on your budget I would go with Dopogues recommendation. I've made the extension chord cables and they're clearly the best deal around. I went with the 12 guage. Same goes for the interconnects from Starlink. They can't be beat much more money, and they are cheap. If you want to spend more money - I like the Bluejeans cables too.
Cables for a high-school newbie
Im on an extreemly tight budget. My goal for cables is simply to open up my current system, tighten the bass, and sharpen immaging, i dont want to color the sound at all (well, maybe a tad bit darker to counter the metal dome tweeters on my speakers). I have a sony cd player, Onkyo Tx 8211 reciever and a pair of NHT SB-3s (best speakers under $1k i've heard... and they're only $400 new if you shop around). are cables worth the dough at this level or not, and if so what brands should i be looking at? I need both interconnects and speaker cables. I listen to rock, small group jazz, metal (too bad metalheads can't figure out how to make a decent recording), and classical in that order.
thanks for the help
thanks for the help
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For speaker cables and interconnect I got mine from Zebra Cables. They are reasonably priced for your budget. Check them out if you have the chance. |
I second the Paul Spetlz Anti-cable ($60 for 6ft pair) and Anti-ic (about $60 for 1m RCA pair and $100 for 1m XLR pair). Some of the best cables you may ever hear. The Anti-cables were slightly better than my highly rated $1800 (retail) bi-wired cables and the Anti-ics made my old $4700 (retail) ics sound bloated and veiled in comparison. I'm not using the Anti-cables anymore but I keep a complete set of Anti-cables for backups. Which were just loaned out to one who is now ordering his own complete set. Thus far, these are the second best cable I've heard, they require zero burn-in time and the ics easily outperformed some Signal silver sig ics I've tried. -IMO |
I second Albert's suggestion. I had my little sister get some cables from Blue Jeans. Canare terminals are very decent for the money and when professionally terminated real sweet. For "taming" the tweeter I suggest you look at what you feed the tweeter instead. My first suggestion would be to use a deep-treated cryogenic outlet for the system (Albert sells some treated at NASA). Second would be a little ONEAC 3 amp isolation transformer for the CD player (around $15-20 used in eBay). Third would be some good isolation cones for the CD player. Since you have metal domes I'd go for something like DH Labs cones, which don't tend to ring in the very high frequencies. Check this out: Power conditioning and cryo treatment Fourth, don't let anyone look down on your Onkyo. Get some contact cleaner and use it as is. With psychic power and primal intensity, |
I wouldn't call the Absolute Sound review of the extension cord "very positive," but cables are not going to change your set-up as much as a new receiver/integrated amp. If your budget allows for $400 towards an amplifier of some sort it may be worth looking at an NAD, Cambridge Audio, Rotel, etc. Then you can use an extension cord for wire. Or go to a local hi-fi shop and get installation 14/2 for $0.50/ft. It is OFC, CL-3 rated, and usually the same ugly orange color as an extension cord. Good luck! |
Speaker cables: Make them from Home Depot 14 gauge outdoor extension cord (it's orange with a longitudinal black stripe). No, I'm not kidding. A 50-foot cable should cost you less than $20. There's a very positive review in The Absolute Sound, April/May 2004. Interconnects: Go to www.starlink-dss.com and scroll down to the Petra component video cables that say they were "formerly Music Boy." You get 3 six-foot cables (component video cables, remember) for under ten bucks. Or get the same cables as "component digital cables" for under 5 bucks. Again, I'm not kidding. I've replaced $500+ cables with this stuff and find it extremely musical and involving. The Home Depot speaker cables simply demolished some $1200 wires in a friend's system. If you reterminate the ICs with better connectors, they sound even better. Do a search here and on Audio Asylum under "HD-14" and "Petra" or "Music Boy" to learn more. Good luck, Dave |
I suggest Blue Jeans cables in that price range. They are high quality Belden with professional terminations, priced just above what the raw cable can be bought for on the internet. Examples: 2 foot terminated with Canare high quality RCA $25.00 5 foot Belden 5T00UP Speaker Cable, (10 gauge) spades $29.85 Their web site |
