MIT & Spectral -- but Which MIT?


I know that Spectral recommends using MIT wires with their amplifiers; 'quality' of the various lines of MIT cables aside, though, does it matter which MIT cable is used to maintain amplifier stability? MIT cables range from (almost) reasonable to hideously expensive; rather than use my current Alpha-Core M2s, I'll pick up some MIT wire to protect my newly-acquired DMA-50, and would like to keep that cost as low as possible. Are the lower-cost MIT Terminator lines adequate to the task, or should MH-750 be considered the minimum acceptable? If they should be 750s or higher, which model and/or impedence -- low, medium, high -- would be best (speakers are ProAc 2s)? Shotgunned, or not? Has anyone successfully used Alpha-Cores with Spectral amps? Any help is vastly appreciated. Thanks in advance, Mark
mjm
Dear MJM,
Joe Abrams who is frequently on this website would be a good person to answer this question.
I will give my personal experience. I had the DMA 180 and now the DMA 360. I have used a bunce of MIT cables and they are each quite a bit different. For instance I have tried the oracle v2 and preferred a much cheaper 770 cable. The most important thing is to match the impedances since the spectral cables are a bit special.
jd
Mj you can get all the advice you need from MIT rep. Joe Abrams, membername = joeabrams. He'll provide you with great advice & a great deal too. MIT makes a special line for Spectral but I don't see any of them in his present sale listing.

http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/search2.pl?seller&zzJoeabrams

I'd suggest to go with at least MH750. He has one 8' pair & one 10' pair available. But for Spectral I think that I would suggest the Oracle series; he has an 8' pair of V4 for slightly more $ than the MH750. He also has a 10' pair of V3 Wideband EX, which would be great with your DMA amp if you can swing it.
You want cable made for solid state of course. Regarding impedance, that relates to interconnects not speaker cable. You need to know the input impedance of your amp, then go to their website to determine which impedance range matches it, or ask Joe. He's absolutely wonderful to deal with.
I'm using MH750 Magnum biwire with my big Accuphase amp & it does a really fine job.
I would second the suggestion to "Go with Joe" (Abrams). He is excellent to deal with and was very willing to work with me about trying different options in my previous Bryston/Thiel setup. I tried three different paths before settling on the right one.
Yes, go with Joe, although the DMA 50, which I know well, is less tricky with cabling than Spectrals newer and higher powered offerings.
Dare I say that I second the opinions mentioned by jdwek and detlof, that is, that the current Spectral top of the line system is trickier to cable and treat for a/c than older Spectral. In particular, MIT's oracle series and new a/c cables may not be the unquestioned best, good as they are. I have not encountered much opinion forthcoming from the dealer community, and would be interested in relevant experience from a'goners.
Thanks, all -- I think the vote for Joe Abrams is unanimous! :-) I shall contact him -- but I hope you don't mind if I continue to pick your brains, too. My experience with MIT speaker wires goes only so far as the original MH750 and 750 Shotguns (pre terminator boxes, with two cables strapped together with a third length at the end -- what a bulky mess!), so that's at least 10 years ago. Then I went SET, and MITs were NOT a good match! So off they went in AudioMart, and I went deep into Cableland for the right match for that system.

Now I'm going to try a DMA-50, "just to see/hear" (yeah right, meet another audio toy that'll go SOMEwhere, even if maybe not in the main system, depending). MIT has marched on, of course. It appears -- and this is what I'm trying to get a handle on -- that even the lesser cables from the Terminator line, such as the Terminator 2, are far more advanced in construction, and possibly better sounding, than the original 750s. Is this true? Since this is just an initial experiment, I don't want to spend as much or more on the wires, even used, than I'm spending on the amp, which comes in at far less than a thousand. So do I pick up a (by now well) used original 750 - or perhaps Shotguns or Plus's, if they can be had cheaply -- for a couple of hundred, or spend the same amount on new T-2s? Over the years, how has the pecking order stacked up? What say y'all?

And Detlof -- if the '50 is "less tricky," would you say that something like the Goertz MI2 or MI3 might work without frying the amp? I've heard enough horror stories -- though not about the '50 -- to be paranoid. If I remember, though, you've actually used this model amp; did you have success with other cables? Would you share your experiences?

TIA, Mark
I have used a few of their models ranging from $500 to $4000 retail. I think that the best bang for the buck are either the 750 plus' or the same model biwired. Dont get me wrong I loooove my $4000 cables but there a lot of other things to take into consideration. Unless you have an ultra high end high resolution system I doubt you would here much difference.

You can pich up a pair of 750 plus used for around three hundred. I think this is one of the best bangs for the buck in the high end market.
MjM, I am not familiar with the Goertz at all, so I cannot help there. I've used the 50 and Spectral's 200 with more cables then I care to remember. vdH, the old MIT shotguns you've mentioned, Madrigal ICs, XlOs, Nordost, various Euro brands, amongst others. Speaker cables have mostly been Furukawa solid core. When these amps came out, Spectral was already working together with MIT, but there was no talk of blowing up of amps if you used other wires and of the waiving of warranties. So I would not worry too much. The 50s and the 200s have been in my setup in very different configurations for at least 13 years and I NEVER had the slightest trouble with them. But DO ask Joe (give him my regards) he's very fair ,impartial and very helpful. Cheers and happy listening,