@mclinnguy Yeah. I’m finally getting the hint. I’ll try to get some pictures up in the virtual system in a few weeks when I get back there. While I’m loving the system, I’ve pushed it as far as the room will let it go as it’s our living room - smallish and compromised, particularly relative to some of the system pictures posted here, But, I’ll get some up.
Matthew Bond Audio speaker cables - observations
I had been using Silversmith Audio Fidelium speaker cable for the past few years. While I was satisfied with the sound, (on a value basis, unequaled in my personal view), I wondered if I could get a bit more. I also had some frustration with the connection to binding posts, and particularly the complications the jumpers added. They’re just difficult to manage behind the speakers - at least for me.
I had auditioned Nordost Valhalla 2s (I’m already well into the Nordost ecosystem) and liked them very much - and was ready to buy from my local dealer.
About that same time, I saw an add from Matthew Bond Audio (formerly of Tara Labs) and read up on his designs and called Matthew to chat with him about it (nice guy by the way). I decided to purchase a pair of GSC 36 cables with an agreement from Matthew I could return them if they didn’t meet my expectations.
The GSC 36s are more detailed, open, and fully fleshed out than any other speaker cables I’ve tried. Just fun to listen to and without any shortcomings I can identify.
To be fair, while I’ve auditioned near the top end of Audioquest, Transparent, and Nordost, I haven’t auditioned the very top end of those lines (Dragon and Odin 2, etc.), much less the wide variety of top end cables from other manufacturers. . Nevertheless, the GSC 36s are the best I’ve heard and are staying in system.
For those of you considering like options, these are well worth exploring. Of course, YMMV. For me - end game. I now have to wonder about his interconnects…
Showing 4 responses by mgrif104
@audioquest4life - the retail price of these is between Valhalla 2s and Odin 2s, but I was able to able to purchase them new for better than that after chatting with Matthew and I’m guessing you could do the same easily enough if you were interested. Best,
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I put a couple of pictures up. You can see the challenge in my setup. Itl sounds quite nice but it would be helpful to get the speakers out another foot or so. I’m still impressed with the Matthew Bond speaker cables. They really are stunningly good - to me at least. Now if I could just clean up the “spaghetti “ behind the cabinet. Best, |
As the speaker cables have broken in fully, they’re better than ever. So, I pulled the trigger and purchased a pair of Matthew’s Analog Reference interconnects. I’ll share my observations on those after they’ve settled into the system. They’re replacing a pair of Valhalla 2 interconnects which are fantastic - so my expectations are high. If the MBA aren’t better, I’ll either return them or relegate to a 2nd system but i expect they’ll be as good as the speaker cables. Unlike the speaker cables which are very easy to manage, the interconnects are a bit unwieldy, but i shouldn’t need to fiddle with them much. More to come. |