Purist Audio Speaker cable question

I have an all Purist Venustas system right down to the tonearm cable, except for a couple of killer Purist Dominus power cords, and I love how everything sounds. Pricewise, Venustas has always been, and still is, the best value in the entire line; but they can be bettered if you can afford to spend more.

Purist cables are famous for their low noise floor or quiet back ground, how ever you want to say it. Personally, I think this is due primarily to the mechanical damping provided by their thick Ferox-paste-filled jackets and somewhat additionally to very sophisticated grounding conductor layout. And they also seem to create a more-than-the-sum-of-the-parts system synergy between themselves as you replace each leg of cabling with Purist.

I don't get the same sonic results as Stringreen, but I'm sure it's because our two systems are so different in their makeup. And I could comment further if I knew what equipment you had. So why don't you take a few moments and post your system? (pictures are nice, but not mandatory as far as I'm concerned ;--)

The Proteus cables are Purists only (I think) solid core conductor cables; and for ease of management, the speaker cable comes in two separate runs (+ and --) per cable like the Virtual Dynamics cables.

There are certain considerations when choosing speaker cable (i.e. making a short list) that are speaker-dependent. For instance, the solid core Proteus has the lowest capacitance of any of the Purist line (due to the solid core and the separated runs) making it ideal for driving electrostats. Around 14 ppf/ft compared with, say, almost all the Cardas (multistranded) cables which average around 300 - 400 ppf/ft! Which is why Cardas speaker cable (or any speaker cable with over 25ppf/ft) will degrade electrostat performance.

My Venustas (driving my ML CLS's) are almost as low capacitance (around 20ppf) as the Proteus, but because this issue is so important for stats, I A-B'd the Venustas with a demo pair of Proteus from Albert Porter, and (I (think!) the Proteus had the edge, but not enough to open my wallet that time ;--)

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Other than the Proteus Provectus, which has solid conductors, the rest of the Purist line (as you go up the model range) varies as follows:
1.) Conductors: total wire gauge (AWG = American Wire Gauge)) as caluclated for EACH conductor (signal, signal return, and ground) increases. This applies to IC's, speaker cables, and power cords.
2.) Conductor material: As you go up the model range, the metallurgy of the conductors becomes more sophisticated, eventually incorporating alloys of gold, silver, and copper in various combinations.
3.) Conductor topology: refers to the number of conductors (and insulators/separators) and the complexity of their arrangement within the jacket. Both increase as you go up the model range.
4.) Regarding the Fluid, Ferox, and Contego attributes:
a. -- Fluid (only,) makes the most managable cable (of the three) especially speaker cables and power cords. It provides good mechanical damping (conductors vibrate when they carry a signal) and (less important) isolation from airborne or floor vibration.
b. -- Ferox is a kind of 'paste' made of iron oxide, In addition to providing the mechanical attributes of fluid jacketing, it offers additional EMI/RFI shielding. The downsides are: heavy and not as 'bendable' as fluid alone, and the proximity of such a mass of iron-bearing material would have to affect the inductance properties of the cable. IIRC, some people who have extensive experience with both, say the Ferox cables are a wee bit darker sonically. Not an issue with my system ;--)
c. -- Contego: is a mixture of the two as I understand it, and presumably provides some of the features of both, i.e. manageabiliy AND shielding.

One quality all Purist owners mention, regardless of model, it the utterly SILENT background of PAD cables (most important with IC's of course.) I feel this is due to the way the jacket material absorbs (internal) mechanical vibration (from the conductors.) Further, the fact that the jacket diameter gets larger and larger as you go up the model line, is more than affectation, since larger conductors need more mechanical damping.

I still think the Venustas cables represent the most VALUE in the Purist line; in as much as it incorporates MODERATELY sophisticated conductors (both the metals, and the topology/layout) combined with enough jacket material to provide good mechanical damping and that super-quiet background.

Hope that helps in understanding the how/why of the inreasing complexity of the various cables' construction as you go up the model line.
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