Passive Pre-amp & Power amp matching

[_D_S_J_R_]

Why has Klotz 5000 become the in cable, it looks to like a forum thing. I have heard many better raw cables.

This is easily two or three years ago and AOS based, but for me it went back nearly ten years ago now, when a pro friend of mine strongly recommended the brand as he and colleagues used it themselves for years. The coaxial version (now AC110) was used by Rega in their original 'Couple' and I first used and sold these with said company's CD players back in 1998!

As an aside, I first bought off eBay an SC more than three years ago...

I have mentioned Klotz on and off on AOS ever since I joined in the late noughties and it was all but ignored for years until the MC5000 mic cable was 'discovered' there and Brian offered to make them up for people. The rest you know.

I use the MC5000 as well as SSC depending on what I'm using and in the NVA systems, the SSC is definitely better as the MC5000 is still a touch 'creamy' sounding to my old ears in comparison to the SSC, SSP, TIS and the slightly opposite, 'leaner toned' Mark Grant HD1000 and 1500 as it was first supplied (it's been changed slightly now I gather)*. Had I the funds to use SSPmk2, I'd switch to that wholesale as it combines the 'best' of both the others - and then some - ! To me, the SSPmk2 is musical, clear as a bell, fleshes out the bottom end if it's there in the music with no added stodge and has no hash or grit at all. The chap who returned and reviewed the TIS would probably have preferred it too I suspect as the SSP is superb in all the systems I have here (none of Top End audiophile pretentions) - or at least my loaner one was and it was another item I missed when it went out of the systems I used it in - it was part of the loan scheme and I didn't have funds then to buy it!


* These differences are not huge and game-changing for me at any rate, but the sonic 'impressions' do seem to stay after long term listening and if these things are changed round, it does become a little unsettling for a while. The Klotz can happily be used with an NVA amp, but when you switch to SSC in direct comparison, everything seems to snap into focus. Conversely in an amp 'system' that strips everything bare and bleaches tonal colours out a bit, the slight 'ripeness' of the Klotz would be deemed rather better I think. The fact that the Klotz isn't being used for the prime function of carrying balanced mic signals is of course irrelevant I suspect.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Both interconnect and speaker cables are an *important* part of a system if solid state, less so if valve.

This as I have explained does not make valve amps better it means the way **valve amps are designed *masks* cable differences.

**not OTL

[alfafan123]

It seems that there is lot to be said for an end to end amplifier system being designed in a holistic way (including all its components viz pre-amp/IC/power amp and speaker cable and arguably speaker load too). I say this because box swapping and use of inappropriate poorly matched components can leave you totally confused about which of the many variables is causing the sounds to be as you hear it.

BTW the Klotz MC5000 cables are a lot better than some over priced and over hyped US cables and some old Linn ICs and cables I had. However they do seem to have an inherent warmth to them that is audible on all the gear I have used them with.

Increasingly it seems to me the mix and match approach to system matching is a bit of a lottery.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Yes it is a lottery but for a lot of people it is part of the fun. Also at what point do you take the decision that that is the path you follow, and that then locks you onto that path. For me I much prefer an open mind, and I find no problem in equipment telling me by what it is doing with music what it is capable of.

I agree Klotz is better value than the stuff the bullshiters and foo slurpers try to push on us, but it is not *the best* by a long chalk. I spent about 5 years on and off listening to all the low cap RG cables available, and one of the earliest ones I tried is still doing the job. BUT a RG number is just part of the story, who makes that cable has an equal importance in quality.