Audiogabby I forgot about the Tellurium cables. My black speaker cables less than $400 used is very good .
Speaker cables with good timbre
As the title says, i would like to hear recommendations on a pair of speaker cables, copper, that have a very good midrange, imaging and truth of timbre or faithful reproduction of instrument sound. As i get older i started to realize i value those characteristics the most when i listen to recorded music. Thank you in advance.
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My posted system is very outdated. Most of those components are gone. To answer your question, the Argento's were clones, not originals cables. They did sound decent but i recently sold them. I just recently purchased the Xangsane SP 6008 off Ali Express and they are very good cables. I keep checking the used market for some of the cables recommended on this thread. |
I don’t know if your posted system is up to date, but if the higher level Morrow and Argento cables aren’t giving you what you want, what you are seeking is probably elsewhere in your system. I’ve owned the Forests and I think they are great speakers. But maybe try a pair of Harbeth SHL-5s. They have a very realistic sound on vocals and acoustic instruments. If you are insistent on cables, try Purist. I’ve owned the Poseidon speaker cables. Very natural sound. Only trouble for me is that they were very heavy and hard to put behind the rack. But the totems have low binding posts so it should be less of a problem. Good luck. Just one more thing- as Columbo says- are you sure your Argentos are genuine? I’ve heard the ICs and they were very natural sounding. Great cables. Too expensive for me, but great. |
Lots of arguing here, I'm staying out of all that. But have been happy with a few of the Veritas Cables I've picked up over the past few months. Relatively sane prices compared to the big name brands, excellent construction, appearance, and top caliber service too. I do use Signal Cable in a small bedroom setup I have. Those are very affordable and I would recommend them to anyone who "believes" in cables but doesn't want to spend much. |
@mglik , didn't you just start a thread about needing hearing aids? And yet here you are....Silversmith Feefeelium, 6k cables, cable 'timbre' n all...
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OP - I too am running Totem Forest Signatures and using Audio Envy's SP14 ribbon speaker cables made with OCC copper and an active ground. Good luck in your search. https://audioenvy.com/product/speaker/sp14/ N |
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DACs and cables. The biggest black hole money pit in audio. This is a merry-go-round I stay away from. Sort of interesting to start to read a thread like this until it becomes so tedious that my eyes begin to cross. So many people think that you must try a bunch of different cables to achieve that magic "synergy " we hear so much about. With all the different recommendations suggested about companies, most of which I (speaking for myself) have never heard, finding the right cable seems to become a daunting/impossible task. To be clear, I am not a cable denier. I am very much a sceptic. I have actually spent insignificant amounts of many on interconnects lately since I replaced some "mature" equipment in my system, I have kept them in place for just in case, even though I can't actually detect any significant difference. If you have the discretionary funds that you can afford to spend significant amounts of money chasing Nirvana, more power to you. I, OTOH, although I could spend significantly more than I have, choose to enjoy a more diverse selection in my golden years. Many will disagree, but that's OK. Just my rant of the day.
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imo, probably the best value in the lineup for the cost. Less grainy sounding than Parsec, or in my system at least. If you jump up to Cygnus quad wire it gets to be even more detailed. Clear Reflection has its own old/new design blended from Cardas with a tad more weight and richness I like. Standard Clear is exactly that. Some people who've never tried any of them love to jump in and report expensive cables don't make a difference. Cardas does. .Good, better, bad, or just different - in a transparent system there is truly a different result with each of these cables. Congrats on the Clear Sky X4. |
Hi audiogabby...thanks for your question, A reminder we are all on differing phases and stages of our hobby-pastime-passions. Having worked intimately with a small cable manufacturer, I look for similar tastes in presentation to mine. I suspect George Cardas and I would have a grand time in a listening session. Additionally, tonality - timbre...sounds as YOU know them, is always primary to my goals as well, audiogabby. My limited budget solution was buying a run of used Cardas Clear Sky X4 cables and retrofitting one end to bi-wired at the loudspeakers by Cardas. I also upgraded the 12 ends to forged spade connectors. Time has taught me the connectors can be AS or MORE important than the wire. Clear Sky | Cardas Audio (scroll to X4 Speaker) The X4 is a biwire design, however, the Cardas Tech cautioned biwiring the ends may not be appropriate for full range applications, particularly the deep bass. My situation was okay as I cut off the 80hZ at my pro Focusrite DAC, sending deep bass only to my RymiK L12 subwoofer. Above 80hZ, using SPDIF from the Focusrite, that signal is sent to my NEW Geshelli J2 DAC, running the most current AK4499 dac chip along with the terrific Sparkos 2590 op amps. Never has $555 been spent more wisely in my long hi fi journey. Wishing all our USA members a warm "filling" Happy Thanksgiving week! More Peace Pin (caps for old eyes) |
There are some many good cables to select from, and I recomend that you a select a few and try them your system with your music in your listening environment to see if its characteristics meet your needs and expectations. I would not buy any without trying them in my system. I have Kimber Kables and interconnects in my system and think that the mid range, imaging, soundstage is great. Although I have all types of music in my collection, my listening prefernce most of the time is jazz. Have fun and enjoy your system. |
@antigrunge2 great idea, taking it one step better - deleted my former posts targeted at one individual in response to nonsense. I have nothing to prove about cables, testing, or nice timbre or tone that Im listening to right now. After 45 years of designing/building speakers, I’ll say good wiring and cables can truly help a worthy system. My own driven cable journey restarted many times and ended with the best from George Cardas. All of the timbre and tone anyone could ask for. Best of luck to all on the journey! |
@antigrunge2 you are right, and late we moved on, at least I have. Enjoy the day. |
@decooney Yes I did, case and point. You should so what of the other two? Fair and balanced boy. |
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Don’t go into a cable section and call it snakeoil or this and that. If you do, you should get banned IMO. Naysayers don’t take the time to question whether the purity of the conductor matters or not. The type of conductor, the quality of the connectors and the solder process. The geometry. Thousand of different variations. How can a respectable person not take this into consideration. The connector by itself is a huge variable even though it's just a small part of the cable. |
@decooney you are funny. Not funny ha ha either. But I bet you got vaxxed. https://analysis.plus/downloads/ https://www.qed.co.uk/downloads/qed/soundofscience.pdf https://www.l-acoustics.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/RS2015-Cable_Effects.pdf |
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@squared80 if cables don’t matter, I want you to explain to me why my new cables have 70% less bass the first 12 hours of ownership. my speakers have 4 10-inch woofers with 4 dedicated internal amps powering each of these woofers, they are not bass shy. So when I say 70% less bass because of the cables for the first 12 hours, it is serious. Please explain to me why this is so or gtfo. |
@squared80 purposely going into a cable territory and saying things that square80 is saying deserves a ban. |
Not sure why people like you feel it's your goal in life to dump on people that make statements that you don't agree with. A brief look at your interactions on this site show that you have never started a discussion. All you do is post negative responses and scream that audio products are scams and snake oil. Pretty sad, if you ask me.
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My favorite speaker cables to this point are the Anti-Cables 4.2 Flex speaker cables. That said, my system is currently disassembled (building a dedication audio room), and I have acquired or built several new cables. I have a fun winter project, building DIY cables.......all using extremely high end Japanese cable (Oyaide PCOCC-A, Acoustic Revive Triple-C, Neotech UP-OCC, SAEC Triple-C, and Furutech OCC - Nano OCC - and DUCC-OCC). Getting all of that cable was expensive, and difficult as I had much of it imported from a friend who lives in Japan. But it'll keep me busy all winter; very excited to get them going. |
Put down the snake oil. Claiming certain cables have better timbre is just absolutely ridiculous. Science and quantifiable facts usurp all of your biased opinions, folks. No wonder being called an 'audiophile' has become insult when claims like this are still present in this community. It's embarrassing. It's almost 2025, people; get out of your parent's basement and go educate yourselves. Like honestly. |
I was not aware that timbre could be adjusted by speaker cable. I have about five different speaker cables but see no point discussing them since I would have no idea how they would affect timbre. You can try an affordable cable like Canare 4S11G(OFC) and if you're handy, finish them your self with several choices of solid copper connectors from eBay or just have Blue Jean knock off a pair. The bulk cable is $2.05 Ft at Performance Audio. OFC copper which is different than there regular 4S11 plus a high quality polyethylene insulation, about as low a dielectric constant you'll find in a cable. |
Recently on Agon I found a pair of Shunyata Research Alpha v2 speaker cables. Like wow. Here’s another set. If they will let you try ‘em. Please do! FYI asking price is very good too.. |
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if you're going to buy the speaker cables don't buy anything OFC that's the worst wire for audio, you should look at any company that's using OCC single crystal cables that is the best wire for audio proven for over 50 years, though there's many companies that have it like harmonic technology acoustic Zen, zavifino and many others some charge a lot and others are more reasonable like harmonic technology and acoustic Zen. |
Cable preferences are like assholes -- everyone has one! Throwing my hat into the ring here, I have used a full loom of Morrow "7" cables, MA-7 IC,s SP-Speaker cables. I liked them and they were a good value for the money. However, I then went to Shunyata Alpha v1 speaker cables and then Shunyata Sigma v.1 speaker cables, and they are just fantastic in my system. I have a full loom of Shunyata power cables, Sigma IC's and a Shunyata Everest power conditioner, so I am a fan boy. In my system and to my ears, they are exactly what you are looking for. Of course, cables are dependent on a lot of different factors relating to your components, so YMMV. But for me, Shunyata is great and highly recommended, as is the Everest! |
Indeed a lot of choices out there. I used the Morrow cables from the 3 to the 7, very good cables. I've also used Silnote, Siltech 330 and 550, Bogdan Ghost, transparent Plus, MAC Cu , some Chinese clones and even the Micca cables recommended by Mr. Hoffman. I'm sure i'm forgetting some of them. I will be trying some new cables after i come back from a Thanksgiving trip. I'll post my experiences then. |
I highly recommend Belden 5T00UP 10AWG speaker cable. Transparent, nice details in high and low notes. I diy it with Nakamichi banana plugs. BJC uses them too but you save about 50% with diy. Just a quick comparison on the critical parameters here with another DIY cable mentioned above: - CHeLA OCC, 11 AWG, capacitance (230 pF/?), DCR (0.00135 ohm/ft). $43/ft. - Belden 5T00UP BC, 10 AWG, capacitance (26 pF/ft), DCR (0.00103 ohm/ft), $1.89/ft, twisted geometry. Although CHeLA uses OCC, its capacitance is much higher (despite the unit length) compared to Belden. Note again, high capacitance in speaker cables can negatively affect audio quality by attenuating high-frequency signals and resulting in a loos of treble details and clarity. Both have reasonably low DCR (note that you want to stay under 0.01 ohms for speaker cable resistance in general). Part of the high unit cost stems from three factors: (1) copper material purity (OCC: ≥99.99% vs. BC: 99.9%); (2) OCC’s larger, more linear crystals; and (3) CHeLA being shielded, whereas the Belden 5T00UP is unshielded. Whether the significant price difference for copper purity, longer copper crystals, and shielding (which is unnecessary for speaker cables) is worth it is ultimately up to you. |
i would buy and make your own the GR research cable kits superior performance yet low cost ( a pair of 4’ are i believe less than $100! ) sure am glad in the automotive, M/C world there is no such as the $18K AQ cables! guys do not buy and shops do not sell things that are BS and do not work! |
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Sooner or later the audio industry might turn out to the natural sound and all current noisy and un-natural sound cables and audio equipment could be a junk. The only cable for future proof (with natural sound) is Wavetouch audio speaker cable which is only natural sound speaker cable. That’s right. All speaker cables (and audio components) sound un-natural like the left speaker and WTA cable sounds like the right speaker in below video . Test your speaker’s sound like below video. https://youtu.be/IHf_FSa8amE?si=Fd7ohsNVPKbIOcq4 Now listen to WTA speaker cable below. https://youtu.be/2ru4D-mOMdo?si=jZv4-Uudlg0A3l7j Alex/WTA |
@audiogabby Yes, JPS Labs cables are all made of "Alumiloy" or Aluminum Alloy. IMHO, the JPS Superconductor 3 speaker cables are some of the best speaker cables on the market, regardless of price (save for their top speaker cables, the Aluminata). But, you don't have to go any further than the Superconductor 3. That's how phenomenal they are. The Superconductor 3 has no shortcomings or weaknesses. Incredible bass and dynamics, rich, beautiful, neutral, natural tone and a super all-around performer at a reasonable price (especially pre-owned ). What more can you ask for? It’s pretty stiff, but I strongly believe that the Superconductor 3 is all the speaker cable that anyone could ever need. Amazing stuff!!! I also use one of JPS Labs’ top Aluminata power cables. I just can’t speak highly enough of the JPS Labs cables that I utilize in my audio system. Happy listening. |
Love the shmoose like you coat hanger dude. 