Kudos KS1 v DIY Mogami w3104 speaker cable (kudos speaker owners might want to take a look)

Well, here we go again.
To start off with, i have been very happy with the KS1 speaker cable on my system.
It proved to be a fantastic cable, especially for the price. I have tried it against a few others, like the new spectre cable about to be released, plus my old naim cable, and also some chord signature.
I have to say over all the above the KS1 won. This maybe because i also run kudos 808’s, and they are designed to work alongside the 808’s but, me being me, is always on the lookout for maybe a bit more, especially if i can get that bit more without costing loads.

Now after trying and now owning a chord music xlr cable on my dCS vivaldi, and being blown away with what it did over the xlr i was using at the time ( an also very expensive tara labs, the one cable) i got the chance to try for a week some demo chord music speaker cable.
Well, these certainly changed the way it all sounded, and i liked very much what they did, i just didn’t like the price, and so i got talking to a few guys that said I should try the Mogami w3104 cable.

So i looked into it all, and hit the buy it button.
So 5 meters off w3104 cable.
8 very nice banana connections.
8 very nice spade connections, as decided to also make jumpers to match.
Over Brading, heat shrink etc.

I love a project, and some hifi DIY.

So made them up the other day, and been burning them in, they still have a way to go, if you go by what they say, but they certainly sound different to the KS1, and i think, if my memory is correct, more in tune to what the chord music was like.
Now i don’t have the chord music to try against these right now, but i hope to grad them back for a weekend once tbese are burnt in and i have finally finished them.

But the Mogami cable is a 4 cable construction, that you could use as bi wire, but i am using 2 wires for each connection. This is the preferred method to get the maximum results from this cable.
Its a 16mm diameter cable, so its large, but it does bend ok, but obviously not as easy to work with as the KS1.
As you will see from the pictures, so far i have just made them up, they will look much different to this, far more professional finish i hope. But i wanted to just hear them first before i went further, just incase i didn’t like them.

But cables are very interesting what they do to a system, and if they can get me close to the chord music, or maybe even be better, well i will be very happy, as the price for this lot including the very nice connections is far less than what you would have to pay just to get chord music jumpers, let alone 5 meters off music cable.

I will obviously update, plus add some better pics once i have finished them.
But for now valve for money has been smashed out the park, and they should get even better.

Cheers dunc

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Good value cables. I made up a couple of lengths of 2972 to use with my Shahinians and they worked very well.

I used them initially when I got my 606s, but I ended up preferring KS-1 in my setup when I demoed a set and stayed with those.

image

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Should be interesting Dunc. I have both KS-1 and Mogami 2972 sets for my system. They have different strengths and I like both, but currently the Kudos is kicking its heels on the sub’s bench. The Mogami is much more warts and all and I think I just prefer the immediacy and slightly greater immersion in the event that it offers.

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Rather high capacitance on the mogami. Specs in data sheet is around 100pf/m to compare with 16pf/m for naca5. Inductance around 0.6uH/m.

Not sure how the 2972 compared to the W3104 sounds ?

Also slamdam you stated uH/m for naim, but pf/m for the mogami ?

Whatever the difference is between the naim naca5, and the w3104, as far as spec’s are concerned i don’t know. But as far as sound is concerned its a big difference as i have my old set still, its not even close.

As said i am more bothered about how they will stand up against the chord music in my system, as like i said they really sounded lovely, but with a lovely price.
I may end up just giving in, and getting the music at some point, but these may just do the business or at least get very close? If they do that, then for the price difference they will be an absolute bargain.

I’ve been watching this guy on YT talking about speaker cables, he’s Polish or Czech I think so you have to put the subtitles on to understand what he’s saying.

I watched this video the other week and he was talking about Neotec 3005 being a combination of OCC Copper thick and thin strands and also Silver plated OOC Copper thin and thick strands.

He says the different metals and strand thicknesses all give different atributes to the sound.

He starts talking about the Neotec 3005 at around 22 mins 15secs.

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I don’t know either Dunc. I think most of us Shahinian addicts use 2972 simply because the UK Shahinian distributor, Pear Audio/John Burns ex Linn employee, audio sage and all round great guy recommended it. It’s perfectly safe for use with Naim Amps.

As far as i can tell the w3104 is a higher grade cable over the 2972
The w3104 is a 4 core version, and the w3103 is the 2 core version off the same quality cable.
But using the w3104 4 core cable as a 2 core cable brings even more benefits apparently reading into it all.
Well this evening the cable has already changed in sound, top end has gone somewhere tonight, but the bass this cable lets through is very much stronger than the KS1, the midrange is also different, as voices sound more real, and more forward presence.

But its early days, and i know its going to change for a while yet, as there is a lot off cable to burn in.

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Another Shahinians with 2972 user here and very happy with them. I preferred them to NACA5, rendering instrumental timbres with more detail, depth and resonance than the Naim cables and with a better rendition of decay albeit a slight loss in dynamic impact.

There is a reason why Mogami cables are used extensively in pro audio… They do publish specs of their cable (I think that posting a link to their website would infringe forum rules, however it should be easy to find by searching for mogamicable). They manufacture a range of cable constructions with different characteristics to suit different functions so you can choose the ones that meet a specific requirement if known - or at no huge cost you can try and compare several.

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Hi all

Well been playing quite a few different albums this afternoon, and i have got more accustomed to how the mogami is sounding.
It has a stronger bottom end against the KS1, but the top end is lacking its sparkle, now this might hopefully come back as the mogami burns in, but in the meantime while i wait, idid this.

Well as i have 808’s, i have both speaker cables running at the same time, and have got to say what a result it is.
So i have the twin cable mogami w3104 on the bass, and the kudos KS1 on the midrange/treble.

This has given me the superior bottom end, and a lovely top end.
Why hasn’t anyone come up with this, or if they have, i certainly haven’t seen it.
Take 2 different cables that excel at different things, and just use them both.

As said maybe the mogami will end up with a lovely top end, but in the meantime i don’t have to listen too it sounding not as good, or maybe this is how i willnow run it?

Anyway, if you have kudos speaker’s it might be worth a try, as the mogami cable is very cheap.

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One thing to consider is that if they’re different resistance (length, gauge and/or material), this will affect power received between the drivers.

Probably not something you’d want, unless you’re looking for a very crude form of EQ.

Because it’s completely barking?

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Maybe mad
But it certainly sounds good

Seems like you’ve just discovered that bi-wiring can work. :wink:

I know about bi wiring obviously, but normally the same speaker cable is used.
I have used different cable on the bass compared to the mid/treble, that was what i was asking.
As using different cable with different strengths seems to work well

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Unless cable is very long or one cable extremely thin the resistance difference in relation to the speaker impedance is minimal, so highly unlikely to have any perceptible difference in sound level. (For a probably fairly typical 5m length, into 8 ohm speakers, the difference between a very fat 6mm2 cable and a pretty skinny 1mm2 cable would be about 0.09dB.)

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Not sure why that should be? It sounds eminently logical to me if such differences are genuinely audible with different cables, and the benefits fall in frequency ranges either side of the crossover frequency. With 3-way speakers there’d be the options of linking mid and bass or mid and treble, bi-cabling, or employing a third, yet again different, cable.

I never understood the concept of bi-wiring, never considering different cables, but with different cables that have different effects it suddenly makes sense.

@Dunc, this would seem to be worth highlighting with a thread of its own on bi- or tri-wiring with different cables.

I’ve been doing this for the last year on my SL2’s, I have nac A5 on the mid and Phantom on the tweeter in an active system.

When I get my new Spectre cable I’ll be experimenting to decide if I put it on the mid or tweeter.

Why not choose a cable that works/sounds best for a specific driver.

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I can see that it’s very easy to do with an active system, however the Vitus has only one set of 4mm terminals, so it must be a case of either soldering two sets of cables to one plug, using stacking bananas, or bananas and spades if that’s possible. Biwiring is generally frowned upon by Naim, but maybe it’s different with Vitus.

Dunc doesn’t say, but I wonder if both options have been tried, or if the improvement is merely a perceived benefit of biwiring. Anyway, given that biwiring is not really a thing with Naim amps, and many speakers have only one set of sockets, it’s probably something that most people will never get to try.

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