Thoughts on Cables

For awhile I’ve been using Van den Hul inter connects mainly D 300 Mk111s. It’s a good cable and the hybrid construction means that the RF “pollution” is very low. They give good detail and a neutral sound. I find they ae as good in my opinion as cables costing many times more. I like these cables or to be more accurate I don’t dislike them as I can’t hear them which is right for an inter connect right? Well, yes but.....

So why change anything? Well I suppose we are all experimenters in this field. Couple that, with the fact I got a chance to audition the Rothwell “The River” cables and it’s time to play about. When I opened the package I noticed how thin they were not what I was expecting as the considered wisdom is that thick cables are better, But is this true? Well with speaker cables, within reason, it probably is. After all, the higher current means you want as much cross section as possible and as bass travels through the cross section and HF goes along the surface, you want the right balance between number of strands and cross section. More of speaker cables later.

What are they all About?

The River inter connects are a high quality cable with silver plated copper conductors and PTFE insulation. For the technically minded Capacitance is 64pF per metre which is low. Rather than adopt the approach of using esoteric materials and unusual topology to combat RF interference Rothwell have gone for a thin diameter of (2.3mm) this coupled with the braided screen helps to reduce RF noise to a minimum, Construction quality is good with what are claimed to be . military spec materials. The Gold plated RCA connectors are quite springy and give excellent contact.

So how do they sound and should they sound at all?

This is the million dollar question as, they should make no difference at all and this part is totally subjective. Having now tried them on three sources, (Vinyl, CD and Tuner) and used them between Pre and Power amps what’s the verdict? Well you can’t hear them, they don’t have a sonic signature but, compared to the D-300 Mk111s to me there seems to be more extremes of frequency and a greater dynamic. This could well be as a result of the similar construction as I feel sure the quality of both cables is equally high. Certainly at only £55.00 per meter pair they sound “better” to my ears than a lot of super cables costing many times more. If these came in a flash box and cost £250.00 per .8 of a meter many would still think them good for the money. These are an unsung secret and well worth trying out. Certainly for me they have know become the reference against which others will be compared and the pair I have are now in permanent residence between the MC Transformer and the Art Audio VPS Pre-Amp.