PangeaAudio Premier SE Turntable Cable - RCA to RCA - 1.25 Meter

Satisfied

Pros:~ Lowest noise floor~ Helped the Sennheiser HD 650 broaden out. John Coltrane is outside my left ear on Giant Steps not smack upside my head etc etc record after record, better channel and track (mixing) separation off the needle. I must have listened to the last two tracks on Bane's final album "Don't wait up" over 30 times experimenting with cables. Yeah you're still going to know you have headphones on with the 650 but you're not going to be thinking you're wearing your monitoring cans.~ Tight connection~ GR MI affiliation (I may or may not have lived there a few times) Support local businesses.Cons:~ Push pull. I know the original idea was to combine both cables and ground into one thing. There are others like this on the market. I believe this to not only cause design - manufacturing headaches I believe it to be inferior when it comes to installation & longevity. It is easier to attach (and replace) the ground first without having to hold the other cables in your hand. When you attach the R/L cables the ground cable gets scrunched up. If you're testing multiple cables this will cause wear... which is yet another reason the ground should be separate - it makes it easy to replace the inexpensive ground. Ground should be separate and properly shielded & protected with more than a rubber cover because a slip of the screwdriver and there goes a chunk of the semi-malleable rubber exposing your ground cable. It can have rubber but on top of that rubber, well look at any quality gaming mouse cable to get the idea. With the ground secured to the TT the phono pre-amp the R/L channels can safely be removed from their packaging. Had we wound everything together we'd be banging the terminals against all sorts of things as we, armed with our headlamp & screw driver attempt to grow another much needed arm whilst installing the ground cable & juggling the RCAs, wink wink.Once all cables are connected the customer should be able to attach the premium cable management ties, the likes of which come with any mechanical keyboard around $65+ I've ever purchased. Also included in the box should be what I call the "Snake Skin" option. With the "Snake Skin" you would first attach the cables to the TT, then carefully slide the "Snake Skin" over the ground & R/L Channel cables. Once the "Snake Skin" is around all 3 cables attach the cables to the pre-amp, then carefully slide the "Snake Skin" over the remaining length of the cables. Now instead of 3 cables exposed you have a beautifully woven skin helping manage your techno spaghetti nightmare (materials and processes: students first - Dow last. There is a lot in between). It should be noted that the inclusion of the "Snake Skin" would mean the ends of the cables should be in little baggies with rubber bands holding them tight as so no dust bunnies get into our RCA terminals during installation. *Condensation may be a factor if plastic bags are air tight so don't do that.Why separate the R/L RCA? Push-pull. Ever tried to install loose fitting RCA cables that are joined together? You have to do them both at once because if you get the red one in it will pop out as you attempt to maneuver in the white one. Why not just make the terminals extra tight so they don't slide out? Ever try to get tight RCA cables out of the back of a pre with exposed tubes? Oh that's why they put metal protectors over the tubes :) Ever see a pre-amp go flying across a room?Having each cable separate frees up our hands and allows us to find a sweet spot in the termination tolerances. Not too tight, not too loose. Included deluxe cable management options allows us to have the cables separate.~ Ideally the entire process would be done in the USA. "It's not what you know, it's who you know." My understanding is that a part of the cable manufacturing process is off-shored. That will always be in my mind as an owner of this cable. I would pay a little extra to not have it in my mind.~ Instruction about the arrow. Hey musicians, you know how you think of signal paths & chains? Yeah you'd think the arrow would flow away from the source toward the destination right? Nope. Not with these interconnects. I rendered out a 2116 kbps 24 bit .wav sample of the cable plugged in the correct and incorrect directions. The difference is noticeable to say the least. The arrow isn't pointing towards your amp, it's pointing towards the TT (source).~ Hey guitar players, you know how annoying those cheap Livewire guitar cables are? The ones with the blue rubber that doesn't cover the plug so you have to constantly tighten the cap? Yeah, same with this TT interconnect. It's not as bad and you're not going to be doing it often but make sure you have the caps tightened down firmly. I would have loved to see an included tight sleeve to pull over the ends to keep those terminal caps securely fastened.This was more a critique aimed at professionals than a review. If you're wondering why I gave it five stars but then went on to mention some directions I'd like to see future generations go thus creating the illusion of a negative review the answer is a simple one. It was the best one I ordered. Yup it cost more but It was under $100 & the shortcomings of the others are just so [bangs head on desk]. It has potential to be even more innovative but it is a superb cable(s) as it is right now.Note: The seller was Audio Advisor. The shipping was fast. They will send you their mailer. It'd be nice if that was an opt-in thing. Despite that I will continue doing business with them.

I was very hesitant to purchase these cables after reading all of the mixed reviews. My stock cables that came with my Music Hall mmf-5.1se table equipped with an Ortofon 2m Bronze cartridge had a quiet hum that I could not get rid of. I just lived with it for several years. The hum was only noticeable when the amp was turned up to 1/2 or higher with no music playing. I use a Music Hall pa2.2 phone pre-amp. I also use a Panamax MR3400 with Level 3 linear EMI/RFI noise filtration to eliminate A/C noise through the outlet.I tried using other RCA cables I had on hand with separate grounding wires and that made the hum worse. The Pangea cables did not work right away out of the box. The Pangea RCA connections were too wide for the connecting posts. I had to use small pliers to squeeze them down for a better fit. I heard small popping sounds once the cable were connected. I saw a comment where someone stated the cables work better if they are turned around (arrows pointing to the turntable instead of pointing towards the pre-amp). I tried it and it worked. All cable noise was gone.

The RCA connectors are too tight. Even after rotating the RCA barrel sleeve to loosen it the actual connector still fits snuggly. Trying to unplug from a newer Technics turntable caused damage to the RCA connectors on the back of the turntable. I'm sending it in for a warranty repair. The cable did sound ok, nu hum or distortion. But when swapping cables to compare differences in sound - it's difficult to remove this cable. If you don't swap cables then it's ok, but if you like to experiment and compare cables you may run into the same issue that I did.

The cable that came with the turntable was unimpressive and did not fit tightly to the RCA connectors. This is a far better build cable in heft, quality, and connectors. It provided a distinct enhancement and tightness to the bass. Not sure I could discern much other sound improvement. So I am pleased there is some sonic value to the cables as well.