Cable denier to Vintage Cable Blogger Part 1 (updated 29 Sep 2022)

 First, a little background.

I am a Chemist by education but have never worked in a lab or chemical industry. By the vagaries of fate, my first job was teaching Basic Sciences and Mathematics in a Technical College focused on Electrical and Electronics. My second job was in the Final Test department of an MNC producing electronic components. I completed in Diploma in Electronics (part-time) in order to be able to do my job better. Nothing in my course taught me that cable quality will make any difference to sound quality. In all my years of component testing, no one talked about the effect of cables on test parameters. And some the test parameters on some components were in the nano & pico ranges (specifically leakage tests).

My audio 'craziness' started the year I started working. I bought a Technics Mini-Compo with my first salary and skipped lunch the next month. Talk about commitment 😉. I listened to all the available mini-compo units available in my town and choose Technics which sounded slightly better than the standard 'tinny" sound of the others. It could be because only the Technics came with speakers made of MDF compared to plastic on all the others.

Cables? Just use something thick!

The first component I upgraded was the speakers of my Mini-Combo. I replaced the tiny little MDF boxes with a pair of  DIY floor standers with Technics SB10 drivers (anyone remembers those white flat aluminum honey-comb woofers?) and Philips Mid-range & tweeters. For speaker cables I just used electrical cable.

The first indication that cables made a difference was when I noticed that new freebie RCA cables sounded better than old ones. Interestingly, this was irrespective of brand. One day, I decided to dissect a particularly thin sounding RCA cable (that came with my VHS player) and found that the solder point were rusted and the super thin cable strand were oxidized. After that, I made it a point to replace old RCA cables whenever I got another freebie 😎.

My first speaker cable.

Fast forward five years. I had acquired a pretty typical 80's budget system (for a Malaysian). A budget Sansui TT with Shure Cartridge, AMC CD6 Tube CD Player, NAD 3240PE Integrated amplifier & my (Technics Wannabe) DIY speakers. Not a branded cable in sight! All freebie RCA cables and electrical cable for speakers.

One of my buddies took pity on me and passed me a pair of his retired speaker cables. They were HT (High Tension) cable used for Electrical Sub-Station wiring. He got them free from the building contractor (surplus). The geometry was ten thick copper conductors enclosed in Teflon, then a shield made of thin strands of woven aluminum, the whole encased in thick plastic (HDPE I think). It was ugly and difficult to work with but that cable improved the clarity of my system. I was expecting more bass (logically less resistance and better peak power transfer) but what really improved was the clarity. At that time, both me and my friend (the donor of the cable) could not figure it out. Now I think that purity of the copper, Teflon dielectric  and the Shield made the difference. That cable lasted for years in my system till Mr Cardas got me!

My first branded cable (Yeah, I know, the salesman got me....)

It was the year of Marantz CD 63 KI Signature. After reading too many hifi magazines, we (me and my better half, maybe I should say 'better ears') decided to go listen to the Marantz, although I was pretty happy with my AMC. I found the player to be very sharp and ear-piercing (part of the the blame must go to the store environment). I complained to the salesman and said that my old AMC CD6 sounds much better. He said, let me change to a better cable. I told him to change the CD player instead! Anyway, he pulled out the freebie that came with the Marantz and replaced it with an "audiophile" cable. I can't remember the brand. The difference was amazing. The brittleness/sharpness was gone, replaced with clarity. So we  asked the salesman to pick three different cables (without telling us the brand or price) and tried them. We were listening to one of my test tracks "Hesitating Blues" by Lois Armstrong on repeat and it was amazing how his distinctive voice changed just by changing the cable. And my "better ears" asked the ultimate question in hifi, "So how do we know which is the real Lois Armstrong voice?". The salesman did not quite recover from that 😖. In the end, I bought a Mogami RCA cable. That was my first "audiophile" cable purchase. We were surprised to find that the most expensive cable is that group cost more than the Marantz we were auditioning!

To be continued.....Zzzzz now