Stunned by a cable upgrade


Yesterday I received a 12ft. pair of Analysis Plus Oval Nine speaker cable and I am absolutely stunned by the positive difference they have made in my setup. They replaced a 14 ft. biwired pair of DH Labs Silversonic T-14s. I ordered these on the advice and glowing reviews of fellow members of this forum in an attempt to tame my bright system. I am currently using a Sim Audio Moon I-5 integrated, Sonus Faber Concertinos, Musical Fidelity E60 CD player and NHT SW3P subwoofer.

I must say I've never had the experience of one component making such an audible difference. The DH Labs have a very in-your-face presentation, and the soundstage is flat by comparison. Changing to the Oval Nines I was shocked how much width and especially depth were added to the soundstage. It had the effect of opening backwards like an accordian. Amazing! All the glare was gone and the music became bigger, fuller and just seemed to roll out effortlessly. So full in fact, I had to adjust my subwoofer to compensate for the increased bass and corresponding mudiness.

I spent the entire evening marveling at how the music of Robby Longley, Sunny Sumter, Diana Krall, Jesse Cook, Inscendio, Yo Yo Ma, and Oscar Lopez came to life. My gold Dave Brubeck Time Out CD had always sounded so thin, but now flowed with an ease and roundness I had never enjoyed before. Paul Desmond's sax was so real. The instruments and voices on every CD I tried seemed more lifelike and natural.

Previously, I had tried various affordable interconnects from Cardas, Kimber, Tara, Monster and DH Labs thinking this might help. While the different interconnects did change the character of the sound, the shifts were pretty subtle. A pair of Cardas Golden Cross proved to be the most effective and expensive, but the problem still persisted. It's almost as if everything was bottlenecked at the speaker cables, and now the music seems to flow unrestrained.

The DH Labs are in biwire configuration. The Oval Nines are a single run. I would have thought the biwired cables would have an edge in spaciousness, but this is not the case in my system. I had considered changing out the Moon I-5 for a tube preamp/SS amp combo hoping to cure the leaness. With the Analysis Plus now in my system, I no longer have the urge to change my amp. I'm starting to see how good the Sim Audio really is. I also have on order a Bel Canto DAC 1.1 and I hope this will reap even greater rewards.

I know this must sound like a cheap plug for a product by a manufacturer, but it's not. I'm still amazed by the transformation my system made last night, especially since both cables have been so well reviewed and are fairly close in price. Has anyone else experienced such an improvement in their setup by changing cables? And if so, what were the components involved?
gunbei

Showing 1 response by jim

Sean, what a great cable shoot-out. Very thorough and objective. This is an interesting thread in the sense that it clearly points out how system dependent components can be.

I am currently using AP Oval 9's but without the negative effects that came across in your system. Maybe it's my speakers or the way that they are set up... I was using AQ Midnights on ML CLS's in the "full range" mode. I moved the Midnights to my SW800 subs which are crossed over at 100 Htz with an 18db per octave Butterworth high and low pass slopes. My only comparative reference points with this set up were AQ Argent and DH Q10. In my system the Oval 9's gave me the same positive sound staging effects that Gunbei described, which I why I kept it in my system.

I really wanted to try the Goertz MI2, based on all the good things I heard about them, but was concerned about their high inductance qualities -- reportedly not a good thing with electrostatics. I was also informed that my low output imedance amp (Mesa Baron) would compund this. Any experiences or informed opinions regarding this?

In regards to the bi-wired T14/ single Q10 question... according the DH Labs, Q10 solo is supposed to outperform bi-wired T14 in all areas... YMMV.

Good thread, folks.