need your help flying blind.

The electrical characteristics for optimal / neutral performance from speaker cables has been pretty well covered in many, many threads in the archives. If you are looking for suggestions pertaining to personal preference with the speakers that you are using, that is another story.

As far as interconnects go, this is basically a trial and error process and will be component to component interphase specific.

Having said that, 16' is a long run for speaker cable. Both your wallet and ears will be a lot happier if you can find a way to reduce the length of speaker cable required. Sean
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SignalCables. They are very natural, revealing, well-balanced, and musical. Best of all, they are well within your budget. I use them in my reference system with my Audio Physic Virgos and simply cannot believe how good they sound (or don't sound). I can decipher lyrics and phrases I have never been able to catch with other cables, even much more expensive ones. Their power cords are well worth trying too. In particular, their High Current digital AC cord made a very big improvement in my two systems. Happy listening!

you could check out 47 labs OTA speaker cable/interconnect kit. Run a search for OTA and a long thread will come up. I believe it's about $600 new for 50 meters.

call up richard vandersteen, he is a great guy and can offer insight into what you are looking to acomplish with the speaker cable

he designs his gear around specific amps & speaker cables and such.

i would start there and ask other vandersteen 3 owners to what is synergistic with them.

in regards to a neutral interconnect....hummm.....what is your source, pre, and amp ? looking at your budget i would consider the:

xlo signiture 1 (very, very netural and transparent, can be a smige lean in the mid. outstanding bass and imaging. can be found used for $125 to $200 (they sell really quick)

discovery plus 4 ( similar to the xlo, but a shade warmer and nice mid bloom - outstanding bargain @ $150-$175 used)

the 2 above cables were originally $600/meter cables.

the coincident is nice, but the top is pulled back a smige.not bad but the all the other have more refined extension at both ends.

the straightwire sernade....awesome bottom end ( on par or a little better than the xlo, nice top and good imaging..nice bloom in the mid...has a "big-dramatic full" and dynamic sound. can be found for $175 used.

for speaker cables , check out the discovery 1-2-3 from discovery direct. the cable is TAS & stereophile reccomended. the owner is a true gentleman. if you look for reviews in discovery you will not find any bad press or remarks. i think you can start with a single bi--wire run and then upgrade to a shotgun config when you have some more funds-the differenc is dramatic.

mahollo from san diego,

mike

btw, sean in right on about the lenght.

is there a way to go less than 16 feet ?