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congers

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I am looking for a little guidance regarding a cable upgrade for my Martin Logan Aeon I Speakers.

My equipment is
Aeon I Speakers and Depth Sub-Woofer
Conrad Johnson MV2250A Amp and PV14L 2 Preamp
Musical Fidelity A308CR CD Player

I am currently using a pair of Audioquest Type 6 Bi-Wired Speaker cables with a Harmonic Technology Pro Silway Interconnects

The room I am using is kind of irregular with a very high cathedral ceiling and an open space on the right speaker that extends about 20 feet to the right side.

I am using a piece of movable sheetrock (to keep the wife satisfied) for the time being to replicate part of a wall for the open space until a better solution comes along.

I was wondering if there was a moderately priced speak cable upgrade that will make some difference at a reasonable price (let's say around $1,000 or so).

I am looking for something neutral since I don't need to make the sound any brighter, but I like 70's style synthesized music and don't want to roll off the top end.


Thanks for any suggestions.

Mike
 
1. Go to Stereo Store
2. Get cables to try out
3. Audition and evaluate in YOUR system
4. Repeat steps 1 -3 until you find the ones you like the sound of for the price you want to pay.

Dan
 
Like Dan said but I would as myself will I hear $1000.00 worth of a difference.
Is there something wrong with your cables? I would start slowly. You will hear a difference with various cable but again it range from subtle to wow I like that. Then the question becomes, do you like the difference?

This is very subjective. :eek: Personally, I look at the interconnects first. Can they be improved or are you satisfied with them and then I would move out from there to the speaker cables.

A few things to consider is "What can I afford and what are the trade-offs". There is also the "WAF", If you spend a lot on cabling you know there will be drapes, a blender or something else you will have to buy. :D

I use Tara Labs cabling for most of my stuff. There is some DIY power cords and some Monster Cable too. Could I have chosen other cables, yes, and would I hear a difference, maybe, but I am not going to lose sleep over the small stuff. I like the way my system sounds and I am looking at some other "tweaks" that will not cause me to take a 2nd on my house. :D

The question is do you like the way your system sounds and at what cost, financially, emotionally, and mentally are you willing to spend? Remember you invested initially so you could enjoy your music and video(?) system.
Trust your eyes ( Sorry Roberto, I stole your line) :rolleyes:

Just my inflated 3 cents worth

Good Luck


Jeff
 
I have been using Audioquest cables for about 4 years and every time I try a different cable I keep going back to Audioquest. I have been hearing a lot of good things about Nordost but have yet to try them. If you’re happy with Audioquest Why not stay with them and go up in series. You have Audioquests Circular array Type 6 cable you could go with there CV-6 with 36 volt DBS or for a good lick in the pants make the jump to there Earth Feature Series like the Pikes Peak DBS. Match that to a DBS interconnect like the Jaguar and you will have a sound to die for.

I have a set of AudioQuest Jaguars with 24volt DBS packs in my system now and they made a big difference over AudioQuest Corals that they replaced. Does the DBS work? That’s a big 10-4 good buddy. I like Audioquest DBS cables so much I am thinking about upgrading to Audioquest top of the line solid silver SKY interconnect, big price, big sound, it’s like a component upgrade all by itself.


Good Luck
Joe
 
I second garmtz, the Nordost blue heaven is very very good.
Svein
 
I'm another Nordost Blue heaven user/lover.

I'm interested in active shielding IC's, but have never heard any.

Recently picked up a Cardas Neutral Reference "PHONO" interconnect to go from turntable to tube phono preamp - WOW what an improvement over that temporary Radio Shack stuff. :) Waited years to do it, years wasted.
 
try this...

Hola. Sometimes what we have in our systems is corrosion...or fauty contacts at the amplifier's terminals or speaker's terminals. Clean them with alcohol or contac cleaner solution before make changes in the system...
Perhaps this can help!
Happy listening and trust your ears,
Cheers,
Roberto.
 
roberto said:
Hola. Clean them with alcohol or contac cleaner solution before make changes in the system...

Once a year I clean all connections with Caig De-Oxit and Pro Gold. Well worth the time and effort that I spend.

Dan
 
I made a vist to my local Nordost Dealer yesterday and asked about the Blue Heavens Flat line Speaker cables and Blue Heaven Interconnects.

He actually suggested that I get the Red Dawn Interconnect and Blue Heaven Speaker cable. He recommended that I go one up in catergory on the interconnects to the Red Dawn. He mentioned that it will help funnel the music better.... going from "tight" at the CD/AMP source to more "open" when it hits the speaker.

The dealer that sold me the Logans suggested that I try the AudioQuest BedRock speaker cables and AudioQuest Chettah interconnects. I really don't know much about these two pieces.

So... right now I'm still researching and will soon audition both, but have a strong feeling I will go the Nordost route, based on what people are saying. They seem to be a popular choice with ML owners.



SM
 
Let your ears do your thinking.

That being said you should also be aware of a few gross assumptions or blanket rules - and yes blankets can have holes in them. First there is a gereral idea floating out there that unshielded wires (Nordost/Kimber) sound quicker and more open. However if you live in a dense urban area, some RF (radio frequency) sheilding might be a good thing.

I live in a topographical bowl on the edge of a mid sized town (Ann Arbor, Michigan) - not the best of situations. The RF is not a problem for the Nordost which actually are lightly shielded. But the wireless Recoton speakers in the secondary system (900HZ I think) have issues, and major issues from taxi cab CB's.

Just a little food for thought, good hunting!
 
SugarMedia said:
I made a vist to my local Nordost Dealer yesterday and asked about the Blue Heavens Flat line Speaker cables and Blue Heaven Interconnects.

He actually suggested that I get the Red Dawn Interconnect and Blue Heaven Speaker cable. He recommended that I go one up in catergory on the interconnects to the Red Dawn. He mentioned that it will help funnel the music better.... going from "tight" at the CD/AMP source to more "open" when it hits the speaker.

The dealer that sold me the Logans suggested that I try the AudioQuest BedRock speaker cables and AudioQuest Chettah interconnects. I really don't know much about these two pieces.

So... right now I'm still researching and will soon audition both, but have a strong feeling I will go the Nordost route, based on what people are saying. They seem to be a popular choice with ML owners.

SM

I'm a big fan of the AQ cables, I use the DiamondBack IC and a shotgun pr. of Indigo speaker cable. The Cheetah retails for $1000/meter pair and BedRock for $400.00 8ft pair. That will suck up your budget real fast. Listen to some of the more reasonable AudioQuest IC's, they will give you 85 to 90% of the Cheetah for a lot less moola. The same can be said for the speaker cables also.
 
I too am a big fan of Audioquest cables, I have jaguar interconnects with a shotgun bi-wired set of mammoth speaker cables. The Cheetahs are grate interconnects, that will give you a very wonderful full sound, but I don’t think you will ever see it with Bedrock speaker cables. You would be better off going with a better speaker cable for the cheetah, like the Pikes peak on up or a lesser interconnect for the Bedrock like the King cobra.

Just my 2 cents.
 
Zip3kx07 said:
but I don’t think you will ever see it with Bedrock speaker cables.

Zip, I think you are right about the Bedrock cables. I listened to them and wasn't all that impressed, and I certainly don't care for their looks.

Congers- My setup is very similar to yours...
• Aeon i
• Musical Fidelity A5, INT & CD Player
• Cables- TBD
• Subwoofer- TBD (Martin Logan of course)
 
SugarMedia said:
Zip, I think you are right about the Bedrock cables. I listened to them and wasn't all that impressed, and I certainly don't care for their looks.

Congers- My setup is very similar to yours...
• Aeon i
• Musical Fidelity A5, INT & CD Player
• Cables- TBD
• Subwoofer- TBD (Martin Logan of course)



I started into Audioquest with the slate speaker cables and coral interconnects. I liked them very much they had a much more natural sound compared to monstercables exaggerated sound. The slate cables left something to be desired that I found in my mammoth’s, a large full sound with strong natural bass all from a cables that never shouts out “here I am”.

It was Bill Lowell (owner, designer) of Audioquest that said to match your speaker cables together, if you buy a top of the line interconnect and pair it to a low level speaker cable then you are just wasting your money because the full potential of the interconnect is lost in the low end speaker cable.
 
Zip3kx07 said:
It was Bill Lowell (owner, designer) of Audioquest that said to match your speaker cables together, if you buy a top of the line interconnect and pair it to a low level speaker cable then you are just wasting your money because the full potential of the interconnect is lost in the low end speaker cable.

Thanks for that bit of information. I suppose they both make sense depending on how you look at it.

Right now I have a green light from my wife to get, "Whatever it takes to make me happy so we don't have to spend money on it for a long time." So with that in mind, maybe I just go Red Dawn all the way and have the assurance that I did the best I could with what is available to me.

Does anyone know anything about the, "Nordost- SPM Reference Cable?"
 
SugarMedia said:
Thanks for that bit of information. I suppose they both make sense depending on how you look at it.

Right now I have a green light from my wife to get, "Whatever it takes to make me happy so we don't have to spend money on it for a long time." So with that in mind, maybe I just go Red Dawn all the way and have the assurance that I did the best I could with what is available to me.

Does anyone know anything about the, "Nordost- SPM Reference Cable?"



If you wanted to make the jump into Audioquest I would recommend CV-6 speaker cables with Jaguar interconnects, as a good starting point. I would go with a shoot gun bi-wired set of CV-6 assuming your speakers can be bi-wired and you can afford it.

It’s been in my experience that the higher up you go in Audioquest cables the better the sound gets, and by “better” I mean more Real and true to life.

I have not heard Nordost cables, but have heard lots of good things about them. The SPM looks to be Nordost’s reference top of the line cable until they came out with the Valkyrja and Valhalla, if your looking for a good place to jump into Nordost I think SPM would be a grate place to start.

I would try to barrow a set of Nordost and Audioquest cables from a dealer and see for yourself, which is better for you and your system.

Good luck, if you go with Nordost please right a small review I would be interested in your thoughts about Nordost.
 
Thank You All For Your Comments

Thanks to everyone for their comments. It was clear that both Audioquest and Nordost were the cables/interconnects of choice.

I had the chance to listen to both of them. Given the acoustics of our room and the Martin Aeon I speakers, my wife and I decided to go for Audioquest CV-6 Bi-wired speaker cable and the Audioquest Jaguar interconnects.


While I am not a professional writer nor knowledgable in technical measurements, I will give my impression of these cables.

The Blue Heaven speaker cables were incredibly open and fast. I found them to be a bit on the lean side. I believed that our room acoustics would only exaggerate this. They were not a good choice for us.

The CV-6/Jaguar combination was an eye opener to say the least. There was no comparison to the older Audioquest Type 6 cable we used before.

The sound could be described as follows:
Increased level of detail. Each instrument had it's own distinct space and the harmonics within each instrument kept your interest from the attack of the piano note until it's ultimate decay.

The soundstage and depth was also enhanced. I noticed a more three dimensional sound (especially front to back) that these cables provided.

There was an overall richness of sound that provides a more emotional and less analytic experience. After years of listening to more analytic equipment and cables, the combination of Conrad Johnson and Audioquest has provided a more "Tube Like" sound that emphasizes the midrange and pays a bit less attention to the extremeties.

If one was to be a bit critical, there was a tad of roll off on the top and bottom. This might be due in part to the CJ equipment as well as the cables. The Depth subwoofer helps to compensate on the lower end. This is not to say that the upper end is flat, it is quite detailed, but does not extend as far out as the Blue Heaven did.

When you look at the big picture and realize that you will need to make some compromises, I am very pleased with these cables and would recommend that anyone interested in upgrading give them a listen. I have finally matured to the point where a good tube/solid state sound is very pleasing.

Let me know if anyone has any other questions.

Thanks again.

Mike
 
Congers-

Thanks for the write up. Please post some pictures when you can...would love to see them.

Regards,
 
Mapleshade speaker cables

I remember in a previous cable discussion That1Whitekid was getting the Mapleshade cables to try. Did you? Anyone else try them? Feedback?
Thanks,
Rouvin
 

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