I was also amazed at how well the C4's held up against the Schoeps in this test. That was the first big surprise.
Cody and I both shook our heads in disbelief at how well they sounded on guitar. Remember, these tests were not made
using a super high quality preamp and there is no EQ on them. Just a dry guitar recorded in a padded 10x10 iso booth.
When you shine it up with EQ, the C4's work really well on acoustic guitar, among other things.....like taping. ;-)
The cheap cables sounded cheap, that wasn't a surprise. Avoid at all costs, or lack therof.
The Canare did not sound very good compared to the Mogami. The Canare was thin, literally.
To my ears, I thought the differences between the Hi Ho, Hybrid, and Mogami were slight.
They had varying levels of brightness that was probably the most noticeable difference.
I thought the Mogami was the darkest and the richest. Seemed to be very faithful to the original tone.
The Silvers seemed to have a bit more overall sheen than the Mogami, but maybe less clarity than either.
They were very sweet sounding. I though they had the most unique feel.
I didn't think they outperformed either cable in the tests, but I still would prefer them for their original purpose when I purchased them, live taping.
The Hi-Ho cables are of exceptional build quality, designed for rough use in crazy settings. Really thin and compact, heatshrinked, and wrapped in techflex.
I thought the Hybrids sounded fantastic, very bright and open. More so than any of the others.
It almost sounded a bit hyped in 8k range, which is the sweet spot to bring out detail.
There is no way to know if that's intentional or a byproduct of the design, but it works.
It sounded the most naturally pleasing to my ears. They are a bit bulky though.
Was it worth the hefty price tag of $15-30 per meter to DIY? Simply, No.
If it's your only pair and you want it to be the best it can be within a reasonable budget, you could certainly go the hybrid route and have piece of mind that you are getting the most out of your gear, but I am more partial to the silver clad stuff for live taping. Better bang for the buck and there are plenty of excellent custom silverclad makers on this website such as Nick, Matt, Todd, etc...
The prices of the Silvers are roughly half the Hybrids. The Price of the Mogami is roughly half again the Silvers or even less. The mogami is the best buy. Perfect for studio apps but bulky for taping.
The differences overall don't just justify the price differences to most people. I think the most important aspect to a good cable is blocking all manners of interference from geting through the signal. The thicker, bulky cables seem to do a better job at that sort of thing. For this test, we intentionally placed the recorder and all the cables on top of each other and near some other AC cables to really put the intereference to to the test. All I want a cable to do is transfer the signal from the mic without any coloration or signal degradation whatsoever.
As for the V3/R4 tests, that's no shocker either. The V3 sounds WAY better in both tests.
If you want HQ recordings and you are using an R4, get a preamp to stick in front of it, run it digital only, or consider getting a warm mod done.
The preamps on the R4 are hazy and undefined. They sound good, but not great. I also had it lock up with HDD TOO Slow on me for the first time during this test. Lame.
I enjoyed the tests and their results. I needed to buy about 700' of cable, so I went with the Mogami. For mainly budget reasons but also because I thought it had the best interference rejection and the most faithful tone for any cable in my price range. The differences were not enough to justify me spending 2 to 4 times as much or more for essentially the same thing.
That's why I did the tests, to see if there was really a reason to drop that kind of money on cable. For some, the answer is yes, for others.....no.
Cheers, Phil