A confession: This post barely qualifies to be part of this blog, but it IS about technology, just not the technology I usually write about.

But I recently got some new speaker cables, and they’ve made such a difference to the sound in my stereo that I feel the need to talk about them.

I got them all from Coem Audio Australia - A small store in Qld that specialise in high-quality Chinese hi-fi equipment. Their quality is great (but certainly not Van Den Hull), their service is incredible, and their cost is amazing by hi-fi standards (I paid about $300 for the four cables).

What I got:

Rose Voix DG1 75 ohm digital coaxial cable

This is a simple coax cable. Replacing this in my system and leaving everything else the same made a noticeable difference to the sound coming out of my DAC - the homemade coax cable it replaced was a relatively low quality cable because it seems impossible to find really high quality coaxial cable in Canberra.

This cable is now running from my Marantz CD7300 to my modified Lite DAC-AH non-oversampling D/A converter.

SoundRight SN2 interconnects (x2)

Twisted OFC cable. Got these because I wanted a comparison to my homemade interconnects (made by braiding two pairs of 12 gauge OFC wire for each cable). The twin shielding of these cables is great because of the stereo’s proximity to my Mac Mini.

These cables are now running from my DAC to my homemade audio switching box and from the box to my Sonic Impact Super T-Amp.

SoundRight LN2 Speaker Cables

These guys are shown in the photo above, and they’re absolutely huge. Replacing plain old CAT5 (two sets of four 12-gauge OFC twisted) cable they make a massive difference to the sound. My previous speaker cable was three CAT5 cables braided together (4 wires for each pole of treble, 8 wires for each pole of bass) and that was good. This cable goes a step further in bringing out the subtleties of my music. Connecting them up and playing what happened to by in my CD player at the time - The Left Side of The Fragile by Nine Inch Nails - revealed instruments, beats and nuances that I’d never heard before in my 8 years of listening to this album somewhat religiously.

Definitely the biggest change to my system from this shopping expedition, these are letting me rediscover my music collection.

Connected from my T-Amp to my Monitor Audio Bronze B2 bookshelf speakers.

Aside from the amazing sound, the other result of this little shopping expedition is that my speakers are now well & truly the worst part of my system. Which mean I finally get to replace them with some homemade copies of the Konus Essence transmission line speakers.