Best speaker wire

RobbyKY

Mark me up as another know-it-all electrical engineer who has been "schooled" on this forum about cables. Started off with basic Monster "speaker wire" from Best Buy, moved on to Belden 5000UE 12 gauge, then Belden 5000UP 10 gauge both self terminated.

Next tried some Canare 4S11 custom terminated from Blue Jeans, then was bitten by the AudioQuest bug and tried Type 4, Rocket 33 and Rocket 88's. Just switched to MIT AVt1's in an 8-foot bi-wire set. Now I've consumed the entire pitcher of F1nut's Kool Aid and I'm searching for a reasonable set of Shotgun S1.3's.

These were all used on one of my fully modded 1.2TL sets with both Carver TFM-55 and McIntosh MC 252 amps switched in and out. The Carver seems to sound better to me with the AVt1's so that combo is working full time for now in the listening room.

The 88's are on my HT rig and the others still in use on other SDA speakers in the house. The 33's on a 3.1TL set, the Type 4's on my son's rig and the Canare's on the second set of 1.2's in the pool room.

Playing around tonight with a Erse Super Q unwound down to 16mH in my 1.2 set by the pool table replacing a Jantzen air core and it's sounding pretty sweet with the Canare's!!

motorhead43026

^^Where in KY do you reside?

RobbyKY

Born in Harlan, grew up in Corbin, school at UK in Lexington, then lived in Georgetown and Union up in NKY. Wife and I both work for same company 20+ years which moved their HQ to Plano, Texas last July so not much choice but to relocated with them. Currently living in Frisco, Texas.

Milito

Welcome to Texas. I live in the DFW area.

ZLTFUL

Lemme guess...Toyota?

motorstereo

My 2 pence; going back to 2011 when I brought my 1.2tl's home I also brought home a couple pair of MIT interconnects on that same day. The electronics that I was running at the time (Yamaha c4 pre and Carver tfm45) did not allow me hear a difference from the Mogami's I was using at the time so the Shotguns went away. Heck I couldn't even hear a difference switching between the different impedance settings on the shotguns. Fast forward a few years and all my electronics have been upgraded and I decided to try some MIT's once again. The difference now is undeniable and easily heard. Imo one needs very good electronics to reap the benefits of very good cabling.

tonyb

Good point Motor, which is why we say the better the electronics, the better the cabling should also be. Nobody here is suggesting 600 buck speaker cables on a 300 buck receiver and 200 buck speakers. One has to keep things in perspective.

It pains me to see pics of 7k speakers hooked up with Home Depot 14 gauge wire or a 2-3k pre amp with 30 buck IC's hanging off the back. You'll never fully get the picture of what a piece is capable of like that.

tratliff

K_M wrote: »

That caused a lot of anxiety among members here, and when I said we would do it again, at our expense, on this forum, no one stepped up or even was interested.

I think the ball is in your court.

K_M that's a generous offer but keep in mind it would be rather difficult to listen to your system for the first time, then change the speaker cables, and see if I could detect a difference.

Now a better trial would be for me to test on my system, which I have 100's of hours on, and see what the results are. This has been done many times with a variety of cables and I can speak to the differing outcomes of each set of cables. I would not expect you to be able to tell much of a change, if any, unless many hours were spent getting acquainted to my system.

As has been said above, the benefit of better cables is recognized the higher you go up the chain of electronics. From my perspective that is the most accurate observation in this thread and on the topic in general.

Is it possible that your system has reached its max potential? I doubt it but would like to know your opinion.

Also, can we understand more details on components (manufacturer, models), room configuration (setup, treatments) and cables used (speaker, interconnects, HDMI...) throughout the your system during evaluation?

K_M

https://www.lifewire.com/speaker-cables-make-a-difference-3134902

This was an interesting quick read, that seems to go along with what some of you guys are saying.

erniejade

RobbyKY wrote: »

These were all used on one of my fully modded 1.2TL sets with both Carver TFM-55 and McIntosh MC 252 amps switched in and out. The Carver seems to sound better to me with the AVt1's so that combo is working full time for now in the listening room.

This was my experience as well except I was running a sunfire sig II 625 X2. My Mcintosh MC402 and MIT did not play nice together at all but, on the Sunfire, it sounded wonderful.

tratliff

K_M wrote: »

https://www.lifewire.com/speaker-cables-make-a-difference-3134902

This was an interesting quick read, that seems to go along with what some of you guys are saying.

I'm not interested in measurement differences provided by a "Clio 10 FW" and a "MIC-01". I use my ears.

You can dodge the subject but "the ball is in your court".

[Deleted User]

K_M wrote: »

https://www.lifewire.com/speaker-cables-make-a-difference-3134902

This was an interesting quick read, that seems to go along with what some of you guys are saying.

That was great read, especially the upper end cables. With the very slight measurable differences I'm left to wonder if the extra $5000 wouldn't be better spent on the speakers or electronics.

rooftop59

K_M wrote: »

https://www.lifewire.com/speaker-cables-make-a-difference-3134902

This was an interesting quick read, that seems to go along with what some of you guys are saying.

Yep, interesting article. Seems to agree with what a lot of folks here are saying:

1. Different cables do produce different measurable and audible results
2. Those audible results are subtle and likely best heard in a higher end system
3. Many of us won’t ever notice the difference because we either don’t have a high enough system, don’t listen closely enough (or don’t know what to listen for) or just don’t have the ears to hear the difference...

K_M

rooftop59 wrote: »

K_M wrote: »

https://www.lifewire.com/speaker-cables-make-a-difference-3134902

This was an interesting quick read, that seems to go along with what some of you guys are saying.

Yep, interesting article. Seems to agree with what a lot of folks here are saying:

1. Different cables do produce different measurable and audible results
2. Those audible results are subtle and likely best heard in a higher end system
3. Many of us won’t ever notice the difference because we either don’t have a high enough system, don’t listen closely enough (or don’t know what to listen for) or just don’t have the ears to hear the difference...

Seems a very reasonable view.

RobbyKY

Lemme guess...Toyota?

Bingo!

I'm in the rare transplant group from the Kentucky engineering & manufacturing side trying to blend in with 3,000 Californians. I play music loud, drink really good bourbon, own lots of guns and a Prius will fit inside my 10 mpg truck. Some days can be....challenging......

dromunds

In my rig(s), some of the differences have been subtle, others rather shocking. Most of the various cables I've tried were in the former category with differences being quite subtle, including a lot of the big names. However, there have been some that were eye-opening and quite frankly undeniable. I don't care about anything except my own empirical findings, what it sounds like to me in my system. I remember the first time I tried PNF Audio cables, simply undeniable. Same thing with better MIT cables. I have yet to try Wireworld, I'm feeling pretty good with where I'm at for the moment, but will try them when the right deal comes by. I've never had multi-thousand dollar cables in my rig, not in the budget and I don't care. That's just the way it is. So be it.

mrloren

I like doing blind test on people.

When I got my AQ type 4, I hooked on of the warehouse speakers up. people said the left speaker sound different or better.

When I change wires or interconnects at home I only do one at a time. Once the kids say something then I know there is change. "Dad one speaker sounds better than the other" All the time it's been the one with the change.

Best one was when I pulled the brass jumpers installing speaker wire jumpers. That change jumped out at everyone.

motorhead43026

^^I myself just junked the brass jumpers for ZU Audio IBIS jumpers, same result here.

vcwatkins

VR3 wrote: »

One of my favorites that I replaced MIT shotguns with was the DH Labs Q10. Fantastic wire

Currently sporting the supra Quadrax, which I am fond of. I would do Q10, but just don't want to plunk down 30 bucks a foot

Hey, great rec Trey!

Picked up a used pair and am trying out on study rig (except RS 40-1354 full rangers iso Hartleys). The differences between these and the Shotgun 3's are incrementally very small, but the overall impression is a tad sweeter and more detailed.

A little less emphasis on bass - Daft Punk's Get Lucky doesn't have as much tactile, infectious kick; but this seems to allow slightly more detail elsewhere. LaFaro's solo in Debby take2 seemed eerily present in the room with much realism from finger/string contact. Brandi Carlile's voice in Terpentine seems somehow a tad more organic and smooth. A nudge in detail also. Evans' quiet chatter about what to play at the end of Gloria's Step take1 is a bit more decipherable than before. But with the bump in detail, there is no grainy edge or dryness (my expectation).

I really like these and they seem especially appropriate in this rig where acoustic music is predominant. I never expected to get sweetness from "silver" anything. Detail, yes; but this is lovely, smooth detail - not etched or dry at all. I hope to give them a try in the "musicality" rig (den), but right now I'm thinking they'll stay in the study a good while.

Thanks!
Craig

VR3

Glad to hear you dig them, dh labs is the best ive heard, great stuff

muncybob

I don't always enjoy my rig, poor recordings will do that to ya. More than once a cd hasn't made it past the 3rd song before it's pulled.

Now really good bourbon on the other hand....................

audioluvr

So what would be the best step up from my monster Z series for $250-300 with the gear I have in my sig?

tonyb

RobbyKY wrote: »

Lemme guess...Toyota?

Bingo!

I'm in the rare transplant group from the Kentucky engineering & manufacturing side trying to blend in with 3,000 Californians. I play music loud, drink really good bourbon, own lots of guns and a Prius will fit inside my 10 mpg truck. Some days can be....challenging......

I like you already.

tonyb

audioluvr wrote: »

So what would be the best step up from my monster Z series for $250-300 with the gear I have in my sig?

I can't see your sig, post it up.

Also, it's not just the gear, but the sound your looking for. The music type you listen to. Sometimes, and more often than not, better cables have a habit of exposing the weak link in your system.

You like a more laid back sound...more forward ? More dynamic....softer top end or brighter ? Punchy mid bass ? See what I'm getting at ?

erniejade

tonyb wrote: »

audioluvr wrote: »

So what would be the best step up from my monster Z series for $250-300 with the gear I have in my sig?

I can't see your sig, post it up.

Home System: see
SDA 1C's - Full mod with the help by Dave...
800 Va Dreadnought
B&K Reference 50 Pre
B&K M200 Sonata Monoblocks
Cambridge Audio DVD 99
Sangean HD FM Tuner

Barn system:
SDA SRS 2.3's Full mod done by myself
Carver C-1 pre
Carver M1.5t

tonyb

Thanks Brian.

Which system would you be looking to upgrade the cabling in ? Home system used for movies also I take it ?

...and, what if anyting, about the sound you have now don't you like or wish was better.

audioluvr

tonyb wrote: »

Which system would you be looking to upgrade the cabling in ? Home system used for movies also I take it ?

...and, what if anyting, about the sound you have now don't you like or wish was better.

Upgrading the home system (2 ch. audio only). Pretty happy with what I have now but thought I'd try dipping my toes in the speaker wire abyss. My old ears may have hit a brick wall on sonic improvements but speaker wire is probably the weak link in my system (I could be wrong though).

Skip, I may take you up on that offer but I'm not convinced yet on using bi- amp wire on a non-bi-amp system.

Clipdat

audioluvr wrote: »

Skip, I may take you up on that offer but I'm not convinced yet on using bi- amp wire on a non-bi-amp system.

Bi-wiring is different than bi-amping.

They are just bi-wire cables, which means that as long as your speakers have separate binding posts for high and low, you can use them. Amplifier side connection remains the same as normal.

audioluvr

I have the SDA 1C's. No bi-wire terminals

Clipdat

audioluvr wrote: »

I have the SDA 1C's. No bi-wire terminals

Then those are not the cables you are looking for.