Rediscovering LSIM 703 with Douglas Cables and Black Mamba A51

Sumerian

I have been is using my LSIM 703 for almost a year as surrounds in my LSIM setup with MIT S3 cables all around.

Until now I used my receiver amp just to run these surrounds all my other speakers are powered through Parasound Halo A51.

I thought since the receiver is running just the surrounds it has enough juice to push the surrounds And I have been using the Monoprice cables to connect these surrounds.


Anyways I finally decided to upgrade the setup for these surrounds so I bought cables from Douglas connection both interconnects and speaker cables.

Douglas cables have been reviewed many a times here, all these days I assumed Douglas cables are just another fancy version of monoprice cables but after repeated reviews and raving experiences on this forum I decided to give it ta try as I didn't want to go for MIT cables for surrounds. I wanted to upgrade but didn't want go crazy.


So decided to order the 5 feet Furez interconnects and 50 feet Furez 10 AWG OFHC Speaker Cables.


Spoke with Doug.... He is real nice guy he is really patient and treats you like you are his first customer. I am honestly sold by his attitude.

anyways after a bunch of email conversations I placed the order and received them after a week.


Well Packaged










Interconnects really look gorgeous .... I am man for looks and I am totally pleased how these cables looked.






Against my Monoprice cable.






Ok so I hooked them up and connected them to my Black Mamba.

Ran the auddessy program and then fired them up .....


for the first time in this hobby I clearly felt the Night and Day difference .... These 703 speakers have been completely underutilized until now ....Even now I feel they have more potential than being surround speakers....


Once again cables and amplification matter a lot .... All those folks who keep advocating that lamp cords are as good as any other speaker cables never knew what they are talking about.

Conradicles

Nice!!! I got to give some of them a try. Thanks for the review.

nooshinjohn

Doug's cables are the real deal. If you want the best you can get for the money, Douglas Cables are easily top-shelf stuff, comparable to cables costing 5 times as much.

F1nut

Which ones would that be John, the Alpha, Furez, Vampire or Canare cables?

voltz

Congrats on your cables, they look great. time to burn them in

BTW if you ever get the chance -> I like to hear a 2 channel comparison of those 703's vs. your floor standing speakers (not sure which you have) with a preamplifier and your A51 as I hear many say those 703 can stand up on there own!

tonyb

Sumerian wrote: »

Once again cables and amplification matter a lot .... All those folks who keep advocating that lamp cords are as good as any other speaker cables never knew what they are talking about.

Amen to that bro. They will still maintain the placebo effect has bitten you.

Congrats on Doug's cables, let the music flow.

Sumerian

tonyb wrote: »

They will still maintain the placebo effect has bitten you.

They can all come and kiss my rear end :-) LOL.

I still have the monoprice cables in my garage they can come and hear for themselves.

Sumerian

voltz wrote: »

Congrats on your cables, they look great. time to burn them in

BTW if you ever get the chance -> I like to hear a 2 channel comparison of those 703's vs. your floor standing speakers (not sure which you have) with a preamplifier and your A51 as I hear many say those 703 can stand up on there own!

I have LSIM 707 as my fronts...

I never used 703 as fronts but I strongly believe they are for sure on their own.

tonyb

Using a good musical speaker for ambient sound...yeah...waste of money in my book. Unless your into 5.1 music, then I can see the worth. Actually, 5 full rangers for music is even better.

Hermitism

When I first came here, I didn't know there was anything other than clear coat speaker cables. The world of cables was completely foreign to me and the brand Monster was the only cable company that I had ever heard of. I bought some of Doug's Furez cables with non-plated copper nanners and upon hooking them up, the sound difference was immediate compared to the couple of other cables that I had used. I don't have a lot of experience in swapping cables, but I can say that the money I spent with Doug was money well spent, and a perfect fit for my budget. A year ago, I never would have thought I would spend over $50 for wire, but it made it sound as if I had upgraded my speakers. Thanks to all the cable snobs for helping me keep an open mind when I joined here. It was an eye opener.

Sumerian

tonyb wrote: »

Using a good musical speaker for ambient sound...yeah...waste of money in my book. Unless your into 5.1 music, then I can see the worth. Actually, 5 full rangers for music is even better.

Yes I started as a 5.1 and then slowly started appreciating the Stereo.

Remember the friends and family? LOL So they are justified for their price :-)

Sumerian

Hermitism wrote: »

When I first came here, I didn't know there was anything other than clear coat speaker cables. The world of cables was completely foreign to me and the brand Monster was the only cable company that I had ever heard of. I bought some of Doug's Furez cables with non-plated copper nanners and upon hooking them up, the sound difference was immediate compared to the couple of other cables that I had used. I don't have a lot of experience in swapping cables, but I can say that the money I spent with Doug was money well spent, and a perfect fit for my budget. A year ago, I never would have thought I would spend over $50 for wire, but it made it sound as if I had upgraded my speakers. Thanks to all the cable snobs for helping me keep an open mind when I joined here. It was an eye opener.

I was in same boat .... Few years back my entire system was 1500$ now thanks to my Audio guru F1Nut I have these MIT cables costing around 2500$.... I am not bragging but I wouldn't have guts to put so much money if there is no significant improvement with good cables.

tonyb

Hermitism wrote: »

When I first came here, I didn't know there was anything other than clear coat speaker cables. The world of cables was completely foreign to me and the brand Monster was the only cable company that I had ever heard of. I bought some of Doug's Furez cables with non-plated copper nanners and upon hooking them up, the sound difference was immediate compared to the couple of other cables that I had used. I don't have a lot of experience in swapping cables, but I can say that the money I spent with Doug was money well spent, and a perfect fit for my budget. A year ago, I never would have thought I would spend over $50 for wire, but it made it sound as if I had upgraded my speakers. Thanks to all the cable snobs for helping me keep an open mind when I joined here. It was an eye opener.

Your post mirrors many here. Even if you heard no difference, I would respect the fact that you at least tried different stuff. That's the whole point of these cable debates....just try different stuff, you won't discover squat in this hobby if you don't.

tonyb

DSkip wrote: »

The great thing about Doug and his operation is that there is nothing to hide. You know what you're getting and he WANTS you to know that.

Absolutely....Doug is a champ of a guy and the way he does business....none better.

However cables are like ice cream flavors, not one appeals to all. His cables didn't work out to my tastes in my system, but that doesn't mean they won't in anothers. As long as they float your boat, who cares, enjoy the tunes.

msg

Man, those are some pretty nice looking cables. And alright. I'm genuinely intrigued.
What, specifically, do you notice, or feel, is different now?
I mean, can you describe the difference in any way?

Are you still using the 703's as surrounds? How are you feeling that they have more potential now if only used as surrounds before? Not contesting, just trying to get a handle on your before/after observations and the use configuration.

I'd like to hear about a before and after comparison of the 703's used as stereo mains.

I use 703's as stereo mains, and am impressed with what they can do. Sometimes I forget whether the sub is on and I have to go check. However, I just have a feeling that they could... well, I won't say any more until I hear your description on how things are better now before I elaborate

Sumerian

msg wrote: »

Man, those are some pretty nice looking cables. And alright. I'm genuinely intrigued.
What, specifically, do you notice, or feel, is different now?
I mean, can you describe the difference in any way?

Are you still using the 703's as surrounds? How are you feeling that they have more potential now if only used as surrounds before? Not contesting, just trying to get a handle on your before/after observations and the use configuration.

I'd like to hear about a before and after comparison of the 703's used as stereo mains.

I use 703's as stereo mains, and am impressed with what they can do. Sometimes I forget whether the sub is on and I have to go check. However, I just have a feeling that they could... well, I won't say any more until I hear your description on how things are better now before I elaborate

I lack the technical/audiophile terms but all can I say I can hear them clear and I feel the depth of the sound not sure if it is a right expression. earlier I use to hear them isolated now I can hear them in sync

any how I have this dts demo discs which I run after every change to feel the difference and this time it ldid eave a good grin on my face.

and again there is so much you can hear from a surround speakers its just how the sound surrounds you LOL :-)

msg

I'm not sure I could even describe properly what I'm after, but I would say warm, full, rich sound. That probably isn't really saying much, but you know when you listen to stuff and you get crispy highs and some lows, but not much in between? Pretty much looking for whatever fills in that missing stuff - body, I'd say? Some thickness, some life. I don't know. I'll know it when I hear it. I've had a little taste here and there, which is what leads me to believe it's just a matter of unlocking the potential.

Sumerian

msg wrote: »

I'm not sure I could even describe properly what I'm after, but I would say warm, full, rich sound. That probably isn't really saying much, but you know when you listen to stuff and you get crispy highs and some lows, but not much in between? Pretty much looking for whatever fills in that missing stuff - body, I'd say?

Well I cannot for sure comment on those aspects as I am not using them as fronts.

Upstatemax

msg wrote: »

I'm not sure I could even describe properly what I'm after, but I would say warm, full, rich sound. That probably isn't really saying much, but you know when you listen to stuff and you get crispy highs and some lows, but not much in between? Pretty much looking for whatever fills in that missing stuff - body, I'd say? Some thickness, some life. I don't know. I'll know it when I hear it. I've had a little taste here and there, which is what leads me to believe it's just a matter of unlocking the potential.

It's usually a combination of things...

Not just one. You need to look at source music (CD, Vinyl, Digital), TT or physical disc players, DAC, preamps, amps, interconnects, speaker connections, speakers, stands, room treatments...

It all adds up and it all changes the end result. As many have said, try different stuff and see what floats your boat.

The one purchase that blew me away that it made such a large difference was my speaker stands... Much tighter bass and overall a more controlled sound stage. It was like someone came in and just re-calibrated the speaker to do everything better. I was just looking for something to look better and not knock over so easy. The Sanus Ultimate stands were one of the best things I have ever put in my system.

tonyb

Good post ^^^ everything matters. Never under estimate the value of good stands either.

BTW....looks like you put together 2 rock solid systems there.

Inspector 24

So if I read things right you went from amplifying the surrounds of the receiver to the Parasound correct?

If so I can understand why you would notice such a huge difference. When I powered my surrounds off of the Parasound and not the receiver I was amazed at how much they opened up surround channel FX.