Cable Asylum: Re: 23 ICs Comparative Evaluations including DIY Belden 89259 by Jon Risch Interconnects, speaker wire, power cords. Ask the Cable Guys.

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Posted by Jon Risch on June 26, 2001 at 22:22:21

In Reply to: Re: 23 ICs Comparative Evaluations including DIY Belden 89259 posted by ChrisVH on June 26, 2001 at 19:52:01:

Stock Belden 89259 is very sensitive to the quality of the RCA plugs, I have had e-mail after e-mail about this, with RS plugs making the cable sound broken, and Cardas and other fine plugs allowing the cable to perform up to a high standard. Folks who complained about the sound would replace the cheap plugs, and then experience much better sound using the cables.

The picture of the 89259 in the test does seem to show a cheap RCA.

Not knowing any more details of the tests other than what is posted at this site, there are several observations to make:

This was a European listening panel, which may not accurately represent the same kinds of preferrences as Americans (companies that operate worldwide often voice their products differently for the US, Europe, and Asia).

They certainly seemed enamored of the Canadian cables.

They also seemed to prefer the expensive cables. Even though the test did not reveal the prices or specs, one would only have to look at the 89259 to see the markings. Other expensive cables would have a very nice looking appearance.
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I do know that even on an absolute scale of sonic quality, the stock 89259 is not a "bad" cable, and sounds much better than any OEM freebie, as well as most all entry level aftermarket IC's.

One thing to keep in mind is that the 89259 stock coax is not an overly forgiving cable, if the system is a bit on the rough sidel, it will show this up, and not smooth it over or warm the sound up to compensate. Most people appreciate a neutral and accurate IC, but some have come to regard them as just another tone control, and seek out "warm" or "smooth" sounding cables to help control a bright system.

Yes, the twisted pair design sounds better, but not by a huge margin, not say "twice as good", in fact, on an absolute scale, no cable I know of sounds "twice as good" as stock 89259, there just are not that kind of huge differences once we get tot he level of performance acheived here.

One only has to do a search here on the Asylum to see all the positive reviews of 89259 in it's various incarnations.

Jon Risch

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