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 >

I would have to agree with Sean about his comments on the Goertz MI-2's. I am running a pair bi-wired to my Maggie 1.6's and really have been very pleased with the results. Best-Gary

I have the ultimate way to determine how good stereo "stuff" is. My wife has great ears and moderate interest in listening. She also pays the bills and the agreement is that I can't buy anything if she doesn't hear a difference (with at least some positives). We've been doing this for many years and I have come to trust her less invested but more objective input. She loves our Quad 63's, partly because they can't go too loud but also because of the usual Quad attributes. We were running 15ft AT Dragon from a Sonic Fronteirs Power 2 which most would agree is up there with the big guys/gals. It sounded as one would expect, great. I happebn to know the guys who developed AP and had always been curious. I accept that bias could be seen here but my wife has never met these guys. We (I) ordered a pair to try and went through the effort to A-B the cables. It was actually one of the simpler changes to evaluate. The AP silver cable sounded better in soundstage which we had preceived to be excellent. Quads also tend to be laid back but the AP brought a new sense on "life" to the sound with a "reach out to you feeling" as opposed to "here I am, come on in." While they are incredibly cheaper, there value is incredible. They didn't blow away the Dragon but were significantly helpful that this was a no brainer. One previous writer questioned the bass and since the Quads are crossed over at @100 to Celestion 6000 subs, I can't comment but am curious. Having listened to many of the great cables, and frankly being able to afford, within reason, what I really want (read NEED), these are a real bargin that loses nothing that I could hear. My wife also finds them to act as I have described. And yes gentlemen, there are women in this world who actually listen to the high end and while not her favorite thing, she does love the music and tolerantly enjoys the stuff that makes the music. Well, there is at least one woman so there must be more.

This isn't so much going to be a rave about the AP Oval 9s as much as a set of observations. Since my experience with owning high-end audio gear is limited I wasn't going to clock in here, but DennyD's comments sparked some remembrances that might be useful. Because most of my funds had been spent on hardware (McCormack DNA-1, SF Line 1, Hales Revelation 3, CAL Alpha/Delta), the first cables tried were all low-end. One dealer set me up with a pair of AQ Type 4+ with brass spades. An impulse buy introduced a home made pair of 14 AWG RS MegaCable with RS Gold-plated spades. An ancient pair of heavy-duty Monster Cable from the old system were already in hand. The system was assembled with the AQ first and I was in music heaven because the new gear is so superior to what it replaced. Eventual experimentation with the Monsters brought out better bass due to the larger gauge, but the HF was trash. My guess is the patches of green stuff growing on them had an effect... The RS cable extended the HF, but everything was so thin as to be irritating compared to the AQ. Knowing this system was going to continue to evolve and soon be moved to another house I was reluctant to spend time and money auditioning a lot of cables. OTOH, the experimentation with cables encouraged upgrading, as did the desire to find a reasonable reference point to gauge future upgrades against. I knew the cables were a big limitation, so based on the great reviews, reasonable price and my gut feeling I bought a pair of AP Oval 9s. These replaced the AQs which were the pick of the litter up to that point. Immediately the sound was improved overall. There was greater clarity, detail and extension, better rhythm and speed. The background was suddenly darker and the music stood out on it more vividly. Sorry if that sounds like an ad or list of reviewer adjectives, but it was almost a night and day change. DennyD's comments reminded me of what the two people most familiar with the system (besides me) noticed about the addition of the Oval 9s. My best friend, a golden-eared wonder boy of a musician, who has sat through several afternoons and evenings of listening immediately noticed the darker background, increased detail and improved frequency extension. Admittedly, he knew there were new cables, so this was a less than objective perspective. He does have a well trained ear and knows music better than anyone I know. The best perspective came from my SO. This woman has season tickets to the concert series at a local winery and loves to sit up front "for full effect", originally said "you want to spend HOW much on a stereo?" and has since proclaimed it to be "just like going to a concert", remarked on the improvement before she knew the cables were installed. The change was that obvious. All said, the Oval 9 has brought a welcomed transformation. There was one down side, though. Now the tizziness of the stock Sovtek 6922s in the preamp is too noticeable, so they need to be upgraded to something better. Maybe that's not a downside after all!

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 >