Dave_b, it just shows the futility of forums on sound. I found even the SR accelerator superior to the Oracle Analogs or the Nordost Odins. The SR Apex are in their own league. I just hope this continues to hold as I bought many SRs. |
If looks are that important, there are many good recommendations above. If not, I would strongly recommend the dumbest looking but best sounding cables and speaker wires, those from Omega Mikro. If you want both great sound and great looks, buy Siltech G5s. |
I had Fulton Js and used their cable. It was welding cable and had to be a certain length, 29" if I recall. It was about 1/2 inch in diameter. I never saw anything 2 1/2 inches across. The Fulton cable was soon followed by the Cobra and then Bill Low put out many more cables, and we were off to the races. |
Biggest diameter; Bill Low's Big Red circa 1973 over an inch in diameter. Highest capacitance: Cobra cables, circa 1977. Stiffest: FIM Golds, circa 1998. |
If biggest and badest is what you want, try the Stage III Vacuum Reference cables. They were recently, very positively reviewed on SoundStage. I agree with the review that their detail is very realistic. |
I was not impressed with them when I tried them several years ago. YMMV I guess holds. I expect that much depends on your system. |
Lacee, when I had Fulton golds, I thought they sounded good but familiar. I never found an exact match, but welding cables looked much like them and sounded as good.
I suspect that some of today's speaker wires would sound better. |
Horsestoharleys, yours is a strange post. It starts off along the usual path of arguing wire is wire. Suddenly, it turns to Transparent and MIT and says they are better wires? |
So we can ignore all cables without network boxes? Given my experience, we can ignore all cables with network boxes. |
I love people saying that what they have is the best with no evidence that they have made any comparisons. It really causes me to what to try what they recommend!
It is very interesting how little agreement there is about the best sounding interconnects, speaker wires, and power cords. Are our tastes so different, our rooms so different, the impedances of our equipment so different, the resolutions of our equipment so different, or do our pocketbooks define what we like? |
Billyd10, Fultons! I had Premiers in 1975 and the Gold cables. I would say the only way to find their value is on Ebay or a auction here. I imagine you would get a higher payoff on Ebay. |
Dave_b, I have had just the exact opposite experience with copper and silver interconnects. With the exception of Kondo copper wire interconnects at one time and more importantly, Townshend interconnects presently, I have always preferred silver wires, often with some gold in them. My Cerious Technology interconnects with liquid crystal, of course, have no metal at all except at the ends. They have a character that I wish I could get in other wires, but also lack other characteristics that I value. They lack the "splash" of metal wires and have better bass, but they do not have the resolution, especially of silver wires.
This is all just my experience, of course. |
Twenty years ago and friend and I used Distech speaker wires in shotgun wirings to make power cords. I still have a pc with four. He went all the way to 16 and said he was still getting an improvement. I dropped out at four.
Somewhere in all the crap in my storage room I have Bill Low's Big Red speaker wire. It is about 1.5" in cross section. The copper now is oxidized, but I don't remember it being very good. I don't know what gauge this would amount to, perhaps 2? |
Maverick, please tell us more about these "liquid" cables. At first I thought you were talking about the Cerious Technology cables, but I don't think they are still in business. |
Maverick, I did find the reference and found TEO Liquid Cables. They seem no different from Cerious Technology cables as both use a liquid conductor. |
Essentialaudio, so I learned from an email from Cerious Tech. They say the Teo Audio mix is toxic. |
Essentialaudio, I have kind of dropped out of this thread. I meant no offense about the statement that I repeated from Cerious Technology.
Might I ask about the resistance of these cables. Years ago I had the carbon cables and found I had "ground loop" problems because of their resistance. I now have to lift all ac grounds except that to my H-Cat line stage to get the maximum benefit from it, so I should have no such problems with high resistance cabling. |
I Thought Ebm meant Stealth V10, but I see no such animal there.
Tell us about your experiences with the Teo References. |
Audiolabyrinth, it is Mu metal. Mu metal is, of course, usually not used to shield against magnetic fields. I remember some others using Mu metal as conductors for interconnects.
Drubin, yes it is Rick Schultz of Virtual Dynamics. |
Ebm, I have had many of the Stealth cables and powercords. With the exception of the PGS ics, I loved them. I had silver connections on the power cords which sounded great but did not hold well.
These were all displaced when I got an all charged system using Synergistic Research cables. I found the SRs to be much quieter and more dynamic. I always keep an open ear for new cables, however. But I have compared several more expensive cables with my SRs and stayed with what I have. |
Homecinematronics, I not only had the Distech Platinum but also shotgunned it with multiple runs. I also made power cords out of it. I still have most of it somewhere. I don't think it is competitive anymore.
Audioman58, I also had the Cerious cabling. There were certainly others who disagreed with me, but I liked what I heard and at one time only used their cabling. Then Stealth Indra came along. |
I was mistaken, the Skogrand speaker cables are the Tchaikovskys. They are still very fast. |
Melbguy1, you miss my point. No one can listen to more than a small fraction of available cables. Neither you nor I have enough experience to make definitive statements.
I would merely parrot your question, you have not heard the Exemplar Silver Portals, so you have no way to say the Jormas cables are the best. Have you heard the BMC LLC silvers, the Jade LLC cables, or the Audio Note silver cables? The list could go on and on. Yes, all our opinions are merely personal opinions reflecting our personal experiences. As such verbal opinions expressed in discussions such as this have little value. Of course, neither do review in the magazines. |
Vmhf, forgive me, but I doubt if you will have them more than two years. I have previously said what you have only to have myself proven wrong. I must have heard the Jorma cables even at this years CES, but personally I doubt if I would be very impressed as they are not long crystal silver and have a charged shield to deal with rfi and emi, like my Exemplar Portal Silvers. I will never say they are the last cables I will have, however. |
Audiolabyrinth, just google high fidelity cables. |
Melbguy1, You are certainly right that I don't really know Jorma cables, nor do you know Exemplar Portal Silver cables. Your statement about silver cables reveals limited exposure to quality silver cables.
In saying what I did about how long you might prefer the Jormas, I am merely talking about my experience. I will not participate in "mine is bigger than yours" arguments any longer. Frankly, I will not go out of my way to get a listen to the Jormas anymore than you will to listen to the Exemplars. |
I would like to enter another cable to the fray. They are from High Fidelity cables and are available in three models. My experience is with the middle level, the CT-1 Enhanced. I will not extol their sound but will say get a listening to these interconnects, speaker wires, and digital cables. Single-ended is all that is available until later this year. There is no silver, copper, or gold in these wires. |
Theaudiotweak, when we note the impact of vibrations on components, much of the impact is in reducing the vibration of a magnetic field altering the current and signal in the cable within that field. I guess it is not really surprising that were you able to encourage the ease of the signal through out its path between components, it would have greater resolution. |
They are hardly the biggest and certainly not the baddest and I don't think I've heard them but would like to. They are the Crystal Cable's Crystal Power Absolute Dreams. |
Audiolabyrinth, I decided to have a look but cannot find Evolution series on their webpage. |
Dadbehsh, they have been well reviewed here, but I don't know if they are sold here. I would try AudioMart Canada and perhaps some in Europe. It is expensive to sell here. |
I just yesterday got a pair of Skogrand Beethoven speaker wires. They were on all day and last night were wow! In 2011 on Dagogo I reviewed the Skogrand SC Air Reference Solid Copper Core speaker cables. I remember being quite impressed with their openness and dynamics. I am anxious to hear what the Beethovens do when broken in. The family resemblance suggests that these speaker cables sets the present sense of liveness and low resistance. Volume was greatly increased with them in my system. |
Audiolabyrinth, I have only know one person who had Tara Labs cables and he was willing to send me a pair to listen to. I heard nothing notable from them and dropped further interest in them.
Perhaps you don't see many Taras for sale as few have been sold. |
