Wound up running home-brewed 14 gauge solid-core biwires to the Vandys. Essentially 8 wires for the pair, coming back to 4 bananas. Soldered terminations on and they sound almost as good as the true biwire oval 12 that I borrowed. They do somethings better and some worse than the Analysis+. Since my room requires a 17 foot run (WAF for electronics placement) it was a very economical way to go in comparison--even to the AC's. I do plan to audition those, Morrow and signal cable in the future though. Any thoughts on those comparisons would be appreciated. |
Do not use jumpers on Vandersteens. Buy some inexpensive speaker wire at the Shack or go to Home Depot and buy solid core 18ga wire. I think it is called thermostat or door bell wire. It is dirt cheap. It's like a poor man's Anticable with hardly any dielectric. |
Audiolab....your experience is WAY different than mine. There is a very definite improvement in MY speakers when they are truly bi-wired... as a matter of fact, having separate wires (not plus and minus on one end, and 2 pluses and 2 minuses on the other) works best...8 separate wires. Also....Cardas cables are the very worst sounding cables in MY system. I had a complete set and was shocked how better the cheap Anti-Cables were...made the change.
Gustav1....I have had every Anti-Cable made. I now am using their shotgun bi-wire set for the speakers, and the Silver Xshadow ended top cables as interconnects. They are better at every level. I am absolutely loving the ones I now have. |
When I first acquired my Vandy 3A's, I needed to have a pair of Cardas Golden Reference speaker cables reconfigured by the factory into bi-wires. So until that took place, I ran a pair of Cardas jumpers with the speakers cables. After the reconfiguration, I then sold the Cardas jumpers here on Agon. |
Audiolabyrinth, I have previously agreed with you on using single cables with jumpers as opposed to using bi-wire, however in this case I do not. Vandersteen actually designs the crossover to be bi-wired, and recommends it be done with two separate runs of identical cable.
Zd542 is definitely providing the best advice here.
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"Am I better off using my single run AQ Type 4 with a jumper"
No. Still go with 2 runs of cheaper cable. Also, I love AQ cables but the Type 4 is not very good. I found it to be a bright sounding cable. That's the last thing you need for the Aluminium tweeters in you 2's.
Here's the process I went through when trying to find speaker cables for my 2's. I started off with a pair of Tara the 2's (about $3200 - 3500. I don't remember exactly). I already had them for use in another system. The Cable Company lent me a bunch of cables and I decided to go with an internal biwire run of AQ Mont Blanc. (about $1800). I called AQ to ask them a question as to what type of spades I should get. When I told the guy at AQ that I was going to get the Mont Blanc, he recommended that I get 2 separate runs of CV-8 instead. ($1200). I ordered them. AQ messed up and sent me 2 pairs of Type 6 by accident. ($200 for each run and that only because they were factory terminated. Type 6 is a bulk cable.). They said I could keep them until I got my CV-8's.
When I started listening to the system with the Type 6's, I was shocked. Not only did they sound better than the Mont Blanc, but with my Tara's as well. And that was about 10 min after I hooked them up; not after break in. Had I known how good they were going to sound, I would have ordered them instead. Eventually, I got my CV-8's and they were a step up, but the difference wasn't nearly as big compared to the change of going with 2 runs.
Just to note, I don't have a lot of time and I'm typing all this out really fast. If I'm not clear on anything, just post a question. |
Bi-cables suck!!!,,I kid you not!,you are better off buying a Taralabs omega 10" jumper! A signal looses its purity with bi-amp cables, they are to long versus 10",,,Now,not eany jumper will do!,,take your pick of a very high-end jumper!,, I am sorry!,junk cable is blasamy!,,quality is a neccesity! |
Bi-cables suck!!!,,I kid you not!,you are better off buying a Taralabs omega 10" jumper! A signal looses its purity with bi-amp cables, they are to long versus 10",,,Now,not eany jumper will do!,,take your pick of a very high-end jumper!,, I am sorry!,junk cable is blasamy!,,quality is a neccesity! |
So, this seems an odd question: Am I better off using my single run AQ Type 4 with a jumper for now or should I get cheap double runs to biwire? (radioshack???? I am not trying to be snobby or snarky, but it just seems wrong somehow--sorry. I have been too brainwashed perhaps.) |
Thanks everyone for your input.
Stringreen--I just checked out your system--Nice! I have been considering Anticables, AQ and Analysis Plus when I do have the $$$ to go that route. Which version (level) of the Anticables do you have, that you love? |
"04-07-13: Stringreen
Vandersteen cautions against using different cables. Follow the directions for best results"
I agree. I've tried using different cables and you can definitely hear the difference. If you already have the cables, it won't hurt to try them. If not, you are probably wasting your money. |
Vandersteen cautions against using different cables. Follow the directions for best results |
Yes on the above recs.
For me, I found the Radio Shack 18 ga is surprisingly good. For some experimenting, you might want to try their 16 ga on the woofer and the 18 on the tweeter.
Also, I'm not sure why but the 18 sounds better than the 12 ga. I have some guesses (like the thinner dielectric) but I don't listen to guesses or theories. Just try it. |
I agree with Zd542 or go to Radio Shack and buy their 16 gauge speaker wire. |
Biwiring on Vandersteen's makes a really big difference. Instead of buying jumpers, I would go buy a spool of decent, low cost speaker cables. Something like Monster or entry level Audioquest. It will sound much better than jumping the binding posts. |
