Cable/Interconnect recommendation for B&W and MF

If you like Pure Note, here's a true story:

I gave Lak some twelve feet of 12 ga, silver plated copper Teflon military surplus wire I get for 65 cents/ft (37 strands/conductor). He had it cryo treated for $10/lb and when we compared it in both our systems the military surplus was so close to the $600 Pure Note it wasn't funny.

The "sweetness" and "imaging" that you're looking for will be found with appropriate noise control/power deliver measures and room treatments ( vibration control, too, but I'll keep this out of the picture here to help keep things more basic ) . Clean power has a LOT to do with imaging, as it lets you hear low level spatial information. It's best to start at the source (with a cryo'ed or gold plated power outlet) and then move downstream the audio chain. Room treatments will make your system more neutral and fatigue free while at the same time letting your speakers do their imaging thing without having to fight the room. If you try to use cabling as tone controls and spatial enhancers you'll set yourself up for disaster. Cabling should be, above all, transparent and neutral.

Wow, lots of Pure Note recommendations. I cant argue with that. Pure Note Epsilons sound great. I came very close to buying them for my system.

I certainly dont disagree with any of the previous suggestions. But, I would like to stress that improving ALL your cabling may be your best bet. Especially for the first step. I'll explain. While the Pure Note ICs offer fantastic peformance. If you hear them through stock PCs and inexpensive speaker cables you may not "hear" them. You may be served better by improving all your cabling within your budget and returning later to take each individual cable to the next level (like Pure Note Epsilons).

Its just an idea, but, I wouldnt want you to plunk down $500.00+ on ICs and become disenchanted because you dont get the results you are looking for.

For what its worth, from the description you gave, it sounds like you are on exactly the right path. Not long ago A'gon and its members helped me to choose cabling upgrades on my system. It has never sounded better and for that I am grateful. These guys really know there stuff.

I am third-Interconnects first;Pure Note is a good choice for your system-neutral and very detailed...

Thanks everybody for valuable suggestions.

Distortion, my ultimate sound goal is to have better imaging and sweetness of sound. I know I cannot compare 9NT with Nautilus, but when I compared my system with my friend's Nautilus 805, my system feels like lacking sweetness, or transparency. It feels like something is blocking the sound a little bit.

What I do not care much is bass. I prefer to have better midrange.. I also would like to improve highs, but not as much as midrange.

I agree with Sugarbrie, interconnects first. Love the Siltech Compass Lake but I don't think you want to spend that much. A cable that gets 97% of the Valhalla or Siltech is the Pure Note Epsilon 4. They run around $600 a meter.

http://www.purenote.com

Sonic Genius' Reference Stereo System a/o July 2003:

Martin-Logan Prodigy speakers.
Krell FPB400cX power amp. Modified with IEC power inlet.
Krell KCT preamp.
Sony SCD-1 SACD player.

Sutherland PHD phono preamp (battery).
VPI TNT-HR-X turntable, JMW 12.5 tonearm.
Grado Statement phono cartridge.

Pure Note Epsilon Reference XLR, RCA cables. Rev. 4.0
Pure Note Epsilon Reference speaker cables. Rev. 4.0
Siltech Compass Lake XLR interconnects.
Pure Note Sigma power cables.

I second the ICs. I love Harmonic Tech Pro-silway 3s, but they are a little pricey by my budgeting standards. A'gon member "drubrew" makes a very nice Dhlabs/WBT based IC at extremely affordable prices. Also, www.Siganlcable.com makes really good ICs(among other things) at very affordable prices, and include a money back 30 day guarantee.

You could do speaker cables as well. 25 feet per speaker, goodness. Do you live in an aircraft hangar? Just kidding. You could try Signalcable for these as well. They have a very affordable internal biwire speaker cable.

These are just some off-the-cuff suggestions, ones that worked for me.

I should add that, changing cabling can/will change your systems overall presentation. i.e warmer, more extended highs, fuller mids, etc. You should include your ultimate sound goals so the guys here can point you in the right direction. Obviously there is a vast wealth of experience here the 'Gon. Once you have selected a few candidates you can "search" the archives here for more info.

I guess I'll say the interconnect, partly because 25ft of good speaker cables is going to be expensive. What is your budget?

My favorite is Siltech at whatever price point.

A good choice if you must have long runs of speaker cable are the MIT Terminator 2 or other MIT with those junction boxes. They do a decent job of adjusting for the problems that a long run creates..

If you don't want to dish out for bi-wire cables for your B&W's then at the very least get some decent jumpers to replace the brass plates that connects the high and low speaker terminals..