Hello and looking for advise on my next purchase, speaker wires, RCA cables, and CD player

AngerB

New member, short term lurker. Hello! I'm looking for advise on my next purchases, speaker wires, RCA cables, and CD player in that order. I'm looking to rediscover my CD collection and add to it, possibly even get into limited vinyl in a couple years.

My living room 2 channel system so far;
Yamaha AVR TSR-5790BL - Sadly, I only use this for streaming syncing spotify via Mwave now over my three Yamaha AVR's (Living-room, Basement, Garage). I don't have dolby setup in my living room, just my basement. If I can figure out a device that will let me get rid of the AVR in my living room but still sync with my other Yamaha mwave devices, I will. My Amp below is integrated, with redundant functions to the AVR.
PeachAudio Nova300 Amp
Polk Audio LSiM 705's
20 year old Kenwood 5 CD player
cheap RCA cables
cheap 14 awg home depot speaker cord

The TV is plugged into the Yamaha AVR via optical
The AVR is plugged into the Amp via cheap RCA
The CD is plugged into the Amp via cheap RCA
The speakers are powered from the Amp via cheap speaker cord.

Based on what I've read in similar posts, the first comments from users will be "your budget". I'm looking for solid middle of the road components based on my above hardware choices. You please take a guess as to my budget as I only have vague ranges. I'm not cheap but I don't want to break the bank either.

Thanks in advance.

[Deleted User]

My advise is don't do it!

chumlie

http://www.douglasconnection.com/Custom-Made-Furez-9-AWG-OFHC-Speaker-Cables-DCF92.htm

Also does RCA cables

https://www.amazon.com/Onkyo-C-7030-Compact-Player-Black/dp/B004UR487A/ref=sr_1_1?s=aht&ie=UTF8&qid=1496588987&sr=1-1&keywords=onkyo+7030

rpf65

Welcome.

That Onkyo gets a lot of love on various audio forums. Never heard it, but many think the price for performance is exceptional.

As far a cable choices, you may wish to add what you like and/or dislike about your current sound. For example do you want it a little more laid back or a little more forward. In other words what improvement would you like to see in an ideal world.

I'll stop now, cables tend to be a very sensitive subject on this particular forum.

AngerB

chumlie wrote: »

http://www.douglasconnection.com/Custom-Made-Furez-9-AWG-OFHC-Speaker-Cables-DCF92.htm

Also does RCA cables

https://www.amazon.com/Onkyo-C-7030-Compact-Player-Black/dp/B004UR487A/ref=sr_1_1?s=aht&ie=UTF8&qid=1496588987&sr=1-1&keywords=onkyo+7030

Thank you chumlie, a good recommendation on the CD player and RCA cables for my purposes. Very reasonable prices so I purchased. I see the douglass speaker cables referenced here frequently and even think the owner participates. I'll check them out a bit closer.

I did find an old phillips DVD player that plays CD's while I was unboxing my stuff today so I pressed that into service with a coax output for now. The 20 year old kenwood actually crapped out so it's in the garbage.

rpf65 wrote: »

As far a cable choices, you may wish to add what you like and/or dislike about your current sound.

Not sure of the "sound" I'm looking for, I'm just looking for a level of component quality in the cords that match my other components. I know my speaker wire is far behind my other components at this point and it's probably holding the sound quality back.

[Deleted User]

Holding it back some

tonyb

There's plenty of places to look for used cables, which will give you the better bang for your buck over retail prices. US Audiomart, HIFI Shark, Audiogon, here, craigslist just to name a few.

Some bargain brands to look at for new that won't hold your wallet hostage, Bluejeans cables, Signal cable, Douglas connections.....which he happens to be a member here.

Most brands of cables carry with them a signature sound, much like Polk speakers do, or McIntosh, etc. Cables are a way of complimenting the other playmates or adding/subtracting different parts of the sound you may/may not like.

Which is why we ask what kind of sound you like, helps us narrow down the hundred suggestions you'll get. More forward, laid back, detailed and crisp, non-fatiguing, big bass sound, etc. Also the type of music you like, Rock, jazz, country, classical, rap, all of it ?

We aren't being nitpicky, just asking for a little help to narrow it down some. Welcome to the forum too btw.

treitz3

Hello AngerB and welcome to the forum. Instead of offering advice based upon what you want in order, I'll offer you advise based upon my own audio journey.

I think you are looking at it the wrong direction. Hear me out. Along my own audio journey, I have learned a thing or two along the way. If I was forced for some reason to go back and redo my system? I would start with the source first, find a sonic signature I was comfortable with and THEN I would start looking for an IC to compliment and further refine said sound. Lastly, I would look for a SC.

In order of what each will possibly do for your system, the SC will do the least. The biggest impact will be your source, especially if it has tubes. This would be followed by the IC's from said source. The very last thing in the chain for possible sonic impact would be the PC but keep in mind, some units respond well to a PC upgrade so play around with this as time and availability of borrowing a PC allows.

You have some solid advise aforementioned in the responses to your inquiry. Pay attention, these guys have been around the block a time or two.

I would rethink your stance on only buying new, if I were you. Just do your due diligence when looking for used and you'll spend half the money on most likely better cables/source. Plus, if you are ever given the opportunity to upgrade in the future, buying used will allow you to sell them for basically what you paid for them if you play your cards right.

FWIW, your mileage may vary.

Tom

AngerB

tonyb wrote: »

We aren't being nitpicky, just asking for a little help to narrow it down some. Welcome to the forum too btw.

Thanks tonyb, I recall seeing your other informative posts. I'll check out your recommendations. As far as musical taste in rough descending order of favorite. I prefer bass and mids and volume over treble, my tinnitus interferes with the highest of highs.

Electronic Music - The Chemical Brothers, Gus Gus, Thievery Corporation, Groove Armada, The Crystal Method, Underworld, Air
Trip hop - Massive Attack, DJ Shadow, Portisehead
80's Alternative - Roxy Music, Echo & Bunnymen, Pretenders, The The, The Church, OMD
Fusion Rock - Slightly Stoopid
Rock (Pink Floyd, Doors, Led Zeppelin, Stone Temple Pilots, Alice in Chains, etc)
Texas Rock Blues - SRV
Blues - Muddy Waters
alternative hip hop - G-Love & Special Sauce
Classical (Vivaldi 4 seasons, Beethoven
Country - Neko Case is about it
Rap - not hardly at all

Hope that helps, partial list.

[Deleted User]

Do you have the 705's Bi-wired or are you using the clips?

AngerB

rednedtugent wrote: »

Do you have the 705's Bi-wired or are you using the clips?

clips, I'm reading about the bi-wire but not sure how to do that as the PeachTree Nova300 only has one set of +- post for each L and R speaker. Total newb as you can tell. I have read about replacement custom short jumper wires that replace the clips.

[Deleted User]

Well, when you land on speaker cable either bi-wire or use a jumper and that will help a great deal right there. You'll have to spend $$$$ money on a CD player or $$$ at least on a DAC to get new life out of your CDs.

AngerB

rednedtugent wrote: »

Well, when you land on speaker cable either bi-wire or use a jumper and that will help a great deal right there. You'll have to spend $$$$ money on a CD player or $$$ at least on a DAC to get new life out of your CDs.

Appreciate it, I'll bi-wire after I research. When I say get new life out of CD's, I mean that last time I listened to them was on an older stereo system back in 2005-06 ish. After that time, I ripped them to MP3 and have been listening to mp3s. "New life" means i want to enjoy the uncompressed version again.

tonyb

AngerB wrote: »

tonyb wrote: »

We aren't being nitpicky, just asking for a little help to narrow it down some. Welcome to the forum too btw.

Thanks tonyb, I recall seeing your other informative posts. I'll check out your recommendations. As far as musical taste in rough descending order of favorite. I prefer bass and mids and volume over treble, my tinnitus interferes with the highest of highs.

Electronic Music - The Chemical Brothers, Gus Gus, Thievery Corporation, Groove Armada, The Crystal Method, Underworld, Air
Trip hop - Massive Attack, DJ Shadow, Portisehead
80's Alternative - Roxy Music, Echo & Bunnymen, Pretenders, The The, The Church, OMD
Fusion Rock - Slightly Stoopid
Rock (Pink Floyd, Doors, Led Zeppelin, Stone Temple Pilots, Alice in Chains, etc)
Texas Rock Blues - SRV
Blues - Muddy Waters
alternative hip hop - G-Love & Special Sauce
Classical (Vivaldi 4 seasons, Beethoven
Country - Neko Case is about it
Rap - not hardly at all

Hope that helps, partial list.

LOL, thanks for that but just a general genre is all we need. Tinnitus sufferer myself so I know where your coming from.

Congrats too on the 705's, very nice speakers. Personally I use Acoustic Zen Satori speaker cables. Big bass and mids, no bloat, and an easy on the ears top end. Used around 400 bucks for a set. Gregg Straily Reality cables is a bargain at around 150 bucks a set, also easy on the ears with nice slam to them. Kimber cable is another brand.

As you can see, you can run the gamut price wise. Your best bet I think for what you have now, and not wanting to spend a lot, is probably Douglas connections or Signal analog 2's. Signal may give you a discount too if you mention your a member here. Doug may also at Douglas connections. Either way, Frank at Signal cable or Doug, both are top notch guys and will set you up for not a lot of scratch.

txcoastal1

I prefer jumper wire vs bi-wire, as I swap gear around. Cheaper than the bi-wire, and I have speakers with single binding posts.

Easier to resell too.

AngerB

treitz3 wrote: »

I would rethink your stance on only buying new,...
Tom

Thanks Tom. I'm not anti-new. The things I was shopping for at that time were not much more discount new. I did buy a nice pair of Audeze LCD headphones..... and now am looking a nice used pair of bi-wire speaker connectors.

F1nut

Forget the bi-wire idea. Get a pair of really good single run speaker cables and replace the stock jumpers with either the same as the speaker cables or some other high quality cable. I prefer MIT cables in my rigs.

AngerB

F1nut wrote: »

Forget the bi-wire idea. Get a pair of really good single run speaker cables and replace the stock jumpers with either the same as the speaker cables or some other high quality cable. I prefer MIT cables in my rigs.

Thanks for the advice mr F1. I've got my eye on a set of MIT in the event the Acoustic Zen bi-wire deal isn't accepted.

tonyb

AngerB wrote: »

F1nut wrote: »

Forget the bi-wire idea. Get a pair of really good single run speaker cables and replace the stock jumpers with either the same as the speaker cables or some other high quality cable. I prefer MIT cables in my rigs.

Thanks for the advice mr F1. I've got my eye on a set of MIT in the event the Acoustic Zen bi-wire deal isn't accepted.

Those 2 brands are a significant jump up from the others I mentioned. If your going to seek out quality cables like those 2 brands, then you want either bi-wire or jumpers made by the same brand.

Good luck to you.

AngerB

tonyb wrote: »

AngerB wrote: »

F1nut wrote: »

Forget the bi-wire idea. Get a pair of really good single run speaker cables and replace the stock jumpers with either the same as the speaker cables or some other high quality cable. I prefer MIT cables in my rigs.

Thanks for the advice mr F1. I've got my eye on a set of MIT in the event the Acoustic Zen bi-wire deal isn't accepted.

Those 2 brands are a significant jump up from the others I mentioned. If your going to seek out quality cables like those 2 brands, then you want either bi-wire or jumpers made by the same brand.

Good luck to you.

pending proud owner of Acoustic Zen bi-wire cables

tonyb

AngerB wrote: »

tonyb wrote: »

AngerB wrote: »

F1nut wrote: »

Forget the bi-wire idea. Get a pair of really good single run speaker cables and replace the stock jumpers with either the same as the speaker cables or some other high quality cable. I prefer MIT cables in my rigs.

Thanks for the advice mr F1. I've got my eye on a set of MIT in the event the Acoustic Zen bi-wire deal isn't accepted.

Those 2 brands are a significant jump up from the others I mentioned. If your going to seek out quality cables like those 2 brands, then you want either bi-wire or jumpers made by the same brand.

Good luck to you.

pending proud owner of Acoustic Zen bi-wire cables

Cool, let us know what you think of them.

treitz3

I like this guy. Give the man advice, he actually takes it instead of arguing. What a novel concept.

My hat is off to you sir. Your audio journey just took off in the right direction.

Tom

AngerB

Question about the Acoustic Zen Satori Shotgun Bi-Wire speaker wires I bought used. They came in the mail, I installed them. I immediately noticed the condition wasn't as great as advertised (9/10) due to the chafing on the external shield and the conditions of the spade connectors being bent and scratched. I'd say more like 7/10.

Here's my question. Three of the speaker wire end spade connectors move relative to the wire they're connected to. The connection is under heat shrink wrap so I can't see what's going on, but I assume this connection would be solid. Anyone familiar with the spade end connectors to the wire and why I'm feeling movement (1mm to 1.5mm)

[Deleted User]

Man, I'm sorry.

tonyb

AngerB wrote: »

Question about the Acoustic Zen Satori Shotgun Bi-Wire speaker wires I bought used. They came in the mail, I installed them. I immediately noticed the condition wasn't as great as advertised (9/10) due to the chafing on the external shield and the conditions of the spade connectors being bent and scratched. I'd say more like 7/10.

Here's my question. Three of the speaker wire end spade connectors move relative to the wire they're connected to. The connection is under heat shrink wrap so I can't see what's going on, but I assume this connection would be solid. Anyone familiar with the spade end connectors to the wire and why I'm feeling movement (1mm to 1.5mm)

The spades should not move at all relative to the wire, Do you have a pic of these ? Do you mind telling us where you bought them ?

I would not use them in that condition. You have 2 choices here....tell the seller they are not as described and try and get your money back or send them to AZ to reterminate those spades.

AngerB

tonyb wrote: »

AngerB wrote: »

Question about the Acoustic Zen Satori Shotgun Bi-Wire speaker wires I bought used. They came in the mail, I installed them. I immediately noticed the condition wasn't as great as advertised (9/10) due to the chafing on the external shield and the conditions of the spade connectors being bent and scratched. I'd say more like 7/10.

Here's my question. Three of the speaker wire end spade connectors move relative to the wire they're connected to. The connection is under heat shrink wrap so I can't see what's going on, but I assume this connection would be solid. Anyone familiar with the spade end connectors to the wire and why I'm feeling movement (1mm to 1.5mm)

The spades should not move at all relative to the wire, Do you have a pic of these ? Do you mind telling us where you bought them ?

I would not use them in that condition. You have 2 choices here....tell the seller they are not as described and try and get your money back or send them to AZ to reterminate those spades.

Thanks for the confirmation. I didn't want to cut into the heat shrink and ruin the "as sold" condition of the cables. I got these used from a seller on audiogon. Without giving out any seller info, If you search the sold history you'll see the purchase of the 12' long Acoustic Zen Satori Shotgun Bi-Wire speaker wires. I can say the seller had a 100% rating, but mostly as a buyer. I should have noted that before I purchased and asked more questions, however with 100% feedback and a 9/10 rating on the condition of the cables, I really feel like I got the short end of that stick. I'll be contacting the seller immediately.

On the bright side, I'm pleased with my used Audeze LCD-X headphones.

AngerB

tonyb wrote: »

AngerB wrote: »

Question about the Acoustic Zen Satori Shotgun Bi-Wire speaker wires I bought used. They came in the mail, I installed them. I immediately noticed the condition wasn't as great as advertised (9/10) due to the chafing on the external shield and the conditions of the spade connectors being bent and scratched. I'd say more like 7/10.

Here's my question. Three of the speaker wire end spade connectors move relative to the wire they're connected to. The connection is under heat shrink wrap so I can't see what's going on, but I assume this connection would be solid. Anyone familiar with the spade end connectors to the wire and why I'm feeling movement (1mm to 1.5mm)

The spades should not move at all relative to the wire, Do you have a pic of these ? Do you mind telling us where you bought them ?

I would not use them in that condition. You have 2 choices here....tell the seller they are not as described and try and get your money back or send them to AZ to reterminate those spades.

Tony, thanks for the confirmation of a problem. Strange, lost my original reply. I got the used cables on Audiogon. Without giving away the seller's info, you can probably search used Acoustic Zen Satori Shotgun cable sales within the last 30 days and you'll see the sale. Seller rated them as 9/10 and had a 100% feedback. In hindsight, I found his feedback was by far mostly from being a buyer, not a seller...big difference. Photos of the ends won't really will reveal anything, but will post. I'll try to get a refund, if not, I'll leave negative FB and get them repaired. A big disappointment.

However, my used Audeze LCD-X were a treat.

tonyb

A third option is to call up AZ and see how much it would cost. Then ask the seller to reimburse you for those costs, refund your money, or at least split the difference. If he's unwilling to do anything as far as full or partial compensation, get them fixed and leave the bast-ard a nasty negative feed back.

AngerB

tonyb wrote: »

A third option is to call up AZ and see how much it would cost. Then ask the seller to reimburse you for those costs, refund your money, or at least split the difference. If he's unwilling to do anything as far as full or partial compensation, get them fixed and leave the bast-ard a nasty negative feed back.

Ya had that in my first post before it was lost during my couple edits and saves. So far no reply since 9am inquiry, an ominous sign.

DSkip wrote: »

Or call Doug for a second quote.

I will do that, thanks.

AngerB

I sent the cables to Doug today which will cost me $341 plus shipping. I posted a video of three of the worst spade connectors. Seller disputed my negative feedback on Audiogon and Audiogon removed it. The whole feedback system seems rigged in favor of the Seller. I have absolutely no trust in Audiogon anymore. https://photos.app.goo.gl/hbSEqvymSiRFQGWW2

F1nut

A good example of why a terminal should be soldered, not crimped or screwed down.