2017 Honest Cabling that doesn’t promote bankruptcy

Belden cable from Blue Jeans Cable for interconnects would be a smart choice. 

Belden cable is used in the pro area, and is made in US rather than China.

Put money saved into speakers and room treatment.

Hi blindjim, I have recently discovered some boutique IC and power cables with colloidal metal coatings and teflon dialectic from Nanotec that have turned out to be a revelation in my system. Check out Jaguar Audio Design online for source. They also sell speaker cable but I have not tried that yet.

For speaker cables I am using an assortment of wires from Audioquest in my systems and am pretty happy with the Rocket line, so a shout out to the previous recommendation for the Rocket 88 further up the thread. But the Rocket 33 and 44 also sound good, even with the long runs (21’) of the 44 I am using, which is available in bulk and custom lengths from AudioAdvisor. The Rocket 44 provides very good tone, PRAT and soundstaging in my system for a relatively reasonable price.

kn

Buy some good quality 12 gauge zip cord.  Strip 3/4" of the insulation and tin the bare wire with a good quality silver solder.  Form a "U" shape with the bare wire and put around the speaker and amplifier binding posts.  Bi-wiring is not necessary.  Then buy, borrow or rent the most expensive and highly recommended "high end" speaker cables you can get.  Invite friends over, audiophiles if you know some.  Blindfold them and do a blind comparison listening session listening to the same tracks for the same amount of time for each cable.  Have them take off their blindfolds and keep notes before putting them back on for the next track.  The results will surprise you.  I did this and the end result was about even with the zipcord winning by about 5%.  So, I recommend the zip cord.  It sounds just as good and is a whole lot cheaper.

I have tried many different cables, and to me and my ears, Signalcable is super affordable and they sound  better than any of my other much higher priced wires. 

It is always fun to speak with the designer of any brand so any subtlety of system matching can be worked out.

That said, there is a secret lowest priced flexible light weight IC choice  I have heard (over more than a decade} which still provides a thrilling musicality, and detail without listener fatigue. This is the Auricle Audio Design Encore! micro-mass - the original custom prototypes grace my best system to this present day.

For moderate cost, my preferred Reality Cables Original speaker cable can confidently be recommended as able to transmit "everything" including the heart and soul of the music (we vinyl fanatics actually speak this way). Reality Cables also has its own fabulous matching Original IC, delivering even more solidity and three dimensionality for a bit more cost than AAD
.
Both companies play well with tubes and solid state, and offer other options and prices depending on your own systems and preferences. .

I really like the wire Oyaide uses in there Tunami cable. It provides a very nice sound stage (wide, deep, with air between instruments & vocalists) as well as smoothness with detail. I've recently replaced some power cords with it & am using it as speaker cable as well. For IC's I've found the AQ Yukon's to be smooth & well balanced. It should be noted that I run vacuum tubes throughout my system. At some point I'll try the Oyaide IC's as well to see if they better the Yukon's. 

If it's affordability that you want, search Audiogon for Amadi. I gave this guy's top of the line cable a go and am truly amazed at what it does for the few dollars he charges. Musically it's wide open, detailed, and throws a huge sound stage up. It's tonally right on, and really "fast." A lot of cables smear really fast guitarists, like Jesse Cook, but this stuff stays right with it. No doubt there's better out there, but for this price ...

Use the shortest cables you can , especially Interconnects . Parts Connexion sells Duelund gold over occ copper single ended ( RCA ) cables . I can't recommend any unshielded cables except balanced . I'd recommend balanced on XLR's if you can . For that Anticables would be fine , not pricey . Their speaker cables are one of the biggest bargains in all of audio . Don't drive yourself nuts .

                                                                                                              Joe B

BElden 5t00up.  I just plugged it back in my totem hawk a few hours ago.  Compared to the kimber 4pr they just replaced, they are incredible!  So much more transparent, better soundstage, it makes the speakers sound forward.  Now, for unknown reason, the 4pr works better on my other small 2-way... Go figure.... My amp must be liking better the extra copper with the totems (actally more than double the copper).

Clear day are very good cable, with the right matching , they will compete with good cables out there.Paul is a nice guy too...

Been through a few different types of speaker cables
Clear Day double Shotguns did it for me. Cannot see me trying anything else. Priced right and most satisfying to listen.
Re: a previous comment on here .... I find the Bass response perfectly balanced with the music
Good Luck

I've been on the cable merry-go-round for a very long time. To me one of the very best lines is Audioquest. You can determine easily what each model uses for conductor material, geometry and insulation materials, etc.  Basically the price goes up as the conductor quality goes up. Go to their website and open their Pricebook tab and then scroll to product categories and study a bit. There is no mystery as to what you're buying. IMO the all copper sweet spot is perhaps Yukon interconnects( $325 m)and Rocker 88 speaker cables($ 850 8' pr) . Both models are AQ's least expensive models utilizing their best copper. As you move up you get maybe better insulation materials and more conductor, etc , but the basic construction and geometry stay the same. Once you start up the silver models the cost increases significantly but the sonics are outstanding but still in the same family. Packaging and cable construction is all top notch,
The only problem with Audioquest is that they've been successful for a very long time thus making them 'conventional' to some audiophiles. I have to say in closing they are the best company I've used that is reasonable about reterm and unfailingly polite and professional. To me searching for a mysterious cable breakthrough is folly. AQ offers solid engineering with no voodoo. 
Finally it is very possible to buy higher end AQ cables at great pricing as long as the buyer is cautious about the seller. FWIW

jl35
not real sure what all that means, but thanks anyhow.

jayctoy
OK. I’ll try looking for some links regarding it or them.

erik_squires
Bravo. Making your own contribution to the system is interesting.
wireworld. OK. Its been a decade since I’ve had these spkr cables in house. Perhaps newer versions are better. I wasn’t thrilled then and went with Synergistic Audio instead. Non active cables.

nonoise
Zu Event?
Long winded?

Doubtful. I’m not in the ONLY 140 Characters or less camp. I think it breeds ignorance and miscommunication.

I often wonder about cabling for very high eff spkrs. Is it designed to High eff spkrs to ameliorate or enhance portions of the bandwidth? Is more capacitance included to smooth out the signal’s edges?

Metallurgy in terminations will influence the result.
OK. Zu is a definite maybe.

Oddly, some of the equip I’ve been looking at are not allowing for multiple connectors. Often merely spades. Amps usually. Come to think of it, likely these are all off shore amps.


Helomech
Thank you.
got it. Been there done that. Back in the 60’s. back when wires had no one interested in improving the nature of cables, uh, I mean wires.
I’ve since moved on to cables that actually are better. Sure. Higher cost, but way better sounding.


Et al,

I really do get the idea on wires being just wires.

Experience on the other hand if I am to believe my ears at all or ever, say otherwise.

Taking just the Synergistic Audio active or non active cables exactly alike apart from the active network, actually do sound differently… the active network sounding far more detailed and tangible.

I’ve penned plenty of reviews on these pages of my experiences with cabling. Power cords, IMHO, often make for a more significant change to the sound.

Yeah, it is mostly all about termination, and dielectric, but wires face 4 items they must attend to or with, if they are to be competent and or credible positive additions to a system.
Resistance, inductance, capacitance, and in whole, impedance.

Resistance is not very often the ‘big deal’ in a cable. Capacitance however can well be a ‘big deal’ as it will soften or by too much round off the attack and smother details.

The electrical result of the cable or its impedance will remove or truncate at least, portions of the bandwidth. Rolling off top end, or presenting bottom ends as softer or less extensive.

Naturally, other factors work into such results as well. Not enough power, rooms, etc..

Even in digitalSPDIF , the length of it can become an aid or hinderence.

components as well. Have to be agreeable with upstream or downstream impedance matching from device to device and on to the speaker and amp relationship.

Too many times poorly mated devices whose impedances are not appropriate, allow for a lot of angst and poor remarks about the combinations, amp, speaker, source, preamp, etc., these items ought not to be receiving, were their impedances been matched properly.

And or the cables employed not been the weakest link. Bleaching out the harmonics and erasing the palpability of the instruments and voices can happen. Too brittle or too smooth a presentation is unacceptable as well.

I felt Cardas Neutral Ref as likely a ‘all around’ IC cable as one could find for several years. It worked evwerywhere XLR or SE.

Then I found thru many trials until one got well into the $1K area performance gains across the board often weren’t always possible. Past that point, several grand invested could make an already outstanding system, still more revealatory and enjoyable such as what a Nordost Valhalla PC and a Vermicelli thin SPDIF did in a system I was listening to at a friends home. Together they cost about $5 or $6K. sheesh.

Wires offered for $$2K and above are difficult for me to justify. Regardless. Even above a grand its just tuff to invest it on things which don’t appear to be, or should not be quite so critical to the end result.

I've had succcess with using various cables for this or for that application. I might go to an all the same solution next.

Everything does matter and that includes wires which remain the most contentious and mysterious objects in a sound system.


This hobby continues to amaze.

I don't have a vast amount of experience but I am pretty satisfied with the overall tonal balance, frequency extension, and the soundstage. 

Stager Silver solid IC, terminated Xhadow rca's. 

Supra 3.4s speaker wire, terminated with Audioquest silver plated copper spades

NEOTECH-76111 Hook up wire for the supertweets. Also same Aq spades

all in all not expensive. The xhadow rca's were off another IC and the most $ part of my cabling. 

I really like the solid silver of the IC in combo with the stranded tinned copper Supra cable. Nice balance of detail with fullness and cool things happening with the soundstage as well. My system leans warm so the silver plated spades really helped with bringing that extra little snap into the sound. 

Would be helpful to know the rest of your equipment blindjim. A lot of it is trial and error, getting the synergy right. For not much money I can recommend Cullen Speaker cables and  also his XLR's. A friend of mine got some of his RCA's and said they were a big step up from his previous RCA's. Morrow are good value if you buy when heavily discounted. MS Audio Silver litz RCA's and Time Portal Solid Silver XLR's from Sunnytoto on E-Bay are very good. Aurealis in Australia also has some very good cables.

Good luck.

Try audiosensibility.com in Toronto. OHNO copper witth Teflon insulation and star-quad wiring at reasonable prices. especially with the C$ exchange.

clarification to barbapapa above...The Parts Connexion is located in Ontario, Canada.

I recently replaced all my expensive speaker cables and interconnect wth Duelund DCA 12 GA (speaker cables) and 20 GA (interconnects) after reading on them on Jeff Day's blog jeffplace.me.
They are a Western Electric replica made his own way (no plasctics as dielectric and bathing in natural oils) but the same copper strands in thickness and number as WE.
You can buy them at Parts Connexion in the US and HiFi Collective in UK. 
For me they are a revelation and many other people like them a lot.

+1 @hifiman5 on the Clear Day cables. All my ICs and my loudspeaker cables are Clear Day. They are real "ear openers".

16 gauge Monster XP Navajo White

14 gauge Rohs compliant cable at local hardware store, approximately $0.60 per foot.

12 gauge Monoprice cable

All these examples are solid copper, not CCA.

Pick gauge size according to run length.

Use the money you saved to buy more music.

I would encourage you to consider Clear Day interconnects and speaker cables.  All cables are made of soft annealed silver and made for you by the designer, Paul Laudati.  He would be happy to discuss your system and how his cable offerings may or may not suit your equipment needs and listening preferences.
http://cleardaycables.com

PS  Paul offers a completely free trial period!

 Cables are system dependent. You need to find out which brands work well with your speakers and components. There is no single best cable.

ICs don't matter; use balanced runs, not SE

Speaker cables - just try one of the rental places until you find one that you like best

BEST: put monoblocks next to each speaker so the runs will be short

For speaker cable, Mapleshade's cables sound amazing. Neutral and transparent. Bare wire is always best, in my opinion.

For interconnects, Dueland Coherent Audio cables are very natural, transparent, and coherent.

Hey Jim, I'm gonna chine in with my usual recommendation of Zu Event MK 1 speaker cables. They've been superseded by the Mk 2 but if you can find a used pair, it would be worth your while. I say this as since I've swapped out the spades for bananas on the amp end, things improved so much that it was like listening to a different set of speakers. This led to my sending them back to have the speaker ends swapped out the same way for almost the same amount of improvement.

I thought that due to the lousy connectors that my Marantz has (plastic shrouded 5-way binding posts designed in the 8th circle of hell) were to blame for the poor connection. But I had similar results with the speaker connectors as well and they are some top line Cardas speaker connectors. 

My long winded post is simply to make sure you use bananas instead of spades to fully realize the potential of the wire you chose. I was wrong on another post as to the metal makeup of the bananas and they are a combination of beryllium and copper for the outer layer and some sort of rhodium and copper inside. I don't know if they are proprietary to Zu or is they are off the shelf units that anyone can get. Zu told me that they are getting great feedback with them. Whatever your choice ends up being, please take this into consideration since not having the  best possible connection can hide the performance potential of a good cable.

All the best,
Nonoise

I like to make my own with Connex pure silver cables and Eichman bullets.

For speakers, I like bare copper and wire world.

Wire world, especially their mid-range is dark but has fabulous imaging.

Best,

E

Jim I can strongly recommend to you this cables ,speaker cables CErious technology, ic Teo GC, Reveal High fidelity ic.and CT ic as well.They are unbelievably good and match each other...please read the thread on each cables....

Cerious Graphene and Nano,  Discovery Essence and Essential