Speaker Cables

scubalab

Looking for some better cables to connect the pristine Monitor 11 RTAs I got from Jesse. Don’t want to spend too much, but these speakers deserve better than the Monoprice 14 AWG in-wall cables with el-cheap-o bananas on the ends that I had laying around.

Could use anywhere from 6’ to 10’ cables. Would like banana/banana or banana/spade terminations. Anyone looking to part with anything that might work?

marvda1

what is too much $ ?

scubalab

Would like to stay under $75 for now.

Clipdat

Audioquest Type 2 http://www.audioadvisor.com/prodinfo.asp?number=AQT2NF

scubalab

Thanks for the link Drew!

What’s weird is a 10’ pair is $5 less than an 8’ pair...

Clipdat

The sizing to pricing and termination options were strange. For example certain terminations are only available on certain sizes. Fortunately it worked out for me, I got a 4' pair pins/spades.

Also, I just went from Monoprice 14ga OFC to these AQ Type 2 and so far so good.

Full review coming soon!

scubalab

Still looking...

The Audioquest are tempting, and I'll likely give them a try for that price. Before I order, I thought I'd see if anyone has something with a nicer finish that they may be willing to part with. Since these cables will be visible, something with a nicer finish (tech-flex) would be preferred.

msg

Al, if you end up going with the AudioQuest, you can get Techflex cheap from a guy on Ebay called Furryletters. It's easy to install.

Ask your wife how good her hair dryer is compared to her friends'. This will determine whether you buy a heat gun for $15 from Harbor Freight to get yourself a way to work with heatshrink by suggesting she deserves a better hair dryer.

Then get her the heat gun from Harbor Freight.
It's bright orange and silver, and girls like flashy things. Be sure to wrap it in a nice plastic grocery store bag, or splurge for a bar of chocolate at Whole Foods or Trader Joe's for an upgrade if she's one for nice, thoughtful wrap work. Bonus if it coincides with a birthday or anniversary. It's win-win, truuuuust me.

(At least one of those three paragraphs is based on actual experience)

DForeman

I've got a 6' pair of Signal Cable Ultras - they are spade/spade though. Say $80 shipped.

marvda1

zu audio has an ebay store where you can bid on their discontinued cables. I got a 10 ft pair of their libtec speaker cables, retail for $1000+ for a little over $100.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/ZU-AUDIO-LIBTEC-10ft-3-0m-Hi-Fi-Loudspeaker-Cables-Matched-Pair-NEW/113126990547?epid=678760801&hash=item1a56e4e2d3:g:QkYAAOSwYHxWPO1a

rooftop59

Pm sent al

motorhead43026

I just purchase recently a pair of ZU Mission speaker cables in their Ebay store, 8' for $77.00! The bonus is these sound great and the service was outstanding.

scubalab

I’d been watching and bidding on (here and there) the Zu Mission and Libtec cables. Finally won a 10’ pair of Libtec SCs tonight at a nice price (just over 70 bucks). Anxious to try them out.

Question on the terminations... is been thinking bananas on the amp end and spades on the speaker end. However, I’m wondering if spades will work with the terminal cup on the back of the Monitor 11s. Are they angled at all? Is the connection short enough or flexible enough to fit? If anyone (@marvda1 or @motorhead43026)who has these could confirm (pics might help) that would be great. Also, would you recommend the standard (1/4”) or oversized (5/16”) spades? The 1/4” will work with the Polks, but if I ever wanted to use them with my Paradigms, they’d need to be 5/16”. Just wondering if the 1/4” are stepped, or if not, would the 1/16” play be an issue.

Thanks much,
-Al

pitdogg2

Go bananas. Too much pressure on those plastic nuts they will strip or break in two.
They can be fragile.

EndersShadow

Hey funny story @scubalab..... I was "thhhiiiissss" close to bidding on those for my loft setup lol.

I've been watching all the Libtec SC, Mission and Event SC, and a 3.5mm to Rca on their store.

marvda1

I ordered 5/16" spades on both ends. most times it's spades on the amp end and bananas on the speaker end for those of us that change speakers in and out a lot.

motorhead43026

If you want spades on the speaker ends order the 5/16 as mentioned. I ordered 1/4" for the speaker ends wanting something that would fit tighter. They are tight alright as I had to spread the opening with pliers just a tiny bit and work then on the posts.
Not a big deal but shouldn't be necessary. Bananas on the amp end are all I ever use and yes the spades are angled, at least the 1/4" are.

mantis

If you find yourself unhappy with them hit me up, I have a few things in stock you might like.

scubalab

mantis wrote: »

If you find yourself unhappy with them hit me up, I have a few things in stock you might like.

Sure... NOW you tell me Dan! Seriously though, I appreciate it. I'll let you know if I still need anything.

For now though, I went with the oversized spades on the amp end and bananas on the speaker end of the Zu Libtecs. I spoke to someone at their shop and agree with motorhead - their customer service so far has been wonderful - very helpful.

mantis

Cool man good luck with them. I hope they work out for yeah.

marvda1

let us know what you think when you get the cables in.

scubalab

Got these on Friday, and due to a busy (traveling) weekend and some other issues, I did not get a chance to give them much of an audition yet. I will say that I'm not the best at 'reviews' when it comes to describing sonic performance!

What I can say is that from a customer service standpoint, and fit and finish of these cables, I would have expected to pay A LOT more! These are, by far, some of the nicest cables I have purchased. I paid about the same price/foot for these as I did for some pre-owned Signal Cable Ultra's a couple years ago that had to be terminated. While the Signal Cables were nice cables and well worth what I paid, they didn't even come close to the craftsmanship, aesthetics, and quality of the Zu Audio Libtecs.

These cables are BIG - about 1/2" (maybe more) in diameter. However, they are surprisingly flexible for their gauge. The tech-flex like sleeving is very well made. Heat shrink over the splitters as well as at the terminations was done very nicely. Terminations are nicer than I was expecting. At the speaker end I opted for banana plugs. They are low profile, but nicely spring-loaded and hold nicely where the old cables I used were very loose. The amp end has copper spades that both look good, and feel solid, yet slightly flexible enough to aid in the tight connection on the back of the B&K. (The binding posts on the B&K only allow the spades to be inserted from below, so I had to slightly bend/curve the cable since it was so close to the bottom and the cable was hitting the rack shelf.)

Packaging was a lot nicer than I expected. These came double-boxed - the outer box was a perfect (custom) fit plain cardboard package. The inner box was the Zu Audio packaging - very sturdy, well made, and presented well. Inside, both cables were individually packaged in sealed plastic bags. Each of the terminations had a nice piece of sturdy tech-flex-like sleeving protecting the bananas and spades. Also in the box was some company literature, an "owner's manual", and a terminal polishing pad (nice touch). Everything looked great, was presented as new, and was high quality.

As far as sound - I'm not the best judge of sonic signature descriptions, and I typically cannot hear much, if any, changes in the sound with different cables. I can say that I still heard music, and it sounded dammmmm fine!

The cables are silver/copper with Teflon and as such it is recommended that they be allowed up to 400 hours for burn-in. It will be quite some time before I hit that amount of time on the cables, so I may install them on an integrated and let some music play several hours a day. And, at that rate, I likely won't "notice" any changes in sound.

Bottom line - I'd highly recommend these cables. The folks at Zu Audio were a pleasure to talk to. Their eBay sales are killer deals. Shipping was crazy fast (I talked to them on Monday morning, requested the terminations, and paid later in the day, and had these at my door by noon on Friday. Not bad for custom terminated cables delivered from Utah to Pennsylvania! Price was insane. After seeing the quality of these cables, even my cheap butt would have paid $200 - $300 for them. I feel like I got one heck of a deal at just under $90 delivered!

Clipdat

Nice. Sounds like the fit and finish is top notch. They're going to be at an audio show I'm going to this weekend, so I'm hoping to get a chance to talk shop with them and hear their speakers. Thanks for the review.

EndersShadow

Where are the pics bro?

motorhead43026

Like my Zu cables.

scubalab

EndersShadow wrote: »

Where are the pics bro?

Alreight Dan @EndersShadow these are for you. I couldn’t just snap pics with them installed. OCD as I am, I had to re-package them and take ‘unofficial’ unboxing pics. Also for reference - in some pics, I put a piece of 14 AWG Furez from Doug that I had laying around to give an idea of size. The diameter of the Zu cable is 7/16” (just slightly - maybe 1/32” - larger than the Furez) and the splitter is 3/4”.

Viking64

15 minutes later: "Oh, wow. I can see the top 5% of all 20 of those monolithic image files."

rooftop59

Mine loaded in about 8 seconds over my 4G LTE connection. What is wrong with your internet?

Viking64

rooftop59 wrote: »

Mine loaded in about 8 seconds over my 4G LTE connection. What is wrong with your internet?

I have the luxury of no neighbors for 1/4 mile. Sadly, living that far from humanity (the scourge of planet Earth) does not allow for fast internet speeds. At least not where I live. I can stream Netflix in HD. That's all I really need it to do.

EndersShadow

Wow, they look really nice! I'm gonna start bidding on them now for my loft for sure.

scubalab

Do it! For the price... you'd have a hard time getting something even close.

Since these need up to 400 hours burn-in, it’ll be some time before I dare evaluate the sound quality. Although, I haven’t necessarily been able to hear differences in cables in the past. I can say the speakers they’re driving sound damn good!