let's talk about cables

How do you guys audition cables? Unlike amps and preamps, there doesn't seem to be a a wide variety of selection for cables. And some people even make their cables.

In terms of priority, what is more important: interconnects or speaker cables. Right now, my speaker cables are better than the interconnects, so I wouldn't mind looking around for better interconnects.

Are there any particular brands you fellas like? I know some people have Nordost.

Erik

The hard part is finding a dealer who'll let you audition cables IYS. It isn't actually that difficult, set-up dependent, to compare them between sources and pre or between pre and amp. Just remember to turn off the amp before you switch cables.

I find that interconnects make a bigger change in a system than speaker cables.

I like AudioQuest as I find them to be very neutral in my system. I also like to keep all of the cables from one manufacturer, a house sound thing I guess. I've also had nice result with Zu cables on the video side of my system.

Eknuds, common sense requires us to follow the signal path. Garbage in, garbage out. Begin from the source, and make sure that the signal is propagated with the minimum of loss towards the speakers.

Cables do not have a sound. Cables are subtractive, i.e. they can only take away info, they never add it. Thus the best cables must be placed at the beginning of your chain. Whoever says that the cable XYZ brings along a lot of bass is actually saying that XYZ does not destroy the original bass.

Personally, I have a bad record regarding silver cables. I tried various in my rig and only had bad results despite the high prices. My own experience tells me to stay away from silver conductors when the end transducer is a ML loudspeaker, but you might get different results. The best synergy I've got - in my system - does have a name, and that name is Kimber.

---

in the US, you're fortunate enough to have a place like the cable company (www.fatwyre.com) offering home trial on over 60 brands of cable. Try some, keep and buy the ones you like. Wow. And check out their sister site,

http://intershop.blazenet.net/cgi-b...5427181868002f0570/UserTemplate/23?catno=1042

lugano said:

The best synergy I've got - in my system - does have a name, and that name is Kimber.

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I think I remember Kimber being used internally on my old Aerius i's. I removed the red lights under the woofer to replace them with blue ones that Krell sent me. Anyone else know if ML uses or used Kimber?

Silver can create problems especially in 'stats because both the speakers and the cables are so highly revealing and completely unveiled. My speaker cables came from a small company called Electrum Audio (www.electrumaudio.com). You may want to contact them. I have a bit of a hybrid they made for me specifically to match my MLs. They use large gauge copper runs on both + and -, with a single strand of high purity silver on the + leg in addition to the copper run. In a few years of testing cables, my personal experience on my Clarities was that copper alone created flat/muddy HF, but silver alone created too much HF emphasis and listening factigue. This blend gives me a very good balance of both qualities - I have nice bass, round mids and natural highs. I was not able to get this balance with single metal cables. Of course, this is simply my own experience. Good luck.

My experinces are somewhat different to Lugano's. All my interconencts are silver and so far there has been nothing I've heard in my system that sounds better.
As for speaker cables, it's been a bit strange: tried silver speaker cables between my McIntosh MA-6500 and Ascents with quite disappointing results, similar to what Lugano says. Same with Kimbers and some Oehlbach LS-214, van den Hul and who knows what. Then found the cables that sounded good in my setup without costing too much, the inak/Monitor LS-1202.

Then gone horizontal biamping. Big improvement. Another run of Monitors.
A couple of days ago tried my heavily modded small Chinese tube amp (2 x 30W) from my secondary system on the Ascent panels with the same previously bad sounding silver loudspeaker cables: --imagine my surprise -- pure magic. Breathtaking realism, sent shivers down my spine listening to my own rig, if you know what I mean. Way better than Monitors. But sound like crap on SS. Funny indeed.

It is always the combination of all components involved. Sometimes with very surprising results. But this is probably what everyone on this forum would say.

My cables are Oehlbach pure silver 'Heavenly Sound' (including the mentioned speaker cable). Not produced any more, got the rests for more or less bargain price a couple of years ago.

I agree with miljac as far as silver cables go. Most of my interconnects are solid silver (White Zombie Audio), and my speaker cables are Nordost Solar Winds which are silver plated copper. They are the best speaker cables I've had in my system so far (beat Kimber 4TC, Monster M1, several AQs, and both sets of "homebrew cables I made myself).

I think the reason why a lot of folks don't like silver cables is because they are very revealing and transparent (like ESLs, as miljac states!) and they tend to reveal any glare your compnents may have. I'd rather have pure signal transfer and then work at coloring the sound with components, than have to worry about my cables adding (or in most cases, subtracting) info from the signal...

I'm probably going to switch all my pre-to-amp ICs with Nordosts though. I just got a single Blue Heaven for my Center channel, and I'm lookng for a pair of used Blue Heavens for the rears, and maybe some second-hand Red Dawns for the mains. I really like the Nordost cables, but I just can't afford them retail.

--Richard

thanks fellas

For all of the replies! Some great info up there!

This is one area where there is no consistent "best". What is best is what sounds most like music to you and this is absolutely system dependent. I have had good luck with interconnects from Kimber, Cardas, Nordost, Silent Source, MIT and Audioquest. I have had good luck with Cardas and Nordost speaker cables with my Summits. To some extent this is even mood dependent-what sounds best depends on whether I feel mellow or raucous! Most folks believe that you should use interconnects and speaker cables from the same manufacturer, and I am able to do this with Cardas or Nordost, but again my tastes in cables change with every different CD or album. Cable swapping is a slippery slope into utter madness!

http://www.siltechcables.com/
http://stereophile.com/cables/1004siltech/
http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/s...r_followup.htm
http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/s..._g6_cables.htm
http://www.reviewerschoice.com/rchoice_audio_cables.htm

aerius007 said:

I think I remember Kimber being used internally on my old Aerius i's. I removed the red lights under the woofer to replace them with blue ones that Krell sent me. Anyone else know if ML uses or used Kimber?

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MIT,BUT THE SIGNAL IS COMMING FROM THE SOURCE CD,PRE,AMP AND FINALLY SPEAKER

cleon said:

http://www.siltechcables.com/
http://stereophile.com/cables/1004siltech/
http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/s...r_followup.htm
http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/s..._g6_cables.htm
http://www.reviewerschoice.com/rchoice_audio_cables.htm

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Cleon,

Do you have a pic of your system up yet? I was just reading you sig line. VERY NICE indeed! Love that Halo C1, just wish they came in Piano black or something other than silver...

Another point to keep in mind: get the shortest cables you can use. You'll spare some big $$, too. Of course this somehow limits gear rearranging, but the benefits are not minor. You often find good bargains on eBay, coming from people that are selling their very good cables just because they're too short.

Pcar928fan said:

Cleon,

Do you have a pic of your system up yet? I was just reading you sig line. VERY NICE indeed! Love that Halo C1, just wish they came in Piano black or something other than silver...

Click to expand...

I WILL DO IT NEXT MONTH ,I AM JUST WAITING FOR THE PPP TO COME

Again, thanks, fellas for all of the great replies.

Fatwyre

Contact these folks. They have a vast selection of cables available for audition before final purchase. I think John is a very good contact and is a well seasoned audiophile type.

As many of you know, I'm a big Mapleshade fan (great price / performance ratio IMHO) but, in the end, it's what sounds best to you within your budget.

Good luck!

GG

I dont know if this helps, but on this site they do 3 different face offs with different cables. I think I saw one where they tested all sorts of stuff against different wires such as a powercord, cat 5, and other random wires to test the cost vs performance factor. I will try to find that article, but for now this might help

http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/cables/speaker-cable-reviews-faceoff-2

This second link has a host of articles about cables -
http://www.audioholics.com/education/cables/allContents?b_start:int=0

Might seem like an odd question- but with the (what I call unique) characteristics of electrostatics has anyone designed a cable to work exclusively with these type of speakers?

Also- what do you all think of monster cable M2.2 and 2.4 biwire? I know that monster has a TON of hype but I can hear a huge difference in sound (though I have no other high audio cables to compare to). I like to run one model of cables if possible for my HT. [flame suit on]
Nik

I've had excellent results from my Audioquest cables. Originally, they were between the amp and preamp, but now I've just added a pair of their Sidewinder cables between my digital recorder and my preamp. Nothing earth-shattering as a result so far, but there's enough of a difference to be noticeable. A little more depth and more detail; enough to know the difference but that's it. Highly recommended cables.

Nik said:

Might seem like an odd question- but with the (what I call unique) characteristics of electrostatics has anyone designed a cable to work exclusively with these type of speakers?

Also- what do you all think of monster cable M2.2 and 2.4 biwire? I know that monster has a TON of hype but I can hear a huge difference in sound (though I have no other high audio cables to compare to). I like to run one model of cables if possible for my HT. [flame suit on]
Nik

Click to expand...

Per the thread I just replied to, I went from Monster Cable's best to Audioquest, and the difference was definitely more than noticeable. Try a pair and you'll see.