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Analysis Plus ***!

Well, they sure are differently made... unlike Monster cables. 16 gauge conductors! That's some big wire!

I suppose $179 for a 20ft cable isn't too outrageous, as long as it doesn't cost more than your bass. ;) It's looks like a well made cable. I'd buy one.

I've seen 1 meter stereo interconnects for CD players that cost $2,000. That's crazy.
 
I have a Pro Oval Studio cable. I got it a couple of years ago for a great price at Rudy's of all places. Dean hooked me up. The cable had been sitting there for a long time and I was able to talk him down a bit.

Being their studio cable, it has a stiff jacket but I don't mind it at all. It's a great cable and I can readily hear a difference in the studio and even on stage. I'm not swayed by price tags and branding consciousness. I only believe in results. In comparisons, there's an immediacy and overall resolution (especially in the midrange) that seems absent in some of my other cables (Mogami, Rapco, homemade). My Pete Cornish cable comes very close for a fraction of the price and has a pleasantly flexible jacket. That's what I use most of the time on stage.

I do think the Analysis are over-priced and had I not gotten a deal on mine, I don't think I would've bought one. However, now that I have it, I'm glad I have one and would at least recommend people try it if possible. Like I said, I'm not one to rant and rave about how this cable blows everything out of the water and is louder, bigger and better. That's just not true. But there is a perceptible difference and I happen to dig it.
 
Snake oil, IMO.

Well they got a patent on it. You can't patent snake oil.

The main thing is very large diameter conductors. Signal flows on the surface on the wire, so it has more surface.

The hollow oval wire makes sense because besides having more surface area, all flowing current produces magnetic fields which in turn produce a current which is counter the current that produced it. This would mostly affect the high frequencies, since they are affected most by impedance (AC resistance increases with frequency.. it is impeded). You also want low capacitance wire.

So see, it's science, not snake oil!
 
Thanks David. You're right. People are so eager to jump on that bandwagon these days, especially without actually auditioning the product in question. :hmm:

rumbler, I doubt their bass cable cuts highs like the grotesque Münster. I haven't tried their bass-specific cable but the "all-purpose" cable I own is just fine for bass and doesn't exhibit any signs of frequency attenuation.
 
Who the heck would actually pay this much for a cable!!!!!????:confused:

Well, I use their speaker cables and interconnects on my home audio system and am quite happy with their performance. They definitely sound different than the cables they replaced (I have owned 2 other types of speaker cables and 2 other types of interconnects).

It all boils down to whether or not you believe cables make a difference. There are certainly some crazy cable prices out there. At a certain point you are getting very little improvement for way too much money in my opinion.

I know lots of musicians who say they can hear the difference between various instrument cables and plenty of studios buy some pretty esoteric cables as well. I can easily hear the difference between the 2 different digital co-ax cables that I have to connect my cd transport to my DAC. One, a 6 foot Belkin Synapse, cost me $5 on Ebay while the other, a 1.5 foot DHLabs D-75, cost me $75. Neither is necessarily better than the other, just different.
 
I A/B'd my new Analyis Plus Bass Oval cable with my Monster Cable Bass Cable last night.

I've been a fan of Analysis Plus stuff for a while. Have a few of their cables in my home theater rig.

Couldn't resist trying with my bass (Musicman Bongo 5HH).

I heard a difference.
Compared to Monster, the A/P cable was cleaner with a more detailed sound that was also a bit deeper and warmer than Monster. Monster sounded more rolled off on the top end and muddy in the mid-bass. A/P Build quality was also superior...hefty, heavy plugs and 16GA cable. Nice.

Is the A/P worth 3x the price of the Monster?
Only you can answer that one.

My Monster Cable will be on the "classifieds" section here on TB shortly.
 
High cable capacitance is generally a big factor in high-frequency loss in cables.

There are plenty of low-capacitance cables around, and they don't have to be 16-gauge conductors to do it. (I don't consider skin effect to be a big factor for musical-instrument audio.) RF coaxial cable, for example, has such low capacitance that an audio signal would never be affected by it. But coax is usually thick and stiff, except for some of the smaller diameters.

Unfortunately, nobody has been able to effectively solve 99% of cable problems: outright contact failures. Plugs fail, solder connections fail, cables are stepped on and the conductors fail internally. None of these problems are addressed by better cable.