Vovox excelsus protect A

[lapideusvir]

Has anyone experience with Vovox excelsus protect a?
Incredible expensive. I dont think many will use this ...

[customxke]

There is nothing that would compel me to spend that much money on a cable.

[nyc chaz]

My parents taught me that a fool and his money are easily parted.Such is the case with this cable.

[gitman]

Any half decent HiFi nerd will chuckle- a pair of 7 foot long highend speaker cable (with the proper plugs) can set one back a whopping €2500 easily.
Vovox cable does make an audible difference in a studio setting where the complete signal chain is crucial. For home or stage use there are plenty of cheaper options that sound absolutely fine and can withstand the abuse….

[Cunamara]

The chief sonic interest in an instrument cable is its capacitance, usually measured in pF per foot or per meter. The higher capacitance, the more it tends to attenuate high frequency information. Often people think that the signal is lost over the length of the cable, and there may be some of that, but an issue is the extent to which the cable capacitance loads the pickup and affects its resonant frequency. An example of tonal quality with a very high capacitance cable would be Hendrix with his long curly cables, resulting in that particular tone as on Little Wing or Castles Made Of Sand. When he wanted a brighter, sharper sound he used a shorter straight cable. People using wireless often have an option of a switch for cable emulation to bring back an effect that the ear expects to hear.

This Vovox cable is apparently rated at 100 pF/meter according to the marketing material, which is OK but not outstanding. There are a lot of cables in this range of capacitance for much less money. George L's cost a fraction of this and have a capacitance of 52 pF/meter.

Of course there are other issues in cables including durability, noise suppression, flexibility, visibility on stage, etc. I've never seen one of these Vovox cables in person, but sometimes you do get what you pay for in terms of robustness. An ultra-low capacitance cable does not sound very good if it breaks during a gig or crackles every time it gets stepped on.

[Cunamara]

Any half decent HiFi nerd will chuckle- a pair of 7 foot long highend speaker cable (with the proper plugs) can set one back a whopping €2500 easily.
Vovox cable does make an audible difference in a studio setting where the complete signal chain is crucial. For home or stage use there are plenty of cheaper options that sound absolutely fine and can withstand the abuse….

Well, all of us who are enthusiasts in some area are willing to spend money for placebo effect. Eric Johnson believes he can hear the brand of batteries in pedals. Do Rayovac electrons sound different from Energizer electrons? Maybe they buy their electrons from different suppliers. We buy boutique stuff over mass produced and think it sounds better, even when the circuit is straight out of electrical engineering manuals and fundamentally identical. We think Vermont made Kent Armstrong pickups are better than Korean made Kent Armstrong pickups of identical design with the very same component parts (even though Kent himself says they sound the same).

Objective testing indicates that expensive high-end speaker cables are not audibly better (usually the most enthusiastic supporters of expensive speaker cables are those who have a vested interest in people buying expensive gear). But that doesn't stop enthusiasts from believing in the placebo effect. And I suppose if you'd spent six figures on speakers, tube amplifier, tube preamplifier, turntable, etc., spending 10 bucks for speaker cables results in a significant cognitive dissonance and the feeling that "my hyperexpensive stereo is not all it could be." In for a penny, in for a pound.

[Spook410]

At least in the HiFi enthusiast world content above 5khz is sought. A look at a graph of the frequency response of a good guitar speaker is pretty instructive. They trail off dramatically above 5khz. That and play with a real EQ and use your ears. I'm using a Full Range Flat Response (FRFR) with modelers that will do higher frequencies but with electric archtops I roll off around 4khz anyway because it sounds better.

In any case, if you're concerned about capacitance, noise reduction, et al, just use a short cable from the guitar to a DI and run an XLR cable out. A perfectly adequate Behringer DI costs like $20.

As for this product, would I think someone foolish for buying a $500 guitar cable? Particularly one that's not even practical given how stiff it is? Yep. Pretty much.

[Cunamara]

Ah, we don't need no steenkin' high frequencies. We're electric guitarists! I don't know if the 5000 Hz cut off is just what we're used to or if it actually sounds better to human ears. I know I don't care for just plugging the guitar into an FRFR speaker without doing some EQ to reduce those high frequencies and emulate a more typical guitar sound. I'm really not sure whether that's a case of knowing what I like or liking what I know. Either way, it's what I like.

You make a good point about using a DI to convert the signal from high impedance to low impedance, which makes it pretty impervious to cable length, etc. I did a few gigs where I ran a SansAmp Para Driver DI to the PA and was pretty comfortable with the sound I got. I have also used the DI into a powered speaker with good results, particularly a QSC with an 8" woofer. That was actually a very nice sounding combination. I have an Alto TS110a powered speaker which sounds a little more sterile to me than the QSC did, but got a lot of good comments from audience members. I think the wider dispersion angle of that speaker created a bigger area of good sound in the room compared to the more beam-like pattern of most guitar amps.

[Alter]

The only cable I've ever had go bad on a gig was a 100€ vovox, many years ago. I've fixed it (and it does sound absolutely great especially with acoustics), but that was the last expensive cable I ever bought. Besides the sound, the Vovox shielding is great, i used to play the same clubs with typical plastic covered cables and the Vovox fabric exterior along with the shielding makes a difference. You can find it on cheaper cables too though.

Mostly use George L or Mogami/Canare cables with Neutric plugs nowadays, I just have one in each guitar bag.

[kris]

I have one Vovox cable-very good.

[lapideusvir]

I have one Vovox cable-very good.

Yes they are very good. But....the price

[jazzshrink]

Sorry, but I really don't know what was misunderstood in what I wrote! I'm not looking for any cable. I'm completely satisfied with Vovox. And yes, in the last 30 years I've tried every cable in the world, including LaGrange. The person who started this tread was also not interested in any cables, he asked about Vovox. I simply don't understand the point of such comments, with a huge photo. Do get paid for this by Klotz? Every time I try to help someone, a comment like this comes up and it takes my mind off this forum for months... So sad.

I might be wrong, but the way I read Blue J's post, he was responding to the OP with a reasonably priced alternative. It didn't seem like he was questioning or challenging your endorsement of Vovox.

[jazzshrink]

Dear Jazzshrink, I'm not a Vovox endorser...

I have been using almost exclusively Vovox cables for many years now, and as a professional musician, I can safely say that in the long run it is worth it. I've also had personal contact with Jürg, the company owner, who is an extremely nice and fair person. The excelsus protect A is a special cable that is much less flexible than what is ideal for everyday use and concerts. It was developed for studio, aiming for the best sound quality.

endorse - "to make a public statement of your approval or support for something or someone"

[lapideusvir]

Hello. Have you tried a Klotz “La Grange” cable? They are super quiet, transparent, and would probably give you what you are looking for.

Hi! Yes. I had a La Grange for years. But to be honest, after I got a Vovox sonorus (used to be cheaper at that time) I never looked back. Very big difference to these ears.

[Jabberwocky]

Well, all of us who are enthusiasts in some area are willing to spend money for placebo effect. Eric Johnson believes he can hear the brand of batteries in pedals. Do Rayovac electrons sound different from Energizer electrons? Maybe they buy their electrons from different suppliers. We buy boutique stuff over mass produced and think it sounds better, even when the circuit is straight out of electrical engineering manuals and fundamentally identical. We think Vermont made Kent Armstrong pickups are better than Korean made Kent Armstrong pickups of identical design with the very same component parts (even though Kent himself says they sound the same).

Objective testing indicates that expensive high-end speaker cables are not audibly better (usually the most enthusiastic supporters of expensive speaker cables are those who have a vested interest in people buying expensive gear). But that doesn't stop enthusiasts from believing in the placebo effect. And I suppose if you'd spent six figures on speakers, tube amplifier, tube preamplifier, turntable, etc., spending 10 bucks for speaker cables results in a significant cognitive dissonance and the feeling that "my hyperexpensive stereo is not all it could be." In for a penny, in for a pound.

Oh, c'mon, Cunamara, what's so risible about Eric Johnson hearing the effects of different batteries? You can do the experiment yourself. Nothing to do with electrons and everything to do with noise that is the result of the electrochemical process. A keen-earred player like Eric Johnson who is intimately familiar with his gear hears this. Try using a lead-acid battery, NiCAD, NiMH and a carbon cell on the same fuzz pedal and tell me you don't hear a difference. Not everything is due to the placebo effect or confirmation bias. Painters see more hues; perfumiers smell more aromas/odours.

As for cables, I hear what I hear. Vovox sounds different from Mogami. Whether you are willing to pay the high asking price for these cables is a different separate matter involving money, nothing to do with whether cables sound different and better or not. I am not a cable engineer/charlatan so I don't know the science/ black magick of what is going on. A matter of RCL? I don't know.

[Cunamara]

I am an enthusiast in a couple different areas of life, Jabbs. See my first paragraph. We all do it.

[Jabberwocky]

All good, Cunamara. Strokes for folks and all that. I can't stand Diana Krall and people look at me like I'm crazy. Maybe I am but I still can't stand her kind of jazz.

[Cunamara]

She sure puts a good band together.