Top Ten Interconnects of all time...


A tip of the hat to FERRARI...(and to those great auto's!). I have enjoyed the "Top Ten" threads...So,.. What is you favorite Interconnect cables of all time? I will start this off with the following candidates...Wireworld Gold Eclipse III, Cardas Golden Reference, Nirvana S-L and S-X, Nordost Quattrofil..and the rest is up to you.
whatjd
LOd015, I looked at the site of Virtual Dynamics. Just looking at the technology, it sounds expensive. Although I don't have the luxury of having both interconnects, Ori assures me that he has thought of at least 10 things that most cable companies haven't. He also doesn't believe in expensive products(which, given my finances, I also believe). What price are we talking here? Ori says that, and I believe-based on my own observations, that just a little of his interconnects are enough to have its effect on a system. So, therefore(it had nothing to do with price-yeah right!) I paid around $329 for 2 feet. I would suggest(and this doesn't come from Ori) that you try the X-2 from the digital player to whatever.
MMakshak -

I have the Oritek X2 and the Virtual dynamics Revelations - The X-2 is good, the VD is great!

Neil
Only one mention for my regular cable, Acoustic Zen Silver reference and Hologram. They are not ultra expensive, but are detailed with real body, unlike my prior Nordost cables. Definitely the best ever in my system.
I just want to say that Oritek X-2's were mostly designed with cd. So, if you don't need silver, I would suggest you investigate these for your cd player. Ori says that just having them in your system provides many of the benefits of these interconnects. I can guarantee that Ori has auditioned his interconnects in many systems. Can you say that about all the interconnects that were formula based? I bought about 2 feet of them, which are very cost effective.
I have owned and tried numerous cables and I will have to say my favorites have been the following.

Silver Cables - AudioQuest Diamond X3 and Dragon Speaker Wire. A stunning combo. I wish I never sold it. I am sure their new Silver is probably just as good.

Copper Cables: XLO Original Reference Series, and their current Signature 2 Series which I own. Nothing has even come close to being more real and letting the music through in my system.

Chris
If you really want to hear an incredible cable and are willing to do the work in setting it up.Then the Virtual Dynamics Genesis is a World class cable that is just pure music in the way it defines the recordings and it's venues.This is a real monster!!Dennis
Bogdan Silver Spirit throw a superb stage out of my Ayre V3(x) and VSA-VR3.5. Good bass (not heavy, but musical), great, smooth and reasonably detailed highs without fizz, natural (neutral) mids. Not that expensive, esp used.
If I May , In my system the Purist Anniversary IC's have been the best & not by just a little ,but by a lot. They bettered cables by Stealth, Audioquest, Straight Wire, Kubala Sosa, Cardas, Nordost. Just to name a few. The cables from these manufactors were all great cables & were there top shelf cables. Purist just raised the bar in my opinion. I'm sure glad for this site, its allows us to try many a cable to see what works best for our systems, for a discounted price.
My List in order
Purist Anniversary #1, They blew me away
Purist Dominus # my second choice
Stealth Indra # you can't go wrong
Nordost Valhalla # the most open, but lacked the low end I need
Straight Wire Crescendo,# The best for the money
Cardas, # always great
Kubala Sosa Emotion
Just one persons opinion, in one persons system
Thanks
Audioquest Silver and Anti-Cables. Don't twist the Anti-Cables in spite of the recommendation.
I have tried tons of cables over the years.
Most of the top of lines from MIT, Transparent, Nordost, Cardas, Wireworld, Harmonic Tech, Acoustic Zen, Audioquest, Purist Audio etc, etc....
And until this day the best so far are Nordost Quattro fil and Magnan Silverbronze. Very neutral, utterly musical and extremely resolving.
My system:
ARC Reference One (sold my Ref2 mk2 for this one)
ARC VT-150SE
My own loudspeakers
T+A D10
Extensive power supply cleaning through Exactpower EP-15A, Shunyata Hydra 8 and Anacondas of different types.
Electraglide Epiphany X (on its way out) and Elrod EPS-2S (more to come from these, since it made wonders on my Ref One).
I own both the Fulton Brown's and Fulton Gold speaker cable. I mention this next part for perspective to possible cable purchasers. The Signal Cable Silver Resolutions beat the Fulton's. I'm not necessarily advocating the Silver Resolutions(although, I am with Nuforce amps), it just gives a realistic bent to this discussion. We can talk about the past(for instance, I have the original MIT interconnects), and that is good, but if someone is currently in the market for cables, the cables mentioned here would be incorrect for you.
Just saw the comment about the Fulton cables. In my younger days (late 70's early 80's) I was the Fulton rep for the East coast. I remember being laughed out of almost every high end store, because back then high end dealers claimed that it made no differnece as long as you used heavy gague copper wire. Robert Fulton was a true musical genius who was often laughed at. Don't know what ever happened to him. He deserves full recognition for his contribution.
I'de call the Oritek X-2's as the Koetsu(yes, I own the original Rosewood) of interconnects, in that they convey something about music that escapes most audio components. Yes, I pay what anyone else pays for these.
Maybe a little controversy will help. I propose the Oritek X-2's as number one, based on price/performance ratio. As a X-1 owner, I paid $390 for .6 meters(about 25 inches, tip to tip). You get to keep the X-1's. Ori has since informed me that .4 meters or less cost $329. He told me that the .6 meters would dominate my system(in a good way). He was right. He is supposed to tell me soon if .4 meters does the same. Now, if you have a specialized application, this may not apply to you.
The posting may have stopped. Maybe this will get a discussion going. I think my mention of the Oritek X-2's was actually on point, maybe not historically, though. Anyone have any impressions of the X-2's? The discussions of older interconnects are important also.
1. copper...2.silver....3.more copper....4.the carbon thingys......5. still more silver and copper.....i guess 6 through ten would be even more copper.
The thing is, Wc65mustang, is that there have been so many advances in cable-just in the last 4-5 years, that I can assure you that the Oritek X-2 will outperform almost all of the top-ten interconnects of all time. So will many others made in the last few years. I think that this gives a more balanced view to people who are looking to buy interconnects, and that is one reason why I mentioned the Oritek X-2. The other reason is the sound(or lack of-for those reading into the hidden meaning of words) of the X-2's.
I think that Sgr's post is more in the spirit of a top ten of all time listing. Some products, like the Fulton Gold and the original Monster Cable interconnects, are what got the cable industry started, regardless of how good they are or were, and thus belong on a list like this. Some, like the Purist products, used innovations (the "water cables") that improved the sound we could expect from our cables and set them apart from the rest--they merit inclusion. And some, like the Nordost products, have been consistently and almost uniformly recognized over time as being superior products, even if not to everyone's taste, so they belong on the list. That's what should determine whether a cable makes it to this list at this time; flavor of the month cables need to prove their worth over time before they belong on this list. I think, for example, the longevity of Kimber's KCAG cables, which were the first demonstrably better cables I ever owned and are still in production today, should put them on this list, but while I am a great admirer of the Kubala Sosna cables, the best I have ever had in my system, I don't think it's quite the time to put them on this list--yet.
Tincup, I've read your posts and in October your cable of the month was Xtreme, in November it was Reality, and now in December it is Voodoo. What cable of the month is planned for January 2006?
While I'm not saying these cables are close to state of the art today, one of the first cable inovators was Bob Fulton who had Fulton Gold interconnects. They sounded very musical at the time and were around before Monster cable was conceived. Bop Fulton visited high end dealers and had a plethora of tweaky products long before others jumped on the bandwagon. Among them were his Fulton Gold and brown speaker cables (the gold cables looked like welding cable and it were so thick and heavy they could almost hold up a LS35A by themselves without a stand!) the blue turntable mat, Fulton headshell leads, the Fulton J subwoofers, not to mention various incredible recordings he made and were available on LP.
So if were talking Top 10 of all time, I vote for the Bob Fulton's Gold Interconnects (Bob certainly didn't make millions) for they started this trend, though few today probably still have seen, heard or own his equipment.
You might want to check out VooDoo Cables, this has to be one of the best kept secrets in all of audio! voodoocable.net
Unless you are prepared to give empirical data comparing this sham cable to the real players i.e. PAD, MIT, Jena Labs, Synergistic Research, Virtual Dynamics, NBS. et.al. then "sticking your neck out" is a shameless and unsubstantiated promotion of this product. Given all of the top cables available, your assertion is simply one of either a dealer, distributor, or drunk.
There is no room for enthusiasm here? I have to admit that Ori(I think) probably does some sort of hypnosis on people. I was really thinking that it had something to do with Coors, though(combined with a vacation). Same price, guy. With any purchase of the X-1's(and he lets you keep the X-1's) it is $390 for .6 meters(about 25 inches from tip to tip). The thing is that you get the effect of these interconnects with even this smaller length(I wouldn't have sprung for the more expensive versions.). And guess what? I'm sticking my neck out on saying that these are in the top ten. How's that?
Mmakshak there are 20 threads now in which you shill these cables. What are they paying or giving you in exchange for the promotion?
BTW, your post here appears to be out of place. This is the top 10 interconnects of all time.......
Love my nordost Quattro fil, the spm is good but the highs are more lifelike with the Quattro fils, Ive used them both for about a year now. Also love transparent super xl.
Silver Audio's line of ICs, particularly the Apassionatas. No other cable manufacturer has bested Silver Audio in my system, from Nordost (ugh!), VD, Transparent, SW, Cardas, Audience, HT, Tara, et al.
The Virtual Dynamics Revealation, I think this cable is only for a few die hard audiophiles since it is unmercifully stiff.Amazingly musical, it throws a soundstage that defys room boundries in a huge way. Dynamics are are stupendously lifelike and offer resolution of the most subtle details. If you can afford the price of admission then they are worth every penny in terms of sheer musicality and enjoyment. Take care Dennis
John,

I MUST *respectfully disagree* with you on cooking meats.

I like my flavor(s) more liquid, life-like, almost CRAWLING.

The antithesis of dry, life-less, never MOVES !!

HA !!!!!!!!!!
My CRL/FIM Gold IC's are a pain in the butt to position and install, BUT they are music to my ears. Amazing tight deep bass, crystal clear highs, and midtone magic. I now have them as my speaker cable, IC's and power cords. I haven't heard every IC out there, but of the one's I have owned, heard, and demo'd in my system...CRL/FIM Gold IC's rule!
Pat,

Nice choice of interconnects, but come on.....cook that burger a little longer. I prefer medium well.

John
As I sit here chowing a medium-rare burger with steak fries, 4 come to mind :

Cardas Hexlink Golden 5-C

Magnan Type VI

Purist Audio Dominus

Virtual Dynamics Master or Revelation
harmonic technology cyberlight was excellent but the synergistic designer reference is better overall
Well, in all honesty the best for me has been Straight Wire Serenade for ICs, and Straight Wire Maestro II for SCs. I have had and tried many others, some much more expensive, but nothing has touched these cables. Feel free to spend more if you want.
A set of Nordost analogue balanced/XLR SPMs were the cleanest, no coloration, nothing added or subtracted, which surprises me why they have to be so expensive to achive this feat... Merblich / Erblichs
Recently received a 1m. pair of interconnects from InnerSound and, esp. at the price, they are very, very good.
Changing the best I heard from AQ Amazon and Nordost Quattro fil to NBS Monitor 0 and Siltech SQ88B, this two cables although both overprice (they really are)
,are the ones on top of the hill in my opinion.
In my system, the NBS Monitor I XLR interconnects sounded the best. I sold my JPS Superconductor II's and Nordost SPM XLR's once I heard the detail and overall sound from the NBS Monitor I.
Having heard some out there including Mapleshade Omega Micro's with Network Box, MIT, JPS Superconductors, DH Lab, Audio Magic Sorcerer, Cardas Golden Cross, my award will have to go for the Stealth PGS Gold interconnects, amazing reproduction of sound, so natural and Serguei is also a wonderful person to deal with.
2nd vote here for Synergistic ic's, with Active Shielding of course! When you switch on that shielding power supply, the stage opens up wide & deep.