1. Home
  2. cables
  3. 197856-221834

Advice on speaker cables.

Hello. First time post here and I understand there’s no definitive answer, just looking for advice. I have a midrange system to me anyway and most of it was purchased new recently after giving up on repair of vintage gear. I’ve been using the same 12 gauge Apature copper speaker wire since 1982 and figured I would upgrade. I didn’t realize the hole I was going down. I’ve tried Blue Jean 10 white sounded dull, as well as WBC 7 gauge which I somewhat liked except bass seemed boomy at the expense of treble and midrange. Cables I’ve been advised to try are Kimber 4pr or 8pr as well as Audio Analysis oval 12. I’ve only used bare wire in the past not sure if that matters. My system is Yamaha as1200, Cxn100 streamer, Rotel 1572 mkii cd, Nakamichi oms1a cd. Speakers are Polk monitor 10a I bought new in 1982 with recently upgraded clarity cap crossovers. All interconnects are WBC. Appreciate any advice on speaker cables. Thank you.

kmm84
audphile1's avatar
audphile1
7,853 posts
 

 

 

total111

81 posts

 

Stranded cables give up accuracy and precision. Unless you want such tone control because it masks mask a flaw of the chain or you just like e.g boomy base, go solid core

According to who?

 

let’s review the system the cables are going to be deployed in…

Yamaha as1200, Cxn100 streamer, Rotel 1572 mkii cd, Nakamichi oms1a cd. Speakers are Polk monitor 10a I bought new in 1982
 

In my opinion you want cables in that system that have good noise rejection and don’t emphasize any particular bandwidth. Can’t be bright, can’t be dull.
The Kimber 8pr were designed using braided geometry design in the counter opposed helix. Its a technique to fight a d lower electrical interference. They should work great in that system. I am sure there are other cables in the $400 range that will do just fine as well

audphile1's avatar
audphile1
7,853 posts
 

@buellrider97 thanks for the kind words. The hat still fits no worries :)

decooney
2,564 posts
 

To @kmm84, if you like your Apature speaker cables and tried WBC 7s, liking them less, you might end up chasing your tail with other copper speaker cables. I’ve owned and still own Apature cables [in my collection I test with] and a friend still uses my former speaker cable pairs. Quite nice for the $ btw. . f you own the BL-8s, silver over copper version, they will offer a little more detail than today’s average copper speaker cables. Just to help clarify, why are you changing again? 

jmalen123
246 posts
 

To save coin and get lengths exactly as I wanted, making my own was the way to go. Canare 4S11 in bulk is reasonably priced and good cable. Another plus is you can try out any terminations you want. Even if you are just reasonably handy this is doable. I love what it does in my system.

jjss49's avatar
jjss49
6,920 posts
 

op - yes you should keep the lengths the same

seems like you have plenty of ’advice’ here, maybe more than you need

i would reiterate the comments of those that say get a decent tonally balanced cable of sufficient gauge to allow for bass control from the amp, prioritize getting your setup dialed in optimally (e,g, room, placement, isolation and so on) before you go hog wild spending on cables, it is low return on investment until you have other higher priority bases covered 

More to discover