Topic: Cable Comp: van den Hul Mic vs. Atlas Quadstar vs. Mil-Spec silver-clad

[cshepherd]

http://eugenehifi.com/Comps/Spearhead_5-26-07_Cable_Comp/

Spearhead Cable Comp
5/26/2007
Cuthbert Amphitheater (www.thecuthbert.com)
Eugene, Oregon
Saturday Night

One Set

Source:  Neumann km 184's (pointed directly at the stacks / ~ 70 degree spread) > Sound Devices 722 @ 16 / 44.1 (limiter off / recorded at -2 db peaks)
Location:  Directly in front of soundboard / 9' stand / 2' left of dfc / ~100' from stage
Transfer:  722 > firewire > Samplitude 6.04 (adjusted for balance) > wav > flac

01. van den Hul Mic sample taken from 34:19 - 38:56
02. Atlas Quadstar sample taken from 1:23:11 - 1:29:15
03. Mil-Spec silver-clad sample taken from 1:56:12 - 2:02:20 (last encore)


van den Hul > Atlas cable change made at 51:52
Atlas > Mil-Spec cable change made at 1:39:10
Cables were changed in the middle of the set.  Significant attention was paid to keep a consistent stereo configuration from cable to cable.
The Mil-Spec cables were made by one of the reputable cable makers on this board.

Pricing on unterminated cable lengths:
van den Hul Mic cable - $26 / meter (msrp)
Atlas Quadstar cable - $20 / meter (msrp)
Mil-Spec silver clad cable - $3-$4 / meter  (going rate for personal lengths)

[ArchivalAudio]

so Chris
what was your take?
which cable sound do you like better?
glad to see it here

we met there,
I was the one that started the FOB seting up....

great show
my RODE NT5's @ 110° ORTF  (10' up DFC)> ProCo Ameriquad w/ Neutrik gold connects > MOTU Ultralite> firewire> iBook> AudioDesk , sounds great too!

peace
-- Ian

[cshepherd]

We ran comps between van den Hul and Atlas cables for all three acts that night.  I think this accurately portrays the differences between these two cables.  We thought the midrange of the Atlas was not as rich and slightly honky by comparison.  We also noticed the vocals were more intelligible on the van den Hul's.  We found this to be true across all three comps from the evening.  We preferred the van den Hul Mic cable on all three comps...something we weren't sure was going to happen.  Atlas interconnects are quite good.  We consider their Navigator All Cu interconnect to be among the best in Eugene Hi-Fi's collection. 

I put the Mil-Spec cables in right around 10:30 pm.  The goal was to use them on the best sound/mix of the night.  I had a chance to listen to someone else's recording yesterday.  I'm pretty confident that the FOH engineer pulled a significant portion of the bass out of the mix as I was changing to the Mil-Spec cables.  It's odd (and unfortunate) timing, but he was probably told to turn it down at 10:30 because the amphitheatre is in the middle of a big city park.

Those who have downloaded, please take the Mil-Spec sample with a grain of salt or two.  Spearhead was the only set we ran the Mil-Spec cables.  We'll be doing another comp at Umphrey's in Portland on Thursday with the van den Hul's, Mogami 2549 microphone cable and the Mil-Spec cable. 

Thank you to those who have downloaded the samples. 

Chris

edit to add:  Ian, it was good to meet you and and also to see Josh from Portland making it down.

For anyone who wants to hear a consistent recording of the show, this may be the best ADK TL recording I've ever heard:

http://bt.etree.org/details.php?id=507128
source: ADK TL > Lunatec V2 > Apogee Mini-Me (24bit 48kHz) > VX-Pocket V2 > SF8
transfer: SF8 (dither/resample) CDWAVE 1.95.1 > FLAC Frontend

notes: mics set DIN Cardiod, 9ft. stand, fob slightly left of center, van den Hul Integration Hybrid mic cables, vdh orchid ic (v2>mineme), vdh 1st ultimate digital cable
recorded and transferred by Dean Grabski (taperdean@gmail.com)

[twatts (pants are so over-rated...)]

Dude, we've already been thru all this.  If you don't like his comps, don't listen to them.  At least he's trying to do something constructive here...

Terry

[Church-Audio]

Dude, we've already been thru all this.  If you don't like his comps, don't listen to them.  At least he's trying to do something constructive here...

Terry

Your right, I removed that post.. I will stay out of it.