How Good are the Analysis Plus speaker c

I've just run in a pair of Oval 9's ( copper ) for appr. 500+ hours. I was told by a salesman at Audio Advisor that these cables sound horrible out of the box and take quite a while to settle in. I would agree. Out of the box, they literally SUCKED. I wanted to remove them instantly. This is exactly what the salesman also said his initial reaction was in his system at home. After appr. 70 hours, i could hear some slight changes for the better. 150 hours brought better performance. 200+ hours made them almost livable. 500 hours later and they might work if you've never heard what really good cables could do for a system. I have to admit that they did come a LONG way though compared to how they started out. I took them out and replaced them with a set of my Goertz MI-2's from another system. Almost instantly, the music, soundstage, life and especially the bass came back into the system. Two others outside of myself all agreed that there was no comparison and that the Oval 9's literally removed the "feeling" from the music. My girlfriend, who is no audiophile, was not in the room when i swapped cables. She could tell the difference within 10 minutes of playing time without ANY prompting from me. She too thought the Goertz stomped the Oval 9's without question. Keep in mind that results vary from system to system and personal tastes mean a lot. In this specific system, they didn't do very well. I do have to say that they did do some things quite well, but the negatives FAR outweigh the benefits. Needless to say, mine are going back. This is not meant as a flame or troll, just stating my personal experience to show both sides of the coin. Sean >

As mentioned before, everything is system dependent and up to personal likes & dislikes. I do have some comments though. Audio, like anything else, is a relative thing. If you've been walking from place to place, a Yugo is a nice car to own. Once you start driving a Chevy or Ford, that Yugo doesn't seem so nice anymore. The Chevy or Ford would then pale in comparison to an Audi, Lexus, etc.. as your experience and knowledge of the subject grew. It's all a relative thing. Unless you've truly tried dozens of cables in the exact same system, your point of view is going to be limited to your experiences. This is not to belittle anyones opinion or experiences. It is meant to simply keep things in perspective. As to FPeel's comments about his preamp tubes sounding "tizzy", i would simply comment that maybe it's the cables aggravating the situation and not a real problem with the tubes. If the problem doesn't exist with other quality cables, then either everything else is REALLY crappy and doesn't reveal the problem or the Analysis Plus cables are miles ahead of everything else. My experience with a system that was known for sounding warm and full with several different speaker cables in use was that it became overtly tizzy and thin once the Oval 9's went into the system. Since they are the only cables that have caused that problem other than some very inexpensive cables that used lower grade materials, I would call them the culprits and not something else in the system. The less expensive cables were not as severe in the problem either. This may be an isolated incident, but at least i have compared MANY other cables within that system to base my judgments on. Sean >

FPeel, I'm sorry if you thought i was singling you out. I didn't mean it that way at all. The "theory of relativity" comments were meant in general and not to anybody(s) in specific. As to the specific comments about FPeel's specific situation, I have spoken to others that have had similar problems with these cables and was kind of offering this as both a comment to the discussion and a suggestion as to what may be a different line of thinking to you. I hope that you did not take offense to this. Sean >

I'm in the same boat as you are Carl. I didn't have much luck with it here. One point that i would like to mention though is that, according to the Goertz literature, it too can reproduce a square wave. The difference in their literature is that Goertz uses direct comparisons to high grade Litz / braided type wires in their literature whereas the Analysis plus does their comparisons to a "solid 12 gauge wire that is round in configuration". Nothing like "picking and choosing" your reference points. Sheesh, compared to a Briggs & Stratton, a 1962 VW Beetle motor seems like a power-house. I would also like to ask that, if their "hollow oval" design is the cat's meow, why don't their silver cables use the same geometry ? Those are stacked on top of each other ( like Goertz ) instead of being of the flat coaxial design that the copper uses. There's something to think about. Why make all the hoopla about something and then NOT use it for your top of the line product ??? That should tell you something right there. Regardless of all this, i am a firm believer that there are major differences from system to system and personal taste is the bottom line. Buy what works and sounds best to YOU. After all, your the one listening to the system. >