Best speaker cables for Thiel CS 3.7

Hi thieliste,

I used Straightwire Maestro (first) and Crescendo speaker cables (later) for years with my 5i’s. Very good. Preferred them to the Transparent XL speaker cables due to the great bass slam, but the Transparent cables are very refined, yet open sounding cables, and easily recommended if you have the $$$$. Wireworld cables tend to sound similar to Straightwire IME. Very good also.

I avoid Cardas cables like the plaque, although I own the Ayre K-1xe preamp and CX-7eMP player and Charles Hansen/Ayre loves Cardas cabling. Way too rolled off and closed-in sounding for me.

If you want a very low noise floor, detailed and incisive sound with a ton of air and a huge, layered, transparent soundstage, try the Synergistic Research Tesla Precision Reference or Apex/Element CTS/Atmosphere Level 4 speaker cables.

http://positive-feedback.com/Issue79/synergistic_atmosphere.htm

Best to you thieliste,
Dave

Hi thieliste,

Which ones did you prefer of the ones you have auditioned?

No experience with Kubala Sosna but everything I have read is very positive.

Best to you theiliste,
Dave

Re: Kubala Sosna, I found this review and the ranking by Robert Levi circa 2009 quite interesting:

http://www.kubala-sosna.com/news/reviews/rev_elat_pfo2009.pdf

Are you guys seriously considering spending $4-6k/meter for cables?

Here is a link to a review of the Pass pre/amp combo. Notice that he uses SR cabling:

http://positive-feedback.com/reviews/hardware-reviews/pass-labs-x350-8-stereo-amplifier-xp-30-preamp...

"Well worth the time and effort when seeking out the dream team for your listening room."

jafant, don’t let this keep you up at night scheming to rob the US Treasury. Nothing but IOU's. lol

Best to you both,
Dave

thieliste,

Like many Americans, I do not have multi-lingual skills. I admire that you do and converse so fluently.

The upper models of the Legato cables and power cords look intriguing. Is the "modulation" box a type of active shielding (a’ la Synergistic), a frequency tuning device (a’ la Transparent), or something completely different?  

Best to you thieliste,
Dave

Tara Labs are great cables, thieliste. Are you able to audition Purist Audio Design cables nearby?  PAD's top cables/cords would be my pick overall if I could afford them. As PAD's retired-NASA engineer owner Jim Aud says, "Engineering, not marketing".

Best to you thieliste,
Dave
 

Hi thieliste,

I chose Tweek Geek Dark Energy speaker cables to pair with my 5i’s. Three runs of Duelund 16 gauge wire per leg (+ and -) terminated with Wireworld Rhodium spades and Sonic Tonic inserted in the connectors.

https://www.tweekgeek.com/dark-energy-speaker-cables/

Very, very good pairing with my Thiels and reasonably priced.

Dave

The SR Precision Reference speaker cables I had used silver conductors and I never thought them to sound bright, only very open, delicate & extended on top. Same for Purist.

My latest discovery is Verastarr power cords and interconnects which use pure silver foils vs wire and are the most honest, open, and extended cables I have yet heard, with ultra-realistic, razor quick transient attack, yet impart no glare, brightness, sheen, or sibilance to the sound in my system. Bass is the most realistic of anything I have tried. I plan to try their speaker cables in the near future. Recommend you call Mike Powell at Verastarr. Great guy to work with and very creative/knowledgeable.

i obviously have not tried (not even nearly) every silver cable out there, but based on the experience I do have, I think silver cables get a bad rap on this excessive brightness issue. I suspect that many so-called “silver” cables are actually silver coated copper, which I have found to display an unpleasant upper treble region as well as other undesireable influences on the sound.

As you know, the 5i’s have the metal dome tweeters and are very sensitive to/unforgiving of any brightness upstream. I have definitely heard such from the wrong preamp, amp, and especially inferior digital gear over the years. And, yes, also with many cables, including pure copper in some instances. Stay with SR, Purist, Verastarr, and other manufacturers that extensively design and voice their cables using pure silver and I think you will be rewarded with a degree of air, open-ness and detail beyond copper without the bite that some lesser “silver” cables can have.

Dave

Hi pops,

Agree that silver/copper is not a good match for Thiels.

A good friend let me try his Verastarr pure silver power cords and ICs in my system. I used the Statement PC on my DAC, the Signature II HC (dual foil) PCs on my preamp and amp, and the regular Signature II on my Aurender. ICs were the Signature II series. Each was placed into my system one at a time, starting with the DAC, then the preamp, then the amp, then the Aurender. The Statement on the DAC vs my current SR Element CTS Digital PC gave the most improvement and each PC incrementally added to the improvement, but when all were in (including the ICs), everything clicked and the result was a naturally holographic, extremely deep and wide soundstage with excellent tonal balance, detail retrieval, and faster/crisper transient response, providing uncanny realism.

The Statement II and Signature II lines have been recently replaced by the Statement III and Signature III models which use a thicker and wider silver foil in the Statement III PCs for furher improved current flow and newly-developed improvements in the ground plane implementation to further lower the noise floor.

Dave