I realize that there are Far better (and much more expensive) cables than I have made or use, but I must brag about the Cat5e cables made of 27 pairs braided together. There has been much commenting on these through the years bother positive and negative. The resistance is Extremely low and when I first plugged them in on my system I had left the volume at a comfortable level and just turned to power off. When the power was reapplied I noticed AT LEAST a 3db if not much more volume increase (not power but volume). When testing the Inductance when measured these roughly 10ga cables to have an inductance that is almost immeasurable on a quality device. The Capacitance is slightly above what is considered normal but not nearly as much as some of the most expensive braided cables currently on the market. Braiding has become a norm in our current world and though NOT 27 pares braided together there is precedence for the tech.
I did replace e those after about 10 years of enjoyment and settled on Cardas 101s. These are a very well respected speaker wire and very inexpensive for the quality. There is a store somewhere in or around Chicago that sells Cardas 101 by the foot. If you are not trying to integrate $100k worth of stereo equipment I would strongly recommend these simple cables. Cardas has some of the BEST copper in the industry and these are designed on very basic and knowledgeable standards.
@jtcf Dave at Zenwave does indeed make some amazing cables. One of these days I need to try his speaker cables in my system. I am super impressed with his ic's and his pc's.
Current and best speaker cables I have heard are Shunyata Research Comp Sigma 2. Before that I had a pair of the Sigma 1 and before that Cardas Clear Beyond. Both the Cardas and Sigma 1 were very good but the Sigma 2 were better in my system.
I read that Magnepans love power and got the idea that ‘bigger might be better’, so I got 8AWG cables, 10ft each, as an experiment.
They’re 100% OCC copper with a 400-something strands with a micro-coating of silver.
I had already been using 10 gauge OCC copper, so I didn’t expect much, but they sounded noticeably better, and sound fine on all of my other speakers.
I’ve read that some amplifiers expect a certain resistance load and that over-doing it with the cable-gauge can cause problems, but have no issues with a Nakamchi PA-5.
Of course, these aren’t name-brand big-money cables, but I did pay attention to the quality of the metal.
If you have mono blocks, the best I have owned were the Audience FrontRow speaker cables. I no longer have mono blocks so I am selling them to get a longer FrontRow speaker cable.
Best depends on your speakers and electronics. For my Wilsons with Conrad-Johnson's best tube amps it was Nordost Valhalla until I heard the much fuller sound of Wireworld's Platinum Eclipse 8. Really enjoy having both the detail and the richness.
The worst cable I ever had was a Kimber 8TC. In whatever system I put it, it was as if someone threw a blanket over the speakers.
The best bang for the buck is Nanotec Music Strada G.S. #79 nano 3.
The best cable I’ve had is the Acrolink 7N S1400 Legenda.
I have had similar experiences with Kimber… it has been a couple decades… but after trying several different levels, I finally gave up and tossed it all..
A few people are non believers in cable differences. But my wife who was not even sitting in front of the speakers heard a distinct difference. One cable I had was audio quest type 9. The song I was playing she said sounded too sharp. So I said hold on a second and switched cables to the blue jeans 10 gauge. Same song, same level, and she asked me what I just did. It sounded less sharp. Now, that’s a blind test, cause she wasn’t even really paying attention, but she heard a difference.
Not everyone is going to be able to hear a difference between cables for various reasons, such as system resolution or inconsistent evaluation conditions. Some audiophiles simply can’t hear exceptionally well or do not value the subtleties of realistic musical reproduction. On the other hand, having owned a wide cross section of various cables and technologies involved, I have only ever heard serious improvements from the cables that actually offer more than just another wire design. Transparent and MIT stand far above anything else I have ever heard and by a considerable margin… the latest designs of which have improved significantly over their original offerings. The difference is listening to music vs experiencing the music as if you were in the presence of the performers!
In France we have WhyNot cables, which are BY FAR the very best speaker and power cables I know about. They will beat almost any high end audiophile cable. The cable is handmade and uses active shielding.
I've had StraightWire, Kimber and Morrow before reading Roger Sanders' article about the right cable for electrostatic speakers. It's not about cost, it's about the correct design for the application. After reading it I bought and terminated Mogami 3082 coaxial cable for my Acoustat 1+1 electrostatic speakers. The results were stunning and not subtle at all. It was the equivalent of buying a new amplifier since there was now much more transparency ,a lower apparent noise floor, markedly increased detail, better dynamics and a really good feeling in my wallet because the cable cost $1.30 per foot! If you have electrostatics you should only be using coaxial cable. Sanders writes that coaxial cables present both low inductance and low capacitance to the amplifier, which is what is needed for ESL's. I have had the same system for 40 years (Mcintosh MC60's/Acoustats) and this was the biggest change I've made. Please give it a try. It will cost you about $35.00.
P.S.
I told another Acoustat owner about this and he experienced the same improvement.
I saw a MIT guy for many years. Upgrading them from time to time. Then i bought a used set of Nordost Valhalla 2......Boom!!!!! Changed evevrything!!!!
I had MIT, Transparent , Luna. The latest I got was Transparent Ultra. It made the sound much closer to live studio than anything I hear before. My dealer (not sellingTransparent ) was also shoked. I got them used , bi wire.
After many years of various speaker cables, I’ve settled on Analysis-Plus Solo 8 copper crystal. Straightwire Crescendo is very good, slightly warm. And XLO Reference 5 a great used bargain but quite stiff. I own and use all in my systems. The Harmonic Research Pro 9 , 9+ is neutral and deserves mention as well. All can be found used but for less than $1k. which is where I "play".
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