Anyone with experience with 15As & Cardas Clear cables?

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McIntoshBob

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Hi. I have a set of 15As which are connected to a set of Mcintosh amps using Cardas Clear cables. Understanding cable choice has a good deal of subjectivity I am inquiring about anyone’s experience with these cables as I am not sure I am getting all out of the 15As. By “all” I mean full range, efficiency, and acceptable power consumption as the amps are 600 W each but I must raise volume to nearly 65-70% to reach loud but comfortable sound levels. Thanks for any advice and Any viewpoints would be appreciated.
Bob
 
That sounds like my Prodigy speakers. They are 20 years old and the panels are worn out though. Having new ones made now.

Those speakers you have must be brand new?
 
Bob,

Something is wrong with your pre-amp, amp or speakers. No way should you be running that kind of power getting low volume. Something needs to be repaired. You will have to do some troubleshooting. I can help you if you need it. My first advice is to hook up any other speaker you have access to and see if they also require fairly high volume levels. If they don't, it is your MLs that are broke. If they still need lots of volume knob then you have a preamp or amp problem. The preamp could be not sending a big enough signal to the amp or the amp is messed up and causing a lower than normal output. It will be interesting to see what you find. Good Luck!
 
Bob, tell us more ......

What mac amps do you have ? what taps are you using ? pre-amp ? length and gauge of speaker wire ? room set up, how far back from speakers do you sit, room size ? Source material ? connections from source to pre-amp, single ended or XLR ?

the more you can tell us the more we can help........
 
In addition to the above recommendations, try regular speaker wire.

Doe the preamp have room calibration active? This can sometimes result in lower output, so switching to a default profile would be another test.
 
Hi. I have a set of 15As which are connected to a set of Mcintosh amps using Cardas Clear cables. Understanding cable choice has a good deal of subjectivity I am inquiring about anyone’s experience with these cables as I am not sure I am getting all out of the 15As. By “all” I mean full range, efficiency, and acceptable power consumption as the amps are 600 W each but I must raise volume to nearly 65-70% to reach loud but comfortable sound levels. Thanks for any advice and Any viewpoints would be appreciated.
Bob
First, I agree with everyone who has already replied... the problem most likely has to be either in the upstream electronics, or the speakers themselves. However ttocs suggestion about replacing the speaker cable itself would be a relatively inexpensive test (assuming you either use something you already own, or just pick up something inexpensive).

Second, while I don't have an identical setup, I am somewhat similar in that I am running 15A's with Cardas Clear Cygnus, powered by Parasound JC 1 mono blocks. While I am certain that my Cardas cables are delivering everything my amps are sending, I do have another set of cables on order just to see if either the wife or I can tell the difference between speaker cables (although, unlike you, we aren't having any issues... just testing another cable brand)...
 

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