VOVOX Sonorus Cable

db9091 · February 21, 2016 at 6:37 PM

I was at Indoor Storm in Durham, NC and checking out Suhrs and Andersons to hear them a few weeks ago (before I got the Thorn)

They were all righty (which is weird, online they have lefties which they keep in the back, you'd THINK someone there would have brought one out for me to check out?!)
It's OK, I'm used to the prejudice us lefties are daily confronted with, like shaking hands, etc (I kid, I'm pretty ambidextrous, golf/bat righty, right dominant soccer foot etc)

Ok, so I see this cable and ask about it. The clerk waxes nostalgic over the thing saying they use them in their studio. So I figure, why not give it a try. I got nice things, why go with a cheap cable.
(I have Elixer cables currently so I figure the difference would be marginal. I only hear the difference with Elixers mostly on acoustic to an amp)

So I get home and it sounds nice. I did an A/B with the Elixer and the Elixer seemed to lack something, well, "sonorous" if you will (pun intended)

Well I did more A/B with my guitars and they ALL sound noticably better. IDK, more mids? I can't put a finger on it, but just... better.

The problem is, this is one friggin expensive cable. I almost did a double take when he said it was over $150, so this is only for the brave, rich, or like me, stupidly curious.

Bottom line, I'm not sold on many things, but this is a very noticeable difference hearing profiles on the Kemper and playing to the CAB or in headphones.

Just thought I'd mention it in case anyone was curious about them. I don't think they are a gimmick and I'm a scientist and LOVE to prove things B.S.!

I did look up cables and there is another brand (forgot the name) people say has better "highs" etc, so I imagine there's a whole world of $150+ cables, where I've only dealt in $50 cables before.

Thats it.

paults · February 21, 2016 at 6:52 PM

But, do they sound like two 30' foot coily cords when you want that vintage strat/plexi tone? LOL!

[Blocked Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Jimi_Hendrix_1967_uncropped.jpg]

db9091 · February 21, 2016 at 7:08 PM

I DID get a coily cable after I saw TheGearManDude demo a pedal and figured it wouldn't get hung up like my straight ones.

This cable has a great coating that doesn't get tangled. I had a Fender that similarly didn't tangle but it literally broke after a year of VERY light usage. The Elixer seemed to have either more high or less mid seeming thinner and therefore more trebly. Not necessarily a good thing for a strat.

But if folks want to simulate 60 feet of coily cable, go full Neck pickup with the tone pot turned waaaaaaay down!

Or throw mud on your speaker.

Michael_dk · February 21, 2016 at 8:31 PM

If you're a scientist who loves to prove things wrong, do a reamp test of the darn thing!

db9091 · February 21, 2016 at 9:15 PM

Can you explain how to do that? I've never done it.

But I can see where it's quite useful. Give me the procedure and I'll do it and maybe I can put them all together on an EQ and see what the frequency shifts are, take a screen capture and post it.

(I'm a busy dude, but this does grab the geek in me)

Michael_dk · February 21, 2016 at 10:55 PM

Quote from db9091

Can you explain how to do that? I've never done it.

But I can see where it's quite useful. Give me the procedure and I'll do it and maybe I can put them all together on an EQ and see what the frequency shifts are, take a screen capture and post it.

(I'm a busy dude, but this does grab the geek in me)

Well, normally you'd use a reamp box, which attenuates the signal and changes the impedance to be more suitable for a guitar amp. So I don't know if it's practical to do, really.

lightbox · February 21, 2016 at 11:08 PM

With the Profiler, you don't need a reamp box.
Just send the DI track tfrom your interface to the Profilers Return Input on the backside and set the Input Source to Return Input Reamp in the Input menu.
Since you just want to check the difference of cables ... well ... use the cheaper one to reamp and then the expensive one. Should be pretty simple and straight forward

db9091 · February 22, 2016 at 3:32 AM

Ok, I'll give it a twirl

I've got the Sonorus, Elixir, and maybe another 2 types of cables to compare.

Any suggestions on what to play? Should I do single notes or chords? Which would show the larger frequency differnece?

paults · February 22, 2016 at 3:44 AM

Would it be simpler to send white or pink noise through the cables, record each one to a DAW track, and then look at the frequency response in something like Ozone?

db9091 · February 22, 2016 at 4:04 AM

I don't have Ozone, but I do have Waves Horizon (so I have the PAZ analyzer), FabFilter, and Eiosis AirEQ if they can do such analysis.

Can you explain how I would generate the noise?

Explain it to my like I'm 5 years old!

paults · February 22, 2016 at 4:10 AM

Do you have a plugin Signal generator or synth that can generate the noise?

if your recording interface has auxiliary outs or hardware FX send, you could send the signal through the cable, and record it onto a track. Then, do the same thing again, with each cable to separate tracks.

Then, send the output of each track, one at a time, to your frequency analyzer, and look at the analysis of the waveform.

db9091 · February 22, 2016 at 4:24 AM

I'm very sure that would just have made a 5 year old cry.

paults · February 22, 2016 at 4:32 AM

Quote from db9091

I'm very sure that would just have made a 5 year old cry.

LOL!

db9091 · February 22, 2016 at 4:35 AM

I've had too much wine to understand what you said. Maybe Monday morning it will make more sense!

paults · February 22, 2016 at 4:35 AM

Not to worry - if you like the cable, that is all that matters

Trazan · February 22, 2016 at 5:42 AM

The difference a cable makes with (passive) guitar pickups is due to cable capacitance. Nothing more. If you had another cable with the same exact total capacitance, it would sound exactly the same. Assuming it's properly shielded and not faulty, of course. If Vovox states pF/feet, calculate total pF and find a cheaper one with the same total

There's no point in testing the cable through reamping. The effect is dependant on the (passive) high z guitar circuit.

Michael_dk · February 22, 2016 at 3:11 PM

Quote from lightbox

With the Profiler, you don't need a reamp box.
Just send the DI track tfrom your interface to the Profilers Return Input on the backside and set the Input Source to Return Input Reamp in the Input menu.
Since you just want to check the difference of cables ... well ... use the cheaper one to reamp and then the expensive one. Should be pretty simple and straight forward

This was my initial thought as well, but I think line level signals without the impedance being ballpark correct may negate any effect that it MIGHT have on the guitar tone.