reasonably priced interconnects is probably worthwhile, if only to know that they won't one day just crap-out on you. BUILD-QUALITY is what I'm talking about here. I ended up paying $140 for 3 pair of Ultralink Performance Series cables including tax and shipping. I consider that reasonable. (Yeah, I know I probably could have found them on-line cheaper. DO try to resist the urge to point that out to me, won't you?)

So now, I'm ready for my Panny BD80 that should arrive tomorrow!