Now these type of cables are rare indeed. I think Van den Hul was the first to realize a carbon-based metal-free cable for audio, this was a long time ago and now they’ve brought carbon nanotube cables to the market. No reviews of the CNT as of yet.
There are sparse comments, mostly positive actually, on carbon cables. Apparently they’re extremely synergy-dependent and can sound from terrible to glorious. Interesting!
Anyone heard such cables? Hypothesis and theory appreciated on what’s the EM nature behind their merits. Now one would easily dismiss such things as snake oil for sure but as said, some like them a lot.
Anyone here with experience of these carbon-based cables?
It’s noteworthy that it’s currently not possible to manufacture these conductive carbon conductor with a smooth surface which commonly is what manufacturers of high end metal conductors strive for. And for a reason, the EM wave doesn’t really appreciate rough surfaces and I don’t see why carbon would act differently here, but maybe it does?
I’ve gotten the impression that these are “colored” cables in general but I won’t judge if they sound good in a given setup.
I had a set of Van Den Hut - “the second” - RCA interconnects which I believe were carbon. I remember the sound as being on the analytical side but it was a while ago and I had nothing to compare them to.
Hmm, I still have three pairs of Van den Hul The Second Carbon XLR . AudioQuest Water took their place a few years back. Now I am tempted to give them a listen again.
…12 000 individually isolated carbon cores, that is impressive material engineering.
This actually reminds me of what Galen has stated multiple times regarding the ideal situation of having one atom thick conductors (I guess some billions though or whathaveyou) in parallel for an ideal field distribution.
If you come to say it’s more euphonic or aural than the AQ, I think I’ll buy an RCA pair. Not a bad price and I admit, I would like some pleasant distortion added to my system.
(Uhmmm, “pleasant attenuation” would be better put)
First pair trial is from DS DAC to BHK pre. Given the cables have been in storage for a while, they probably need some burn in. Initial impressions, by comparison with AQ Water, The Second is a mellow cable, and its sound stage and instrumental delineations are not well defined as in the AQ. I’ll update you in a few days.
Hi @Arenith
One day out of storage and in the system, VdH The Second (linear carbon) is no slouch and holds its own against AQ Water, though less than half price. In my test, it performed really well across the board but really shone between BHK pre and Meridian 857. I am leaving all three VdH cables in the system till further notice. Thank you for drawing my attention
For some reason it makes me happy to hear that something like a carbon-based interconnect holds against AQ at less than half price, I mean AQ is already good value and has a lot of technology behind the construction.
Great, thanks for shedding some light on this.
The Van den Hul “The Third” speaker cable has 3.5 million carbon fiber cores… individually isolated. The geometry looks simple though, but again I have to appreciate how it holds together.
…VdH boldly lists the capacitance as: none.
Actually I just realized, the LSC conductors surely are either amorphous or have homogenous crystal structure… VdH has some amorphous metal alloy connectors too. Stealth Audio uses some specialized metal alloy that’s amorphous. Teo Audio has liquid metal alloy conductors…
I don’t think I need to mention the benefit that’s common here.
Carbon is seeming more and more like a good choice for interconnects, I’m buying it… And really I will be buying it just to hear.
