Help me pick some new or used speaker cables

rkfaberdds  ...and others...an afterthought "head's-up,"

Although the Cardas Clear Sky X4 is designed as bi-wirable, I had discussion with Cardas Techs before modifying the loudspeaker ends.  I roll off 80hZ down from my Focusrite Pro DAC to my subwoofer, relieving the speaker cables of deep bass duties.  If running full bore, they did not recommend bi-wiring the X4 cable. 

Pin

My preamp is a MW LS100 with Sophia 6SN7s and a NOS Mullard 5AR4 rectifier. They’re prob still burning in at 100 hrs or so, but these are pretty premium. I’m not really complaining about the sibilants or harsh transients because that’s not really what I hear. Someone asked earlier what I would like to hear differently from cables and that’s about all I could <maybe> find lacking. I’m really getting used to how all this new gear performs & having a blast. Speaker cables will be last.

Just today I put in a HiFi Rose 250A and am liking many aspects of it. A lot! The cherry (I hope) will be a Denafrips Venus2 outboard DAC going in later this week.

I am aware of the cable co.s library program & will prob use it. My plan is to take the next month to get all this new gear settled in and then audition speaker cables. There have been a lot of auditory changes in my rig over the past two weeks & it’s been a fun ride getting back into this hobby-esp. w digital streaming. Wow!

thanks everyone!

Hi rkfaberdds...thanks for your question,

My early foray into great audio was a pair of Chapman T-4s, 2 way sealed 45lb monitors that served in several rooms for a couple of decades.  They sit happily with fresh surrounds in a closet upstairs, awaiting new skirts.  Pairing your Chapman 7s with Rogue = music.  Nice going!  

I also am onboard with Cardas. To keep away from black market concerns, I elect to use The Cable Company.   My solution was buying a used pair of Cardas Clear Sky X4 loudspeaker cables which are internally designed for bi-wiring, assuming your 7's are bi-wirable.  I returned the pair to Cardas, having them upgrade only the loudspeaker ends to bi-wired, 4 inputs per side, leaving the outputs as is from the amplifier, 2 outputs per side.  I ALSO paid to upgrade all 12 terminations to compression die forging:

Cardas Compression Die Forging – Audio Advisor (youtube.com) 

I suspect my "flavors" in audio align nicely with George Cardas.  Given your choices, ours probably do as well.  Onwards!

More Peace, Pin           (bold print for old eyes)

...

Better speaker cables, yes!

I may have missed reference(s) to room acoustics on this thread, but certainly worth looking into (if you haven’t already).

Congrats on thinking outside the box with the T-7 mods. Typically "mods" will calm down certain ranges due to incorporating better materials, connection/termination methods, attention to sympahtic resonances, etc. If all else fails you might consider having a conversation with your "modder" about this. I’ve found that bumping up the tweeter crossover point ever so slightly can remove a little hardness.

I have tried most of the "high end" name brands and once I found Silversmith Audio Fidelums.....game over.  Well with in your price point new.  ONLY cable I ever purchased that sounded great right out of the box and simply got better with hours.

Some great advice thus far. I’d add that buy used because if you don’t achieve what you seek, you can sell them for what you paid. If you buy new, support your local dealer and try them in your system to know 1st hand if it’s the right combo.
 

The cables I’ve liked the best are OCC wire to start with. Ocellia are sublime, and should put you in the right place. If by chance you’re running Sylvania 6SN7 in the MW LS100, get them out in favour of a different tube like some 40, or 50’s RCA. (I had a LS100)

There are some great options for speaker cables mentioned - I'd also consider Nordost. I've been very impressed with them as with Transparent.  

I've been very pleased splitting my cables - Shunyata for power and Kimber for speakers/interconnects.  

Just bought Worlds Best Cables with a 8 gauge bi-wire arrangement on spades. Ran me less than $300 and sound great. Had heavy Monster M cables on from the 80’s and they weren’t terrible, but read a few good things about WBC and for the money they worked out fine.

Purist cables very nice cables and interconnects , Great company questions repairs , There "always" pick up the phone even by the owner Jim .

@rkfaberdds if purchasing used, beware of counterfeits especially AQ cables.

True for AQ as @kennyc mentioned here, and watch out for counterfeit Cardas too. They are counterfeiting cable models that Cardas does not produce any longer is one way to tell, and the connector ends are bulged out with a different diameter jacket as first clues. If it does not have the original certification, #, and original packaging and they just stick them in a fake copied literature and zip bag, that’s another clue.

Best get them from a refutable source, and worst case like others here did, send them into the MFG for validation and certification if you believe you may have mistakenly bought fake counterfeits. Best to know rather than playing for weeks hoping the sound will get better in time, and a dead end road.

I have a pair of Chapman T-7's, mine are completely original from 1995 and have the German LPG Titanium dome tweeters which do run a little hot on Solid State, but sing on tubes.

I used to run Tara Labs RSC Master Gen 2 cables that I thought sounded great. Then on a lark I built a pair of DIY  clones of the GR Research cables, which are in turn a clone of the Kimber 12tc ? (I think).  You can get the raw cable easily on Aliexpress for pretty cheap. I think all in I spent less than a $100 on materials for a 3 meter pair with CMC copper spades.

I never advocate chinese knock-offs or clones. But like I said, this was just an experiment for my own benefit. However, I have been really pleased with the cables. The difference was subtle over the Tara Labs and they seemed to incrementally tame the sizzle of the metal domes just a hair more.

BTW, I love, love, love the Chapmans and don't think I'll ever part with them. 

OCC in Silver or Copper Wire is no longer in use in my System and is as a result of my introducing others to alternative wire type, the OCC has been removed from other systems that I have loaned the alternative wire type to as well.

OCC in comparison to PC Triple C is sounding veiled and smeared, the smearing detected is quite similar to comparing OCC to the purest OFC .

PC Triple C is now the selected wire used by myself, others I know and a selection of the Big Name Cable producers.

These Brands have certainly done deals to keep competitors from getting into their suppliers and reducing the commodity of wire available.

The price of PC Triple C / EX Wire is through the roof to a few years past, cables produced from this are now substantially priced.

My experiences through usage of PC Triple C wire, assists with my fully understanding why there has been a move by the big name brands to secure their stock, ensuring it is not freely available. In relation to the sound that can be produced only, why would one want a competitor to get in on the act.

I also have first hand experiences of D.U.C.C Wire and this is a superb option, it has all the lucidity of Triple C, but comes with a tiniest perception of their being a Tonal Frequency that can be suggested as a being hue of added colour.

I find it hard to prejudice one against the other, and am more than content using  these in conjunction in a signal path as well.

You cannot go wrong

Are you using a preamp it's a solid state maybe you need to get some sweet tubes look at the top of the line audible illusions some of the sweetest sound I've heard very Lively sweet top end

First you need to figure out why your system is bright maybe it's not the cables you need to replace I had that problem too

@rkfaberdds 

if purchasing used, beware of counterfeits especially AQ cables.  

@rkfaberdds if you’re content with AQ, you might stick with it. Chasing Cardas Golden Reference is a bit more of a task, as its not made new any more. I bought two pairs of the last run over a year ago from PcX, and while it was pretty good, i do prefer Cardas Clear and Cardas Clear Reflection more, but its more costly.

Ive owned a few sets of decent AQs that sort of held there own with some of the lower line Cardas, fwtw. Also if you dig in, ask an AQ rep where they source their (upper line) copper conductor from, wink wink. IF you are truly looking to "tame" high frequency, ime stay away from cheap silver or silver plated OCC copper which can lead you in the other direction. It can have a tendency to create added fatigue and glare (if) your Titanium tweeters truly are "too much" now. By chance If you are handy, rather than playing the addictive cable trial and error merry-go-round, just for grins you can also try a 1ohm or 2ohm resistor test on your Ti tweeter on one speaker, use the balance control R/L and compare back and forth.This will at least give you some ideas to try to help keep cost down. Best of Luck.

@stealthdeburgo 

Absolutely agree. Twin Flex, the same stuff that is in your walls should suffice. That said, if you buy second hand cable, do you need to 'break it in' again to hear the difference? asking for a friend :-)

Litz wire dude, a long time before it corodes and turns green.

Save your money on this snake oil and use a fairly heavy duty stranded lanp cord line. Never heard any differance between most cables

@stealthdeburgo  Well, you’re in the vast minority here.  Sorry you are apparently unable to hear differences in cables but great that you can get by with just cheap lamp cord.  You’ll likely find a much more captive audience over on Audio Science Review (ASR) for what you’re peddling.

Supra, Sword Excalibur - excellent cables for use with tube gear. I use them in 8' lengths w/jumpers too on my Audio Note, AN-e. Just my opinion...

Save your money on this snake oil and use a fairly heavy duty stranded lanp cord line. Never heard any differance between most cables (blind test - In AES test facilities)

The best High frequancy cables are from litz cables in new york. BUt thesse are designed to carry high frequancy signals with very low loss becasue they are power cables. Litzwire dot com is the company. 

But truely just a starnded heavy duty cable with half decent connectors and keep your length of cable down to a minumum. 

THe other thing to watch out for is balancing your impedance to your capacidence  with longer lines. Flat foil cables work very good other than going to a litz type of cable. Everybody should use the blind listening test for all audio choices, Just wasting your moeny otherwise.

Zavfino Prima MKII cables $700 a pair for 2.5 meters, 30 day return policy with 15% restocking fee, partially broken in so they only require about 100 hours of additional break in, direct to consumer so no dealer mark up, OCC copper, cryo treated, 9 AWG cable

Regarding the Zep show in 1969, the answer is yes.

Townshend Fractal F1. They will work with you on price. Fantastic cable and a big step up from the Cardas and and incremental improvement from the Silversmith. The Fideliums are definitely the best bang for the buck in speaker cables 

I really enjoy Triode Wire Labs (out of Massapequa, NY) cables & not crazy priced. Worth checking out. 

Switch all your cables to OCC single crystal copper or silver but the copper is half the price and the improvement will amaze you, also getting Townshend podiums to put under your speakers will get rid of any vibration which destroys your sound, they isolate down to three hertz, not cheap though but definitely the biggest upgrade you'll ever do to any system.

Grover Huffman Pharoah speaker cables

@wolf_garcia 

any stories to tell from that 1969 show?  A yr before I was born, but Zeppelin will always be my favorite band

@audphile1 Stuart (Chapman) actually upgraded my T-7s about 15 yrs ago w new crossovers & tweets.  I suspect that’s when the SEAS(?) titanium tweets went in.

power cords are mix of Shunyata & I just bought a Cardas golden something (used).  So I think I’m going Cardas for a loom/synergy and ease of finding.  I like 0.5m lengths because I can & I like to keep it tidy behind the stand.

Thank you everyone, again, for your input

I just started using Audio Art cables.  I started with their jumpers and they had a sound , so I bought a pair of their Statement e Series speaker cables and they also made a  positive change in the sound of my system.

All the best.

@rkfaberdds  Have you mentioned which power cables you have? 

My speakers have titanium tweets and mids and my band opened for Zep in 1969, so obviously my opinion is the only one that matters. Ahem...the most recent version of Kimber's 8PR is the best deal out there. Period...no more discussion required...the end.

@rkfaberdds strange the Chapman website specifies the tweeters as silk dome and you’re stating they’re titanium…was this a mod? May be I’m looking at a wrong model?

https://chapmanaudiosystems.com/CurrentModels/T-7.html

One important factor to good sound is room acoustics. Room is a component of your system. I don’t see any mention of any room acoustic treatments. If your room is untreated you can’t patch up the brightness with cables. Just keep that in mind.
You might be embarking on a quest for impossible. 
 

For your speakers, Clarity Cables Organic are a great solution.  They have no area of weakness, and will make all other cable sound thin in comparison.  I have very transparent, detailed speakers with authoritative bass in VMPS RM40 BCSE ribbon speakers with all the upgrades except the OXO.  I found out about the Clarity Cables Organic from Doug Schroeder, one of the reviewers from Dagogo Online.  He has been using them for years.  Heard them at his house.  They would be within your budget at the selling price.  I got my 8 ft. pair for about $1500 including 1 ft. long CC Organic jumpers.  After break in, they have been virtually a perfect fit.  They are also open and have very good texture in the lower mids and below.

Bob

Have a look at Cable using PC Triple C Wire, there is a substantial improvement to be found using this wire, in my experiences if it in use on a selection of systems, it presents in a way that makes using the previous cables seem the unattractive option.

Usually thoughts go to what are all the options on PC Triple C.   

Been years since I’ve listened to AQ Midnight. Midnight was a pretty good cable for the money at the time but I recall it was great on the bass, but lifeless on the top; you can definitely do better. Being you have a ModWright Pre maybe read up on WyWires which Dan Wright used to use exclusively and recommend to his clients which I own as well. If you can find a used pair of the Platinum Series that’s what I’d suggest;,the Silver Series is still very good and will be far better than your current cables, by far. Real quick, WyWires are open, natural cables that just let the music flow and don’t draw attention to themselves. They’re pretty well known, but not a huge name so you don’t see lots of cables on the used market. Sometimes, Alex the owner has trade ins or show demos and will sell them… worth looking into. 
 

Don’t let the price fool you, but Canare 4S11 will be an improvement over your AQ Midnight. The Canare takes time to settle in so don’t rush to judgement. Good luck.

I was thinking, if you have them toed in so you can't see the inside surface of the cabinets, you might be getting too much high frequency energy to your listening position. Try toeing them out until they are firing straight down the room and see if you get a reduction in high frequency energy. It might help to tame them a bit.

For your type of music. A lot like mine and your system I would go with Staighwire Crescendos. Excellent cable for price and great bass. Including all ICs. 

I have played w speaker position.  As I have them toed ideally now for the central-image-3-d-sweet spot.  Not much else to do there as I have them as far away from the wall as I can get as well as a perfect equilateral triangle to my ears

@soix 

i responded earlier, but you may have missed my current cables are AQ midnights.  Current interconnects are Shunyata & AQ

Have you tried positioning your speakers differently? Maybe swivel them out a bit if you have them facing your listening position.

Clarus Aqua is interesting

I’ve seen conflicting opinions on Mogami forever on these forums.  I’m not sure what to think

I have Rouge Audio M180.

I use Thales - one of the best Investments I made. They were 2.5K when I got them, but still worth the Scratch @ 3.5K..  I did a Comparison with another Brand that was 12K. IMHO Thales was the better cable.

Thales Audio

http://www.aaudioimports.com/ShowBrand.asp?hBrand=30

Fidelium Cables - my next Investment, Maybe..

My pre-amp is an MW LS100 (with fancy tubes)

Amp is Rogue dragoN.  
Speakers are Chapman T-7 (4ohm, 90dB)

Thank you all.  
I’m reading and learning tons on here-I appreciate all suggestions.  
In the interest of building system “synergy” I read that one should consider wires from the same company throughout.  This is tough to do with many of the names here it seems.  Cardas and AQ would be fairly easy, but Cardas golden reference are only avail from a seller in Greece on EBay.  Their interconnects are avail but pricey.   This leads me to AQ and I’m already using their digital cables.  Their stuff is readily avail at numerous different price points.

+1 mogami

Sometimes you can find deals at Markertek .  I use them with these bananas.  Please plan to use the heat shrink to eliminate chance of shorts while installing.

Answer, courtesy of Google Gemini:

Wireworld Eclipse 8 Biwired Speaker Cable (2.5m/Spades): ($2,450) These offer pure Ohno Continuous-Cast copper conductors and OCC Silver Tri-Helix technology, known for clarity and detail. However, they might not provide significant high-frequency damping.

Kimber Kable Carbon 8 Speaker Cable (4.0 Meter - PM33 Spade to PM33 Spade): ($2,200) Features Kimber’s proprietary carbon-based conductor technology for a smooth, natural sound. Their "warm" presentation might offer some high-frequency taming.

Audience frontRow Center Channel Speaker Cable; Single: ($2,475) These cables utilize proprietary VSF conductors for detail and neutrality. Be aware, their neutral character might not emphasize high-frequency damping.

Venom-X Biwire Speaker Cable (Pair): ($2,500) These employ a braided geometry and silver-plated OCC copper conductors for clarity and dynamics. While detailed, they might not specifically tame high frequencies.

Some Cardas cables, particularly their higher-end models, are known for their warm and smooth sonic signature, which might be desirable for taming the upper frequencies in your setup. Some Cardas cables can be quite expensive, exceeding your $2.5k budget.

My answer: buy used.