Hey, check this out, a cable comment!
If you have read some of my other dialogue/comments on other threads than you would know that I really enjoy the Audioquest brand of products for signal cables, speaker cables, power cables, and AC conditioners. So here comes the comment. I have owned the Rocket 88 speaker cables for the past year. It's a very good and very respectable cable that is not inexpensive at $1,200 for an 8' pair (relative to one's budget) but not too terribly expensive either (also, relative to one's budget). I just took delivery of a significant step up in the line, the William Tell ZERO speaker cable, which is $3,000 for an 8' pair. This is pushing the boundary of cost on speaker cable, for me. I had a good long listening session last night. I figured that I would be pleased with results. However, what I discovered was a level of improvement that went well past my expectations. It was rather awesome, to say the least. Some of you may want to think that I found the greatly improved results only due to my wanting to rationalize the added expense, or possibly some other explanation. I have been involved with quality audio products for many years and know better than that. If the product is not so good I won't make excuses to find any justification for my investment, I'll just move on. The bottom line is that high grade (and yes, more costly) speaker cable (and other types of cables) do indeed play a big role in overall sound quality. And, more importantly, in personal enjoyment of your audio system.
Now, does $65,000 for a pair of speaker cables make sense to me? Absolutely not. I don't have the rest of the system that would keep up, even if it does provide some added level of sound quality. And it's way out of my league and budget, anyway. I have always recommended to buy products that are a good relative match to one another. Even that, however, leaves plenty of room for placing your money how you best believe it will provide the best return on investment and maybe leave room for ad-on improvements at a later date. If you have the money, if you have the desire, and if you have the smarts to know where best to place your investment, then you should do as you wish.
Do enjoy the music.
