$5 was so I could print a postage label on PP, but that didn't work because of gift PP.
The cable itself was free.
Some of the
naive objectivists out there claim that cable doesn't break in (because they can't explain it via simple first-order physical models). They say the listener breaks in...as if that is easy to explain.
I will grant that sometimes a period of adjustment is involved when a new gestalt is presented and I find that it takes a while to fully evaluate changes. Generally, I am wary of newfound excitement and some flavors of enhanced detail because I know a week later I will be yanking that thing--cap, wire, tube, whatever-- out of the system.
Often, I just don't feel right, not involved or not relaxed when I am not actively trying to judge the sound. I notice how I feel uneasy, not what I am hearing, sometimes, just listening and doing what I do. YANK!!!
A good change is one that I don't hardly notice unless I am working at noticing. It makes the system more
psychologically transparent, one might say.
But everybody has their own quirks and I happen to like mine best.
And I get better the louder I get!
@brumbo--The RG-223/u under discussion uses silver plated solid copper center. Gore doesn't say what is in the Phaseflex. Some microwave cable is copper plated aluminum, e.g. some of the Times Microwave LMR wires.
Solid copper center conductor is relatively rare in USA spec RF cables. I found more German cables with solid copper conductors for some reason, some cross listed to US spec cable with copperweld centers. I can understand plated steel for tensile strength and economy for RF applications. They weren't worried about how these things sound in high-end audio systems!