Speaker Cable

[Kimberley]

I have recently purchased a pair of Clarity's and am looking forward to enjoying them in my new listening room. I have a McIntosh Amp and PreAmp and have listed to Mac XR16's for the past 20 years so I know I'm in for a treat! Any recommendations on speaker cable? I haven't looked for what is out there yet and it has been quite some time since I researched this important part of my system. Thought I would ask first for recommendations and then do my research. Thanks for any direction. (The XR16s will be utilized in another room of the house and they, too, will need new cable.)

 

[LOGANLOVE]

Please give Transparent Cable a listen. They are wonderful

 

[lugano]

I have recently purchased a pair of Clarity's and am looking forward to enjoying them in my new listening room. Any recommendations on speaker cable?

Cable length needed and budget helps helping you...

 

[DTB300]

Any recommendations on speaker cable?

Lugano makes a good point. You need to determine your lengths required, how much you are willing to spend, then you need to audition them.

There is no "best" cable

Cables are a personal preference for sound and they are also very system dependent. What may sound good in one setup, may not sound good in another. Then there is the issue of can you hear a difference between cables? Some swear by Home Depot 14 Guage, some swear by Zip Cord, some swear by a certain brand company as Loganlove stated.

The best place to accomplish this is with The Cable Company: www.fatwyre.com They have a program where you can get up to three cable brands (if I am not mistaken) sent to you for trial and see which ones YOU like best.

Dan

 

[Kenscollick]

I have tried A couple of different cables in my system, And much prefer Synergistic Research. They have a large line of cables from extremly affordable, to beyond the sky. They really have hit a home run with the active shielding. They are incredably quiet.

 

[karma]

I have recently purchased a pair of Clarity's and am looking forward to enjoying them in my new listening room. I have a McIntosh Amp and PreAmp and have listed to Mac XR16's for the past 20 years so I know I'm in for a treat! Any recommendations on speaker cable? I haven't looked for what is out there yet and it has been quite some time since I researched this important part of my system. Thought I would ask first for recommendations and then do my research. Thanks for any direction. (The XR16s will be utilized in another room of the house and they, too, will need new cable.)

HI,
While asking for advice on cables may give useful results, I'm skeptical. I have designed my own cables (both speaker and interconnects). While I was testing on friends and my own system I found the sound of the cables was highly system dependent.

I think all cables are this way. There is no "silver bullet" out there. The best way, I think, is to set a budget, then audition every cable you can get your hands on within your price range. Don't respect price too much. Sometimes the more realistically priced cables can turn out to be the best on YOUR SYSTEM.

My only advice is to avoid cable which uses silver plated wire as the conductor. They have a tendency to smear transients due to the non-linear surface effects caused by the plating and dissimilar metals. ML speakers will show the smearing and leave no doubt.

Sparky

 

[Kimberley]

I realize length and budget are key variables. Won't know length until room is complete (whole house, for that matter, it's a big renovation!) Thanks for everyone's input, however, just thought I could work backwards from a handful of suggestions....there's a lot to learn out there. I am looking toward some other system upgrades as well so the budget is elusive right now - prime upgrade consideration is a new turntable. Thanks! Ciao

 

[DTB300]

Thanks for everyone's input, however, just thought I could work backwards from a handful of suggestions

Unfortunately there will not be a handful of suggestions. You will get almost as many company recommendations as you will get replies. Again cables are system dependent and user dependent, and only you will be able to make a final decision.

Now having said that, when you call The Cable Company, they will make some recommendations based on your system and price points. Give them a try and see what you think. Also find local stores that will let you audition some cables for a bit. You will then get a better idea of what is out there, what you can afford, and what you like.

Dan

 

[Rich]

There are tons of great cables out there and plenty that I personally think are over-priced for what they are. As has been said, only you can decide what sounds the best in your system at your price point.

But it sounds like you are just fishing for some suggestions as places to start, so here goes. Transparent and Synergistic Research have been mentioned and I have heard great things about them from many sources, although no direct experience with them myself. I have also heard great things about Kimber, Audioquest, Nordost, & Mapleshade, to name just a few.

You may want to start out with 14 guage Home Depot cable (inexpensive) until you are set up and sure of what lengths you need. This will give you something that works as a baseline to compare to, and time to audition some different brands to determine what sounds best and what price/performance ratio you are willing to accept. Good luck in your renovation.

 

[lugano]

sometimes I think that it would be nice to have a huge spreadsheet somewhere on this site, a spreadheet that has a row for every member and columns like "Main ML model" "CD player" "DAC" "preamp" "speaker cables" and so on... the cells would contain the brand, model and year of purchase. At a glance, it would be possible to see things like: who has summits, or how many use kimber cables or how many use a DAC. Of course, the member's name should be a button linking to the member's system - if available. And the best part would be to allow members to change their row's content...

 

[Rich]

sometimes I think that it would be nice to have a huge spreadsheet somewhere on this site, a spreadheet that has a row for every member and columns like "Main ML model" "CD player" "DAC" "preamp" "speaker cables" and so on... the cells would contain the brand, model and year of purchase. At a glance, it would be possible to see things like: who has summits, or how many use kimber cables or how many use a DAC. Of course, the member's name should be a button linking to the member's system - if available. And the best part would be to allow members to change their row's content...

That is a great idea Lugano. And Tom is going to be thrilled that you volunteered to set it up.

 

[magnoliarichj]

i like my audioquest cv-4s.

 

[Gordon Gray]

Dan is right on!!!!

I totally agree with Dan. If you choose to contact Fatwyre, try to talk with John. IMHO, he's a well seasoned audio guy and really knows his stuff.

GG:rocker:

 

[timm]

I have recently purchased a pair of Clarity's and am looking forward to enjoying them in my new listening room. I have a McIntosh Amp and PreAmp and have listed to Mac XR16's for the past 20 years so I know I'm in for a treat! Any recommendations on speaker cable? I haven't looked for what is out there yet and it has been quite some time since I researched this important part of my system. Thought I would ask first for recommendations and then do my research. Thanks for any direction. (The XR16s will be utilized in another room of the house and they, too, will need new cable.)

Yeah - I think BUDGET is the real question you need to ask yourself... My idea of 'good' cable before my Odysseys was something a step up from monster... the stuff you splice and just attach the bare wire to the speaker. Then I decided to try something real - so I got Audioquest Bedrock - a nice bi-wireable cable...but pricewize - something I could deal with... (I can't recall - somewhere between 140 & 170 bucks for an 8 ft pair w/ very nice gold spades in a dual bi-wireable config) A nice noticeable difference - I think.

 

[texaslonghorn538]

I have had a pair of Clarities for a couple years now and have run it exclusively off vintage Mac MC2100s (first two monoblocks, now a single stereo). I do a lot of DIY ICs and speaker cables and have found that the Clarities responded the best to a hybrid speaker cable. I use Cardas spades (forget the bananas as speaker connectors), then I used the HD-14 as the basis of my recipe. If you aren't familiar with that, go to www.audioasylum.com and seach for "HD-14". I cut open the orange and stripped all the conductors out, then made 2 twisted pairs, then twisted them together. I had blisters on my fingers from this!!! After doing that, I made a single strand run of Cardas 23ga silver wire w/teflon tubing with about 2 full twists for the entire length (6 feet) and soldered the silver into the hot (or +, or red) leg. A bit of cosmetics - heat shrink and tech-flex and there you go. It ia fat and not that flexible (4 runs of 14 ga makes for a fat cable), but this results are great. I personally found that the Clarities are rather sensitive to the whole copper/silver wire deal. Copper was muddied in the mids and rolled off the highs too much. Silver was thin in the lows and too brittle in the highs with the 'stats. I have tried lots of different things, but this is the best. I even went from 4 strands of the HD-14 to two and it had a dramatic (not positive) effect on the sound. Good luck and have fun.

 

[MickeyVee]

Ah, the speaker cable thing..
I went from Monster to bottom og the line Transparent Wave 100's. It was a nice upgrade. I then did some reading and became very interested in the Nordost technology. I finally coughed up the $ and purchased the Nordost Solar Winds. Very nice, I thought. Deeper bass and better, faster mids and highs.
Well, a few Sunday;s ago I got bored and swapped the Transparent back in again to really see if the upgrade was worth it. The results.. well, the Transparent lasted 10 minutes before I had to go back to the Nordost. The transparent were extremely muddy in the bass and the mids and highs were not nearly as fast or crisp and the imaging faded.
I, for one, believe that the cables are well worth the money. With all of the choices out there I would recommend trying some different cables. The Nordost did need some time to break in so even trying cables for a few days may be iffy.
I found a set that worked for me.. also depends on the electronics. I hear that the Rotel is a little laid back and the Nordost seem to be a nice match for them.
Good luck in your search.

 

[Pcar928fan]

Here is the real question then...over a long run to you put the amps next to the speakers (it looks cooler that way FOR SURE) and run really short speaker wire and LOOONNNGGGG interconnects, or do you go for the REALLY long speaker wire run?

I am guessing (and maybe I even read it here) that keeping the speaker wire short is the better choice...