Cables.

nooshinjohn

My take on cables??? I believe cables can and do make a huge difference, depending on the gear involved. Synergy is that word that gets tossed about a lot, and for good reason. I believe that cables should be about 20% of the value within a system. I would not buy a 1500.00 power cord for a 500.00 dollar AVR, but if I had a pair of 20k Krell monoblocks, I see no issue getting as much performance from your cables as you can.

On my two channel side, I have AQ WEL RCA interconnects from my preamp to the amps, and AQ Meteor true bi-wire from amps to speaker. Everything else is AQ Balanced, but I don't recall the series at this time. I have spent 2k on cables to serve as the connection for 18k in gear. Could I get better performance from higher end cables? Sure, but I don't think it would make as much of a difference than upgrading my gear.

I am at the endgame, and won't be changing a thing for a very, very long time.

nooshinjohn

Gardenstater wrote: »

I'm a firm believer in speaker cables making a huge difference. So far these are the best I've heard on my own system, which I fabricated myself. This picture was taken before I punched the 1/4" holes with a commercial paper punch, for the binding post terminals on my speakers and amp.

Do you keep a fire extinguisher nearby or is the fire department on speed-dial?

Gardenstater

Ha! No short circuits buddy. The dielectric is .003" thick polypropylene and extends past the edges of the ribbons and the exterior insulation is clear polyethylene with PSA. Look up the Goertz patent. These gave my system incredible speed and clarity by the way.

In addition to not showing the 1/4" holes, the picture above doesn't show the insulation I applied to the positive leads. I tried to keep the insulation to a minimum to reduce losses.

My friend Steve who is in a fairly large audio club here in NJ where they have a different person host a listening party every first Sun of the month, has been taking a pair of these to various people's houses who have VERY high end systems and they have been extremely impressed with the improvement in their sound.

PS: some amplifiers will oscillate with such a low inductance cable and in those cases a 0.1uF capacitor in series with a 4.7 Ohm resistor, across the terminals of the speakers cures that problem.

tonyb

Gardenstater wrote: »

PS: some amplifiers will oscillate with such a low inductance cable and in those cases a 0.1uF capacitor in series with a 4.7 Ohm resistor, across the terminals of the speakers cures that problem.

Interesting, but honestly....who wants to do that just for cables. I like my cables to function just by hooking them up right off the bat.

Gardenstater

Most amps don't oscillate. My Crown D-150 has no issues. It's just 2 things to hook up, the speaker cable goes on the binding post and the nut/knob is screwed down tightly. I like to use a little smidge of silver platelet grease (very little). Then if your amp is one of the ones that requires the Zobel Network, you just attach it to the binding posts using the appropriate connectors. I would use banana plugs since mine are otherwise unoccupied (if I needed the Zobel). Easy Peazy.

Alpha Core Goertz cables used to include the network with the cables at one time, I believe. There is absolutely no sound degradation in using the network on an amp that doesn't oscillate, just for extra protection.