New Zu Mission cable

Jedinite24, have you added any Mission power cords into the mix?

In May/June when I put in Wylde interconnect and Libtec speaker cables, I also spent 300+ hours burning it in. The resolution was undeniably better but it still sounded a bit edgy to me. Then the BoK power cord arrived and I plugged it into the integrated amp. With no further burn-in it immediately brought the sound into a sort of synergistic focus.

11-19-10: Salmonsc
It seems, looking at their new website, that the Mission is the only cable line Zu are now making - as everything else (Libtech etc.) has vanished. Does anyone know anything about this?

Evidently Zu changed their business model. They still have Oxyfuel as their entry-level interconnect, but in most other cases the new Mission is priced about where mid-pack was in their previous lines, while outperforming even their former top line cables. Libtecs were about $1200/3M pair; Ibis was close to $2K/3M pair. Mission is only $399.

Likewise, the Mission interconnect at $299 is the equal or better of the previous top line Varial at around $500-600/1M pair.

They also stopped offering a few pair per week on eBay where you could get Varial, Libtec, Wylde, etc. for 20-40% (depending on the final auction price) of the prices on their online store.

For my Wylde ICs and Libtec speaker cables, break-in was more like 300 hours, and adding the BoK power cable to the preamp helped the tonal balance and ended the break-in period.

12-01-10: Artmaltman
Why are all the comparisons in this thread only within the same brand? Have none of you ever tried any other brand? How does Mission compare to other brands of cables that many of us have tried?
Thanks,
Art

Since the thread was about Zu Mission, many of us were responding with our best frame of reference--other Zu cables. It's particularly significant to Zu customers because the new Mission line covers maybe three of their former lines, seems to be considered better than their previous top line while costing much less.

In response to your question, I have used so many different cables it's hard to recount. My past speaker cables includ MIT 750, PS Audio XStream Reference Biwire, lower level Audio Magic, Monster M1000, Tara Labs, Belkin OCC PureAV Silver series, Cobalt, and StraightWire Ribbon 8. ICs include Kimber PBJ, Timbre, and several pairs of Hero, AudioQuest Blue Racer and Black Mamba, and some Tara Labs and Monster and StraightWire's original The Conductor.

The PS Audio Xstream Biwire had a list price of $1500 for an 8' pair, is 2" in diameter, and weighs 2 lbs. per foot. Unwieldy doesn't begin to describe it, but it's neutral, clean, fast, and weighty. Easily the best speaker cable I'd ever had, including a double run of the MIT 750H. I would say the Zu Libtec I got this past May is easily the equal in all ways to the PS Audio, but is even faster, more dimensional, more coherent and focused, more extended, all while having about a 2" bend radius and barely 1/2" in diameter.

So why wouldn't I be going nuts about it? I'm not hyped up on Internet buzz. My enthusiasm started from personal experience and is based entirely on putting the cables into my system after over 20 years of trying many brands of cables in various configurations and with different components.

Google for Kimber Hero and it's been the longstanding darling of budget high end, even being either component of the year or budget component of the year at bot TAS and Stereophile. And after 5 years of using Hero in my home theater system and another year in my analog-based 2-channel system, the Zu Wylde ICs are as extended while being faster, cleaner, and even more coherent.

I find the Zu's to generally be fast, clear, coherent, and yet full-bodied and extended. I was seriously considering getting a little subwoover for my 2-channel system ... until I swapped out the cables for Zu Libtec speaker cable, Wylde interconnect, and BoK power cable. My enthusiasm reflects the value I perceive that I got out of their cables.

12-20-10: Jedinite24
With Zu's current deals on the Mission cable line I'm beginning to wonder if I got a deal at all. I participated in the early promotion back in September and yes I have been enjoying the Mission SCs I purchased. I really felt though that I got a good deal all around since I thought I got the cables @ 50% off.

You can drive yourself crazy trying to get the best single-opportunity price on every purchase in your life, or enjoy some great-performing cables at a better price than the competition. I paid on the high end (about $50-70 higher than average) when I won my pair of Libtec SCs last May. Some people got 'em cheaper and then came the Missions.

But still, for under $300 I got some KILLER cables with an excellent warranty, they sound marvelous in my system, elevated the level of resolution significantly, and I'm not going to let $50 one way or another ruin the experience. In the overall scheme of things, the extra $50 doesn't matter a bit.