what is the best speaker cable?

In my relatively short experience with various amps and speakers, I found speaker wires do change the sound the system especially using one of those with lumps near the ends. :-)

I found there's no better cable than "no" cable ideally (for both speaker and interconnect). I have used 1' lenght Kimber type cables (close to being jumper wires) as close to the speaker terminals as possible from the mono block amps and long interconnects from the preamp. It gave me the best performance (no sound signature from the wires to speak of) driving both B&W M801's and Maggies in the past.

However, I found Monster M1 speaker cables to give me the best performance. I am sure there's better cables I haven't tried yet but so far, M1's make my system sing without adding any coloration or subtracting any information.

I guess I have learned the hard way that the "best" cables are the ones that give you most pleasure while listening to music and not the "sound," regardless of their cost. I find Monster M1's to be the best speaker cables between my Krell FPB600C and B&W Nautilus 802's for the front duties and 3 Bryston 7BST's for N-HTM1 and N-805's for the rear speakers.

Although cost of cables like Monster M1's are very small in comparison to the rest of the good cables avaialbe in the market and some may think I am crazy. But since I am happy with them, think of all the extra $$$ I have (or had...) for more CD's and DVD-A's - the beautiful music that really matters the most!

Happy listening.

Ki

You don't say how you like your music to sound.

If you prefer an accurate sound I suggest Kimber interconnects and either Kimber or Alpha-Core speaker cables.

For a euphonic or more romantic sound go with Cardas, Tara Labs, JPS Labs, Harmonic-Tech etc.

Valhalla and Jena Labs.

The best speaker cable is like picking your favorite food or flavor. I have numerous "favorites" depending on the speaker and amplifier(s) used. There is no cable which will work very good in all situations. That is why we audiophiles keep chasing the "holy grail" of sound reproduction. Try both solid core and stranded speaker cables. These both sound very different. My personal favorites as a general rule is the Cardas line. There are other good ones also, but the Cardas sound like music to me. The best advice is from someone who has components similar to yours and a room similar to yours and similar musical tastes. Happy listening, Jeff

Hello, and a Happy New Year. I have tried many different high end cables, Nordost, JPS, AudioQuest(Truth), Kimber, Straightwire, Cardas, Transparent, etc,etc,etc in at least 25 different amp,pre,dac combinations and have found many good qualities in each setup.

I am now driving Aerial 10T's with an Aragon 8008BB x 5 using a Meridian 565 as my processor/pre. I recently tried Virtual Dynamics Signature Cables with WBT spades and will not go back to anything else, unless of course Rick comes up with a new product to try. I am now waiting for my true shotgun biwired cables to arrive and then I can update this.

The missing ingredient that Virtual Dynamics solved for me was the seamless interface between a wonderful bass and the high end. Aerials are notorious for being punchy, almost boomy in the lower ranges, but with these new cables, I find the 10T's to be everything Aerial said and more.....I am extremely happy and recommend these cables to anyone who will listen........14 day guarentee...unconditional..can't beat it...