What cable companies make the best cables and sell them directly?

Anti Cables for fun and Triode Wire Labs cables for music

WyWires. Very neutral and plays well with others. Not a big name so on the used market they are a great buy.

Hi Everyone,

I am enclosing the updated spreadsheet reflecting the additions to the suggested Direct Cable Company list.  It includes the added information up to this date, 7/31/2022.  I will follow up with the new submissions as needed.

I especially would like any who read this list to please add your cable agreements. Just a short note  “+1 Company XYZ”  if you enjoy what you are using that is on this list.  It would be most helpful to all.

Thanks again for all of your beneficial advice.

COMPANY                                                    
                                                    
Analysis Plus    1                                                
Anti Cables    1    1    1    1    1    1    1    1                    
Art Cable    1    1                                            
Audience    1    1    1    1                                    
Audio Art    1    1                                            
Audio Envy    1    1    1    1    1                                
Audiolund     1                                                
Audio Sensibility    1    1    1    1    1    1                            
Audiomica    1                                                
Auditorium23    1                                                
Benchmark     1                                                
Black Cat Cable    1    1                                            
Blue Jeans Cable    1    1    1    1    1    1    1    1    1    1    1        
Cable Company    1    1    1    1                                    
Cerious Technology    1    1                                            
Chin Audio Labs    1                                                
Chroma   1                                                 
Cullen Cable    1    1    1    1    1                                
Custom House    1                                                
Darwin    1    1                                            
DH Labs Silver Sonic    1    1    1                                        
Dueland    1                                                
EWA Cables    1                                                
Gig Harbor Audio    1                                                
Grover Huffman    1    1    1    1                                    
GR Research    1    1                                            
HaveInc    1                                                
High Fidelity    1                                                
Iconoclast    1    1                                            
Jena Labs    1    1                                            
Lavri Cable    1                                                
Mad Scientist Audio    1                                                
Morrow Audio    1    1    1    1    1    1                            
Purist Audio    1    1    1                                        
Raven Audio    1    1    1                                        
Requisite Audio    1                                                
Sain Line    1                                                
Shindo    1                                                
Signal Cable    1    1    1    1    1    1    1                        
Silnote Audio    1    1    1                                        
Silversmith Audio    1    1    1    1    1    1                            
Sommer Cables    1                                                
Stager Sound    1                                                
Tempo    1                                                
Townshend    1                                                
Transparent Cable    1    1    1                                        
Triode Wire Labs    1    1    1    1    1    1                            
Wavetouch    1                                                
Wisdom Cable    1                                                
Wywires    1                                                
Zavfino    1    1    1    1    1                                
Zenwave    1    1                                            
                                                    

Have bought a couple of ethernet cables this week.

Freedom Cat 6 copper from Pete of Triode Wire Labs.

A nice guy to deal with, and a reasonable price.

Was also looking at Mad Scientist and Sablon.

+1 Audio Sensibility

If you have DIY skills, this listing is quite incredible. I have no affiliation with it, but if I were to buy this I would split this up into six 1M pairs and just buy the connectors. Could be a full loom for an incredible price. 

And so affordable...

+1 on DH Labs. Just got a pair of DH Labs BL-1 Series 2 interconnects used. Two pairs for $85 shipped!

I originally had DH Labs White Lightning interconnects based on the recommendation of a local dealer whose ears I trust. The White Lightnings sounded better to me than the entry level Audioquests from their Bridges and Tunnels line of cables. The BL-1s are a noticeable step up from the White Lightning in terms of sounding more transparent and conveying air and ambient cues in the music. If I ever get bored, I might try some more expensive interconnects, but I'm mighty impressed with the DH Labs BL-1s.

sain line systems makes some of the best cables I've ever heard.

Excellent power cables and the silver ribbon interconnects are really something.

https://sainlinesystems.com/

Some really great info here. 

Jena labs 

I've liked DH Labs. Using Black Cat / Graceline and like that best -- all kinds of price ranges, starts at $299 I believe.

If you want forgiving cable, Triode Wire Labs. Once I upgraded electronics, I found that TWL wasn't the best fit, it was a bottleneck.

@firstonetallguy I second just about everything ghdprentice has to say. That said, as I’m late to the party, I’m very surprised nobody has yet mentioned DH Labs Silver Sonic cables. They sell direct, and they engineer and build their cables and connectors in the USA. Many of the manufacturers you listed in your spreadsheet are using other manufacturers’ cables like Belden, dressing them up in fancy jackets, and adding 3rd party connectors. They’re not really engineering the conductors, dielectrics, connectors, ie the entire cable to perform a certain way the way DH Labs does. This is no way to imply that DH Labs is the best, but they ought to be worth looking into, especially at their price points.

Anticables, good AC cables

Audiosensibility cables must see and listen

Another vote for Silversmith Fidelium.....

"audiolund cable" makes very good cables in many price category.

Add one more for Anti Cables.  I have a very rough setup in that I need 48' cables to my speaker when I moved into my current house..  They were an improvement to my old, more expensive, 10' cables even though they were that long.

I spoke to the owner about their design, and what he said actually made scientific sense.  I don't want to get into the details because he spent a lot of money getting expert help to improve his cables.

There are probably better ones out there, but not at this price.  And there are many, many more that are worse and much worse.

For me cables do make an audible difference, but I am a big believer in "Bang for the buck" cables.....nothing I have is more than $300 per cable in my $12,000 system, below are cables I have used with great success and some new ones I'm going to be testing:

Morrow Audio MA4 XLR cables, and DIG4 digital co-ax....Mike Morrow indicated to me that the Level 4 class cables are the best bang for the buck in his line up, and I am incredibly satisfied. These cables MUST be broken in, I used the 20 day (480 hour) break in service they offer.. Right now they have an anniversary sale they've had for several months, Level 4 cables are 50% off of list price....also have a generous trade up program

Anti-Cables speaker cables, Level 2.1 and level 3.1 - Have had these for years, and have never felt they were a limiting factor in my systems.....NOTE: These MUST be broken in, 100 to 200 hours. The 3.1 speaker cables will probably remain in my new reference system....have tried their interconnects, but did not like them....especially compared to the Morrow cables. Have a generous return and trade up program

Cullen Cables C7 power cable (Bluesound Node), and Crossover Speaker cables - I am fond of cable and tube rolling, and will be comparing these cables over time with the GR Research for my second system

GR Research - Will be building a 5 foot pair of Danny's DIY 24 strand speaker cables, great reviews 

Pangea power cables - Use AC-9SE MkII for amplifier and pre-amp, and AC-14SE MkII cables for low current applications. Also have a dedicated 20 AMP circuit for amplifier.....dedicated circuit made more of a difference than any power cable I compared

Supra Cables USB and Ethernet cables - Currently evaluating and comparing to Wireworld cables

Wireworld USB Starlight 8 cable, and Chroma 8 Twinax Ethernet cable, again will be comparing with Supra Cables

Audioquest Vodka 48 HDMI cable for I2S 

Jena Labs

I also have:

Audience AU24sx RCA cables. My best cable purchase. Runs from Dac to amp.

Black Cat Silverstar 75 Mk1 from my clock.

Blue Jeans I2S cable and ethernet cable.

Zavfino for sure. Multiple tiers at various price points. Pick your “poison”. Top performance for each price point.

You also have Mad Scientist Audio.

I have his Nitro Nano, Nano and Basic power cables.

Also have the Black Magic USB cable.

You can add Danny at GR Research to your list for power and speaker cables (speaker cables are kits, or you can pay him to build for you).

I just received three power cables from him last week, and am pretty impressed thus far. Seems a good deal for the $ as well. 

Hi Everyone,

I have gone over all of the responses to this date, 07/04/22, and have spreadsheeted the results that you see below.  These are the company names with the quantities of mentions.  I thought this might be helpful to others who are following this discussion.

If you have not contributed and want to add your agreement or disagreement with any of the names listed, please do so and I will adjust accordingly in the future.

Please remember I am only interested in businesses that sell their cables directly to the public.

Thanks again for all your wonderful help.

Hello firstonetallguy,

My 2 cents: with no time/no money to test all cables, I have simply applied the advices from TAS High-End Audio Buyer's Guide (www.theabsolutesound.com)  

In the 2021 release, they recommended the Moon Audio cables Silver Dragon cables (p 226) among other more famous brands.

I have witnessed tremendous improvement with most connections (interconnect cables, USB cable and Ethernet cable).

Before I had tried other cable brands in order to improve the SQ at about the same price but was either not impressed (ie no improvement) or even very disappointed (very harsh sound causing fatigue). 

I was also very doubtful about the USB and the Ethernet cables as many people in this forum say that there is no difference. In my case the difference was quite substantial (stage depth and width, openness, details, etc...) and I will never go back to basic USB and Ethernet cables.

There is also "The Absolute Sound’s 2017 Guide to Affordable High-End Audio" which proposes various bargain cables. Maybe worth considering even though this guide is already 5 years old.

Hoping this helps.

Wavetouch audio makes best cables and sells direct. Best quality cables? The proof is in videos of Audiophile Junkie. AJ recorded many rooms at the audio show Long Beach last month. You can hear all of them in his youtube channel. I hear the true music is flowing only at WT room (#407). Almost other rooms had veiled and broken sounds. Many ears are used those sounds and they can’t hear the true WT sound.

In below AJ’s videos, from 5:00, if you hear AJ’s (& people) voice is clear and normal, your ears are OK. At this moment, you pinch your nose and blow to equalize your ears. Many ears are covered up due to harsh hi-fi sound.

Then from 7:50 the music starts and you hear a strange music sound. Your ears will try to adjust to this sound and soon the sound becomes barely OK. However, AJ’s voice becomes abnormal now. Every times there is human voice (or real sound), your ears will adjust to the sound and then the hi-fi sound becomes unlistenable. Your ears work very hard to adjust between real sounds and reproduced hi-fi sounds. This is a reason we get the listener fatigue. Almost all sound systems including super expensive audio setups emit this unreal sound.

In below AJ’s video, listen to AJ’s (and people) voices and WT sound. They are almost same kind. Your ears don’t get tired from WT’s real sound. This is proof that WT cables are the best. Cheers,

Alex/Wavetouch 

Stager Silver Solids -

Pure silver in Teflon at $150 for a meter pair, they've have beeen compared to and surpassed far more costly cables.
Reviews (several reviewers bought them at full price) and copious user comments at:  https://stagersound.com/silver

Worth your considerastion, methinks,
Marc Stager
(yep, I make these!)

no shortage of options out there... 

I think VH Audio? is another standup, high-value option to check out.  So many options at this point it’s a bit mind boggling.  Read reviews to thin down the herd and then buy used and/or go with a direct seller with a good trial policy.  To me, both these strategies are almost identical price wise if you negotiate good used prices.  

I vote for Zavfino and Grover Huffman cables.  Both make a full spread of power, interconnect and speaker cables.  I have Cullen Cables as well and those cables were very solid.  I did though hear that Patrick Cullen is no longer an independent operation.

I went with a loom of AudioSensibility cables and would highly recommend them. 

You can choose between OCC copper or silver. I went with silver for maximum clarity and am stunned by the result. 

I will add one more thing to the conversation. Your age and your hearing may impact how much difference cables make. I don't disbelieve people that say they notice major differences between cables however at my age and with my hearing rolling off around 12,000 Hertz those things they notice may not be apparent to me. So besides all the other decision factors that have been mentioned I would suggest taking that into consideration.

My experience. I can afford about $50 on RCA cables.

Audioqest Evergreen had a bad connection after the first removal. The Worlds best cable had no issues.

Speaker cable =install gear 10ga oxygen free copper. My friends joke and call me "ears" I notice nuances in music, love music, accuracy in instrumental reproduction. a Sax, bass, trumpet cymbal, voices, sound right. These are cheapo alternatives for people like me that have little cash, but like quality and excellent sound. This works for me. It is always fun to hear other people’s experiences.

If you use the balanced XLR connections, you can use just well built standard Mogami or similar and not worry about it.  By design balanced XLR removes any noise or coloration within the interconnect.  

i love my CARDAS CABLES. 

I was lucky enough to try 100+ different cables. Nothing get close to High Fidelity cables. The price bites, but these are the best of the best of the best. Rick is the owner. You can deal directly.

If grade his tonearm Helix Ultimate Reference as 10, the next in line would be Graham IC-70 with score 5 and next Hovland Music Groove 2 with score 4.

I got his power cables and RCA interconnects that are awesome addition to my line up too. Didn't have room behind my rack and money to try speaker cables.

If I had it to do over again, I’d buy used Acoustic Zen Silver Reference interconnects and Satori speaker cables (double barrel shotgun if you can bi-wire).  Buying good, used cables is one of the best bargains you can get in audio because you can sell them at little/no loss if they don’t work for you unless you happen to have a good dealer nearby.  If you can beat the AZ cables, buy them.  

I went direct with Grover Huffman cables - Pharaoh speaker cables and ICs. Power cords next.  

Check audio sensibility web page if you are truly looking for cables.

There is NO BEST CABLE. It is FALSE that the more you spend on a cable the better is gets. That said, there are many excellent cable makers out there. You could try Morrow Audio, they have a number of lines at different price points. They are well made and fairly priced (at least most of them are). You should expect to pay somewhere in the neighborhood of a couple of hundred bucks on up for say a one meter pair of RCA connecter cables. 

People will pay thousands for a cable. IMO that's cool if you have the money and want a particular make like Nordost or whatever at the higher end-- but make no mistake, you will hear differences, but no one can rank a group of quality cables by price. Your unique combination of gear is a big factor in which ones will sound the best to you. 

A lot of people in this hobby treat cables like bling-- which is cool. Me personally, I go for quality build and materials, and then how it sounds, and prefer not to spend the stupid money on cables-- and use it elsewhere-- like phono cartridges, more vinyl, etc.

"Best"?  There is no answer to this question.  Your equipment & room combination is unique as are your tastes so the answer is rather personal. Your question implies you don't want to go on a long hunt though.  But it's personal so you have to.  

Really, beyond properly assembling a cable from quality components, and matching electrically, the differences are mostly tonal.  They're all "the best", just different.  There are known generalizations about copper, silver, etc. to consider.  Call your component makers and ask for suggestions at different price points?  Call their dealers and ask the same question. Might get you a good starting list.

In the meantime buy a set of Blue Jeans.  As others have said they use industry recognized quality components and do a great job of assembly at a reasonable price.  No functional reason to spend more or change them out.  Use them as a quality starting point. 

To shorten the hunt call The Cable Company or someone like them that has a broad selection of both new and used. Tell them your component list asking for a system opinion at various price points. Ask what they think of the models on your list. Buy a new or used set or portion of one and then return/exchange with them until you find what you like "best" or they stop you.  You'll either find what pleases you more than the Blue Jeans or you'll sell the last set on the used market and stick with the Blue Jeans. 

@larry5729  

+1 Jason Ressler at The Cable Company

Kimber Cable sells direct to consumer as well.

I have a pretty decent system, and I've yet to use any cables that make me say "wow, that's an amazing improvement".  I have a few high-end cables, but they didn't make the system sound "better".  My goal with cables is to buy what meets my needs, which are fairly basic:

- Do no harm to the sound

- Don't change the sound

- Have good build quality

- Have the right connectors with good fit and solid connections

There are some other things I consider, like shielding, flexibility, gauge, etc., but "sound" isn't usually one of them.  I don't want them to change the sound, I want them to not degrade the sound. 

Which in my experience, Blue Jeans Cables do, at least their speaker wires and single-ended interconnects.  I would not recommend those, unless you have a relatively entry level system.  I think BJC is a great place to get subwoofer cables and other less critical cables, but I have taken all the ones I have out of my systems, except for a couple of subwoofer cables.

In regards to this:

"I refuse to pay the 100 % markup of the better line of cables that are sold through middlemen."

Do you go buy meat and vegetables directly from the source?  Do you think they would be cheaper if you bought them that way?  Easier to get?  Would it cost you more to go to the farm than the nearby supermarket?

Distributors and dealers make money because they make it possible for the products to be widely distributed, advertised, demonstrated, supported, and so on.  A small boutique cable manufacturer will most likely have much higher costs than a large manufacturer that is manufacturing and selling large quantities of cables. 

You can choose to not support that dealer and their employees and families by not paying "markup", but you'll be missing out on some things that a direct seller may not be able to provide, like comparisons with other similar products or in-person listening.  And chances are, you'll spend just as much or more to get the same level of quality from a small company that can't achieve the economies of scale of a large company.  Those large manufacturers are typically going to be selling them in bulk to dealers at a much lower price than they would to someone buying direct from their website. 

You might want to stop and take a look at your prejudices against dealers.  If you find a good one, they may actually save you money in the long run, especially if you're new to the hobby.  My favorite dealer has told me more than once "you don't need that" or "that won't be an upgrade from what you have".

If your goal is to get the most value, buy used.  Let someone else pay the "new car" price.  Usedcable.com is a great option, or buy them here on Audiogon.  For speaker cables, Dueland wire is really nice.  You can find a lot of assembled cables, put them together yourself, or have a dealer do it for you.  Gig Harbor Audio made me a nice set of bi-wire cables that were reasonably priced and stand up well against some of the more expensive brands.

The cables that I use that sound good in my system at a reasonable price are Cerious Technologies Graphene Matrix power cords. 

Another vote for SILVERSMITH FIDELIUM SPEAKER Cables... 

Tempo Electric Cables. Check out their site, not affiliated just a satisfied customer.

Ear and system dependent definitely. The difference in the same system can vary wildly, the steps up can be very significant. Besides, there are usually quite a number of cables and power cords in many systems, and if you do it the right way the improvements accumulate with each move you make. But whatever you do with cables it won't radically transform your system, true.