@charles007100 You need to give the cables at least 100 hours before making any critical assessments, but with your efficient speakers I’d expect you’ll hear bigger differences with the interconnects so that could be interesting. That said, given the quality of your system I think you’re underspending on cables and they’re still a significant bottleneck. You’ve basically gone from budget wires that aren’t bad to entry-level wires that are decent but may only be marginally better compared to what’s possible with much better cables, and IMHO at the level of your system you could get significantly better performance with even better cables. What you have now is like putting good all-season performance tires on a Porsche — sure they may be better than budget tires but you’re still not getting anywhere near the performance capabilities of the car you paid dearly for, which is a shame. Sorry, I don’t mean to be harsh here and just being honest. Even if the Kimbers are an improvement, if I’m you I’d continue to either buy better used cables you can resell with little risk or do trials from direct sellers who offer generous return periods — one in particular would be Fidelium that’d almost certainly be at another level, but others like Veritas, etc. could also bring significant improvements and well worth a try and would be more inline with the overall quality of your system — again just IMHO, and at least you’ll see what you may be missing. I the end it’s all about balance. Just my $0.02 FWIW, and be interested in what you find over the coming weeks as the Kimbers settle in.
I'd like some recommendations for speaker cables
I understand this is a touchy subject. My intent is NOT to have this result in that typical cable discussion. All opinions welcome.
As an update, in a previous thread I was asking for upgrade recommendations. I ended up trading for a Hana Umami blue. It's great and I appreciate the advice.
I've since bought a set of long (25') XLRs to run between my amp and pre-amp, which has enabled me to move my component rack behind the listening position closer to the media. It was between the speakers. Now, the only thing between the speakers is my amp, and it's at floor level. This has made a huge difference in the soundstage, the accuracy and the location of things in the sound space. Great improvement.
The XLRs I was using to run between my amp and pre-amp were entry level high end cables. I replaced them with normal Mic cable. Well, high end mic cable. And the high end mic cable is way better than the audiophile high end brand cable. I'll go as far to say the audiophile cable is awful. I've since ordered another pair of XLRs, from a different manufacturer, to replace them.
I also replaced my speaker cables with mogami 3103 that I terminated myself. They sound "darker" and less detailed then the cable I was using, which I'm unsure of the manufacturer of my previous cable. I plan to re-terminate my previous cable in bananas to compare some more. My previous cable was, maybe, too bright. Don't get me wrong, the Momagi is good, just not what I think I prefer.
My main question is, If I'm looking for detail and a "brighter" sound, what speaker cables would you recommend I try?
Also, do most dealers let you try cables? It's not ridiculous to think I could work with a dealer to try to hone in on what I like, right?
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@charles007100 Yeah I’m not surprised and why I mentioned earlier that it’d likely take moving well above entry-level stuff to make a really meaningful improvement, but something to look forward to if you’re willing to try at some point. |
@soix when you have time can you give me the exact brand and model of the speaker cables that would be the best for my system, I am doing some rearranging so instead of 12 ft speaker cables, going with 10ft. My Pass labs preamp and Dac does have balanced but the two amps I have are RCA so no use going balanced cables so need two RCA cables, so probably stay with the same speaker brand you suggest. I definitely like the bi-wire deal, that little jumper wire was nasty on the speaker bindings.. |
@charles007100 Without knowing what specific improvements you’re looking for it’d be a crapshoot, and even then cables are personal and system dependent so who really knows anyway? That’s why I recommended trying Fidelium or Veritas cables that have gotten stellar reviews from people here/elsewhere for both performance and value and where you’d only be out shipping if you don’t hear substantial improvements. They’re both good enough that I’d think you’d get an across-the-board improvement with either, and if you do that’s great but if not you’ll know either it’s gonna take a big spend to get worthwhile improvements or maybe you and/or your system just aren’t all that sensitive to cables, but either way at least you’ll know for nothing but the cost of shipping — no brainer in my book. You could obviously go the used route, and while I’d bet cables from Acoustic Zen, Audience, Transparent, etc. would also likely make significant improvements it’s a lot more work/potential risk and trying the others is low risk, easy, and will very likely tell you what you need to know. Personally, with what you have invested in your system I’d wanna know what I might be leaving on the table whichever route that is, but that’s me. Again FWIW… |
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