Mingus, I own MIT Term 2 and 750+ series 3 - the 750 is far superior to the term 2 in every way. |
After all my personal cable shoot-outs, I can say that I found three cable brands which match perfectly with my personal ML Prodigy system: Valhalla, HMS Grand Finale, and Siltech G5 Compass Lake.
All other cable brands I have listened to were more or less flawed in my system. |
To what extent do people find the choice of speaker cables affected by the amplifier? I have heard some people state that it would be better to refer to speaker cables as "amplifier cables," meaning it is the match with the amp that matters most. I find this intriguing. What has been your experience? |
Just my 2 cents. I have Martin logan Odyssey's for my left and right main speakers, Martin logan Theater for my center channel and Aerius i's for my surrounds. I'm a great fan of Martin Logan and have tried many combinations of amps and cables to get the most out them. Currently, I have settled on Krell for my power and processing. I output 300/600 (8 ohm/4ohm) watts to each of the five channels and the new Krell HTS 3 handles the processing. As for the cables, I found that silver is not the answer for Martin Logans. Too bright, Too quick, and just sounds down right bad. I've tried high end products from Nordost, Transparent, Audioquest, and Kimber. Finally I've settled on Audioquest Volcano Biwire cables. They've brougt out the most sound from the marting logan's and yet sound very neutral. I would highly recommend them, however, if the cost is more than you wish to spend, My second choice, and for the money, my first choice, would be Audioquest Caldera Biwire's. In fact, I have a great friend who is using them on Martin Logan Prodigy's right now, with Classe amplification, and it sounds great. A word to the wise, as for cables, NEVER pay retail. There's way too many people selling online at drastic discounts on new and demo cables.
Let me know what you go with and how it works out.
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Bill at Miller Sound is not making cables anymore. If you search the Agon classifieds there are some for sale used. |
I sort of specialize in electrostats, as an owner of and dealer for Sound Labs and owner of Quad 57's. I conducted a rather extensive search of speaker cables to find what worked well, and found that cables with wide, flat geometries which minimize skin effect (such as the Goertz mentioned above) work the best. Such a geometry audibly improves clarity and dynamic contrast by reducing time smear (more significant with an electrostat than with less coherent designs), and since a flat cable has absolutely zero series inductance that delicious top-end air of the electrostats is preserved. Their typical low impedance at high frequencies makes electrostats especially sensitive to being dulled by a cable with series inductance.
The best speaker cable I found in its price range is the Magnan Signature, so I became a Magnan dealer. The Magnan Signature is probably the ultimate expression of the wide, flat geometry. I also like Goertz and Analysis Plus (and sell the latter), both of which take steps to minimize skin effect and series inductance. In my experience networked cables don't work particularly well with electrostats (I used to have MIT Terminiator 2's and MH-770's, and have tried others). I find most Nordost cables to sound thin with electrostats, with the notable exception of the superb Valhalla.
One of my Martin-Logan customers tells me that it's worthwhile to use the Magnan Signature on both the panels and woofers, which gets a bit pricey. I would have thought you could get away with just using the MagSigs on the panels, but he says the improvement in coherence is significant. So, for what it's worth, I pass that along as a vote in favor of using the same cable on both woofer and panel.
Best of luck to you, Sugarbie! |
Use MillerSound Giants.. the Same speakerwire as JPS Superconductor 2. Great stuff at Beer prices. Steve |
Martin Logan uses MIT and Transparent through their reference system and the factory. ( per- recent stereophile interview ) You may want to try moving further up the MIT food chain? |
I had the Martin Logan Aerius i and used Goertz AG1 (silver) on the panel and their copper MI cable on the bass. This was an excellent and cost effective combination since silver cables, for whatever reason, work wonders with ML speakers. Since it requires almost no power to drive the electrostatic panel, the smallest diameter, lowest cost AG1 is fine for the panels and you can match the output of your power amp to the copper MI cables,using the MI 1, MI 2 or MI 3 at a very reasonable cost. |
Have VAC amps and AI pre (tubes) with my ML Aeries(SP). Use and love XLO 5.1 speaker cables. FYI JPS interconnects. Hope this helps. |
See my system below:
-Martin Logan ReQuests.
-Krell FPB 600.
-Krell KRC/Reference Phono.
-Sony SCD-1.
-Old VPI table, SME3009 arm, and various cartridges.
-All interconnects, speaker cables: Pure Note Epsilon Reference, www.purenote.com.
I have been a fan of pure silver cables until now. I have tried the usual; Silver Smith, Silver Audio, Acoustic Zen, Empirical Audio, etc. There was always an unreal presence with silver cables. I moved on to Nordost, the Quatro-fil did not impress. I borrowed a pair of Valhalla from a friend but they lacked body. I read about the Pure Note buzz, I figured with a free trial, why not. A pair of 1m i/c is only $800. The Pure Notes finally did it for me. They are the first cables that sound like music in my system. No edge, liquid midrange, black background, well focused stage. |
Blue Circle BC92. Blue Circle founder and designer Gilbert Yeung has Martin Logan CLS IIz in his reference system. I would think these MLs were used to design the cables. He does still use them in the system. You can always Email Gilbert and get his opinion. I have two pairs of BC92 (I don't have MLs). They are more than well worth the money spent. See this link. The pic of his MLs are at the bottom:
http://www.soundstagelive.com/factorytours/bluecircle/
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