Radioshack Gold Series (1 meter) RCA to RCA, vs.
Outlaw PCA (1.2 meter) RCA to RCA
Info on the latter:
http://www.outlawaudio.com/products/cables_about.html
The new cables I received (Outlaw PCA) are considered 'budget audiophile' quality and cost $49.95 (plus $11 shipping) in the USA for the 1.2m length, if purchased new from the website. According to the website they are using copper shielding, and special copper conductors known as "UP-OCC" (Ultra-Pure, Ohno Continuous Casting). They're about 1.5 times as thick as the Radio Shack cables (in fact annoyingly heavy/bulky), with some nice looking connectors on the ends that fit way too tight... wish I had some Caig Progold around for treatment, as it makes the metal "slippery" and easier to insert/remove. They do seem to be well built, and also have a "directional" arrow printed on the jacket, like some of the Monster cables ("-> -> Signal Flow -> -> ->")
.I paid $35.00 shipped for a used pair, more out of curiosity than anything else (after hearing the usual ravings on certain websites how these are so much better sounding than Radioshack Gold and "almost as good as the most expensive ones"... etc).
Of course, the first thing I did was a soundcard loopback -- comparing against previous results using the Radioshack Gold cable:
http://shs82web.home.comcast.net/Comparison.htm
My conclusion is that these new cables are better shielded than the Radioshack Gold, and thus measure better at very low levels (below -100dB). Most noticeable is the blockage of 60 Hz power line hum. The difference in stereo crosstalk figure could be a normal variation found with RMAA (it's a "quickie" test and not a lab grade sort of test), or it could have something to do with the geometry of the conductors, or whatever -- you decide...
Do they "sound" any different? Not that I can tell
. Good for use around a PC because of the better shielding, so I might keep them... they were about 2-3 times more expensive than the Radio Shack cables (the latter costing $12.99 or something like that).Wish I could have done a comparison with a really pricey set of interconnects, but I neither have the money nor the interest in buying that kind of outrageous crap. I really had to stretch my mind to get these ones...
