Top Ten Speaker Cables of all time?...

I am now using my HiDiamond speaker cables with Bybee Bullets. The synergy is amazing.

Acrotec has always hit the sweet spot for me. I have an old pair of 6N-S1030 speaker cable. Solid-core with a single 1.2 mm diameter 6N copper conductor per leg, has a braided fabric inner jacket & clear PVC outer coating. This is reminiscent of the old antenna twin lead.

MIT MH-850 CVT Shotgun Evo for full register use.
Magnan Signature for best performance in mid and treble.

good one :)

I'm keen on the Repulicrat cables.

Absolutely no cross talk, total 100% isolation, huge soundstage, but they are somewhat one dimensional.

The left and right cables must be kept separate. Interference and immutable noise may occur if arranged side by side.

Magnat Superflow. Over 1000 strands per cable. Rubber jacket. Hangs limp like a silk rope.

STEALTH V10 does everything,great speed,wonderful depth,great imaging,great bass etc.

HiDiamond should definitely be listed. While I have not heard all of the possible contenders I think any cable that reaches this level would only have the very top cables in the same ballpark.

I had the opportunity to lend and try both Nordost Tyr and Analysis plus Silver oval but they never came out fully to my liking in my Primare I30 Bowers & Wilkins 803 set-up.

In the end I settled for Live Mk 1, but they now have some really crazy expensive Live Mk 2 . Lets hope they are the best cables in the world at that price! ;-)

1.Purist audio dominus 2.kimber 3038 3.Kondo ksl spz 4.Kharma enigma 5.cardas golden cross

Duanegoosen: I recently replaced my #14 guage HOME DEPOT solid core plastic insulated 115 AC volt HOUSE WIRE speaker cables with #12(thicker diameter) guage and I noticed a dramatic improvement. I am now using a SINGLE WIRE #14 guage 115 AC Volt HOME DEPOT solid copper house wire to replace all my RCA coaxial signal cables. IT IS ASTOUNDING. These 20 cent/foot (#14) cables will out perform ANY CABLES regardless of price. Howeve,r these heavy solid cooper cables exhibit DIRECTIVITY, that is, you must test each piece or wire (with audio signal) and then reverse the piece, to determine which way the wire sounds better. ALSO, you do not need any end connectors. SIMPLY strip off about 1 1/2 inches from the end and then completely bend back the end of the wire onto itself about 3/4 inch. THEN take a pair pliers and tightly crimp the folded end. This is the center plug. YOU MUST then ground together the preamp and amp and tuner chassis using any kind of wire. There is no need for any shielding. This type of cable is similar in concept to the 47 LABS Stratos silver wire that costs $600.

I second the choice posted by infinity-audio. I have not heard all of the mega buck speaker cables but have heard my share of nordost and various custom cables and was lucky enough to acquire 2 pairs of Apex Signature cables to bi-wire my maggies. I don't ever see giving up these cables. They are that special. I had no idea what I was getting but am forever grateful to a fellow audiogon member who insisted I take them. Hard to believe the company isn't around anymore as I've never heard anything better.

Yes .Nordost is great by the way
George

Correct. The current follows the arrows.

I guess I am on teh right path then. I have then pointing into an integrated amp from the CDP. Correct??

Thanks.

Hi
The arrows should be pointing at the amp.If used between pre and amp.
Best
George

The Nordost SPM interconnects have directional arrows at one end. Does the arrow's direction go facing into the amp?

Thanks.

The best reason I can think of why Mint would recommend 14ga over 10 or 12 is that anyone but Superman would have a hard time twisting 10ga the way Mint suggests :-)

Mint,
Wouldn't dare say that yer' potato has been bakin' too long, but i've had the unfortunate experience of hearing some pretty noticable differences in speaker cables. I hope you're on to something (i wanna set someone up w/ a good pair cheap). Any reason that 14 gauge is better than 10 or 12?

wow, this thread is a bit old and it is fun to watch opinions change.

Guess it's been a while. I still use the Syn.Reas. ics but changed to Celtic Silver spk. wires about 2/3 years ago. Most of the other changes were components (4 amps)and a speaker change or 2. I just quit on the cords and other wires game. A 10k pre, me thinks,will do more than 10k a wire.

Harmonic Technology Pro 9; heavenly when bi-wired.

Plain old common cheap HOME DEPOT solid copper #14 insulated HOUSE WIRE. I choose red and black color for phasing purposes. Wrap one end of the 8 foot pair around a door knob stand 8 feet back and TWIST these approximately 3" twists. The result is an phenonenal revealing sound that is ultra clear,rich and with fantastic PRAT. TRY IT you'll love these. Beats multi thousand dollar speaker wires. COST IS LESS THAN $1.00. What do you have to loose? I would appreciate a other members to try this easy upgrade. I have used this wire for years and have no desire for any other.Remember use only SOLID not stranded. Stranded wire causes multiple phase shifts and energy loses.

Forget about the best cable, the best answer in my opinion on this thread has to be that from Pubul57 (Period)

My fav biwire cables that I have heard are the WireWorld Eclipse and Gold Eclipse. I currently don't use biwire I just do their Polaris 3+ cables w/ their Super Eclipse jumpers.

For the poster recommending Home Depot cables.....You're probably the guy that would put 86 octane Kroger gas in a Porsche and say it still runs just the same. :P

I will second on AudioQuest Everest speaker cable. Simply the best cable I have ever heard/used.

They directly replaced Transparent Audio reference XL MM in my system and there was no comparision between the two. The Everest bested Ref XL in every single area, and it's resolution is just mind blowing.

Home Depot standard copper 14 gauge insulated house wire. Twisted pairs( I buy red and black). Clean, dynamic clear sound. Best for less. Try it.

It seems to me that cables invariably act as frequency tone controls with the specifc effects determine by inductance/resitance/capacitance.

If this is true, it would seem that there can be no best cable as it becomes almost totally system dependent.

I would think that given source A, pre-amp B, amp C, and speaker D we might be able to answer what is the "best" cabling for this particular system.

Beyond that, I think universal claims of which cabling is "best" are close to impossible.

The best speaker cable is the ones speaker manufacturers use in there adverts, the ones that never seem to intrude or are so fine you can't even tell they're there:)

I have changed from this to that but still kept my Apex ICTL. Apex closed, and you don't see much of their wires reselling. One reason, they are good!

I haven't tried a ton of cables, but so far, my fave is Cardas Neutral Reference. I don't see myself swapping these out of my system for some time to come.

Tom.

It's interesting that this thread started in October, 2000, and is still getting new posts. Since my original post, I've changed my speaker cable from Kimber 8TC (which was recently rated by TAS as one of the top 4 cables in their review of more than a dozen models) to Alpha-Core Goertz MI2, which now gets my vote for best budget speaker cable. The one caveat regarding the A-C Goertz cables is that with some amplifier / speaker combinations, they can cause amplifier oscillation -- which can be cured by the use of a Zobel (resistor-capacitor) network.

I like the audience Au24 a lot.

I have a rotel int amp 1060, B&W 602 series 3 speakers what cables would anybody recomend for my system? Would QED silver spiral cables be any good or to bright sounding? Comments please?

In no particular order the BEST speaker cables I have heard/used:
1. Jena Labs(symphony, Valkyre and Pathfinder- I have not heard the Dreamdancers yet, I am not sure I can afford to listen to them!)
2. Transparent opus mm
3. Nordost Valhalla(hey they do somethings very well)
4. Purist(I am not familiar with the line, however there higher end cables always sound great)
5. Siltech I think the model was Compass Lake, they are real good.

I will leave my list as top 5, they are all different and depending what you want and what your system is maybe none of them are for you! But they are what I like.

btw this is a REAL old thread, I wonder if some of the posters from 2000 would change there answers now!

In case anyone is interested, here is the Fabio system people above are referring to. Unfortunately article was done in 1995 so surely there have been changes, but this should give you an idea of his level of system:

http://www.transparentcable.com/products/reviews/full_reviews/ref_scottwilkinson_avinteriors.html

This was posted at Transparant cable website.

Transparent Opus for those who can afford. I had an opportunity to listen to these speaker cables through a pair of approximately $4,000 Respons speakers at Transparent about two years-ago. With non-networked cables, the Respons speakers sounded like good $4k speakers. Adding cables that cost about eight times the speaker cost transformed the speakers into another relm. This demo was clearly designed to demonstrate what is possible, rather than a likely combination of components. And, BTW, I believe Fabio uses Transparent Cable in his system.

I currently use NBS Monitor II. I chose them over the NBS Statement line because of the better dynamics and detail (the tradeoff is less lush and smaller apparent soundstage). What I like about the NBS line is that it is rational in the sense that there are different lines with different emphasis and the higher in price you go, the better the stuff sounds. The bad news is that all of their cables are somewhat delicate and cannot be twisted or moved around excessively.

I've had a chance to hear the crazy expensive NBS Black label cables and that stuff is really, really good. Other fantastic cables that I have extensive listening experience with are the XLO Limited (sounds good with just about anything) and the Audionote's Sogon (?)(heard only with Audionote speakers and SAP speakers).

does anybody know the setup "fabio" was actully using like what company brands and what not? pretty sweet setup i seen it was on tom green and was wanting to know every since what kinda equipment can cost that much. Its gotta be good if "Fabio" listnes to it ,"Fabio oh Fabio!" doesn't deserve it anyways. lol maybe i'm just jealous. maybe?

To date, the FIM GOLD wins in my system hands down.

"the best" in re: to class. The Straightwire Crescendo II BW Speakercable for mains & Blacsilc BW for theatre are exemplory. All balanced via ARC LS10pre for 2ch. & Anthem AVM2 theatre. Pair of Gray TPC400 line filters.

Apologies for not proof-reading my post above...two finger typing and all...sorry.

Jim, Gutwire is a Cnadaian cable manufacturer located just north of Toronto...I have their 2nd from top power cord (lucious red in colour), excellent build quality, and comes with a unique alligator 'ground' clip! Their other cables include interconnects & speaker...I have not yet tried any. You can read several reviews of Gutwire in "The Inner Ear Report" a Canadian glossy publication. The owner and lead writer, one Ernie Fisher, is respected as having 'golden ears', though his writing style has a sameness to it over time. The mag is very well turned out, though. Gutwire is now advertising in most of the main audio mags. also. Good luck!

Stealth Ultimate ribbon

Best speaker cables I ever used were the capacitor and inductor coil leads from my rebuilt MGIIIA crossovers that I connected to the tube monos sitting right behind the panels. Incredible.

Iam very happy with my synergistic designers ref. along with the designers ref.ic with acticve sheilding.
I would like to try THE ONE from tara though.

Audioquest Everst Speaker and Amazon Interconnect

Antone had experience with a product called Gut Wire? I'd appreciate your feedback regarding this. Know nothing bout it but the name has come up from time to time. Thanks.

Fulton Gold. Why? Because Fulton was the only, and I mean only high end cable available for years before Monster cable finally emerged. Is this cable good by today's standards? , not even close! But, when you are the only guy on yhe block, it isn't very hard to be the best. Some younger audiophiles probably don't realize, that there was a time, when expensive interconnects and speaker cables, were not even available to the consumer!

...and now, for best simile by an audioholic, the envelope please ........MAXGAIN!!!!!!!