Favorite cable brand.

It’s interesting to see all the different brand mentioned. I can’t help but wonder how many have had bad experiences with cables, what those experiences were and what brands. I’ve used many branded and unbranded cables and nothing ever stood out UNTIL I used a set of Audioquest Evergreens from my phono preamp. Whoa, so much noise! Any other stories of cables that showed significant weaknesses??

Reason suggests that a cable’s properties would be the result of A) type of wire used, B) the geometry (weaving wrapping twisting), C) the insulation or covering and D) the cable ends. So if we don’t have things that we can measure that help us understand what we are getting in a cable at least we could start talking about the cables from various manufacturers in terms of their component parts and how they are sourced.There are probably fewer makers of wire and cable ends then there are makers of finished cable. And if we start talking about wire In terms of its specifications The choices would shrink to even fewer. In this context an audiophile could reasonably expect to learn the differences in properties and sound and be able to intelligently talk with others about his experiences to the benefit of all. Seems like we could all benefit from a little less voodoo on this subject and a lot more reason.

bruce19 I totally agree.  My cable decisions were born out of research into materials and design.  Also the clear explanation and disclosed measurements of the cables.  Most manufacturers will tell you all the ooohs and ahhhs of their cables but won’t tell you how they supposedly arrived at these magical results.  They’ll use big words and proprietary design principles but still leave you in the dark on measurements and real data.  

Thanks @cromaudionut I like the blue jeans site and I like that schmitt cable site posted earlier in this discussion by @bob540. They tell you how the cable is constructed and charge reasonable prices based on that. This sitehttp://diyaudioprojects.com/Power/power.htmis interesting because it only contains six cable construction projects, hinting to me that for people who look at the available source components, that is about how many basic variations on the theme there are. This is an approach to the cable topic I would love to see an in-depth article on in one of the audio sites.

Where I started and where I am today.

Monster Cable
AudioQuest
Kimber
DIY. Wire and plugs from Michael Percy and Ron Welborne
Back to Kimber
Canare, various.
Clear Days IC both single/balanced and speaker cable with Shunyata PC and Hydra
Nordost
WyWires, with still a couple Nordost and Supra Cat8. Fairly happy where things are with cables and rather spend money elsewhere in the system. Also some power cables for digital equipment from VH Audio, Kimber 8TC and Canare balanced cables that I also use to mic my drums.

Favorite today?
WyWires