Review of Ghent Audio Canare L-4E6S Star Quad RCA Audio Interconnect Cables

December 5, 2018

#294

Gentle reader,

As you may have noticed, I believe in buying better audio interconnect and speaker cables. However, I am on a fixed budget, and even when I worked, could not afford very expensive things. 

Thus, I became interested in trying some of these Chinese assembled Japanese RCA stereo interconnect cables:

A01(0.5m 1.5ft) --- Pair(2pcs) Canare L-4E6S Star Quad RCA Audio Cables | eBay  

They were shipped airmail for free. They spent more time in NY Customs than it took to get them from China to New York.

For more on the Japanese microphone cable they use to create them, please look at Canare's site:

Canare Corp.: Star Quad Microphone Cables: Star Quad Microphone Cable(L-4E6S / L-4E5C)

And here is a link to Ghent Audio:

ghentaudio --- Do something for HiFi Fans  

I am NOT associated with any of the companies reviewed here. These are products I purchased based upon fitting my needs and my budget.

They have supplied them with signal direction arrows on the color coded heat-shrink tubing. Whether there is anything to that directionality notion, I do not know. But I installed them with those ends plugged into the source. In this case a Denon universal disc player.  They came well packed and protected. They included the Velcro ties with them.

I had originally bought them when I discovered a problem (of my own making, it turns out) with the listening room system. I thought the Dynaco PAT-6 preamplifier was subject to distortion when playing records. I could not turn it up very far before loud distortion was coming from the woofers. 

So I bought a new Pro-Ject phono preamplifier knowing I would need a short pair of RCA interconnects to place between the turntable and the Black Box.

This proved an unnecessary cost. The source and other buttons on the PAT-6 are very short, while the source buttons glow red when pressed, the others do not. What had happened is the Loudness button was pressed in! Visibly, since they move so little in and out, it was impossible to tell at a glance that it was in. I pressed it and the distortion vanished. Whew!

So, I returned the Pro-Ject phono preamp. Since I am still waiting for the 15 foot Monster Cable Z-Series speaker cables for the listening room, since I reorganized the room, I decided to try them in the system right next to me in the "office".
Complete Re-Do Of The Listening Room Dynaco Klipsch  

I like the quality construction and sound of now-vintage Radio Shack Gold Series interconnects. Which is what I have been using with the stack of component as seen above. But they are overly long for such close together components.

The photos above and below shows a comparison of the two side-by-side. The terminals are solid brass and well made as are the gold-plated connectors. The machined indentations make them easier to grasp when pulling them out.

With the possible exception of preventing wear on the rubber outer insulation, braiding is purely decorative. But I like it.

Stereo L/R outputs on the Denon DVD-1920, above and CD inputs of the Yamaha RX-496 below.

The connectors grip tightly, but not too tight as some do. I worry that I may pull off the outer connection when unplugging some aftermarket RCA interconnects since they hold on as if death was imminent should they loosen their grip.  

This is the rear view showing the long cables. I wish more makers produced shorter interconnects.

Here is the stack that is inches from me and never silent if I'm in here. Fisher cassette is feeding the Fisher receiver. The Denon since it has more than one set of outputs feeds both receivers. Which means I can have all eight speakers going at once if I wish. Or any combination of the four pairs. Yes, I know that since every component is different, except the source, that there is no sonic improvement playing dissimilar speakers.
But sometimes it's fun to play around.

Final thoughts. I really like these little cables. If you take a look at the auction page and Canare's you will see that all of the components are high quality. With the low labor costs in China and highly skilled labor forces, one can buy quality cables at bargain prices. Even with Customs delay (can you imagine how MANY packages they must open everyday to keep us safe?) they still got to me very quickly. 
They sound great, take up less space and are extremely well made. I will be buying more. Since microphone cables have to be able to carry the tiny signals sometimes long distances, then you know they must be low loss. These are therefore certainly eligible to be used as turntable cables. I will try the other pair on my Denon turntable, I've been using 1/2 meter Liberty Cable Z-500 interconnects for years now. They cost a LOT more than these did. You can see them below:

This photo is from 2011 and you can see how thick the Liberty cables are. Also braid covered. Their bodies are ceramic rather than brass of the new Ghent Audio cables. They are also marked as to direction of signal.

I chose not to use them with the turntable. But installed them as seen above. 

SO much neater than coiling the too long cables as I've always had to do.

Yes, I do use Swiffer 360 dusters to clean records. They are quite effective for ones that are simply dusty.

Once again, thank you SO much for taking the time to read my words and view my photos. It is your kind words and encouragement that keeps me creating these articles.

Scott
December 5, 2018
#294

Complete Re-Do Of The Listening Room Dynaco Klipsch

December 8, 2018

#293

Gentle reader,

You know how you set something up and go to all the trouble making it just the way you like?

This is the way it looked back in April, when I first installed the Dynaco QD-2. I placed my Dynaco A25XL speakers as the surround speakers. As you can see, it was a bit crowded. Don't laugh at my vintage Barcalounger. It's hard to find a chair that fits my 6'3" frame and I always wanted a wingback chair. It's ancient, faded and threadbare, but I love it.

Back in September, I improved upon the sound in two ways. After I completed the restomod on a pair of Advent Baby Advent II speakers, I placed them atop my Klipsch KG4s and made THEM the front speakers. The KG4s became my stereo set and if I wanted to be more immersed, I played the Advents, which sound way better than I hoped. Plus, since they are less efficient than the A25XLs, I could hear them better. But they still sat on the floor. The right one partially blocked.
Wooden Speaker Stands and Risers too Expensive? Try Bamboo Stools. How-To Guide.
So, I successfully raised them on stands that matched so well and the surround was much more audible. But it was still crowded. 

Height is now much better, but it blocks part of the records and is still behind the book table. The left one blocks part of the bookshelf. Plus, it narrows my path into the room.

The problem was the beautiful record shelves. They stick 20 inches into the room. My solution, move them.

Above is what it looks like right now. I use a throw over the top of the chair, which looked bright white due to the close proximity of the camera flash. So, I colored it brown. I also hid the flash's reflection on the black lamp shade.

The location of the system was between the speakers, which meant it had to be moved first. I'm glad I outfitted the table with casters.

There are 918 Classical LP records on the shelf. They all had to be removed. And the shelves too, once they were out, I was able to drag it over.

The three retro radios on top of the shelf revealed, by their amount of dust, that they had been up there quite a while.

Since I had installed a red hospital grade outlet that had been cryogenically treated (snake oil? probably) on that wall, the AC power strip/surge protector needed to stay plugged in there. Fortunately, it's cord is long and plug lays flat.

"Stacks of wax" as they used to call records take up a lot of space as do everything else I had to move to get to the Asian rug.

Here are shots of the shelves back. As you can see, they made the top and sides deeper than needed, for dramatic effect, maybe?

Something I had not noticed before were the two stickers on the back, these shelves were Salvation Army finds, were the two small gold colored stickers.

This one had fallen off. So, my Dynaco speakers AND these beautiful shelves both came from Denmark. Cool.

So now the shelf has been moved, the records back in place, the rug rolled up and the carpet cleaned. What WAS our daughter doing in here? Slinging and spilling chocolate milkshakes when this was her bedroom? My wife swears we had cleaned the carpet, but I don't think so.

Originally, the system had been against this wall (above). I was just able to reach the volume control from my chair. Poster came from Herb Alpert's re-release of his entire line on CD a few years ago.

No, I do not hunt. That skin was purchased in Cambodia by my late-friend, Colonel Bill Arps in the 1970's. I helped his widow and we came across it rolled up on a shelf in their basement. She wanted to throw it away, but I saved it. It was a Fishing Cat. Native to Asia.Yes, a cat that likes to get wet.

Now, this wall awaits the system, but I must first rehang the artwork I had to remove to fit the shelf. That large bird is a kite, that refuses to fly, above the window.

Oh, and the CD stands. I had to empty the 400 capacity tower, of course. I was able to carefully move the wooden one on the left and the 200 capacity one on the right. But picking them up again could be hurtful.

My "office" became the repository of all the things that sat on the Asian rug. The throw is seen below. The bottom side of it, that is. It's sort of khaki colored on the front side.

I wanted to rotate the rug ninety degrees for two reasons, to avoid it being under the shelves (again) and since the tassels were always a mess. I am delighted that it just fits and does not block the A/C vent.

Below are all the things that were on the wall where the shelf now is.

Mostly hidden in this photo, but seen elsewhere in full, is Michael Bedard's Sitting Duck, I first saw it at a friends house. Years later we had a community yard sale. I spied this one across the street, said, "Sitting Duck!" and ran across to see it. I have since also found his Window Shopping which sits above the left speakers.

With my purchase, at long-last, of a 1990's Dynaco PAT-6 preamp-tuner, I had to make some changes. It has no AC outlets on it and the two Adcom ACE-515 power conditioners have to be triggered on by 120VAC. So, I installed the beige power strip. I have to reach over and turn it on, though. The PAT-6 also does not have enough inputs and only one pair of Tape Out and Tape In terminals. I overcame those obstacles as well. I have not tried the tuner portion of it. If I want radio, I use the floor radio in the corner.

The CDs on the left are Classical. The ones stacked in the closet (more than 400) are Jazz and Soundtrack/Scores. It takes a long time to remove and reinstall almost 1000 CDs. Since I prefer them to be horizontal for easier reading of the labels, they have to be installed one at a time. Which means every time I buy more CDs, countless ones have to be moved one-at-a-time to make room for the new ones. They MUST be alphabetical and chronological. Sorry, OCD speaking out.

This wooden shelf is Teak and may also be Danish. It was made to hold a turntable and small amplifier or receiver with records storage on the bottom shelves. There was a low wall on top at the back, equal height to the side walls. There was also a removable shelf. It once sat between the speakers and housed the power amplifier and later also the SACD six-channel system. As seen below from three years ago.

Since the KG4s have rear facing 12" passive radiators, I removed the convoluted foam "bass traps", at the advise of a Klipsch expert. He was right, it greatly improved the bass.

If I tried to keep the surround sound, then I would have to accept the fact that the room would still be crowded, not to mention the long run of speaker cables to them. So, I unhooked the Dynaco QD-2, (above) but left it in place. Those are Monster Cable Z-Series speaker cables, by the way, which is all I use in here after trying MANY other brands and types of wires and cables.

Here it is all back in place. The A25XLs look so small by the KG4s. But all fit. I had not yet carried all the books back in and put them back on the teak shelf. I placed the largest dragon which formerly sat on the floor where a 12" sub used to reside, below the rifle, it too was not in place when I made this shot.

I am awaiting the arrival of 15 foot Monster Cable Z-Series cables for the left speakers, so none of the speakers are hooked up yet.

All the artwork and the shelf with box sets of CDs are all on their new wall.

Above shows the left side wall back with all back in place. I am very happy with the room and can't wait to get the speaker cables and install them.

Again, here is the room with it's new look. Simply by switching places with the overbearing record shelf and the system, the room opens up. I love it! You can see the big dragon in place now above the left speakers. The right KG4 is still a little cramped, but it will be OK. Both are exactly the same distance from the walls and toed to 45 degrees. I may use my laser to orient (Asian?) them so that they both center on the chair at head height. I am so anxious to hear music again! 

Part Two will detail the modification of the new (to me) fifteen foot long speaker cables and give listening impressions of the more airy room layout. No longer does it seem thrown together.

Once again, thank you SO much for taking the time to read my words and view my photos. It is your kind words and encouragement that keeps me creating these articles.

Scott
December 5, 2018
#293

Quadraphonic Music The 1970's Fad or Viable Music? Dynaco Dynaquad QD-1 QD-2

November 28, 2018

#292

Gentle reader,

We moved from humidity-free Denver, Colorado to humid Richmond, Virginia in the 1970's in June after I graduated high school. 

I had a plastic suitcase "stereo" then which sounded fine to me. I put stereo in quotes, because calling those POS stereos is like endorsing any Crosley product as a high quality sound source.

Anyway, as I have told you before, I was happy with my plastic-fantastic until meeting my new friend Phillip and his real stereo. 

Since I could not yet afford any real components, AND since there was an incredibly pretty girl named Cindy Short that worked at Woolco, I frequented the store to just get a chance to speak with her. We later went out and I realized that she was not the brightest knife in the kitchen. 

As a result, I found and bought a "bridge" stereo from Woolco to hold me as I saved up my money. Made by Morse, with the fancy name Electrophonic, I bought a Quadraphonic receiver that had a built-in 8-Track/Quad Tape player and four crappy speakers that appeared to have horn tweeters, but were in fact plastic trim pieces. It did have a phono input so I could hook a record player to it. As long as it had a ceramic cartridge.

I found this image on the Internet. A crappy composition, but it was the largest size photo that showed what I remember it looking like.

NOW, Quad-8-Track was the one TRULY Discrete form of Quadraphonic music at the time. Four tracks for side one of the record and four for side two. Or that is how I remember it. My Blood, Sweat & Tears Quadraphonic tape was convincing by surrounding me with music.

The three competing forms of Quad on records then were: SQ, QS and CD4. The latter claiming to be Discrete. Each had a unique way of encoding two extra channels into the music 45 degree stereo grooves of LP records.

Different component makers embraced each of the formats. Sansui used QS. Interestingly, QS could decode Dolby Surround perfectly as I discovered when we played Operation Dumbo, a Disney movie that took place in Vietnam during the war. We were watching it on VHS with the audio through a Sansui Quad receiver. An NVA gunboat was pursuing our heroes and the baby elephant in a boat and when the bad guys fired their cannon. We heard the BOOM! behind us, heard the shell fly over us, then Boom/Splash in front of us! We looked at each other and said, "Whoa. Did you hear that?" in unison. We do that a lot. Soul mates.

But, I digress. Something I am particularly good at. Look, a chicken! 

I started my first real stereo, as you know, in 1975-76, by building a Dynaco PAT-5, two SWTPC Tiger .01 60 watt mono amps and a pair of Dynaco A25 floor model speakers. Plus a B.I.C 940 turntable. 

So, when I saw that Dynaco was reborn and coming out with new all-black high-end products in the 1990's I vowed to own some. All that I could afford was their update to this:

The 1973 Dynaco Quadapter. Sometimes called Dynaquad. Dynaco later incorporated this device in an update to their SCA-80 integrated solid state amplifier. They called it SCA-80Q. They are sought after today.

I wrote to the new Dynaco company and they sent me these brochures.

See that QD-1 brochure? That is all that I could afford then, and here are photos of it:

QD-1 Series II, updated for use with a stereo receiver to passively provide for five speakers while watching movies. I never tried it for that, but did use it with music and four speakers.

Sadly, it had these cheap spring terminals. I carefully drilled them to accept banana plugs.

I later sold it. And as so often happens to me, I missed it. I found that Dynaco had updated  it and now called it QD-1 Series II L. A new fancier faceplate was the only change that I could see.

I was able to convert it to three-way binding/banana terminals.

Granted, I did a crappy job, but they worked and were 3/4" spaced top to bottom so double-banana plugs could be used.

I later sold THAT one too. I went on eBay one day, looking under my search "Dynaco Panor" and to my utter delight was saw and bought this QD-2. The final iteration of the Dynaco QD series.

Faceplate had some kind of stains on it that I could not remove, but I did not care, because.....

It has REAL three-way binding/banana terminals! 3/4" spaced.

No data exists nor contact information anymore for Panor. So, I have no idea how many of anything they made were sold. But not many come up for sale. I have not seen a QD-2 since.

You can see it below between Dynaco brother components. You can also see the speaker cables attached to it.

As a result of my constantly checking for 1990's Dynaco products on eBay I was able to score a Stereo 200 (ST-200), 100WPC power amplifier and much later a PAT-6 preamp-tuner. The PAT-5 Series II sadly never made it to market. I would have preferred it to the PAT-6 as it is limited in the number of inputs and outputs. I have thought about buying the ST-400 Series II power amplifier. At 200WPC, it has more headroom than the ST-200, but it is a simpler amp with no controls or the ability to play more than one pair of speakers.

Not shown in this photo are the two Dynaco A25XL speakers that act as rear or surround channels in concert with the less efficient Advent Baby Advent II speakers atop my Klipsch KG4 main speakers.  

All of the preceding has been building to the POINT of this article. You see, that LP record at the top of the article is the first CD4 Discrete record that I have ever found. 

I have many QS and SQ albums and in fact, had previously found and bought THE Dynaco record they made to showcase their Quadapter.

I tried that LP, and well, was not impressed. If you read up on Dynaco's original device, you see it was a simple circuit that someone else came up with. Dynaco packaged it and gave it their own name, perhaps to embrace but not to commit to any of the competing Quad formats.

So, anyway, I played the Henry Mancini album. It is sort-of quasi-Jazzy music with Henry on piano. Then all of a sudden, there were strings playing in the rear speakers! Then they went silent only to reappear later in the music.

This was the most dramatic evidence of the Dynaco QD series ability to actually provide surround sound music that I have heard. Yes, it was kind of corny which is why Quadraphonic eventually faded away.

I have written about Quad in the past and the QD-2 as well. For stereo music, it does greatly add depth to the soundstage. Almost like having room-sized headphones on. I am sold on using it. I can sense the acoustics of the recording space. And that pleases me.

While my wife will not believe it, I truly am, finally, satisfied with my stereo. After a more than forty years (not quite Old Testament) journey through countless iterations and combinations, and I don't want to know how much money, I am really happy. 

On another happy note, my oldest grandson, who is 12, went with his mom, to see the movie about Queen. He is now SO excited about Classic Rock music!
I found him a bang box (smaller version of a boom box) and cleaned and tuned it up. They live in a small house and the only source of music is a retro table radio I gave them that has a cheap cassette player on the side. No room for a real stereo.
For Christmas, I used all five of my sealed Chromium-Dioxide cassettes to record ten CDs of classic music for him:
QUEEN, CAT STEVENS, SANTANA, THE WHO, THIN LIZZY, LOGGINS AND MESSINA, OUTLAWS, THE MOODY BLUES, LED ZEPPELIN AND THE BEATLES.
All were from CD sources. When I tried to record an LP, there was no input. Weird. When I went back later, there was no input from any source! It is this JVC 3-head deck:

Which for some reason looks like this in photos instead of black. It plays cassettes fine, however. I have not investigated yet why no input. If it simply has failed internally, that is OK. I have my Fisher CR-124 right next to me which records fine. As long as the JVC still plays music it will remain in place.

Identical to the CR-125, the CR-124 (both are one of the few black cassette decks with VU meters) was made to plug into a matched set of integrated amp and tuner. Since it runs on 19 VAC, I found a 16 VAC transformer that put out more than 20 volts with no load. It powers the deck just fine.

So, if you collect records and have CD4 Quad ones and you want to splurge on a Dynaco QD unit, even the original, give it a try. 

Thank you once again for taking the time to read my words and view my photos. It is a labor of love. You make it all worthwhile.

Scott
November 28, 2018
#292