Kimber 8TC beater?

I've listened to a lot of speaker cables at the 8TC price range. I'm going to say there aren't in fact many that beat the 8TC for imaging, but there are several that are weightier/fuller sounding. I had to go up to the Audience AU24E to get that in my system.

I'm going to go left-field with a cheaper option which is cryo'ed Mogami 3104 (from TakeFiveAudio). It's an absolute bargain; neutral, detailed, solid sounding. Depending on your system, you may also want to try Goertz MI3.

As said, speaker cables are system dependent and subjective. Best thing to do is buy used or use the Cable Company lending library, or just take a punt.

My ATC amp and speakers are extremely neutral (not bright, not warm) and I'm very sensitive to lean and fatiguing noises. Honestly, who doesn't love big, solid imaging? So let's say our ears are in line and you can take my reports accordingly:

Romex/no-name bulk copper - complete crapshoot depending on purity of copper, stranding, insulation. Generally costs pennies but seldom good enough so the outlay vs trade-offs becomes wrong-headed

Supra Ply - great value, warm and airy sounding, imaging is quite good in terms of width but not depth; not very detailed in the frequency extremes

Belden (like Blue Jeans) - OK for a budget system and non-critical listening, I suppose. Does nothing bad, but does absolutely nothing great. Ultimately smudgy sounding and underwhelming in most degrees.

Wireworld Oasis - my first use of OCC copper - decent sound all round. Neutral-warm, imaging was fair but not as projecting as 8TC in direct comparison.

8TC - striking imaging and projection with voices in particular. Too clean/lean.

12TC - almost identical to 8TC but worse! Slightly less lean but imaging was not as good. I don't know why 12TC exists.

DNM Solid Core - these are a big boutique/niche favorite and are super cheap. But I found them to be the ultimate meh and probably set it in my mind that solid core is not my thing.

Clear Day Double-Shotgun - loads of members rave about these and even though I'm not into solid core or silver in general, they are nice. Silky, airy treble. Beguiling with vocals but didn't find it an imaging nor a bass champ.

Grover Huffman - brutal break-in - after that, it's extremely fast and rhythmic. Very unique presentation. Imaging a bit 2D, and overall it's quite aggressive sounding and bass is very lean. Best guess is the combination of so many metals makes for unrealistic/strange tone and timbre.

Acoustic Zen Satori - more OCC like garden hoses. Big, warm sound but too much of a good thing with trade-offs being speed, dynamics and ultimate detail. On paper, if you want warm and big above everything else, it's a candidate.

Cardas Clear Sky - just terrible. Did nothing well. Gives a lo-fi, sterile and bright sound. No idea who would like these.

DH Labs Q10 Signature - really strong bass and sub-bass. But everything else was muffled. It's like turning up the bass to max and treble to minus-max in a car.

Goertz MI3 - it's like a cross between AZ Satori and the Wireworld. Didn't blow me away but does very little wrong.

Black Cat Lectraline - I was very impressed with these. They're the best overall sound from all the above cables (suprising given they are also silver solid core). They did nothing bad, they did everything very well, in fact. Only problem was they picked up RF in my apartment so I couldn't keep them.

Mogami 3104 - you can get these terminated, cryoed (which I believe in) and cable-cooked from TakeFiveAudio. They do work non-biwired, also (each channel shotgunned, effectively). Great specs/measurements. Flexible, cheap. You can also get these even cheaper in bulk or terminated from pro audio places like Redco, or Ebay sellers. I don't care that people argue these are good cause that's what a lot of recording studios use. I find these a great surprise for their performance. They are very, very good. Everything is well-balanced and for me, they are the point of diminishing returns of all the speaker cables I've tried. If I ever downsized my system, I'd be happy to sell my Audience and get Mogami. They're good enough to also use with fancy pure copper or rhodium spades like from Furutech.

Haven't tried Morrow. I tend to be skeptical of fanboy brands on audio forums (e.g. AntiCables). I don't see anything remarkable about the engineering or design features of either of these, to be honest.

Try Mogami :)

Pc123v - yes, I have/had both 3104 and Ply at the same time. Ply is nice. But too soft and polite.

3104 gives a bigger sound and is more detailed. It's still very neutral, though - no frequency band is hyped or muted. This makes for better long-term listening, with all kinds of recordings and music genres.

I would wholly recommend both TakeFive or Redco.
In Redco's custom cable widget, you have to choose "Multi-Channel" "Speaker Cable" -- to get the 3104, and that will get you ONE channel's (plus and minus for right or left).

Then do it all over again to complete your stereo pair (right and left).

Almarg's post is brilliant. I really enjoyed reading more engineering science on cables, but more pointedly, yeah I didn't know much about these Hyperion amps, and tube rolling would seem an obvious thing to consider, too.

I've heard the Resolution Audio Cantata (guys who made your Opus CDP) and it sounds really lovely.

I'm going to end by saying that I'm looking suspiciously at the Grover ICs you use, too - if my comments on his speaker cables might also apply....then we'd be getting into IC recommendations and a whole other thread :)

Not quite identical, HDM. 3104 is four conductor, so one can shotgun each plus/minus per channel to lower resistance, etc.

Interesting.

Vivid imaging but clean/lean sound - 8TC
Solid imaging, balanced, weighted sound - 3104

You could get both then sell on the one you don't like.
At least you'll know! :)

IME, cryo generally makes treble smoother and bass deeper :)

The best (and most expensive) speaker cable I ever owned was a British one called Townshend Isolda. It is luscious sounding, with massive soundstaging and very deeeeeep bass. I learned some time later that it was originally a copy of the copper ribbon Goertz MI3, but with a built in Zoebel network (I think Al talks about it in an earlier post) and that it was cryo'd.

Going on memory, when I heard Goertz MI3 natively, it was fair-good, but not WOW! like the Townshend. I can only attribute this to the cryo, I guess.

Put another way, I also had some cryo 3104 from TakeFive and it's the basis for my recommendation. I've not heard non-cryo 3104.

Reading TakeFive's page on their cryo, I see some of the characteristics called out that I mentioned: http://www.takefiveaudio.com/mall/shopcontent.asp?type=cryo

However, they also indicate it doesn't seem to always work on every cable out there.

Oh blimey, these speakers are 3 ways for tri-wiring. What a pain.

I'd go for the biwire option + pair of jumpers.

You could also phone/email Gene at TakeFive for any other advice.