Your favorite OCC speaker cable

Audio Sensibility out of Toronto and Audio Envy in Fort Collins, Co.  Both internet direct. Also Wireworld Equinox.

I have been partial to HT Pro 9+ or 11+ both of which are made from multiple strands of solid core OCC copper that is individually insulated in foamed PE then surrounded by various layers of (probably superfluous) damping material, PVC, and tech flex that makes them look big and manly (probably a design selection by the marketing department).
For whatever reason I like the HT sound better than stranded OCC offerings by folks such as Furutech and also better than the similar AZ cables I have owned such as their double barrel shotgun cables.  I like the depth, fullness, and power of the bass from the HT cables as well as the clarity and rich tone across the mid-upper frequencies.  I am currently running two pair of HT Pro 9+ (aggregate of 6 awg) to each speaker.

TARA Labs Muse works great for me.

HarmTech is very nice - warm and also detailed, really good at taming "digititus".
I recently auditioned occ copper ribbons from ZenWave. They are my #1 now for my tube amp w/Harbeths.

I'm a big fan of OCC. In the past two decades I've owned Harmonic Tech Pro-9, AZ Satori, AZ Hologram II, and, currently, Audio Sensibility Signature. The AS Sig is by far the best of them, IMO. I auditioned some Audio Envy cables a year ago but found them too weighted toward the mids.

Thanks, all, for the names and your experiences. This gives me a way to expand my options. 

I recognize that as part of an overall circuit, the qualities emphasized or attenuated by a speaker cable are likely to change based on the other elements in the system. But this at least gives me a good starting point. Appreciated. 

Happy to hear more names or experiences if there are more experiences out there.

hilde45, the best performing speaker wire is Kimber Kable 12TC. It has the lowest inductance of any cable made along with extremely low linear and parallel resistance. It is as close to having "no wire at all" as you can get. You can buy it in lengths, terminate it yourself and save big bucks. Kimber Kable is used in many megabuck cables. It is being hidden by a cable sheath. Kimber Kable does not use sheaths. They have nothing to hide.

@mitch2  I found some HT Pro 9+ that say "internal bi-wire speaker cables"

https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/649726021-pair-of-harmonic-technology-pro-9-plus-internal-bi-wir...

What does that phrase "internal bi-wire" mean? I only have two posts on the back of my speakers.

@mijostyn Thanks. I just looked up Kimber. They sell via dealers. So...I'd contact a dealer and tell them the length I want? Terminate it myself, huh? Will investigate.

@hilde45 see last photo of the USAM link you provided. These are bi-wire speaker cables. One end has two connectors, the other end has four,  

@decooney Thanks. And... D'oh!

WireWorld

Audio sensibility out of Ontario Canada. Steve's family was a friend of Professor Ohno. Not sure you can get a closer connection to OCC than that... Definitely an option for OCC products.

@teo_audio Thanks. Is there a special way of doing OCC that that close connection to the inventor would affirm? Or is it a generalized process now?

@hilde45,

Please add Zavfino OCC cables to your list. I’m currently using Nova OCC and couldn’t be any happier with the gorgeous sound. The built quality is anything I’ve seen at this price point. 

https://zavfinousa.com/collections/speaker-cables/products/nova-speaker-cable

teo_audio Thanks. Is there a special way of doing OCC that that close connection to the inventor would affirm? Or is it a generalized process now?

Just that familiarity with the meaning of it, at a root level, for a near lifetime, may convey, over time, a decent understanding of the meaning and context of a cable design and build.

As in: not a late coming dilettante prancing around for your money with slick advertising and shiny bits to attract the crow in people. Everyone has to make their stuff look good and it’s a nebulous line that is wobbly, wandering, and ephemeral.

<rant>
Advertisements and the like, as fundamental costs, that are baked into the price of the price of the product, that the end buyer pays.

EG Joebob makes $500k in advertisements per year to attract people to knowing his stuff exists, and to get them to reconnoiter the purposely sexy bits (and presentation) that don’t make the item one whit better. I buy one of his components. In that, I finance Joebob’s further attempts to make others aware of Joebobs components, and none of that aspect/part of the money spent by me ---is in the product. eg a rolling ’fame’ machine built out of recognition of it’s existence, and not much else. I took the time to listen and in the act of that.. financed more bible thumpers to go door to door, for Joebob’s furthering in life. It’s nearly a goddarned pyramid scheme, due to how humans are wired. Mediocrity and money rules the system, not quality in audio.
</rant>

Problem is, how does one make good money in a low enough amount of time (cash per year, etc) ...to be successfully feeding a family, in the realm of high end audio? Tough question. I don’t have an answer. Where the shiny crow attraction part can’t be avoided or separated from the customers as it is definitely there. Big time. Advertising works. Sadly.

I’m not saying one of these product is somehow better than the other, only that Audio Sensibility is not a johnny come lately, nor illiterate about audio, or cables. They are more well known in Canada, obviously. As for the over the top end of the pool, we know it when we see it.
There is only one speaker cable in existence that is literally not like the others, but it is also (unavoidably) stupidly priced. Oh well...

@lalitk Will do.
@teo_audio  I hear you and agree, both on the rant and non-rant.

Take a look at this.
https://audiosensibility.com/faq/TechnologyOverviewSlideshow.pdf

The whole thing is worth a read, but scroll down to p. 9 for the shortlist of companies that actually match your criterion.

You would be hard pressed to find better speakers than Fidelium by Silversmith. I replaced $6000 cables with 8’ of them for $1200.
the old cables are now junk.

Hilde45, you can find it in rolls also but I believe you can buy it by the foot. I got a 25 foot roll years ago on line. It looks imposing but it is really not hard to terminate. You really should have one of these https://capritools.com/shop/precision-wire-stripper/ There are a lot of wires to strip and they are teflon insulated. Teflon is tough stuff. If you do get the wire let me know and I will review with you how this is best done. You will also need to have a soldering iron and preferably a heat gun to shrink tubing. 

Thanks for the continued replies and offers of help.

@hilde45 
The phrase "internal bi-wire" refers to having the four bi-wire conductors (HF/MF pos and neg, and LF pos and neg) encased in one cable compared to bi-wiring using two separate cables that each have a single positive and negative conductor, in which case you would need two of those cables to bi-wire a speaker with four binding posts.
Each HT Pro 9 series cable has four internal conductors, each with multiple, individually insulated wires.  The Pro 9 series also uses multiple wire gauges and a different aggregate gauge for two of the internal conductors compared to the other two.  The two smaller conductors are for the HF/MF posts and the larger conductors for the LF posts when the cable is used internally bi-wired.   The Pro-9 series cables can also have two of the four conductors connected together at both ends, with a single pair of connectors at each end.  That is how mine are configured and so I use two independent Pro-9+ cables to bi-wire my speakers rather than a single cable that is internally bi-wired.  The Pro-9 series cables are the same whether used as a single-wired cable or internally bi-wired with the only difference being the number of terminations at the speaker end.  You could purchase the cable you linked and re-terminate the speaker end with two connectors (instead of four) and they would work great for your speakers.

@mitch2 Thank you so much!

What is OCC? And why does it matter??

Doh MC.
Analysis Plus wants 1000% more $$$ for AG balanced ICs than Dyson Audio asks.
Hard to believe that they sound 10 X better. Looks like they are recouping funds for the patent.

MC If you feign ignorance to the topic all you are doing is trolling as usual.

Analysis Plus wants 1000% of Dyson Audio $$ for balanced AG ICs.
It's not believable to me that they sound 10 X better.

It’s called being provocative. As in trying to provoke thought. An uphill battle. The way it is supposed to work, a light goes on in someone’s head as they think yeah, what the heck is OCC anyway? And why does it matter? This we hope leads to the reader thinking of all the many times they have heard it is long grain, or skin effect, or geometry, or dielectric, or any of a million other stories. All of which, if they do think about it, they start to realize that each time the stories seemed really good and compelling. Like they made perfect sense. Until a month later they find something sounds way better even in spite of doing none of those things. So the stories are just stories.

Which is why in all seriousness, not only do I not know what OCC is, I care even less to find out. All I want is for maybe someone to stop for one second and think, instead of going on and on mindlessly repeating all these stories as if they determine sound quality. That’s all.

Since I started the thread, I will answer for myself, and others can chime in. First, let me stand up on this Townshend podium so I can isolate myself from people who don’t think because there are too many imperceptible vibrations coming up through this concrete floor.

1. I’m interested in getting a better than average speaker cable. Because, I heard, everything matters.
2. I’ve gotten advice from a few people who have been trying cables and listening for the differences between cables over three decades. With their guidance, I compared OCC interconnects, digital and analog, with others. With OCC, I heard a clear improvement. I’ll spare you the details. I had friends listen and they heard it too.
3. When I decided to try for a better speaker cable, I figured I’d try for something with similar properties as the other cables which worked. This seemed like a good first step.
4. But because I don’t believe that these things make a world of difference, only some, I wanted to collect a variety of OCC brands that others had tried and liked. I ruled out spending thousands on speaker wire.
5. The final step is to watch and wait for the right used option to come along. Indeed, I believe I found that today. In fact, I may have found a $2300 option for a mere $650. That’s about what I wanted to spend.

Not sure it is occ but cardas cross and kimber 4tc are the best copper wires i have had in my systems and they sound good on a variety of gear and speakers but make sure you get the old blue black tc.

My Cabledyne SCs (both pair) are OCC silver and my only exposure to OCC cables. They aren't going anywhere. 

All the best,
Nonoise

If your deal falls through...GR Research sells some do it your self cables.....that look a lot like kimber cables....

No cable lifters?

@yogiboy I plan to suspend the cables from the ceiling with "spider string," a special nylon made from free-range, baby spiders which nest near the famous Easter Island statues. Apparently, spider string provides 87.3% better isolation than cable risers, while keeping the floor clear. I need the floor uncluttered so that my specially equipped Roomba can roam the floor vacuuming up the dust which dampens lower register harmonics.

Should we notify MC that his account has been hacked? Looks like one of the naysayers is trying to discredit him.

Ive been reading about the occ tech for a while. There is much information to back up your SQ findings. Been wanting to try them, but they are further down my list of current priorities :)

if looking to be the cheapest OOC barsteward in the given audio forum police line-up, do internet searches for:

" Belkin Pure AV av53102-XX "
(the xx part being the length)

That is Belkin’s attempt to capture the AV audio cable market, back before the 2008 crash, when the engine of the economy was running amok. So everybody tried to get into everything.

In this case, Belkin manufacturing quite a bit of OCC speaker cable.

This came in rolls. 50 foot and 25 foot rolls, IIRC. 16g, multi strand and multi strand type (foil-ish and round wire)..pure OCC copper wire.

I bought 20x 50 ft rolls at $14.95 each, back when it was widely being dumped in all kinds of places.... and still have 10 of them.

Ah. here we go:
https://angelelectronics.ca/shop/cables/speaker-wire?product_id=11163
or longer uncut runs of 100 ft rolls, for HT, or...whatever:
https://www.officespecialties.com/belkin_av53102_100_pureav_silver_series_high_performance_speaker_w...

keep looking. it’s out there. but not forever.

+1 mglik on the Fideliums. Amazing cable: component level upgrade over SR Foundations (which I liked)

Thanks for the suggestions. The Fidelium cables seem interesting. The language on the website doesn’t tell me much about their invented alloy, but I suppose hearing is believing. I know OCC has worked well for many people and the list of companies using is it impressive, too. The idea of finding it bulk seems like a good way to go, though I am not sure my DIY efforts would be as good as a cable I’d buy! 

@teo_audio.   
Thank you for those links! So, basically, a $10.00 roll of the wire, which is 30’ long, will provide enough wire to make a single 8’ braided 6 lead wire. Two rolls, two 8’ runs, get some heat shrink, some sleeving, a bunch of audio note banana connectors and you should have a very nice pair of cables for very little money. 
Certainly a worthwhile and inexpensive experiment. 

cut the outer skins off and use the inner insulated conductors only. one step better again...
There is a neg and pos run for each foot of it. all packed in an outer skin. cut that outer skin off...
or, to say it differently, for clarity...with the single 30 foot roll, you actually have 60 ft of a single conductor. 30ft of red colored insulated wire --  and 30 ft of black colored insulated wire

Wireworld Eclipse has several models ,and patentedlowest dielectric and ,very important No brass connectors like most ,Silver over Solid Copper .

@teo_audio - Can you share what Belkin means when they advertise "hybrid-conductor technology"? What is hybrid? Are there a mixture of OCC and OFC wires, a mix of stranded and solid core wire, is the wire tinned or silver plated, is the negative wire a different material or different size, or is "hybrid" something else altogether. Also, can you share whether the PE insulation is foamed or not? I could not find answers to these questions in their product literature. Thanks.

@fuzztone Analysis Plus wants 1000% more $$$ for AG balanced ICs than Dyson Audio asks. Hard to believe that they sound 10 X better. Looks like they are recouping funds for the patent.

Patent was paid long ago, and now it’s called profit. Home Audio cables is just one channel of the business along with products and services for NASA. Analysis Plus sells a lot to the pro audio industry. Famous musicians and particularly some well known guitar players prefer their cables.

Made in America, successful, profitable, creating jobs. Great designs and high quality materials, with quality of service  Survives and thrives. How it should be.

8ga. Wire amp to speakers!

   Barely fits in plugs!
amp to speaker run is about 1.5 feet.  Good wire. 
Years back, bought 20 feet 8ga wire.  Have a nice roll in drawer in case....

@mijostyn
Would you recommend  12TC, 8TC or 4TC for mids and tweeters in an active system where a 2A3 drives tweeters above 1600Hz, and another drives mids from 275 to 1600Hz?
12TC is advertised as being capable of high power delivery, but in my application it would be different.
Thank you!

“The idea of finding it bulk seems like a good way to go, though I am not sure my DIY efforts would be as good as a cable I’d buy!”

@hilde45,
DIY cables don’t make any more sense since there are wide range of professionally made OCC cables available at reasonable prices. When it’s all said and done, that ‘Belkin’ bulk cable won’t look better or offer discernible differences (if any) than a zip cord from Home Depot.

Don’t overlook the benefits of anti-static, anti-vibration and Litz construction offered by professionally made OCC cables. My two cents.

Thanks @lalitk 

I've got a solution. Found a 14 ft single cable of AP Solo Crystal Oval 8 used at The Music Room for $699. I checked with Analysis Plus and I can send them the cable to be cut and re-terminated for $39. TMR was willing to go down to $599. Bottom line is I can have two approximately 7 ft. speaker cables for $650. These would normally go for $2200. I'm done. Oh, FYI, here's the 14ft cable at full price:  https://www.ebay.com/itm/132966226074?mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=711-53200-19255-0&campid=5338381866&toolid=10001&customid=38501ac4-bbc2-11eb-b2fa-366436396438

Where's the battery cable/welder's cable for SCs guy when you need him?

BS Neanderthal. The shoulders on your jacket would be a lot more droopy if you used the cables.