Dual purpose for analog balanced interconnects or AES/EBU digital XLR cable The Silver Serpent Balanced
Dual purpose for analog balanced interconnects or AES/EBU digital XLR cable The Silver Serpent Balanced cable is constructed with 42 strands of 40 AWG 99.999% pure Silver-coated copper. This high number strands gives this cable ultra-flexibility. Around the twisted pair is a braided-serve shield which is a combination of serve and braiding technology. Serves, also called spiral shields, are well known for their flexibility, but they have a tendency to open up when the cable is flexed thus compromising their noise rejection. By braiding the two serves, this prevents them from opening when the cable is flexed. The resulting shield gives unsurpassed shield coverage well into RF frequencies. Finally, the Silver Serpent Balanced cables are hand-terminated with Silver solder. When used as an analog balanced cable, analog performance is based on two factors resistance and reactance. Since resistance is linear, that is it affects all frequencies equally, it is often ignored. Our 24 AWG conductors have significantly low resistance: less than 27.7 ohms per thousand feet. Of greater importance is capacitance that produces high-frequency attenuation. The higher the capacitance, the worse the effect. Our Silver Serpent Balanced cable has VERY low capacitance (15 pF/ft). The Silver Serpent Balanced cable is also an outstanding digital (AES/EBU) cable. The Audio Engineering Society and European Broadcast Union (AES/EBU) set the standards for digital audio. While there are many sampling rates, the most common for consumers is 44.1 kHz, the sampling rate used in a CD. The actual bandwidth of this signal is 5.6448 MHz.
Summary: I bought these because I was getting a slight hissing sound from my speakers (Linn AV5140's) when I put my ear right up to them when my preamp was at zero volume. Since my Proceed HPA3 and AVP can take balanced inputs, I thought I'd give it a try. Perhaps some noise was getting into the system.
I'd heard plenty of reasons why this should not make any difference. The distance between my amp and preamp is also very small (I bought the 1m cables, which are more than long enough), so it's not like there *should* be much chance to introduce noise. And yet...
I was amazed, after installing these balanced cables, there is no longer any hissing at all coming from my speakers when I turn the AVP down to zero volume. They are absolutely dead quiet. Does it make a difference for the rest of the music? I'm not sure yet, but with that noise reduction, it clearly has already made an important difference to me.
Perhaps it's just that the Proceed gear just works better with XLR, who knows. It definitely made a difference though.
Strengths: No more hissing!
Weaknesses: None
Similar Products Used: Transparent cable The Link 200 (networked) (non-XLR)
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Rating Reviewed by: Dan Bradley(Unregistered User)
(Audio Enthusiast)
Review Date June 1, 2001
Overall Rating 5 of 5
Value Rating 5 of 5
Used product for Less than 1 month
Review 2 of 7
Price Paid:
$40.00
from www.bettercables.com
Summary: This is a preliminary review, as I have only had these for a week. I'll start first with the company. Customer service was excellent. I ordered off of the web, and I must say they have an excellent website. I had called to ask a few questions and the company president called me back very quickly to answer them. They offer an excellent warrenty on there cables as well.
Now, for the sound. All my equipment is new, so I can't really compare it to other equipment, but alltogether the system sounds great. Going balanced offers reduces noise. The interconnects work great with my preamp/amp. The cable is quality, a little flexable, and looks great IMO. All in all, I think this was a great buy for me.
Sunfire Theatre Grand II preamp Sunfire Cinema Grand Signature amp Bettercables interconnects Generic speaker cables (working on it) B&W CDM 9NT Fronts B&W CDM CNT Center B&W CDM 7NT Rears Sony DVP-S550D DVD Player
Strengths: quality, value, service
Weaknesses: not many
Similar Products Used: monster interconnects
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Rating Reviewed by: William Mercado(Unregistered User)
(Audiophile)
Review Date March 15, 2001
Overall Rating 5 of 5
Value Rating 5 of 5
Used product for Less than 1 month
Visitors rate this review 5.00 of 5,
1.00 votes
Review 3 of 7
Summary: I've always used high-end monster cables. But I when I purchased my seven channel balanced amplifier, I wanted to switch from single-ended to balanced cables. Buying seven high-end monster XLR cables (or most other brands for that matter) would have been extremely expensive. So I decided that at 30 buck a pop, it was worth giving these a try. The cables arrived much quicker than I expected even though I used standard shipping.
I was immediately impressed with the look and construction of the cable. Installing them was a breeze due to the fact that they are not too stiff.
How did they sound? I don't know. But my system sounds better then ever. I don't have other XLR's to compare, but even if I did, I'm not to type to be switching cables back and forth. I'm usually busy listen to music or watching movies.
After seeing these, I ordered their digital cable and their component and composite video cables.
Strengths: Look and Feel, Value, Flexible
Weaknesses: No color for channel identification
Similar Products Used: Monster Cables
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Rating Reviewed by: Ross Farnham(Unregistered User)
(Audiophile)
Review Date January 8, 2001
Overall Rating 5 of 5
Value Rating 5 of 5
Used product for Less than 1 month
Review 4 of 7
Price Paid:
$30.00
from bettercables.com
Summary: Since the dac is new, it hard to qualify this product as 3 pieces of gear were changed. Even so, the cable sounds great in this rig, right out of the box! I imagine things will improve as it is used more and more. The sonic picture is very complete top to bottom. For now, Brad and his cables get my top vote. If possible, the service is even 'better' than the cables. Kudos to Bettercables.com!
Ultech UCD-100 CD or G&D Tranforms Ref-1 xport VAC DAC 2 Mk 2 Tube-buffered passive linestage Bel Canto Celio 50W amp Klipsch Forte 1, 1986 vintage or Impact Tech Ventos
Strengths: Construction, appearance, quality.
Weaknesses: Stiff XLRs, as they should be.
Similar Products Used: Canare, Apogee Wyde-Eye
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Rating Reviewed by: Gary Hendricks(Unregistered User)
(Audio Enthusiast)
Review Date August 2, 2000
Overall Rating 5 of 5
Value Rating 5 of 5
Used product for 1 to 3 months
Review 5 of 7
Summary: I ordered 5 meter runs from Better Cable and was happy that they arrived on the day Brad, of Better Cable, promised. I was impressed with the quality of the workmanship. After breakin the cables sound better than my MIT 330 Pro and the Better Cable cost much less. Highly recommend these cables.
Strengths: Excellent sound and workmanship. Flexible.
Similar Products Used: MIT 330 Pro XLR.
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