Quick comments and thoughts on SC vs. SSC

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Quick comments and thoughts on SC vs. SSC

Unread post by _D_S_J_R_ »

Just thought I'd add a few comments on these two while I still have the T.I.S.

At present, I can't listen through speakers and have spent a goodly while listening through my old HD25SP's, which are not kind to treble distortion, or treble excesses in general ;) The SC's found a great home here as MY general-purpose value-for-money interconnect. The cable itself is rather more expensive to buy than most screened coax cables and although the plugs don't look very posh, they actually do the job really well. My feelings on the SC remain that it's a straight down the middle kind of cable. All the musical clues are there and for detail freaks, subtle production and mixing clues can be easily heard as well!

So far, so good! I had the chance to get some cable to make my 1m (more like 1.3m as purchased) SC into an SSC. As recently discussed on AOS and here, the SSC only uses the inner cores and two cables per mono length, as using the outer screen, which is supposed to filter out rf and so on, can in theory (I understand) just transmit the interference into the system via the signal return. I dutifully got going with the soldering iron and heat gun, using small diameter heatshrink on each cable end and a larger diameter heatshrink down the length of the cables to 'tie' them together. I don't have any of that swish black woven stuff to finish it off, so didn't bother to wait to get some. PLEASE don't worry Doc, this cable ain't being passed on to anyone on the future!

OK, what's it sound like? "Really good!" is my answer. Like the SC, but more of it, I just felt the soundfield opened up a bit and just made things even easier to follow for me. I can't give reams and reams of descriptive prose about it, since it just does the job even better than SC, which can be readily upgraded by NVA should you wish to.

Next, I have to say that while I was busy with the soldering iron, I was listening through a T.I.S. interconnect, which offers a useful (necessary in a top end system) increase in musical timbre (ease of identifying) and 'texture' in the playing of said instruments. It's difficult for me to say much more, because I know that a really musically revealing system will lap up T.I.S. but for me and the gear I have, the SSC does an amazing job and I love it..

Since it's topical, I also happen to have an infamous Klotz 5000 with MS phono plugs courtesy of Brian. Pretty dire sounding from the off (worse I think than the AC110 coax they make), this cable definitely seemed to subtly get better over a good few hours' use and has ended up really good (as 'everyone else' has stated ;)). This one and the SSC offer two sides of the T.I.S. in my opinion, the Klotz (just the inner cores connected) sounding now very sweet, musical and spacious, whereas the SSC is just as 'musical,' but offering a precision to the mix that I and my gear like a lot!

Hang on a minute, cables are all supposed not to offer any character or 'sound' at all aren't they and only audiophools claim to hear any differences at all? These differences are admittedly very small in the scheme of things, but, for a while, if you get 'tuned in' to these types of differences, it's possible to 'get' the impressions quite well I think and I found my experiences consistent and repeatable - so there! :lol: :guiness;


Forgive the clumpy writing style, I'm knackered today and when I'm like this I get a bit dyslexic too - my spell-checker works just fine thankfully - cough!
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Dr Bunsen Honeydew
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Re: Quick comments and thoughts on SC vs. SSC

Unread post by Dr Bunsen Honeydew »

Why can't you get your speakers and the AP20 up and running again? I think you will see bigger and more differences.

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Re: Quick comments and thoughts on SC vs. SSC

Unread post by _D_S_J_R_ »

Loads to do outside of Hifi this week, but it's looking positive in domestic land (;)) and I shall be more free from tomorrow as I'll be spending more time in the 'office' on other projects for a lot of next week :)
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Re: Quick comments and thoughts on SC vs. SSC

Unread post by kimangelis »

I used to build my own sound-pipes, bought the raw aerospace tech. control cable lengths from RS. Easy to build but a sod to install.

Just swapped over from SC's to SSC's and the difference was quite marked. I did the usual swapping back-and-forth, and came to the conclusion the SSC was allowing more through rather that 'sounding' different. The overall sound (signature?) remained the same whichever (SC or SSC) I used, it's just there was more of it with the SSC. Also got hold of a used SSP as an interconnect. Before I broke it (now re-soldered), again there was more coming through albeit with the same signature as the SC/SSC.

Used to use a fancy silver interconnect between the CD player and P50. The SC matched it (and then some). The SSC blew it out of the water. So oddly the fancy silver cable was adding something to what is otherwise a very neutral set-up (Rega Brio/P50).

So... objective subjectivity.
Primare CD22. Primare DAB/FM radio. SSP to NVA AP70 and AP10H(JS) with Denon AH-D7100's. LS5 to Cube2's.

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Re: Quick comments and thoughts on SC vs. SSC

Unread post by _D_S_J_R_ »

:)

I'm bloody fed up with cables now! I've still got the shortish T.I.S. between DAC and AVI switcher and SSC between AVI and AP20. Sounds great to me and differences from T.I.S. and 'everything else' were easier to hear than via the SC on its own.

The above has confirmed for me once again that if there's any doubt as to where a 'special' interconnect needs to go, then put it nearest the source (I think), unless you equally use several sources of course :lol:
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way...The time has gone, The song is over, Thought I'd something more to say...

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