Need Opinions for Different Cable Manufacturers/Cable Designs

Definitely add Acoustic Zen to your list.  If you bi-wire here’s a nice pair of their Satori cables at a great price and think they’ll do just what you’re looking for, and if they don’t work out you can easily resell them for maybe even a small profit.  I’d also highly recommend their Silver Reference interconnects that are very neutral/natural sounding and their Matrix Reference II that skew just a bit warmer.  The whole AZ line has a very natural/organic house sound that is cumulative the more cables you add.  Just another option, and best of luck.

https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/650129691-acoustic-zen-satori-shotgun-bi-wire-8-spade-pair/

Thank you - but I need 10 feet or 3m, and no bi-wire capability with Sopra.

kinarow1

... I'm looking to vastly improve my system with a complete cable upgrade ...

I think cables can make a difference - even a big difference. But I would not expect a cable upgrade to "vastly improve my system."

I've played with a number of interconnects.  The DH Labs Air Matrix are nice.  I'm currently using some out-of-production silver interconnects that I bought used on eBay.  I tried other silver cables that I didn't love, but I like these.

The cables that I won't likely change are the Fidelium speaker cables by Silversmith Audio.  

I use some Purist, DH, and Snake cables. I would seriously consider Snake. Outstanding customer service where they will properly burn-in the cables for you. Slower way to get them but plenty worth the wait. I have their boomslang AES between CD transport and dac and it has a non fatiguing clarity and naturalness that easily beats DH imo.

I have Mac 352 and I also like my music warm. I use acoustic zen absolute cable and it put me at end game. Warm natural and detail. Does wonders for bass too! 

 

Kubala Sosna Elation would be amazing.  They are much fuller than the Audience Au24SX I previously had and extrmely resolving.  Also easily bests the Silnote for me.

The Focal / MAC sounds like a great combo. I have heard them individually but not together. I would definitely recommend the best DHLabs you can afford in each category. I wouldn’t be too focused on the exact material components. In inexpensive cables the material determines the sound… but in better quality ones the overall design and construction dominates. Within DHLabs, I recommend the highest level you can afford. They sound better the higher tier… they have chosen the appropriate materials.

I haven’t done a lot of cable swapping, but I have heard enough to have a general impression of certain brands.  I like Audio Note cables—warm, harmonically rich and smooth sounding.  To get the kind of clarity you seem to want, their silver cables might do the trick, but the price is quite high even if you can find used cables. I use both their interconnects and speaker cables.  
Another brand with a similarly rich sound is Acrolink.  There copper cables have a bit more top end than Audio Note.

Of the brands you listed, I have heard, and like, Snake River.

For speaker cables, the Silversmith Fidelium cables sound very promising—detailed, but not harsh or thin sounding.

Thank you all for your comments. This is very helpful to me.

My experience with cables is that they can make a really noticeable difference, but I don' think I'd classify that difference as "vast".

I will say that one cable that sounds great in one system may sound horrible in another.   I love my GR-Research cable in my Xstatic-Krell rig, but it sounds really weak in my Totem-NAD system.   I found the Cardas Clear to be a good match in this system.   I really liked the Chord Epic Twin cables in with my Xstatics when I was running a PrimaLuna HP Dialogue Integrated with KT150s, but not once I upgraded to my Krell K300i.

This is all to say, that you have to experiment and listen to cables just like you do components.   Synergy is everything.   Buy new with return policies or buy used and resell what you don't like.   The good news with cables is that there are a lot of options out there and if you play it smart, there is very little financial risk.

Have fun and enjoy the music.

Buy used Audioquest Earth XLR interconnects, and JPS Labs Superconductor 3 speaker cables, and thank me later!!!  Happy listening.

You like a warm sound but you buy Sopras and now you want to fix it with cables. If a cable makes the Sopras sound warm, there must be something really wrong with that cable.

Townshend Audio F-1 Fractal cables are amongst the best. But you probably can't fix the Focal's bright tweeters except for using tube amps is my guess. 

You overlooked the best value of the bunch , the Wireworld Eclipse

they are not like everybody else , many for starters don’t all use Copper connectors  which is very important  for sonics as well as conductivity ,many use gold over bright sounding Brsss. WWorld use Silver over high grade copper. The wire 

is 6-9s pure Occ Copper in a straight Litz wire to avoid eddy currents ,

the comdilex dielectric is even better then Teflon and holds their patent.

the speaker cable can be ordered standard or biwire for it is very robust  awg 9 gauge , the interconnects similar geometric  and right in your budget .

I think what you pay for in a cable is to not hear it. 

To that end the Transparent product line is about as good as it gets. FWIW Wilson uses Transparent in their speakers. 

If you want warm and clear Cardas 

I know it’s not on your list but it’s tried and true

USA manufactured and great customer service 

At your price point they are all good it just depends on who you want 

to do business with

Good luck Willy-T

Some excellent cables mentioned above. If you want a unique cable design, try Paul Speltz anti-cables. His best cable, level 5.3 XLRs, are not inexpensive but don’t cost an arm and a leg either. Clarity, naturalness and dynamics are hallmarks of this design. I’ve owned Cardas Clear, Wireworld Gold Eclipse, and Nordost Tyr2 and the level 5.3 interconnects play in the same ballpark as these others. Paul does not advertise and relies upon word of mouth. Plus he has a fair return policy.

+1 for Acoustic Zen. These cables opened my eyes to the impact of good cables. I use their speaker wire and balanced interconnects, and I believe that they will deliver the natural sound you are seeking. 

I ended up buying RAMM Audio OCC cable and connectors. Fantastic cables and high quality connectors. I went with DIY but you can purchase assembled. DIY is a bit tedious since there are so many conductors but you save quite a bit. I’m very happy I went this route. 

Great cables in your list OP. I have had them all at one point and I am currently using Purist Audio Designs PC and Speaker and Analysis Plus IC. Works well for my system. 

I like a warm sound with lots of clarity and detail and naturalness.

You may have competing goals here. Warm and natural is one end and detail is another. I have heard your speakers and they are excellent and very detailed.

My suggestion - get a Schiit EQ and tweak the balance the sound to your satisfaction.

Like just about all of Hi Fi equipment, there’s good & less so for every concept & design & this is very subjective anyway. I really enjoy Triode Wire Labs products & sound excellent in my system. They’re hand made by a small company in NY, not crazy expensive & should be within your budget. They’re worth a look. 

Earlier this year I replaced my speaker cables and all of my interconnect cables with Audience Front Row pieces. A close second for me was Audioquest Thunderbird.  This all replaced the Tellurium Q Ultra Black I had been using for the past ten years.

Your comment "warm sound with lots of clarity and detail and naturalness" were the words I used in the journey to find IC's and speaker cables for my Marantz/Focal setup. Started with AQ (need to go very high in price), then DH labs (great value, however the Be tweeter reproduced a graininess in HF), now with Cardas Clear Reflection. Made a significant difference - detailed, yet full and without any grain or roughness in the sound. Made listening to the music, not the system, more pleasing. Yes - with your sytem cables will make a difference.     

I be heard your speakers connected with wirewoerld speaker cables. I forgot what model. The system is all esoteric gear. It sounds very good. Call usedcable.com ask for Steve he can guide you.

I've gone with Shunyata

I've heard cables should not have a sound but that being said Shunyata often describe as having a warm sound 

Great customer service

@kinarow1 I have a MAC amp and a pair of Revel speakers in a two-channel system.  I usually avoid proffering opinions on speaker cables and connectors in general because this is the best way to start a fight in an empty bar.  If by "looking to vastly improve my system" (emphasis on "vastly") you mean VASTLY improve the sound, you are not going to accomplish this with expensive speaker cables, unless you're using lamp cord now, have poor contact connection points, etc.  Using good quality, well-made speaker cables constructed with at least 12-gauge or thicker premium copper conductors in your system is about as good as it gets.  If this is not what you are already using, you should be able to find something like this from a number of reputable manufacturers, without spending an arm & a leg or sacrificing your first born (e.g.  AudioQuest; Monoprice; Kimber Kable; Chord Company; etc.).  If you live close enough to a or a number of high-end audio shops, they often have various brands of speaker cables that they will allow you to audition at home.

You won't make any difference, much less a "vast" difference just by using even the most expensive cables ( which is how almost everything is judged, by price). Expectation bias is real.

Buy anything that is OCC single crystal, out of that whole list Audience is the only one, there are other good companies like harmonic technology and acoustic zen that aren't overly expensive, OCC single crystal has been shown over 50 years know to be far superior to anything OFC on the market at any price.

+1 on Cardas

Morrow Audio

Focals (I’ve heard a few types, dug them) are fast/bright and kick butt. Treat room????

I, also would add Shunyata to the list.Try to audition first,at different price points.

I have Audience Au24SE speaker cables and RCA interconnects in my system. I'm also using their Studio One jumpers. The Au24SE's are, of course, an older version of these cables but I'm very pleased with them and not in any hurry to upgrade. Previous cables included Cardas Golden Reference, Clarus Aqua, and Analysis Plus Big Silver Ovals. The Audience cables offer me so much more of what I want to hear: richness without compromising detail and a quality that I especially appreciate: "composure," (for lack of a better word). What I mean by this is that there's a controlled presentation up and down the frequency spectrum that doesn't descend into harshness or brashness when the music gets dense or complicated. My previous cables didn't accomplish this anywhere near to the extent that the Audience cables do.

I've seen the Au24SE speaker cables used for under 1K (though this is for 1M lengths) and the current Au24SX ones going for between $1500 and $2000. (There's currently a 3M pair of these for sale on the "other" site for just under 2K). 

Hope you find this helpful.

The Cable Company has a library where one can audition cables so you can find the cables that fit your wallet and system. Happy hunting

Hi,

I am not an expert but can tell you that I went all in with DH Labs cables and my system felt bright, a bit tinny and lacking in depth. Then I tried just one Snake River Audio cable (the Boomslang SPDIF). I was literally blown away. Since then I have been slowly replacing all my cables with SRA. Surprisingly, changing the ethernet cables to SRA also had a huge positive effect.

The SRA power cables bring a sense of depth and calm to music. It is not like they add anything, rather they strip away sterility.

Oh, and I have the Focal Sopra 2s...

Kinarow1,

I'm not going to try and sell you on another cable line but I would take a serious look at Triode Wire Labs...

I've been using them for almost 5 years and love what they do, they should check all the boxes on your list.

I have used many cables in the past including Purist Audio Design and Snake River Audio both "Very Good" but you can buy the TWL cables for less than your estimated budget, and be very happy from my personal experience.

Check out some of the reviews on TWL and go from there.

Good Luck in finding your Musical Happiness.

Tom

I’m not saying don’t get nicer cables. But, unless your current cables are really bad, too thin, aren’t making a good connection or damaged, don’t expect significant improvements let alone “vast”. Any differences a cable can make, again, assuming there’s nothing really wrong with your existing ones, are very subtle. IMO anyone who says the differences between 2 decent quality, properly made cables is night and day, is exaggerating a bit. Just my opinion though. Having tried quite a few myself, from $150 to $3500.

I have come to see nice (expensive) cables as 98% cool audio jewelry. Nothing wrong with that. Just don’t expect huge improvements.

High value maybe bargain speaker cables:

• Silversmith Fidelium
• Kirmuss Adrenaline 

 Other safe quality SC options:

• Iconoclast
• Zenwave SCR-14/11

Learn about cable design here             
FYi- Silversmith will be offering interconnects soon, maybe available now             

@kinarow1 - take a look at Zavfino silver cables - they will improve your system greatly.

If you really want TOTL take a look at Hijari

Ask your question in this thread - they will be able to help

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/hijiri-users-thread-2

If you are more budget oriented take a look at Audio Envy - great cables made more affordable

Regards - Steve

Cables are like woofer coils. It's  copper and how much.  

My suggestion is that you don't spend your hard earned money on any set of cables unless you are able to first try them in your system. Many retailers will allow you to do this if you leave a deposit. Listen to each brand and go with the ones that sound the best to your ears. 

I currently have Kimber, Silversmith Audio FIDELIUM and Micca cables. They each sound a bit different but are well matched to my system. It is good to have a few different pairs handy because over time if your ears get tired of a particular cable, you can quickly change them up. 

The Miccas in particular are interesting because they are $40/pr on Amazon and sound awesome! 

PS, I agree with other comments that you dont need to mortgage your house on speaker cables because the returns will be de minimis. If cables are your thing, better to spend on interconnects because there is a much greater audible difference between low end and high end interconnects. 

Another vote for Cardas. Got the Clear Rev.1 for RCA and it blew me away. Tried some Clear reflection speaker . Not as good as Clear rev1 . Another one is Luna. Not very well known yet. But one of the best ratio price quality . 

Here's one. Get simple, affordable 12AWG OFC wires and you're set for life. That's all you need. Anything on top of that is pure marketing, and in many cases, the 'bells and whistles' some companies add on actually introduce noise. 

Choose science over snake oil, man.

I am not going to recommend a make, though I have Focal Utopia’s and what I use does sound excellent with them, but might push your budget because you don’t tend to find them used, for good reason.
What I do suggest is that whilst good design of experiment says "change one item at a time" the issue in most hifi cases is you will not see the full improvement until you have removed, or at least balanced out the bottlenecks though the system. I had bought an upgraded AES/EBU (within a dCS Vivaldi system) and a pair of same make XLR’s for variable output DAC to Vitus Power AMP. But was waiting on my Speaker cable upgrade and in the interim had been lent a pair of speaker cables from the same manufacturer but 2 grades down from the AES / XLRs.
Whilst the speaker cable made some improvement of the previous I was disappointed (less experience at that point) in the difference of swapping the AES/XLR’s in and out with against the ’basic’ Van Damme cables that had come with the dCS, However, when the speaker cable (and also actually a clock cable) were upgraded to the same level I could then hear a significant improvement.

So whether you home trial or find a dealer who has Sopra 2/3’s for an initial trial I would make sure you are getting them to either step up through a full system cable up grade, in either case start at base with your cables or same level if at dealer and then:

1 Increment speaker cable

2 Increment XLRs

Repeat loop until no further improvements, or you don’t trust yourself with the price increase on the next one.... but you will still have to know.

Of course according to naysayers it will never change and according to the (sometimes correct) diminishing returns fans it will reach an asymptote.

However, one situation that can confound the asymptote is when there is a change in for example the dielectric in an upper level cable. Then that can (and IMO and all who have experienced it in my system does) produce a bigger change than the still appreciable increment of those lower down in the range.
Happy testing.

OP

For affordable OCC copper cables, look at Zavfino....excellent copper and geometry and affordable. Also Anti-Cables Flex 4.2 are excellent and reasonable

I am also going to mention taking a look at some of the brands that @kennyc mentioned - Iconoclast and Zenwave. I do also use AcousticZen Hologram speaker cables as well and am impressed with their musical and open presentation.

While design is critical with cables, I have come to believe that using UPOCC copper and silver can really improve sound quality. I had some Iconclast TPC interconnects and recently compared them to their UPOCC cable (same exact design, just different copper) and the UPOCC was definitively better.

I also have recently had the opportunity to listen to a new Zenwave all UPOCC silver interconnect and it is a keeper. Dave at Zenwave is great to talk with and can guide you through his whole line at different price points. He is very focused on making great cables at different levels using the best quality cable and connectors he can.

I have tried most of the best cables in the industry. Too many to list and most of what has been mentioned here. End game cables are made by Inakustik. A German manufacturer that has done a lot of research whose designs have been proven in recording studios throughout the world.