# SounDrive Elevated Fidelity Series RCA Review



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

I've been talking with Joe who is one of the owners of SounDrive out of Tennessee. Joe has provided Custom and set RCA's for people for some time now with his High Fidelity RCA line which uses high quality Quadstar microphone cabling. 

Recently Joe has come out with a budget RCA line which uses a cheaper line of wire over the Quadstar but is still of very high quality. The cable still has great shielding, which are actually grounded on both ends of the RCA run. Why do I say this? Some manufactures may claim there RCA's are shielded but may only connect one end which can cause grounding issues. Some may not even connect the shielding at all. I can't say if this is a true claim and this is not the purpose of this thread. When connecting the shielding correctly this allows proper grounding between the RCA's components and eliminates noise between them. This line will still use the high quality ends the High Fidelity RCA line uses.

Here is some specs on the cable themselves:


22 AWG (total), 28 Strand copper conductors (x2)
1.4 mm Polyethylene insulation on each conductor
Bare copper spiral shield for maximum flexibility
6.0 mm Black PVC jacket

Some resistance testing done by Joe himself on the spool

On a 100 foot spool; the shield measured 0.8ohms/100' and the conductor was 0.9 ohms/100'

For 17' cables he measured 0.1ohm/17'

Here is the testing he did on my cables:










I will be done resistance testing on my own here. I will post that information later.

According to Joe this NEW budget line will:

"Map will be around $40 for a 17 foot set, with a 3 year warranty against any failure. (Yes that includes cutting the cable in two) Just pay to/from shipping. We will always be happy to repair cables even after the warranty ends, but the buyer is asked to cover the parts (plugs, etc.)

And we will have a new pricing structure for people ordering multiple channels."


Here are some of the option you can choose from when ordering from SounDrive:

Plug accent color: 6 different colors to choose from (plugs will be black background) 

They do have wrapping option (techflex) and ATM they don't have boots available for this new line due to the size of the wire itself.

Here is the link to their facebook page. This new line will only come in black as far as the cable goes. 

https://www.facebook.com/SounDriveUSA


Alright enough of that and onto what you came here for. I've been working on my layout in the trunk for some time and wee all know RCA's are usually either to long or not long enough and multiples are needed. We all know this can be a MAJOR pain to make things look clean. So I resorted to custom RCA's. Originally I was looking at doing these myself on my own time. Well with work and everything going on I just didn't have the time to do it myself. So I ran across Joe over on DIYMA and noticed he does custom RCA work so I contacted him and almost immediately he got back with me with a quote and every possible combo I could go with. I will tell you this there is a lot. 

I won't lie the initial price of the HIFI line set me back as it was a lot. I'm sure its was worth it but man for RCA's it was a lot. He then mentioned he is coming in with a budget line and the price was right. 

I asked him to build me 3 sets at slightly different lengths and he got right on it. Shipped next day as well. Joe has been a blast to talk to as he isn't afraid to tell you why his product is better and can go into every detail about it. Awesome dude. Plan to do more business with him in the future as well.

Alright here are some pics for those that make it this far:










I can tell you right now the feel of these cables is awesome. These are beefy and VERY flexible. You have to try HARD to pinch these along the run as you could run them about anywhere. Even around tight corners. 

I'm talking flexibility of say KnuKoncepts power wire here. I could tie a knot in these and just get my pinky finger through the opening. I don't have the smallest of finger but they are not huge either.










The end connectors are very solid and of great quality. Very durable and have some weight to them. 










Didn't have the right lens on the camera for this but if you are able to see there are two clips that grip onto the RCA female posts to make a solid connection. 










As you open the connector up you will notice the care that went into putting these together. There is no slop within the connector here. You can't really see it here but there is a plastic shielding piece that when screwed onto the connector bits into the cable to provide a stress reliever for the cable. It eliminates any stress on the solder connections. I will tell you this. Joe uses ONLY Silver solder for this connection. He seeks the purest of signal transfer here.











My overall consensus:

These things look amazing. I love the fact that I could run these just about anyway I want without worrying to much about kinking the cable due to its thick jacket. I *HIGHLY* recommend these RCA's and I plan to buy some more variations in the future here. 

Overall: 

10/10

Durability:
-/10

Quality:

-/10




*Please note some of the above I have not rated due to the fact I just got these and haven't been able to listen to my system with them in. 

I will be posting more details about these through out the next few days as I am able to do more tests and critical listening.

I am not saying these RCA's will cure the worst of the worst noise and I am not claiming adding these will result in sound altering change. I consider the argument between the differences between RCA's similar to the argument between amps. Your better off changing components (such as speakers) if you want to alter sound. I bought these because the price was right and the quality craftsmanship that goes into making these.*


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## WestCo (Aug 19, 2012)

Thank you very much sir!

They should give you a lifetime of use and if for any reason they fail; we will always repair our cables. 

We just got some test results using an SMD meter. The meter measures the impedance through the central conductor and then back through the shield at different frequencies.



















So after testing a set of 17 foot cables (both channels) we calculated the average impedance to be 0.00787 ohm/foot for the shield and the conductor; since the first test showed them to be about the same. 

Thank you again!


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## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

WestCo said:


> Thank you very much sir!
> 
> They should give you a lifetime of use and if for any reason they fail; we will always repair our cables.
> 
> ...


Awesome. Thanks


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