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Need Good Advice - Speaker Cable

I have an Audio Refinement Complete driving Soliloquy 5.0 monitors and a Rotel 855 CDP. I've had them a year hooked up with well seasoned original Monster Cables. The last couple of months, I've been auditioning speaker cables to get rid of some grime in the highs and some thinness to some vocals.

The system with my Monsters is actually quite pleasureable. It has a vibrant, room filling, holographic kind of quality that is very exciting even at low levels. Bass is very good and the midrange can really be wonderful with terrific tone and color to the music. Highs can be very transparent also.

I've now tried in my system Transparent Audio The Wave 100 (lifeless and veiled sounding), Analysis Plus Oval 12 (pretty good resolution and good purity, but too rolled off sounding, not exciting), Mapleshade Golden Helix (amazing stuff really, very pure high end, a bit too bright, some sibilance and some nasality to vocals). Just received and now listening to Monster Cable Z-1 (it has the expansive Monster sound that I'm used too, fair resolution, decent bass, but some grime in the midrange so far).

Almost everything has a cleaner high end than my old Monster's, but nothing is as exciting, enjoyable and colorful as they are. I was thinking of trying a low to mid priced Nordost cable next.

This business of testing cables is still fun, but I'm not sure when/where it will end. Can someone who is familiar with my experiences give me some direction?

Thanks,
Chris
ssglx

Showing 7 responses by ssglx

ssglx OP
203 posts
 
Budget is about $200 for an 8' set, I will buy.

The Rotel is hooked up with Transparent 100 Interconnects. In my view, my source components and amplifier are capable of everything that I want. Between the various cables, the system has had great bass, great midrange, very good resolution and low level dynamics, and an extended-sweet-transparent-clean high end. For me with my system, I will have reached my nirvana if I can put it all together with one (or a combination of) cable. I'm 80-90% there with my old Monsters.

Chris
ssglx OP
203 posts
 
Lack of adequate burn-in is a possibility with a couple of them, but they were either demos or I ran all in my system for a few days before trying to draw conclusions. The differences between them were stark, with definite characteristics defining how they sounded. I don't have the time or patience to wait out any minor changes to the sound characteristics.

BTW, I just switched back to my original Monsters from the Monster Z-1's and it was immediately apparent that I enjoy the old cables more. The Z-1's were certainly more refined in all frequencies, but the old cables were punchy, very open and live sounding and incredibly solid. Definitely some upper midrange hash, but not unpleasantly so.
ssglx OP
203 posts
 
Nordost Flatline cables. One of the posts here noted that Nordost cables would likely be too lean sounding in my system. How about the all copper Flatlines? Without any silver do they still sound like the Solar Wind/Blue Heaven cables which I have seen noted to sound lean in other posts?

Chris
ssglx OP
203 posts
 
To those familiar with these cables, please look back at my original post and lets me know what you think of the MI-2's for my situation. I have read that the soundstage is large, similar to my impression of my Monsters.

Chris
ssglx OP
203 posts
 
You know, I've been in and out of audio for 30+ years, starting with small advents and a Pioneer receiver. I don't listen to much live music, but I know what I like in sound reproduction. When I got the monsters 20+ years ago I could tell a big difference in the sound, and I liked it. I changed out my entire system a year ago and have enjoyed it and listened to it alot, and TUNED it to my liking with positioning, room treatment, various materials under the speakers, and various fills for the stands. Most of these changes produced a huge difference in the way things sounded to me, no question. When I started to try different wire and cable, I heard huge changes again in the sound and enjoyment of the system. Some good and some not good.

I used to A/B stuff alot in audio shops in my teens, that WAS a waste of time, and it'll drive you crazy. No substitute to spending time with the components to see which one you enjoy more.

Additionally, I certainly AM trying to tune my system, and I am being quite successful.

I just needed to get that off my chest...now I feel better...Thanks

Now, I'm going to look for comparisons between Goertz MI-2 and MI-2 Pythons before I order one of those up to try out.

Chris
ssglx OP
203 posts
 
I guess I should have also said that I too went to Lowes and cut up a $12 12 ga extension cord and tried it for a week. Not bad, much livelier than A-Plus and Transparent, much better soundstage than the Mapleshade, but lots of sibilance and some dirt on the voices. Yup, big difference; different than any of the other 6 cables/wire that I have tried. I threw the orange cord in the dumpster, and hooked back up my monsters...

Chris
ssglx OP
203 posts
 
Digital, I've lately been heading in a similar direection. I had interesting results by shotgunning monster cable and Mapleshade Golden Helix to my 5.0's woofer posts with the stock jumpers. What I got was just about what I had hoped for, very tight and satisfying deep bass, pure (but still a bit hot) and resolved high end, and wonderful soundstage.

When I switched back to the monsters, the bass didn't sound as punchy or in-your-face.

The next thing I'm going to try is bi-wiring Mapleshade to the low posts and monster to the highs. It seems to me the Mapleshades have quicker and more energetic deep bass, and I just like the shimmery softer quality of the monster cable's high end.

A piece of advise for the 5.3's (I had borrowed a pair for a few days), for tight bass make sure you pull them way out from the walls (my 5.0's are nearly 4' out) and use the spikes. If they seem too hot with a given setup, play with the toe-in or point the tweeters down to your chest.

Another very interesting cabling exercise was running the Mapleshades to the top posts, monster to the low posts, and shorting the ground posts together with the jumper. Without the negative jumper, the sound was rather unnatural and not involving. The jumper made things much more musical and involving, better balanced, but softened all the transients a bit too much.

Chris
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