I just heard Nordost Valhalla as the link between a BAT VK75 SE and Avantgarde trios, Oh My. Where did my socks go? |
Riv3r: I have no experience with the Monster cables, but will suggest that you take a look at the OTA thread (search under OTA at the bottom of the first page of the forums). This is what I am now using and I have no desire to try other cables. It is that good. |
Hi Guys! Anyone tried the Monster Sigma Retro Gold speaker cables and Interconnect? I heard they are very good cables. As a friend of mine was all raves about it. He is running SETs too. My set up is: Sonus Faber Grand pianos, Cary CAD 300B Signatures Monoblocks (latest 15 watts version with Western Electric 300Bs. New, less than 50 hours of playing time) upgraded Wadia 2000 with digital volume control and Wadia WT 2000 transport. I now have MIT T2 Bi-wire and Tara Labs Master Generation II as interconnects. I'm planning to upgrade all my cables. My budget is around $1,500.00 used. |
Its pretty hard to beat Dh Labs Silver Sonic T-14 speaker
cable ( at its price ). It is about $4 a foot and does
everything well. |
Trelja,what where you doing in Tottenham.The only thing ther is F&P MFG and not much else. |
Brulee, whatever it is called is less important to me than you enjoying it. Trelj'a Pile, Stack, Row, etc. All are fine with me. I think I will start a thread in the music section soon that lists those CD's, updated every month. If others bought them and also liked them if would make us all have one more thing in common. I am happy that you are enjoying the OTA cable. Don't worry that it is cheap, simple, thin, or whatever. If it sounds good, it passes the most important test. I am actually not at all surprised by your reaction to this cable. It is just one more step down my "simpler is better" philosophy. Enjoy the cable, and be happy that you have found the joy, purity, and long term happiness that simplicity brings. |
I am proud to be an honorary paisano and to be in such good company.
I am with Dekay. The OTA kit of ICs and speaker cable is the best wire I have heard. It works with SS as well as it does with tubes if anybody cares. I will post more when I can get someone who can translate my thoughts into more comprehensible terms. Before you spend a bundle of $$$ check this stuff out first.
Trelja, how does Trelja's row sound? Much better than pile Don't you think? Thanks again, I love it. |
Leafs, I can use all of the "paisans" I can find on this site. My family is from southern Italy, which is the case for most Italian-Americans. The migration was from the late 1800's to the mid 1920's, when our ancestors came here to escape the poverty of the south. Of course, that came to a close with the immigration act of the mid 20's. There were just too many Italians, Jews, Polish, Russians, and Ukranians coming over. I am a third generation Italian. My father's side is from Abruzzi - Molise(Teramo and Campobasso), and my mother's side is from Calabria. My only regrets are that I didn't get enough of my father's genes(his 6'3" height, black hair, or dark skin). Toronto is an interesting, diverse, and wonderful city. Been there twice. I once was up in Tottenham, which is obviously a very different place than "the other side", which was what my grandfather called his homeland. Hope Brulee is proud to be a paisano. |
I ended up going with a 47 Labs OTA cable kit (speaker cable and IC's) and will post a review in the OTA thread later this week. |
Hey Trelja I did not figure you for a Paisano.The J in you handle threw me off.My folks are from Northern Italy and I live in the Toronto area,which is home to over a half Million Paisanos.Salute
Brulee is an honorary paisano.Both of you are good guys. |
Scaled back the percs to lots of motrin and am learning to type with my left hand. Doc says I'll be able to play the piano after the stitches come out which is amazing because ....
Thanks for asking about my injury guys, and no, I can't believe what I posted yesterday, either.Spent a lot of time listening to the Coincident speaker cables today and first impressions, even drug induced were right on: not just more dynamic but an actual increase in absolute volume level as well as comfortably listening at higher dB's. Soundstage is wider and deeper. The character of the Kestrel's hasn't been changed i.e. I don't perceive that the cables are "tone controls" but rather they are allowing the mighty 30 watts of the Music Reference RM-10 to do more work. for the first time I perceived what some of you may call "faster", a concept I never paid much attention to. However, on "Saxophone Colossus" Max Roach' drum kit has a more percussive effect and the electric bass on Bonnie Raitts cut of Chieftains "Tears of Stone" has more impact and tunefulness. Isn't that a remarkable CD? The opening bass line on Miles Davis "Kind Of Blue" let's you "see" the strings being plucked. All of this is hinted at on the DH Labs T-14 but there's so much more of it with the Coincident. Now I wonder how much better things can get if I replace the HG Silver Solution IC's with Coincident or Silver Lace. Oddly, I don't feel the need to re-position the speakers as I did when replacing the pre-amp with a volume control, and the improvement in sound here is almost as great.
Brulee, a "mensch" is more than just a good guy. He's someone who always does the right thing just because of who he is. Thanks again. And to all of you who have helped me a little further along this journey. |
Call Steve, he's a cool guy...also, there are audio forums on the Decware website where you can address your questions to the people who use Zens and similar equipment. As far as I know, RF is not too much of a problem in speaker wires because although the wire acts as an antenna, it does not get amplified (don't quote me). I've read some good reviews on devices to treat the speaker wire before it enters the loudspeaker, but am completely ignorant about the subject.
I have been thinking of making my own 'Psychic' speaker wire. E-mail me and I'll let you know what's on my mind...I dont want to get attacked because I want to save money and am creative...look what happened when I said I own a Technics SL-1200MK2 and am modifying it! |
Psychic: I live in LA and am a little concerned about one of the relatively unshielded speaker cables that I am considering. I had as hell of a time with lightly shielded power cords awhile back. Unshielded IC's dont seem to be a problem, but the PC's were. Wonder about speaker cable. |
Dekay, I have spoken personally with Steve. He knows his audio inside out. Talk to him. The only wire he sells is his silver plated copper interconnects, but he'll gladly tell you what works best for SETs. The only reason I did not buy them is because I live in Chicago Metro (nasty!) and they are unshielded. I chose Phoenix Gold instead.
As for sales, Steve is a renegade and does not care much for advertising, reviewers or the Voodoo. Which means I will drive to Peoria and buy his preamp sometime in the future. Says it compares to ANYTHING AT ANY PRICE. Cost? $895. Bueno. |
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Psychic: I could not locate an info specifically on speaker wire at the site, though I did not spend a great deal of time searching. I listed to one of Steve's first models (way outdated now) and he has an incredible product, regardless of the price. Have you seen his Personal Planer Speakers in the DIY section? They are truely outragious and I would love to build a pair someday (wish he offered them as a product). |
Thanks Trelja, I consider you a mensch, goomba kinda guy too. How ya feeling Kitch29? |
Brulee, a "mensch" is a Yiddish(Eastern European Jewish dialect) for good guy. You get to hear a lot of the words from other people's cultures in whatever area you live in. I get Irish, Jewish, German, Polish, Ukranian, Russian, Puerto Rican, etc. I get to teach everyone else my Italian. In my case the word for this would either be "paisano(paisan in South Philly)" or "campari(goomba in South Philly)". And Brulee, you are DEFINITELY a goomba. |
Hello Dekay,
May I refer you to this source?
Steve Decker/Zen SET amps (www.decware.com)
You will get a straight,honest, non Voodoo answer... |
Hi Kitch29, glad you like them. Sorry to hear about tenon or was that tendon? Sounds like you are enjoying your prettty recked condition. BTW, whats a mensch?
Stay in touch |
Kitch: When you start acting like Jerry Lewis, it's time to back off on the Perc's. What are you using the Coincident's with? Oh, and take it easy and let it heal properly. |
I got brulees coincidents today and you can't have them. I also got many millograms of percodan today which,BTW, has a very short break-in period. Yeah, after over 30 years of working with sharp instruments I finally cut a tenon, or was that tendon, in my hand. even with the drugs, I know from my stepped Noble volume pot they speaker cables are about 6dB louder, how's that for objective fat, err fact. you want bass, we gotcher bass, i had john williams playing spanish guitar music and thought my HT subwoofer was on. on a freaking guitar! course i'm prettty recked so stay tuned. the good news is i'll have lots of time to listen to music. easy there cornfedboy, i got the injury in my own shop. |
I am very very happy with the original Coincident speaker cable.You wont get any better for the same $.Can do worse for much more money. |
Trelja: I will ask Kevin about the ETA before I make a move. I have looked into DIY silver cable, but figured that by the time I got the balance right I would have spent more than the "store bought" versions |
Dekay, if you are interested in HomeGrown Audio's cable, I was told by Kevin that a lower priced cable is coming. Don't remember if the reason was increased production efficiency, a different manufacturing procedure, or what. If you'd like, I could dig up the e-mail, and pass the information along to you. |
Ray Kimber of Kimber Kable stated recently in a post that he is going to be developing a new line of cables designed for SET amplification. Something to watch for. |
PS: Any comments on the Analysis Plus Oval 12's and the Mapleshade cables with tube amps? |
Thanks: I had not considered the first Coincident cable and believe that MR. Blume bases many of his designs on tube amplification. The snag is that I choose not do business with my local dealer, so will have to look elsewhere. I have also been googling the Homegrown cable, but it runs from $775-$900. I could wait until my budget increases, but as I said before these cables will most likely end up in the second system (along with the SET amp) as I plan to eventually go to tube mono blocks in the living room system and then will be using much shorter speaker cable. I have upgraded my power cords, have Neuance shelving ready to install and am mailing the Bel Canto DAC in today for the 1.1 upgrade in a quest for "tight bass" (enjoyed the thread). I feel that I will be able to achieve realistic bass with a 300B based system if I continue this tuning concept with the speaker cable selection and perhaps some DIY bass traps. We'll see. |
Dekay, I can vouch for the great sound possessed by the Coincident speaker cables. I am in 100% agreement with Brulee. These cables do NOTHING wrong. So far, they are the best speaker cables I have had in my system(Apature Accu-Flow, AudioQuest Indigo/Midnight/Type 6, Axon 8, Coincident CST, Kimber 8TC, Stealth Silver FineLine Ribbon, Tara RSC). I would also suggest that you give the HomeGrown Audio Silver Lace speaker cables a try. They are on my list of things to try in the future. Very reasonable for silver cables. If they are anywhere near as good as the Silver Lace interconnects, they are an absolute steal. The Silver Lace interconnects seems to match perfectly in my tube based system. They come with a 30 day home trial. Another recommendation I have is the Silver Audio Symphony 48, but they are a bit expensive. Silky smooth, yet powerful and detailed sound. |
Hi Dekay, I use SET amps in my system. The original Coincident speaker cable worked very well with the Cary 805s and the Viva Sentesi. I have seen a pair of 10 footers go for $250. The bass is tight and extended with good sparkle in the treble. Good mid-range energy with a mid hall presentation. |
for your system i think best choice could be a xlo signature,reference or limited edition but very difficult to burn in |
Sutts: Thanks, but they are about a grand over budget if I remember correctly. |
Hi Dekay. Try the Coincident cables (new top of the line is TRS- Total Reference System). If you e-mail me, I will send you the e-mail of a current owner who is raving about them, and he's an Audiogon regular as well. |
