For once I agree with something jasonbourne has posted. Wires should not be considered tone controls. If you have a component that is too bright sell it! Attention should be paid to room acoustics as well. This could be part of the problem.
warmest speaker cables you've heard?
I'm looking for a short length of speaker cables, which i need to be as warm as possible..
Price wise, looking at USD700 and below for 1m length pair.
it'll be placed in between an Apollon stereo 1et400a power amp and a RAAL-requisite SR1a speaker adaptor box.
The SR1a is ruthless and clinical and I am looking to add as much warmth as I can.
Assume the rest of the gear and interconnects have been decided/cannot be swapped out. So just left with the speaker cables to sort out.
I've been told the following are good candidates:
Kimber 8TC
Tellurium Q Black II
Tellurium Ultra Blue
Anything else I should be looking at?
Price wise, looking at USD700 and below for 1m length pair.
it'll be placed in between an Apollon stereo 1et400a power amp and a RAAL-requisite SR1a speaker adaptor box.
The SR1a is ruthless and clinical and I am looking to add as much warmth as I can.
Assume the rest of the gear and interconnects have been decided/cannot be swapped out. So just left with the speaker cables to sort out.
I've been told the following are good candidates:
Kimber 8TC
Tellurium Q Black II
Tellurium Ultra Blue
Anything else I should be looking at?
119 responses Add your response
I put the cables outside for a week and the smell went away. After swapping out my Synergistic Research cables, I swapped in the Duelunds and the let them play and I found them exactly what I was looking for. Warm and deep without any high-end etch. I tried some other cables, Mogami and Kimber, but nothing sounds as good as the Duelunds to me. I'm running the 16GA cables and contemplating ordering the 12GA. But it sounds so good, I figure why mess with it? I felt like it did take some time for the bass to fill out. I've been sampling speakers for my system so I've heard them in various configurations and it's all been good. I would venture adjectives of warm and natural capturing the rhythm of the music. If you're one of the people that wants "revealing" and "extended highs" you might want to look elsewhere. Though they do that well enough that I have to put in my EQ on those troubling recordings that are too treble forward. So, it's not like they're rolling anything off. |
@docroasty Wow! You weren't kidding about the smell. I have them sitting outdoors to see if that goes away. I've stripped them down and getting a multimeter this weekend to figure out pos/neg and attach to plugs. At this point, I do want to see how they sound, but not sure they'll stay in the house. I told PartsConnexion they should warn us about that. |
@letch sorry for the late reply! I received the Duelund cables and sold them off a couple of weeks later. they were decently put together by the company I ordered them from but there was a rather strong smell from the cables, similar to machine oil.. it saturated my listening room and I decided they had to go. sound wise they were OK, nothing immediately stood out. felt they lacked a bit of low end punchiness. right now I'm using Tellurium Q Black Diamond and Atlas Audio Mavros Grun speaker cables. they're both very good, dynamic, not bright sounding. I pretty much blew my budget on these cables but upside is I won't be changing them out anytime soon. |
@docroasty we need closure on this anecdote! You ordered the Duelund cable and....??? |
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You are both wrong. The argument is senseless. There are many more design factors. Capacitance is more applicable to tonearm leads. There is no sense in educating you here because your response is ignorant to a post that is also wrong. If you want an accurate path, start by studying characteristic impedance and bandwidth. Download a simulator, then build 30 different cable types and report back. Else both of you will spend a lot of money, never be satisfied with a cable, and never discuss it knowledgeably. |
Your answer is to look for a lower Characteristic Impedance of the cable. The reason is beyond the scope of this answer but the way they conduct and reflect signals is completely different.
The Kimber is woven to lower self inductance. It's CI will result around 50 ohms. It will sound slightly softer than a twin lead type. Both Telluriums are horizontal trace pair ribbon. HTP ribbons are the worst configuration, high inductance, and the sound will really suck. The CI works out to be around 300 ohms and people who like them with an 8 ohm speaker are delusional. You won't tell any difference between the Telluriums. The Kimber is not really great, but that is your list. |
That capacitance albeit very very low, is the only characteristic that could possibly affect audio. This probably one of the most profoundly anti-scientific and outright absurd statements I have ever heard in a while. There is no scientific model that tells us that everything that could possibly affect sound is currently known … and there never will be. We have recently discovered that all the matter that we can perceive amounts to less than 10% of the total mass of the matter in the universe. In excess of 90% of the mass of our universe we are unable to observe, and in our absolute ignorance we refer to it as “dark matter” and “dark energy”. We know it exist solely because we can see it affect what we can see. What it is, we do not have the faintest clue. The idea that your 35 years in electronics makes you knowledgeable of everything that could possibly effect sound is pure fantasy. Your statement should read “That capacitance albeit very very low, is the only characteristic that I know of that will effect sound.” |
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@docroasty Not sure how this would translate to you RAAL headphones, but I’ve warmed up my sound by wiring a low value cap across the amp terminals. You can get a couple of inexpensive orange drop caps to see if it works and determine which value hits the spot. When you find a value that does what you want you can get a quality film cap. I used mainly 100nF and 47nF, but you can drop the value much lower if you feel it attenuated the tops too much. Top shelf 100nF film caps can be had for around $30 a pop. |
I bought the Kimber 8s based on a Roy's recommendation for my sensitive hearing. Like them for $300. They are much warmer than say Nordost but I have not tried everything. That said my friend Danny Richie is now offering a cable that will be well under your price and comes with a 30 day trial. GR Research. Assembly required. |
@adg101 thanks for the info and suggestions! Very useful. I have some wywires items (had the headphone cable, and have power cords on order) but have not tried their interconnects or speaker cables. This is turning out to be a nice discussion on speaker cables. Thanks, everyone, for all the input provided. I appreciate hearing from both sides. I placed an order for a short length of deulund speaker cables from partsconnexion and am awaiting delivery. I figure they were "cheap" enough to just give them a go. I am still going to get another one or two sets of speaker cables to try out. And I have a friend who is going to lend me his tellurium Q black ii. U guys are great! |
First cables are most definitely tone controls or there wouldn’t be so many successful cable companies on the market, and many 20+ years in business. There’s definitely a difference between cables unless one simply has a system that is not revealing, they have poor hearing or maybe just a bit hardheaded. Kimber makes nice cables but 8TC is far from a warm cable. As others have mentioned stay away from silver or silver plated copper conductors. Cardas and WyWires are both copper litz cables and tend to have an open, natural presentation that many call warm. Silver cables tend to be very revealing and some are great and some can sound a little cold. I think plated, at least my experience can sound a little harsh or fatiguing. If you drop Alex of WyWires an email of your system and what you’re looking for, he can build you a cable more on the warmer side… assuming you believe they’re tone controls. |
All speaker wires must come in the following temperature configurations:Maybe Tide should come out with a line of cables. 🤔 But honestly folks, if your system is a tad bright and you need warm sounding cables to ameliorate that, that will not take you back to neutrality. It's just a sideways move to make it more pleasant sounding, which is what the OP was asking for. All the best, Nonoise |
Hello, I get it. A lot of people do not know that Straightwire makes the cables for several high end headphone brands. If anyone company can help its Straightwire. Call Straightwire direct in Florida to ask them what you need. It’s bot about how much money but how to get the sound. This is a puzzle they can solve. Good luck. The Puritan 136 is 90% of the 156. At $1600 it’s a steel. That is info for the future. I know your focus is on the cables right now. |
If speaker cables color sound like a tone control, I would think you would have 4 or 5 different types of cable depending on the recordings you are listening to. Perhaps a brighter cable to get the most out of a very warm recording. Perhaps a warm cable to tame a bright recording. Or perhaps use a cheaper, neutral cable and tweak the tone control. |
