Xotic USA Brass Connectors - "Tonal Difference"

roberty

Brass sounds better. Why? First, steel plugs create a “hump” around the 2-3k area - brass plugs have a more linear response

Sounds like audio snake oil to me (rampant in the hifi world)

Anyone care to chime in?

roberty

Full text:

New Xotic All-Brass™ Cables are here! But why use brass plugs over steel plugs?

Traditionally in the audio world, manufacturers have used brass for audio plugs because of its malleable and sonically pleasing properties. For the past 15 years guitar cable manufactures started making audio plugs out of steel and artists have taken that to be the norm for patch cables. As brass becomes more expensive companies have stopped using brass because of the increase in cost - however brass is still the best metal for connection plugs.

Brass sounds better. Why? First, steel plugs create a “hump” around the 2-3k area - brass plugs have a more linear response. Second, steel (when played long enough) tends to magnetize over time which causes audio deterioratiron - nickel plated brass will not. Finally, most companies use steel which is very hard - brass is softer and more malleable which creates less wear and tear on your pedal and slides in and out with ease.

Sporky

I would like to see some evidence to support those claims - I'm certainly skeptical.

Simon_M

I'm no metallurgist but I do have a degree in music technology (who doesn't?!) and I'm confident this is a load of horse shit.

roberty

Yeah I'm thinking they could brand these "Xotic All-BS Cables"

Boromedic

What a crock, total snake oil........

thermionic

My first thought is “absolute unfounded bollocks”. For a start, they don’t provide any evidence. Secondly, they’re nickel plated, just like those crap old steel jacks. Thirdly, since when is 3 kHz mids?

You’ll need a Russ Andrews kettle lead plugged into your Harley Benton Powerplant to get the best out of these.

merlin

I have a brass cistern in my toilet. Makes flushing really smooth and because of a lack of friction, the water flows smoother which helps flush away bad smells. 

mburekenge

thermionic said: Thirdly, since when is 3 kHz mids?

Since always.

ICBM

Total bollocks, as usual. The only part that’s correct is that steel is harder, but it won’t make any difference if they’re both nickel-plated because that’s what’s in contact with the socket.

richardhomer

Presumably to maximise their benefits, you’ll need brass pots and jacks in your guitars, pedals and amps?

interstellar

brass enclosures.....Vemuram were in there first

Branshen

roberty said:

(...) brass is softer and more malleable (...) and slides in and out with ease.

This is bollocks. From experience I can confidently say that when something is softer, it is more difficult to slide in and out. 

Sporky

I'd like to modify my original response now that I've had coffee.

They seem to be claiming that steel,iin reasonably solid lumps, has inductive properties sufficient to create audible changes.

That's definitely utter nonsense. 

bignorm

Chronic horse shit that's up there along with cryogenic valves and doing a promo gig for nothing in the dog and duck to get more gigs.