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Using older cable in new system? Need advice...

Hi,

I'm in the process of refreshing a system that I originally bought in the mid to late 1980's and need some cabling advice.

I sold my Vandersteen 2C's on Audiogon and will likely replace them with either Quad 21L's or Totem Arro's. I have a SOTA Sapphire (currently being refurbished at SOTA) for analog and just purchased a Music Hall 25.2 CD player for digital. My amp is a PS Audio Elite Plus integrated with 70 watts/channel. I also have a Tandberg tuner.

My 20-year-old speaker cables are Monster Cable Powerline 2, which was "pretty good stuff" back in the day. Should I keep on using it? Is this something that deteriorates over time? Also, in my new, much smaller listening room, the lengths are way, way longer than I need... would I want to have this cabling resized at a dealer?

Thanks for any and all enlightenment you can offer!

Peace!
rebbi
9 responses Add your response
mrtennis
3,295 posts
 
components do not know the difference between old and new cables. if you are satisfied with the performance of your stereo system, why change anything ?

if you have some concerns, experiment with cable and borrow cables from all sources accessible to you.
philjolet's avatar
philjolet
2,306 posts
 
Chazro
I have some Tera Pandora S ICs from the late 80s. These were top notch back then costing over $300. They still sound nice with a full tone and nice detail but my $380 Audio Note AN V cables easily are more open, detailed and revealing without some of the colorations the Tera has. If you wanted more of a full sound the Tera might be preferred to the AN V but otherwise the AN V easily betters it. BTW the AN V is the bottom model Audio Note offers for ICs...
chazro's avatar
chazro
635 posts
 
Original poster stated he was using old Monster cable, I think it's a no-brainer to recommend to upgrade to something newer and better. But...what if you're using what was considered to be an excellent cable back in the day, namely, MIT Music Hose?? I have a pair of DH Labs top of their line speaker cable in a bi-wired configuration. I was using them by themselves on my Spendor S100's which happen to have triple binding posts so I decided to throw in the MIT's (single-ended) solely to the woofers and use the DH for the mid and hi. All I can say is bass performance improved in EVERY way. But this thread got me to thinking about how highly rated cables from back in the day would be rated TODAY?
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woodman
152 posts
 
A while back i was at a freinds house who had a decent set up albeit like 15-20 years old. Klipsch Heresys etc. I looked at their cables and mentioned that newer cables would help. They thought I was crazy. So later I took some newer ones I had used but replaced. After hooking them up they could not believe how much better it sounded. I made them a offer they couldn't refuse. Nuff said. As for speaker cables I have gone through several over the years. And am now using Anti Cables at $10 ft/pr. I replaced a set that retailed for over $800.
philjolet's avatar
philjolet
2,306 posts
 
everyone has an opinion, I feel upgrading your cables is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to upgrade your system. I would buy cables on Agon try them out and sell them if you do not like them. If you use the Cable Co you will end up paying full price for something that could be had on Agon for about 1/2 price, otherwise they are terrific.

Cable has come a long way since the 80s.

I recommend Alpha Core Goertz MI2 Veracity as the best cable in the $200 price range, another good choice is Kimber 8TC which is a good all around cable but the Goertz is lively with better tone IMO. I bet you would find either is much better than the Monster cable.
audiofeil
4,011 posts
 
Spend as much money as possible on components and do cables last.

If you have some extra dough, upgrade a component.

You'll get more bang for your buck than you will investing in wires.
eweedhome
227 posts
 
Rebbi - Islandmandan is exactly right. I was in somewhat similar shoes as you some time back, and tried buying cables based upon recommendations on Audiogon and elsewhere. Even buying the stuff second hand on Audiogon, I blew a lot of money on highly recommended cables, and stuck with some of them longer than I should have because I put too much stock in other people's views. Then I started working with The Cable Company. Their schtick is hard to beat--you get to try the stuff out for a while before you decide. I ended up finding that a lot of the favorites were too bright for me, and I use Cardas Cross throughout my system now. It's not the fanciest Cardas cable, but it's very even-tempered. The Cable Company helped me get there.
samhar
1,048 posts
 
Go to needledoctor.com you can see prices for Audioquest and Kimber Kable then go to used speaker cables on Audiogon, there are good deals to be had! If your willing to spend 2-400 you will improve your sound more than you imagine. The I/C from CDP to PRE is also an important upgrade, maybe more important!
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islandmandan
1,260 posts
 
While the Monster Cable may sound good to your ears, I think you may be very surprised to learn how much difference cable upgrades can make. The best advice I can give you is call The Cable Company, ask for Steve, and consider his recommendations. You can audition cables at home, for a small fee, and see first hand what works in your system. You will get a thousand different suggestions from us A'goners, but hearing is believing. If you decide to purcase, the audition fee is applied to your purchase.
I think that is the best way to go about cable upgrades. You can drive youself nuts about it, so many options.
Also, many A'goners recommend Signal Cable Company, supposed to be excellent cables at a budget price.

Best of luck,
Dan
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