2017 Honest Cabling that doesn’t promote bankruptcy


Looking for experiences and recs for current mid to upper mid level cabling solutions

I’m talking about ICs and Speaker cables that do not require plans for high jacking an armored car with a couple gallons of chloroform and a helicopter with a really big magnet?

Neither is it a matter of seeking out an ‘all system’ same brand and model loom, though it could be.

In Your opinion and or experience which signal cables (or mix of) have proven themselves recently to enable a revealing system to maintain or demonstrate its integrity, truth and musicality on its best level?

Or, in other words, With which current line of wires or ‘cables’ would you feel very confident using to connect your upscale stereo outfit in 2017?

New, or pre-owned?

… and why, please?
Thanks so very much. j
blindjim
I like to make my own with Connex pure silver cables and Eichman bullets.

For speakers, I like bare copper and wire world.

Wire world, especially their mid-range is dark but has fabulous imaging.

Best,

E
Hey Jim, I'm gonna chine in with my usual recommendation of Zu Event MK 1 speaker cables. They've been superseded by the Mk 2 but if you can find a used pair, it would be worth your while. I say this as since I've swapped out the spades for bananas on the amp end, things improved so much that it was like listening to a different set of speakers. This led to my sending them back to have the speaker ends swapped out the same way for almost the same amount of improvement.

I thought that due to the lousy connectors that my Marantz has (plastic shrouded 5-way binding posts designed in the 8th circle of hell) were to blame for the poor connection. But I had similar results with the speaker connectors as well and they are some top line Cardas speaker connectors. 

My long winded post is simply to make sure you use bananas instead of spades to fully realize the potential of the wire you chose. I was wrong on another post as to the metal makeup of the bananas and they are a combination of beryllium and copper for the outer layer and some sort of rhodium and copper inside. I don't know if they are proprietary to Zu or is they are off the shelf units that anyone can get. Zu told me that they are getting great feedback with them. Whatever your choice ends up being, please take this into consideration since not having the  best possible connection can hide the performance potential of a good cable.

All the best,
Nonoise
For speaker cable, Mapleshade's cables sound amazing. Neutral and transparent. Bare wire is always best, in my opinion.

For interconnects, Dueland Coherent Audio cables are very natural, transparent, and coherent.


ICs don't matter; use balanced runs, not SE

Speaker cables - just try one of the rental places until you find one that you like best

BEST: put monoblocks next to each speaker so the runs will be short

 Cables are system dependent. You need to find out which brands work well with your speakers and components. There is no single best cable.