Bright / forward speaker cables.

I ran the Oval 9's for at least 500 hours and was not shy on the throttle. They did fill out and smooth a little bit, but never enough to make me change my mind about them. Just my personal opinion based on my experience within my systems though, so please don't get upset if you or anyone else that you know has had good luck with them. Sean
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Depending on your price range, you can go with Kimber 4PR. Is somewhat "zingy" sounding on top and quick and light on bass. Can take a dull or drab sounding system and give it some "pep" on a budget. Next up might be Nordost Flatline. Not really so much bright as it is lean in the mid-bass and detailed throughout the mids and top end. After that, and i know that this one varies BIG TIME from system to system, is Analysis Plus Oval Nine. I tried it in two different systems and it was VERY bright and splashy sounding to me with a very noticeable lack of output in the warmth region. Obviously, your results might vary, especially with the last suggestion ( AP ). Sean
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Gunbei, i know of others that have had very similar results ( very "tizzy" highs and a complete lack of "warmth" ) with the AP Oval 9's. Many of them were running single full range drivers per cabinet as i was in one of my systems. These tend to be very revealing since they have no crossovers to get in the way between the amp and the actual speaker driver. While some of those folks were running tubes, i was running an SS amp.

For the record, i also tried the AP 9's on some large 4 way / 5 driver towers with pretty sophisticated / parts heavy crossovers in them. This system also makes use of completely different amplifiers. I had the same or at least very similar results with both systems.

After hearing them in both systems with 500+ hours of break-in on the cables, i asked my brother if he would like to put them in his system and see how they sounded there. He told me that i should put them in the garbage, as that is where they belonged. Even my girlfriend noticed when they came out of the system that i had them playing in, as she commented "what did you do to that system ? It sounds SO much better." She had gone to the store and i had changed the cables without her knowing about it. She wasn't even in the door 2 minutes when she made that comment. The change between cables was phenomenally obvious.

Obviously, the AP's just weren't a good match for anything that i owned. Needless to say, i didn't keep them. Then again, i'm sure that others have similar stories with cables that i tend to like in my systems. As such, one has to take ANY cable recommendation or comments with a grain of salt. Mine are no different and as such, are subject to personal interpretation within the confines of my systems. Sean
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In the specific system that i was trying the AP's in, i currently have some Nordost's. I'm not saying that these are "best" by any means, just that this is what is currently thrown in there. Like anything else, they have some good and bad points.

I've also used Goertz MI-2's and MI-3's, YBA Diamond's, various Audioquest's, Axon, various Kimber's, various XLO's, Fulton Gold, CVH's CAT 5 cables, etc... along with a slew of homebrew designs in that system. I've also changed amps, transports, dac's, tuners, interconnects, etc... in that system, so it would be hard saying what was responsible for what. At the time that i had the AP's handy, i did do a direct head to head shoot-out with several other cables. I posted the results of that over on the Cable Asylum quite a long time ago. I know that it's still in their archives, as someone emailed me about it within the last few weeks. Sean
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