Speaker cables to go with Pass Labs XA160

Audience AU24 or a used pair of Purist Venustas (better but hard to find.)

I was surprised by your remark that the Pass XA is warm and laid back. It is supposedly very smooth compared to most SS amps -- but it is pure Class A, so I'd expect it to be very accurate; revealing and articulate without being hard or glarey.

I tried to look at the rest of your system, but I guess it's all changed.
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TBooe - I would have to say Purist as well, BUT - the Aqueous Anniversary speaker cables fit this system perfectly and are a much better sonic match than the Venustas. The Au24's are going to be too wamr and soft in the lower frequencies, which is NOT a good characteristic with Pass amps. Go with the Purist Aqueous - you'll be very, very happy with the results and they fit your budget!

Go with the Purist Aqueous - you'll be very, very happy with the results and they fit your budget!

According to Tbooe's System Page, he is already using these cables. Which leads me to my question: why change?

I played with the Purist Aqueous Anniv (AA) spkr cable and found them to be way too non-linear vs. the Purist Opus spkr cables. The AA spkr cables had a very prominent and wide peak in the mids that quickly became too fatiguing for me. A return to the Opus and tonal coherency was back. This was with CAT JL-3 amps driving SoundLab A1 speakers. The rest of the system at that time was Dominus PCs throughout and all Dominus ICs with the exception of an AA XLR cable from an Aesthetix Io to Callisto.

If you are looking to compensate for the slight warmth of the Pass amps, my suspicion is that the AA spkr cable is the wrong direction.