Speaker cable upgrade please help........


I am very happy with where my system is today but I still wonder if I am hearing everything it is capable of. Do the Audioquest cv-6 24dbs speaker cables I am using allow me to hear what my amplifier and source are capable of? I have coughed up the dough on some nice interconnects going between Acoustic Zen Silver Ref II and Audioquest Cheetah 36v dbs but have kept my speaker cables through several system upgrades. I love the sound I have now and wonder if a move into one of the following would provide much improvement. I am looking at the following: Audio Magic Sorcerer, Coincident TRS or TRS Extreme, Audioquest Mont Blanc or Volcano, Audience, others I should be considering? I have been hesitating on this upgrade because I know there are two schools on high end cables. I know of audiophiles who have $10k in speakers and really nice digital and amplifier and use home depot speaker cable. I also see those who go crazy and spend as much on cable as on the components upstream. Thanks for your much needed help.
nicksgem10s

Showing 2 responses by rsbeck

I'm curious as to why you suspect your cables. If you're happy with your
system, I wouldn't upgrade anything. But, if you're unhappy with your
system, I think it is a real leap to automatically suspect your cables of
"cheating" you of performance the rest of your system is
"trying" to give you. How do you know it isn't your speakers?
Speakers have a far more complicated, far more difficult job to do than any
speaker cable. A cable only has to carry signal, a speaker has to try to
recreate musical instruments -- yet you say you're committed to your
speakers, will never change them, but are ready to change your cables. How
about room treatments? The room itself is likely adding measurable
distortion. Do you have distortion measurements on your cables? Any other
measurements? What, specifically, do you expect to solve with new cables?
Any hard evidence that your cables are causing any problems? Someone said
that the more you spend on your system, the more cables make a difference,
but that sounds more like the repetition of a sales pitch to me. In my
encounters with owners of mega-buck [$100,000+] systems, the common
theme seems to be that even in such systems the differences between cables
is extremely subtle. I'd be willing to bet that the same amount of money
spent on an hour or two with an acoustical consultant and some changes in
your room, speaker placement, etc. would give you ten times the bang for
your buck as changing speaker cables or interconnects. Upon solving an
acoustical problem, I've never heard anyone say that the difference was
subtle. Finally, on what information will you base your buying decision?
Impedence matching? Do you want cables with high capacitance or
inductance? Low? Based on what others recommend? Price?

Just offering another perspective.
I can help you, Cables are not directional and cables do not "burn in." Amazing Randi has a standing one million dollar challenge to anyone who can tell the difference between a cable that has been "burned in" versus the same cable without the "burn in." It remains unclaimed. Don't buy the hype surrounding cables. Ask questions. Hook up your cables in both directions and see if it sounds different to you. If it does, put them in the direction that sounds best to you. If they do not, then you've discovered something about the myths surrounding cables.