Inteligent high end cableing


Good grief.....I thought mating my electronics, speakers and budget was tough, but getting any consistancy with cableing advice seems impossible. I have recently acquired Proceed HPA3 amp (250/Ch), Proceed AVP pre-amp, Proceed PMDT DVD transport and will be linking them to either Watt Puppies 5.1 or to Revel Salons (there's a conversation right there). However, my real issue is what speaker cableing will match this setup. I can rationalize spending $40,000 on my system, but cannot get past $895 per foot for Audioquest top of the line. There's got to be a better 'mousetrap'. Any intelligent advice will be appreciated.
johngalt
I have not tried as many brands as some of the participants here, and I don't know what would happen in a face-off with your equipment and the other brands mentioned, but, many, many people have offered testimonials to Harmonic Technology cabeling, prefering it over the "highest end" cables. I think it would be worth a try. Many dealers offer a 30 day in home trial( with some qualifiers). My experience is that on rare occasions a special synergy occurs between components and cables that trounces other brands, no matter what the cost, so you must compare two or three brands.I would try Harmonic Tech, just in case. Sometimes they can be a giant killer. I am very satisfied with mine. I agree that a "used" able can be a great value. With so much upgrading going on I have gotten many immaculate cables at 60% below retail, right here at Audiogon. These guys have some good advice here. Tom has been helpful on some occasions, and so has Blbloom (nice rig).
Despite your title being oxymoronic (is that the opposite of redundant?), here is my two cents. I do not have golden ears, but I can tell you that it really is not going to matter IN THE BEGINNING, what you get. Get whatever the best deal seems to be on cables that are as close to fully broken in as you can get. Hook everything up and play the heck out of it, listen and enjoy like crazy! Maybe a couple months. THEN, AND ONLY THEN will you have established a "base" (sonic signature, whatever) for your system, and then you can start introducing ONE SINGLE CHANGE at a time, based on how you might like to hear the system change, if any. You can audition or buy used at that point to your heart's content, because you are now depending on the science of what you bought versus the magic of all of the various forms of--to use the nicest word I can think of-- advertising that jumps in the way of what you are actually hearing. And do not forget to tune the room.
I am certain that the myriad cable manufacturers "voice" their products with certain components (eg. Levinson, CJ, ARC, Wilson, etc). I suspect that there is a deliberate conspiracy on their part to conceal the details of these components so that consumers will purchase their cables (unaware that they may not be optimally suited to their personal audio-gear). This wilfull concealment makes economic sense to cable manufacturers as there is greater potential to maximize their profit by foisting their cables on a greater number of "ignorant" consumers. One of the advantages of acquiring a whole system (e.g. Linn, Naim) is that they often customize ("voice") their "house" cables for their own systems, thereby saving the customer the exasperation, and, often, bruising expense that independent cable manufacturers often exact. In short, I feel certain that cable manufacturers conspire to keep us ignorant since this is economically advantageous to them! I have tried directly to approach various speaker and amplifier manufacturers to find out their cable preferences (as I surmise they must use them in product-development). However, they consistently duck the issue by suggesting that cable choice is a matter of preference. Perhaps... but only to a point! No wonder we audio-enthusiasts and 'philes are generally such incurable sceptics - our hobby is saturated with endless propoganda and rank lies. Which is why Audiogon is such a great forum - it fosters some healthy bullshit-sniffing thereby allowing us to 'retaliate' against this conspiracy of lies. P.S. I do not think I suffer from paranoia, nor is this a political manifesto! I apologize for any obscenity - I am merely passionate about music and regret that the hobby is often bedevilled by the issues I have raised.
I have the same Proceed components along with B&W N802s,805s. After trying Audioquest, Tara, Synergistic, MIT, I decided on Stealth cables as mentioned in the previous posts. Started with eval'ing the speaker and ended up with using them throughout my system. The best sound out of my system so far. Also, adding Powersnakes to the Proceed is highly recommended. Good luck...