XLR cables for high-end multichannel system

Djruss,

Weather Mogami is upgrade/downgrade or not to Blue Jeans or any other higher or lower priced cables, it's today's studio quality standard and it's probably the wires that had been used to make a good quality recordings.

If you're listening to the multi-ch music, 4tc is already great for surrounds. If you only using them for movies, than Kimber 4TC is too good and too expensive where probably zip cord would do the same job. Surround wires have substantially less impact on performance than mains and if you want to downgrade or save money, surround wires is the #1 contender.

Wires such as Siltech, Shunyata, Harmonic Tech and even higher priced Kimber have lots of unauthorized copies that are being sold to naive public and the more expensive wire you want to get, the more probability of getting an unauthorized copy. Go to alibaba, dhgate or similar sites and you'll see them tons for small fraction of the retail price and than after purchase by reseller, they go for "lightly used" sale.

Wires in general at ANY price point can or can't be an upgrade and choosing the right ones that synergise with your system is substantially MORE important than spending more $$$ or more $$$$. Looking at parameters of wires such as per-unit reactance(inductive and capacitive impedance) and resistance at minimal point defines the the most newtral cable. Other than that you can also match wire to the input/output of your components or speakers.

Browse through Al's posts on properly selecting cables and you'll be surprised how much money you can save on cabling. You may end-up purchasing pro-grade speaker wires because they match perfectly your system.

06-20-12: Djruss27
Bryon - which particular cables from the Morrow line did you have in mind?

I'm currently using the MA3's and I'm very happy with them. I have a friend using the same interconnects (balanced) in his system and he too is happy. I also own the MA1.1's, which is a more affordable cable.

All the Morrow interconnects have essentially the same design but a different number of conductors. The more conductors, the more expensive the cable. You can read about their design approach here.

I've never tried the Mogami's that Al and others are recommending, but I hear good things about them.

Bryon

No. I really wouldn't use a lesser quality speaker cable to the rears or surrounds if you can help it. I understand the cost factor may be part of the reasoning, with DTS master,HD audio, and all those fancy codecs along with your decent AV setup you have there you want to have a tonally balanced sound field around you. These days the surrounds are just as important as the fronts. I changed my surround cables last. I'm so glad that I did change them. The sound envelope (or cocoon) is just so much more revealing and you tend to "live" in the movie more.

Don't forget Stereolab/Stereovox. Very neutral.

Djruss: I've owned alot of Audioquest (Sky, Cheetah, Niagara, Raven, YIQ-5, Volcano, Mont Blanc, Gibaraltar, etc, etc...). Sky, Niagara and Volcano were my all time favorites. After multiple years using all for both home theater and 2-channel listening while I would say they are neutral in that they don't color the sound, I would mention that they are very revealing and depending upon your system, particularly with Sky, Cheetah and Niagra they may come off as a bit bright and potentially lacking in the deepest base. Given the right components though and making sure your system is balanced throughout, you would be extremely happy picking up Sky or Niagara. If you are looking for added and very large amounts of musicalism realism, energy, tonal accuracy, etc...you should also be looking at Kubala, Elrod, Purist and other top contenders. Listen first though to ensure you have the right match fro your system.