Audio cables

[tah800]

Thinking of upgrading from Monster Wire to something a little better for my surround system. I've been looking at MIT, Transparent and Nordost. If you had to choose which one would be the best. There is a guy here in Canada named Humbert Chu would has quite a bit of Nordost. Would I be safe in choosing the Nordost as it would save me quite a bit if I could avoid the border. Thxs Art

 

[Rich]

If you had to choose which one would be the best.

First of all, there is no such thing as "best" when it comes to cables. Each will have different characteristics, which will make them sound different depending on the rest of the system. Some cables will show better synergy with some systems, depending on your personal preferences. It is impossible for someone else to tell you which will or won't sound better in your system.

Second, for the surround channels, I think high-end cable is a big waste of money. I don't see why Monster or any other basic cable wouldn't be fine for that. Spend your money on cables for your front three channels, and do some auditioning to decide which you like the best.

 

[conradjohnsonfan]

Thinking of upgrading from Monster Wire to something a little better for my surround system. I've been looking at MIT, Transparent and Nordost. If you had to choose which one would be the best. There is a guy here in Canada named Humbert Chu would has quite a bit of Nordost. Would I be safe in choosing the Nordost as it would save me quite a bit if I could avoid the border. Thxs Art

I use Tributaries and am very satisfied, although I bought them at dealer cost, which is significantly less than retail. I would think they would be an "upgrade"
from Monster Cable, if indeed there is any real difference amongst cables. I am of the opinion that while cables do indeed sound different, and can be used in many cases like a tone control, the only real difference to be concerned about unless you are at the extremes of performance, is whether the cable just does its job properly versus poor performance. Usually these characteristics are measurable. I say usually because I still want to leave to door open to the possibility that there are "other" factors that are not known or measurable, and not offend our uber-audiophile friends.

I have had experience with Cardas, Anaylsis Plus and Nordost in addition to the tributaries. All produce an outstanding cable. Are the worth the price? That is up to your ears......

 

[Gordon Gray]

Numerous threads / posts regarding this item.

Use the "search" function.

By the by, Rich is correct.

There is no "right" answer.

GG

 

[radicalsteve]

Anyone have experience with the Magnan Signature flat ribbon cables on ML's? Friend of mine has a pair on his Soundlabs and apparently they are the preferred cables of Roger West.

Steve

 

[tah800]

Nordost Cables

Guess who I would like to here from is anyone who is presently using the Nordost line and could give me some sort of feedback on their performance. Living where I do in Canada does not give me any access to top of the line cable. Therefore demo cables are out of the question Art

 

[Rich]

Guess who I would like to here from is anyone who is presently using the Nordost line and could give me some sort of feedback on their performance.

Understood. And I hope some of the Nordost users chime in for you. At the same time, I hope you realize just how little that kind of information will tell you about how the cables will sound to your ears, in your system, in your room.

For instance, someone with no acoustic treatments, a highly reflective room, and "bright" sounding components may prefer a cable that excessively rolls off high frequencies because it makes their system sound so much smoother. They may then highly recommend that cable as the best they have heard to everyone who will listen. Someone with a well-damped room and a tube amp may find that cable to completely choke off the treble range and consider it the worst cable they have heard. Likewise, someone who has age-related high frequency hearing loss may prefer a silver-based cable that others with perfect hearing find way too bright. Just a couple of examples to make my point.

Living where I do in Canada does not give me any access to top of the line cable. Therefore demo cables are out of the question

That does make it more difficult. I suggest you contact The Cable Company. Although you cannot take advantage of their loan library, you can take advantage of their extensive cable matching database and expertise. They use feedback from thousands of customers to try to help people match the correct cables to their associated components.

Good luck in your search.

 

[Gordon Gray]

Hi Art,

Another option is to buy with a 30 day money back option. Only issue with this approach is burn in time.

I bought directly from DH Labs and they were agreeable to this arrangement. I believe other on line companies / manufacturers will also accomodate, if requested.

Key to making this work is to order their "standard" lengths.

GG

 

[eknuds01]

Thinking of upgrading from Monster Wire to something a little better for my surround system. I've been looking at MIT, Transparent and Nordost. If you had to choose which one would be the best. There is a guy here in Canada named Humbert Chu would has quite a bit of Nordost. Would I be safe in choosing the Nordost as it would save me quite a bit if I could avoid the border. Thxs Art

In summary, this is a pain in the ass.

I was lucky when Dan (DTB300) brought over a number of interconnects (you want speaker cables but the discussion and concepts are sort of in parallel here) to my place we were able to to perform a number of A/B comparisons with about half a dozen kinds of ICs. We tried, Zu, Kimber, Belden, JPS, etc - pretty decent stuff. I have to admit that prior to Dan coming over, I was in the 'cables don't make a whole lot of difference' camp.

Well...they do make a difference - maybe not the same change that would arise from tube vs SS amps or vantage vs CLX or something, but the difference was noticeable.

Dan and I both liked the Zu and Kimber cables. When I brought my stuff and tested the cables on his system - same result - Zu and Kimber had comparable results (Dan likes the Zu a touch better).

Nordost and MIT are good companies. There are quite a few things to keep in mind here. Since only a limited amount of information goes to the rear channels for HT playback, I wouldn't drop a 4-figure sum on wires. Get some blue jeans cables and be done with it.

Also - if you check audiogon, the turnover (with respect to cables) is always quite high in my opinion.

I would be surprised if you went from Monster to Transparent and noticed a huge change.

Just my 0.02

Erik

 

[twich54]

I'm in agreement with Erik as well ..........do you use your system for multi-channel SACD music or strictly movie surround sound ? for if the latter, spending serious $$ for boutique wire is a total waste of $$$$$$$$$$$.

 

[Dreamer]

You'll probably get as many opinons about cables as there are registered users on this forum...

But as a former Nordost owner, I can say that Nordost speaker cables are the best-sounding I've ever had in my rig. I had the Solar Winds, and they sounded fantastic. I really regret selling my pair off. Eventually I'll get around to getting some upgraded Nordosts, probably some Red Dawns...

AS for interconnects, my whole system is wired with White Zombie Audio pure silver ICs, except the long runs from my pre to the monoblocks, which is wired with Black Mountain pure silver lines. Both are FANTASTIC bargains, and if your system is sonically compatible with silver ICs, these two companies are the ONLY way to go, in my opinion. They cost less than high-end Monsters or mid-line AudioQuest, and outperform many brands costing 10 times their price...

Black Mountain sells on AudioGon, and through a website, but the AG prices are usually a LOT lower, because they are cosmetic "seconds" or customer returns. White Zombie Audio also sells through a website, but often has killer deals on EBAY. Here are links to their respective websites:

http://www.whitezombieaudio.com/

http://www.blackmountaincable.com/

But of course, depending on your gear, YMMV...

Good luck finding the cables that fit your wallet and your ears. It's a never-ending battle, but it can be a fun journey if you approach it like a puzzle and don't get too hung up on "perfection"...

--Richard

 

[Gordon]

Rich stole my thunder with the recommendation for using the CableCo. While the Nordost is a choice among some members due to the low Pf/ft, there are others who can reach the same levels without a big $$ investment.

Give the CableCo a look. It may be worth it in the end.

Gordon

 

[Brian Walsh]

Anyone have experience with the Magnan Signature flat ribbon cables on ML's? Friend of mine has a pair on his Soundlabs and apparently they are the preferred cables of Roger West.

I don't know where you read or heard that, but it's not at all true. Magnans do work well but aren't the only cables which are a good match with Sound Labs. I ought to know

 

[MickeyVee]

Art.. tell us about your system. Is it worth the price to go Nordost?

I went from Monster THX 1000's to Signal Cable throught and am thorougly pleased.

I also own a set of Nordost Blue Heavan speaker cables and one set of intereconnects. To tell you the truth, I don't hear much of a difference, if any, compared to my Singal Cables. My thought is that my current system does not resolve enought to tell the difference. I'm hanigng on to them until I get a pre-amp that does HT bypass and will test again.

 

[asindc]

As MickeyVee just noted, the better your main components (I am among those who consider cables to be components) such as your CD player, preamp, and amp, the more you probably will hear differences between cables. And as others have noted, cables are very system-dependent.

I have Nordost Blue Heaven speaker cables and Nordost Baldur interconnects between my CD player and preamp, which just replaced BH interconnects. I previously had Red Dawns between the CD and preamp.

I like the BH better than the RD in my system. The BH had more punch on the low end while retaining the top end clarity Nordosts are known for. I believe the RD mate better with tube gear, or at least warm sounding SS gear. The Baldurs have not given me the improvement I was looking for so far, but they might not be fully broken in yet.

It is possible that you could get the same or similar performance from less expensive cables than Nordost. Audiogon, Audio Asylum classifieds, and even Ebay are great resources. Since Nordosts are popular, you rarely have to wait long to find what you are looking for used. It is common for guys to buy a used pair, try them for a couple of weeks, and sell them for the same price if they don't like them.

If you can swing it, try buying two pairs of interconnects, in two different price ranges, and by two different brands, and do constant A/B comparisons with different musical selections. That should give you some idea of the differences cables can make. If you don't hear any difference, that's fine. There are audiophiles with $35-40K systems who say they don't hear the differences between most cables. Your ears are what counts.

 

[tah800]

My system consists of Carver Amazings for my right and left fronts. I have a Martin Logan Theater i for my center and Logan Scripts at the back of the room. Running my amazings are a set of Carver Silver 9t's. My surround amp is a Sunfire Cinema Signature series two at 5x 425 into 8 ohms. My pre/pro is A Sunfire TGP-5. All of my audio interconnect is the Monster M1000i series. I would eventually like to upgrade to the Nordost or Transparent line. The reason I was looking for advice is that in my area of Sussex, New Brunswick, Canada I have no access to the better cables. Demo cable is just out of the question. I just simply have to order and take my chances. I would like to put some pictures of the system in but UI can't seem to figure out how to shrink the pictures enough to be able to post them. Art

 

[FISH_MAN]

download the Gimp its free and you can scale your pics with it it is really easy to use

 

[Dreamer]

Art,

It's good to see another Carver fan on this forum. I too am a DEVOTED Carver fan, and am driving my Martin Logan Sequels in my 2-ch rig with a pair of Silver 7t monoblocks, with a C-4000t in the tape loop of my Krell preamp, using the Carver as a Sonic Holography processor, and as a phono preamp.

In my HT setup, I'm driving a pair of ML Scenarios with a Carver M-500t, and it sounds great.

If you have Silver9t's, and you're driving Carver Amazings, I think the Nordost speaker cables will be a good match. I've heard Silver7t/97 driving Amazings through my old Nordost Solar Winds, and I thought it was a good combination. The electrical properties of the Nordosts seem to be very complimentary to the warm tubey sound of the Silvers, and they definitely help hard-to-drive speakers (like the Amazings, or my original Sequels) draw the most out of an amplifier.

Signal CAbles are also VERY good with this combo. Another speaker cable you might look at if you are on a smaller budget is Anti Cables. They are a VERY sweet combination with Carver amps, ESPECIALLY when driving hard-to-drive speakers like we have.

Buy used--you can save a LOT of money that way. Optimally, if you can find some people who are willing to lend you some cables first (before purchasing) that is ideal.

Good luck finding the ideal match for your system.

-Richard

 

[Bernard]

Buy used--you can save a LOT of money that way.

Besides Audiogon, check out www.canuckaudiomart.com as well.