It seems like a lifetime ago but in fact it was just a few short years back when I never even considered which version of a record I was buying. And it wasn’t too many more years before that when I’d assume the CD of a particular album was going to sound better than any vinyl copy. Oh how times have changed!

Back then I was just starting out in audio, and I had bought my first “audiophile” quality amplifier – the Adcom GFA 535. How did it sound? Heck if I know. I was too busy gloating at the fact that, along with my shiny new NAD preamp (can’t remember which model) I now had my first set of “separates” and was on my way in audio!

Not long after, wanting to get the most out of my fancy new electronics, I bought my very first pair of “audiophile” interconnects – MIT’s first generation of the PC Squared. I remember at the time telling my stepbrother about them. He was interested in and knowledgeable about electronics, but not into audio. When I told him about the wires he said it was absurd that anyone should pay big money for wires. “It’s a scam,” he said. “A wire is a wire. Doing something special to it doesn’t affect the signal,” a sentiment that I know some long time audiophiles have also held and perhaps a few holdouts still cling to even to this day.

I know I shouldn’t be, but I am nevertheless surprised by the longevity of this debate over whether wires make a difference. Anyone with a working pair of ears and a few spare minutes can listen to the same system with 2 different sets of cables in them and hear how different they sound. Perhaps it’s just the nutty world we’re living in these days or just human foible, but some of us just can’t seem to accept convincing evidence put right in front of us. And some of us, audiophiles in particular, seem to carve our opinions into granite before we even bother to consider any evidence at all.

I knew next to nothing about electronics back when I bought those MIT cables. Still don’t really, but what I did and still do know is that hearing is believing. Those $90 wires sounded a lot better to me than the freebies that came with the amplifier, and whether there was a scientific explanation for WHY they did, didn’t much matter to me.

In fact, every set of cables I’ve bought in the years since has sounded better to me than the ones I had before them, or at least better on the equipment I had then and through the ears I was listening to them with. Meanwhile, as my equipment has gotten better, the difference that different cables make has become even more apparent, and I’ve gradually gained more clarity about which cables really DO sound better.

During those early years in audio I bought what I could afford and what seemed good to me, or at least better to me than what I already had. Again, what did I know? I hadn’t heard a lot of audio equipment, and therefore had very little basis for making informed choices. Did it sound more impressive than my current amp? Preamp? CD player? Yeah it did! SOLD!

I expect a lot of audiophiles muddle through this way for a long time as they gain experience and eventually, with any luck, reach a point where they can make better informed choices. And of course nowadays with TONS of information and SO many opinions about what gear is good and not good so easily accessible, we needn’t do nearly as much muddling as we used to…or do we?

A question I’ve found myself asking a lot lately is this – how many audiophiles ACTUALLY get to hear a TRULY great sounding record played on a system that is TRULY great at reproducing it? Judging from the records audiophiles tend to buy and the systems they tend to build to play them on, I’m forced to conclude, not that many. It seems to me that there’s still a whole lot of muddling going on in audio, particularly in analog audio.

Which raises another question – what is necessary, besides a good pair of ears, to hear a great analog recording played back wonderfully? Well, for starters, you need some great sounding records to play. Over the past few years I’ve worked (rather tirelessly I might add) to build a collection of great sounding records. During that time I’ve played A LOT of records, and the more records I play, the more I learn about what makes a great sounding record sound great.

What have I learned? Let me put it this way. Great sounding records are records that have the potential to deliver a signal that represents the recording of the original performance in as true and convincing a way as possible. But for that true and convincing listening experience you need more than just some great sounding records. You also need a great way to play those records back.

You need, of course, a turntable, tonearm and cartridge that can take the signal from the record and deliver it to your electronics in as complete and as transparent a way as is possible without F&%#ing it up, or at least deliver it in a way that F&%#’s it up as little as possible.

For such a rig, admittedly, you need to spend some money, but you also need to spend some time training your ear and training it well enough to be able to set up the table, tonearm and cartridge for the best possible signal delivery possible. In other words, you need more than just money and expensive equipment to get great sound from a record, you also need some skills.

AND you need a good phono preamp. One that can take that signal and amplify it, again, in as complete and as transparent a way possible without F&%#ing it up. I haven’t heard a lot of phono preamps, but I have heard enough of them to know that finding a good one is not all that easy. When you do find one that can do its job well, assuming you have some great sounding records and a high quality turntable, tonearm and cartridge that you’ve set up properly, then you’re well on your way to great sound in analog.

Once you’ve achieved the above, which is already A LOT, then you of course need the right amplifier and speakers too, but we’ll get to that later. First you need wires to deliver the up to this point faithfully produced and accurately transferred signal to your amp. Again, you need interconnects that will deliver the signal in as complete and transparent a way possible, without F&%#ing it up.

Since I bought those MIT cables more years ago than I care to think about, I’ve been on something of a journey with cables. Maybe not as long and winding a journey as some, I know there are audiophiles out there who have tried many more wires than I have, but certainly one that’s led me to spend a sum that would no doubt leave my step-brother and many others wire skeptics speechless. The last pair of what I would consider fairly “high end” cables that I bought, retailed for $2100.

A little further down that cable road I discovered something kind of incredible – that getting great sound from a pair of wires doesn’t require spending the very big dollars that one can spend, if one is so inclined. I wrote about that here, but if you’d prefer not to click through and read about it I’ll just give you the big reveal from that article now – those decades old $90 MIT PC Squared interconnects I mentioned? That first pair of “audiophile” interconnects from back when I was taking those VERY first baby steps into audio? They bested my $2100 pair without even breaking a sweat!

Which, as I’m sure you’ll be relieved to hear, brings me to our topic. After recommending a pair of interconnects that I could not find more than one other set of out in the marketplace – a 3 meter pair of the same early version of the MIT PC Squared (that did not sound nearly as good as my 1 meter pair I might add), I realized that if I was going to offer my readers some useful advice on what interconnects to buy I was going to have to find something current and widely available.

So I decided to look in what seemed both the most and the least likely place possible – AMAZON!

Are you still reading? You ought to! I can practically feel your skepticism oozing through my laptop, but I’d STRONGLY suggest you stick with me here a little longer. In all seriousness, I want to explain how some of you can SUBSTANTIALLY improve the sound of your system, and possibly have hundreds or even THOUSANDS of dollars back in your bank account!

When my MIT’s bested my Audience Au-24 sx interconnects, I could have sold the Audience cables and gotten a pretty hefty price, but I didn’t. I held on to them. I somehow knew they’d come in handy one day, and that day came a few weeks ago when I bought my first pair of interconnects off Amazon – a 1 meter pair of the Japanese made Worlds Best Cables, Mogami version.

Now I had a chance to put the $2100 Audience cables up head to head with the self proclaimed “world’s best.” I figured any cable made by any company that actually called their cables “worlds best” had to be a joke, but I assure you, they are not. Not in the least!

Not long ago I wrote an article about neutrality in audio. In that article I echo those who consider it a good thing, and I argue that the value of it lies in the way neutral equipment is particularly good at not F&%#ing up the sound of our best sounding records.

This was the first thing that stood out to me when I introduced the WBC cables into my system. They are very neutral. They don’t F&%# up the sound! Not at all n fact!

Straight out of the bag (no fancy box!) and without ANY break in and I was already appreciating how they sounded very similar to my beloved (and seemingly rare) original MIT PC Squared cables. I was hearing the accurate tonality that I was used to, and finding them extremely musical and engaging.

As I’ve listened to more and more of my best records with the WBC cables in my system, I’ve begun to hear how transparent the WBC cables are. Not only do they not F&%# up the sound, they reveal more, and they do this without hyping up the bass or the top end. In fact, I don’t detect any hyping up of anything. I’m simply hearing wonderful presentations of a natural sounding, full bodied and fully fleshed out well done recordings that had been mastered properly and pressed well onto vinyl.

The the other day I put on a very good copy of George Russel’s Stratusphunk and realized that the bass during the intro was absolutely HUGE! It was bigger than I’d ever heard it before, and not only that, but more 3 dimensional, more ALIVE!

This wasn’t because the WBC cables were in some way inflating the sound. They just managed to show me more of the instrument, and a stand up bass is a BIG instrument! I went back to my MIT’s to see if I just hadn’t heard it that way before with those cables and, sure enough, it didn’t sound the same. I went back to my Audience cables and those were similarly lacking.

That’s when I began to appreciate a quality that the WBC cables have, and that I feel, really sets them apart. They tighten up the sound in an uncanny way. They grab each every note and hold on to it, articulating it clearly, convincingly and with clean, crisp transient edges.

Combine this quality with how transparent and revealing they are and these cables give us more of the subtle transients that convey the studio, hall or venue spaces where the recordings took place. The WBC cables bring performances MORE to life!

The WBC cables give instruments and vocals a solidity and presence that I’d never heard with any cable before. Want great bass slam from a cable? You got it! Want great EVERYTHING SLAM? These are the cables for you!

These WBC are literally checking ALL the boxes. Neutrality? CHECK. Tonal accuracy? CHECK. Transparency? CHECK. Big soundstage? CHECK. Great imaging? CHECK. Great bass slam? OH YEAH BABY!

Perhaps even better than the above was what the WBC cables revealed to me about my system. It sounds even better than I realized! And that’s without adding or subtracting anything to / from the sound! Want to know what your system is doing right and what it isn’t? WBC cables will show you that. Just be prepared to hear not only more of what you like but also more of what you don’t!

Finally, and best of all, the WBC cables help reveal EXACTLY what’s on my records. My best sounding records are sounding even better than I ever thought they could, and it’s easier than ever to identify any that don’t and commit them to the “sell” pile.

Oh, and did I mention they only cost $36? Probably should have.

For those of you still reading this, I’ve no doubt a good number of you are wondering – “Does this guy REALLY know what he’s talking about? Cables with world class performance for that cheap? This guy MUST be full of it!”

I’d like to assure you I’m not, but given the cost of actually finding out for yourself I don’t really have to. You’ve literally NOTHING to lose but the time it takes to order a pair, install them in your system and play a few records. If you don’t like them you can always send them back for a refund, and while WBC requests that you give them a rather lengthy breaking in period before doing that, you won’t need to and Amazon will let you send them back before that anyway. My experience was that no break in period was necessary to hear the WBC cable’s strengths. And if the sound gets better with time, so much the better!

Are they, in fact, the “world’s best cables”? Who’s to say, but they’re the best cables I’ve ever heard (up to the time of writing this article), and if I didn’t already make this clear, not just the best cables for the money, but the best I’ve heard PERIOD!

And NOW! For those of you who’ve stuck with me here to the bitter end, here’s a great tip!:

What to make the WBC and many other cables sound even better? Try unscrewing the termination housings and pulling them back to expose the wires underneath.

It was explained to me this way – the housing creates a field around the termination that causes interference with the signal, and this interference degrades the sound.

My experience is that pulling that housing away from the termination results in better top end resolution and clarity. I’ve gotten great results with this on cables on my system, and so have friends of mine who’ve tried it with various cables on theirs.

Not every cable has terminations that allow for this tweak, but the WBC cables do. Yet one MORE reason to recommend them!

 

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