Good, Neutral, Reasonably Priced Cables?


After wading through mountains of claims, technical jargon etc. I'm hoping to hear from some folks who have had experience with good, neutral, reasonably priced cables. I have to recable my entire system after switching from Naim and want to get it right without going nuts! Here is what I'm looking for and the gear that I have:

Looking for something reasonably priced-i.e. used IC's around $100-150. Used speaker cable around $300-400 for 10ft pair.

Not looking for tone controls. I don't want to try to balance colorations in my system. I'd like cables that add/substract as little from the signal as possible.

Looking for something easily obtainable on the used market i.e. that I can find the whole set up I need without waiting for months and months. I guess this would limit you to some of the more popular brands. Without trying to lead you, here are some I've been considering:

Kimber Hero/Silver Streak
Analysis Plus Copper Oval/Oval 9
Cardas Twinlink/Neutral Reference (Pricey)
Wireworld Polaris/Equinox

Here is my gear:

VPI Scout/JMW9/ATML170
Audio Research SP16
Audio Research 100.2
Rotel RCD 971
Harbeth Compact 7

I would really appreciate your help on this. Thanks, as always.
dodgealum

Showing 6 responses by ozfly

One of the challenges in this hobby is that everything is systems dependent. A cable that is neutral in one system may not be in another. For example, Mikesinger reports outstanding findings with the au-24 and I don't doubt him. Many have reported great results from that cable. In my system, the au-24 rolled off the highs -- not a ton, but enough to make me switch out.

My experience with lower priced cables led me to conclude that the Sound Quest Pro Series Zero Point Reference Interconnect is outstanding for the money -- nothing but the music in the three systems where I used them. I have not experienced their speaker cable so cannot comment on that.

Dodgealum, I'd suggest that, whatever cable grabs your attention from what I hope will be many recommendations, you try before you buy. Get that 14-30 day trial period that many dealers and manufacturers offer. If you go to used cables to save some money, be prepared to resell and reship. I hope you get lucky with your first attempt, but you may not. That's OK -- it's all part of the fun ;-)
Psychicanimal, I agree that neutral is neutral from an observational or judging perspective. However, for cables or individual components, I'd propose that "neutral in a system is neutral in a system".

Cables have differing inductance, resistance and capacitance characteristics so, from a listener point of view, they may not behave exactly the same in every system. Cables can impact different systems in different ways.
Psychicanimal, you're right -- I'm branching out into both a left and right brainer! ;-) Perhaps I'm being a bit too objective. There is more that I don't know than that I do.

Looking at things from a different perspective, many audiophiles have heard differences in cable performance from one system to the next. While that, plus the scientific differences I referenced, points to many cables being systems dependent, that does not prove that all cables are so systems dependent that they will be neutral in one but not another. Thanks for the continued challenge to my reasoning Psychicanimal.

Allow me to rephrase: MANY cables may sound neutral in one system but not another; ALL cables will influence their systems to some degree; SOME cables may sound neutral in most systems. That's what I love about this forum -- it's a great learning opportunity for me so long as I listen.

Cheers
Sean, et al, thanks for the great info. (Sean, are you sure you only spend 15 minutes a day on Audiogon?)

Earlier, I made a comment that:
"MANY cables may sound neutral in one system but not another; ALL cables will influence their systems to some degree; SOME cables may sound neutral in most systems."

Does this make sense? It appears that the Goertz hits the last point pretty solidly.

By the way, to the earlier question about pc's affects on components with good power supplies -- I've tried three different pc's on my Sierra Olympias with no discernable affect on the sound. Even though the tranformer is torroidal, the power supply is absolutely massive (4+kva) and further bolstered by large caps at each output device. It may not be as elegant as what Sean describes, but it seems pretty pc neutral.
Sean, I absolutely got it ;-) .... just couldn't resist.

We're on the same, perhaps scary, wavelength on the subject of components and environment first. I believe I'm finally at the point where I can begin to seriously look at the cables. Goertz, Ridgestreet and others will be fun to try out when the next "audio budget" season arrives.

Sean, thanks for all the advice here and in the past. Audiogoners, that's a big fat ditto.
Hear, hear Flex. If we don't know what we don't know, let's learn some of it! At the end, the ears are the judge, but we can get better at this through research.