toetapaudio: That was 6-7 years ago. They were the ones prior to their "anaconda" model which themself were noteworthy as only costing $4000 for a six foot pair at the time. In fact it was back in 1983-4 when I first learned about Randall Research hook up wires from Ken Mavrick-an southern California audio dealer. Ken began by rewiring his Fried speakers and later pair of Spica'a with Randall Resesach wires. They made an incredible improvement to the sound. Later I learned at the time that using top end hook up wires in place of the much more costly top end speaker wires was, in fact, the best cost verses performance speaker wire avaliable. As the prices of top end speaker wires has increased over the years, myearly discoveries made even more sense. It was just by chanch when 6=7 yers ago I obtained a then one foot pair of Shunyata's then top of the line speaker wires that it all came together. Hooking up the shunyata speaker wires to my speakers, and using the 18ngage Jenna Lab's hook up wires between them and my amplifier did the job. And then some. I later discovered MG Audio Design wires and it really got good. I later added a second run of the Jenna Lab wires, and finally a third. There was a time and a place when I realized that my wire combination really works. The Jenna Lab hook up wires are so totally excellent that they allow the MG Audio Design speaker wires rely do their stuff. Both companies are very small wire manufactures of the highest order. Simply by combining them together really works. Much like I used to see audio dealers combining Audio Research and VTL electronics together, my speaker wire combination really works. I have absolutely no personal or financial involvement in the matter. Just a satisfied customer.
Cable Survey
The idea for this thread came from @sautan 904 op titled “Who thinks $ Speaker cable really better than generic 14awg cable?
My reply:
From op:
SO WHAT DO YOU ALL THINK? OR I AM THE LAST PERSON TO FIND OUT THAT EXPENSIVE CABLE JUST A RIP OFF?
Some are, some are definitely not. It really is a matter of discovering what brands out there (and there a lot) offer the best performance for your money. Some are really worth the money and clearly they offer a big increase in sound quality. It seems the dealers you used were not very discriminating about what brands they carry. This does not surprise me since I have found many are not well informed. You really need to seek out somebody who has compared different makes of cable and really believes in what they are selling.
So I thought it a good idea to pool knowledge on this subject and make a list of what people are using and why. This is my current preferences:
Speaker: Hi Diamond 7
IC XLR: Hi Diamond XLR 3
USB: Vovox
Ethernet: AQVOX, Vovox
Power: Belden
The Hi Diamond speaker cable was so much better than other cables I have tried to date. The increase in musicality, depth and detail in bass, increased sound stage and cleaner more detailed top where some of the benefits I had with this cable. The same can be said of their XLR interconnect.
The Vovox I have only been able to compare with some generic cables, and it is much clearer than those. I intend trying some other brands in the near future and I will post my findings.
Ethernet cables I find make a difference and I am currently using both Vovox and AQVOX, compared to various generic makes and the blue Meicord these are both much preferred, opening the sound stage and lowering the noise floor.
Power cables I haven’t so far experimented with a great deal, I’m using heavy Belden cables that are part of a dedicated mains spur arrangement, so that each individual piece of equipment has its own spur. In order to test cable types I will need to introduce a mains block (Shunyata?).
My reply:
From op:
SO WHAT DO YOU ALL THINK? OR I AM THE LAST PERSON TO FIND OUT THAT EXPENSIVE CABLE JUST A RIP OFF?
Some are, some are definitely not. It really is a matter of discovering what brands out there (and there a lot) offer the best performance for your money. Some are really worth the money and clearly they offer a big increase in sound quality. It seems the dealers you used were not very discriminating about what brands they carry. This does not surprise me since I have found many are not well informed. You really need to seek out somebody who has compared different makes of cable and really believes in what they are selling.
So I thought it a good idea to pool knowledge on this subject and make a list of what people are using and why. This is my current preferences:
Speaker: Hi Diamond 7
IC XLR: Hi Diamond XLR 3
USB: Vovox
Ethernet: AQVOX, Vovox
Power: Belden
The Hi Diamond speaker cable was so much better than other cables I have tried to date. The increase in musicality, depth and detail in bass, increased sound stage and cleaner more detailed top where some of the benefits I had with this cable. The same can be said of their XLR interconnect.
The Vovox I have only been able to compare with some generic cables, and it is much clearer than those. I intend trying some other brands in the near future and I will post my findings.
Ethernet cables I find make a difference and I am currently using both Vovox and AQVOX, compared to various generic makes and the blue Meicord these are both much preferred, opening the sound stage and lowering the noise floor.
Power cables I haven’t so far experimented with a great deal, I’m using heavy Belden cables that are part of a dedicated mains spur arrangement, so that each individual piece of equipment has its own spur. In order to test cable types I will need to introduce a mains block (Shunyata?).
- ...
- 88 posts total
- 88 posts total