Help Match Cables To Gear Please


Hello all. 
I’m a long time member and lurker but have never dove down the rabbit hole of cables mainly because all the misinformation floating around. 
Little back info-

I’m 40 years old and have never been in the camp of denier or believer in High-End/HiFi/Audiophile cables but always knew better than to flush money away on something I couldn’t return if wasn’t satisfied with purchasing. But now that I can listen to demos on the internet and clearly hear a difference on some of the videos I feel a heck of a lot more comfortable in purchasing higher end cables over the internet. 
I live in a rural city in SW Kentucky so have never had the opportunity to demo various high end audio products while growing up. I did however purchase my first AVR and big box 15” speakers at age 11 so I have been into both audio and video relatively all my life. 
I’ve always just gone by the reference, “you get what you pay for” with pretty much everything. This approach has at least kept me away from cheap zip cord and the such but also has kept me from trying any sort of audio cables that I feel would better match my gear since there weren’t any vendors in my area. Sticking to brands that are known in the industry like Mogami have been my “go to” for speaker cables and interconnects. 
When I was trying to find demos I could actually hear a difference over the internet I stumbled across a cable demonstration by Danacables that clearly showed how one of their designs helped control the actual speaker by making it stop faster than regular off the shelf zip cord. 
Between physically seeing a cable affect the speaker and being able to hear differences I felt like there really couldn’t be that many “snake oil” companies out there if real companies are in the market too. I’ve always felt like we have been introducing all kinds of new pollutants  into our environment with new technologies yet I’ve never tried upgrading cables that could help eliminate these unwanted pollutants. Not only would these new unwanted variables be put in check but also some of the newer speaker cable technology in general could be applied at the same time. I’m no scientist but have a feeling cable can’t just be cable when I’ve been using the same product that was basically used by my grandparents for the most part. Maybe I have the oxygen free advantage but that is it most likely. The rest of the world surrounding us has changed greatly since my grandparents were purchasing speaker wire but yet Ive been using the same thing out of pure ignorance listening to those who claim cables are cables. 
Now that I believe I have a “permanent” system in place in my dedicated theater room I want to try to match my gear to some cables that should in theory bring out the best in the total system. 
Being that this is a theater room I have to consider which way to proceed as far as spending money on cables since I can’t afford to wire the entire room with ultra expensive cabling. There are just way too many channels, amplifiers, and speakers to purchase crazy expensive cabling for all of it. 
My thinking is to run the best possible speaker cables to the LCRs. Use upgraded power cables for all the amplifiers, and use upgraded XLR cables to the LCRs while sticking to Mogami XLRs for the rest of the surrounds unless I notice a dramatic difference when swapping my LCR cables to the surrounds. 
My system consists of the following-

Pre Pro- Trinnov Altitude32
LCR- Quested Audio LT20s (custom) totally active
Lc/Rc and DTS-X Pro Front Heights LCRs are all LT10s
Remaining Surrounds- Quested Audio Z8s
LCR Mid and Sub Amps- MC2
LCR AMT Amps- Hypex NCore 500 Monoblocks per AMT driver. 
So with that gear my experience tells me that the AMT drivers across the board from my LCRs to the Z8 surrounds have a very revealing, crisp sound with a super wide soundstage. Sorry I’m not good at descriptions with audio products. 
The midrange drivers are super clear but not quite ultra revealing, more cool than warm, and have huge transients. 
The sub drivers are what I would call fast and crisp but lacking in punch or attack. I also have separate modules ran to the LCRs for further ULF extension making them a 4-way instead of a 3-way. These bass modules are using AE 18” drivers in a vented enclosure with #10 OFC wire but willing to upgrade this wire as well if it’s not outrageous being that the bass setup in home theater is generally completely different than general stereo applications but I’m all for better sonics regardless. 
Then I have way too many subs and mid bass modules to detail. Most of the subs are 21” and 24” high xmax drivers all ran for maximum Ultra Low Frequency extension for movies. They are flat down to 3-5hz at the MLP. All these subs and bass modules are currently wired with the same #10 OFC wire as the LCR sub drivers. 
I think I covered my situation and background well enough as I hate dragging those who read this along even more. So if there are any who think they have experienced greatness out of certain combinations with similar gear please do share!

Bests
Alex
 


alford_r35

Showing 4 responses by alford_r35

@millercarbon this is a dedicated theater room with 50 plus individual channels and seating for 10. This is not a room for dedicated music listening other than multichannel audio recordings. 
With that said, I already have well over $250,000 into the room so figured would upgrade my Canare speaker cabling if could figure out a good neutral speaker cable that might add some more clarity or detail to the system without taking anything else away. This is the best I know how to describe what I hear when listen to A/B demos over the internet. 
My speakers/amps/processor are already dead silent with as black a background as I could ever ask for I would imagine. I can’t hear any sort of sounds coming from any of the drivers when there isn’t supposed to be and the dynamics are huge with the gear I have matched together. It’s literally crazy how the dynamics swing effortlessly. 
What I’m hoping to achieve with speaker cables and power cables is like a lifting of a veil kinda. Bring out more of what may be left in the recordings, if that is possible as the AMTs and Beyma mids are extremely revealing already. 
The soundstage is also huge in both height and width. It literally takes up the entire 18’ width of the room and 10’ height no problem but it could be more defined or layered (sorry not sure on proper term to use there). 
I’m already using great interconnects but nothing I would consider as high end. And I’m also using pretty decent speaker cabling to all the subs, all 200+ feet of OFC #10. 
But if there is anything I can gain without jumping to the upper extremes then I’m game. Hope that clears it up a little. 
Bests
Alex
@rodman99999 i haven’t checked any PCs out yet. One reason is because I am using 240v amplifiers here in the states for the screen speakers so it’s a pain in that regard. I will end up with one on the Trinnov and Media devices before I’m said and done for sure though. 
The room is still having the acoustic treatments and a few other odds and ends buttoned up so haven’t wanted to start critically listening until it’s 100% complete. Don’t get me wrong I listen and enjoy it now by all means but just not to the extremes of trying to notice minute differences that components can make. I’m sure get get what I’m saying. 
I need to learn how electronics in markets that use 240v handle PCs and the such because that has been a major concern of mine every since I decided to go down the path of high current amplification for all speakers behind the screen. It makes all the sense in the world as far as audio quality but going this direction in the states has its drawbacks as well. I have to use big bulky outlets and cable connections. 
One option is just to pony up the cash for a 200 amp high end Filtered electrical panel. That would be the best route but they are like $13,000-$15,000 installed. Right now I’m using right at 120 amps of 120v and 80 amps of 240v so a 200amp power plant would be perfect. A couple other people I talk with on a Home Theater forum have one and they are top quality for sure. Not only the build quality but the piece of mind that comes along with an install like that would be wonderful. 
Bests
Alex
@rodman99999 

thants funny you say that because that is exactly what I did to a major extent in two different rooms. 
I built a true home theater and a media room/bar room that is for 2 channel. Both are designed around the golden ratio. The theater room also has stepped side walls and ceiling while the media room has baffled ceiling. 
They were built from the ground up as huge addition onto our existing house. 
Yea I have a 400 amp service coming into the house with two branch dedicated circuits split off for the Audio/Video. One is 120v and the other is 240v but they are totally dedicated. 
Right now the two Audio/Video sub panels are fed and terminated by solid silver wire but I have no clue if this makes any difference or not. It is what my electrical engineer called for so it’s there but can be replaced easily enough by pulling copper. 
Clean power is expensive with all of today’s random interferences being given off by almost every electronic product. 
Bests
Alex
@rodman99999 @roberjerman

Here is the power plant. 
https://www.equitech.com/products/wall/wall.html

In the first theater I saw it being used Kieth Yates drilled 4 200’ holes that had to be lined with copper tubes and filled with some sort of dielectric. 
These systems are for real bad@ss. 
Check out Kieth Yates Designs build of Rob Hahn’s marvelous HT here http://keithyates.com/portfolio/hahn-theater/

TheBland user-handle on AVS also recently built a new HT using the Equi Tech unit but I’m not sure how involved he went into its installation compared to Rob and his 200’ lined holes. 
Bests
Alex