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Good, Neutral, Reasonably Priced Cables?

After wading through mountains of claims, technical jargon etc. I'm hoping to hear from some folks who have had experience with good, neutral, reasonably priced cables. I have to recable my entire system after switching from Naim and want to get it right without going nuts! Here is what I'm looking for and the gear that I have:

Looking for something reasonably priced-i.e. used IC's around $100-150. Used speaker cable around $300-400 for 10ft pair.

Not looking for tone controls. I don't want to try to balance colorations in my system. I'd like cables that add/substract as little from the signal as possible.

Looking for something easily obtainable on the used market i.e. that I can find the whole set up I need without waiting for months and months. I guess this would limit you to some of the more popular brands. Without trying to lead you, here are some I've been considering:

Kimber Hero/Silver Streak
Analysis Plus Copper Oval/Oval 9
Cardas Twinlink/Neutral Reference (Pricey)
Wireworld Polaris/Equinox

Here is my gear:

VPI Scout/JMW9/ATML170
Audio Research SP16
Audio Research 100.2
Rotel RCD 971
Harbeth Compact 7

I would really appreciate your help on this. Thanks, as always.
dodgealum
tommywall
23 posts
 
Dodgealum,

For what it is worth, I agree with previous comments that system synergy is much more important than name brand appeal when finding cabling.

The best advice I can give is to read a lot, find the closest analogies you can to your own system, either in reviews or on boards here or other sites (audio asylum, etc.), buy a few sets, and audition them for a while.

I recently did this myself- it definitely costs money, but if you buy used, it isn't as painful as it could be, and you don't need to spend time breaking in cables. Afterwards, you can re-sell the 'rejects', for lack of a better word, for minimal losses.

In my case, I started in your general price range, but ended up drinking the Koolaid and going upscale- it was worth it in terms of sonic improvements. Your mileage may vary...

I posted here a while back-

Agon cable comment

Good Luck,
psychicanimal
1,738 posts
 
Mike, I went out with a Mexican model that makes Salma Hayek look quite a few notches lower. Unfortunately, she is nowhere near as *famous*. Perhaps that's one of the reasons she gave me her phone number.

Get my drift?

***
tvad
9,467 posts
 
Sometimes what we ask for is not what we want. Dodgealum has asked for neutral cable recommendations, and he's received quite a few suggestions. I own both Audience Au24 and VH Audio Pulsars. In my system, a combination of Au24 and Pulsar sounds best.

Sounds best. That's an important distinction. I may have wanted neutral to begin with, but what sounds best is another thing. I don't believe one has to pay big bucks for "neutral" cabling. And, I'm one who considers Au24 to be big bucks cabling, but you can see where my price/performance skew rests. The Pulsars are not the ultimate definition of neutral, but they sound damn good. Combined with the Au24 interconnects, the combination is very, very nice. I'll add that I've owned the Ridge Street Midnight Silver Edition II interconnects, and while these are also not the ultimate definition of "neutral", they too sound really, really nice and are certainly worth investigating.

That's why I continue to recommend (as others do, too) that wire has to be heard in one's own system with an open mind.
mikesinger
572 posts
 
....makes Salma Hayek look quite a few notches lower.

sounds high maintaince to me :))))

i actually prefer when they ask for my number.

you know what i mean...

mike
ozfly
887 posts
 
Psychicanimal, you're right -- I'm branching out into both a left and right brainer! ;-) Perhaps I'm being a bit too objective. There is more that I don't know than that I do.

Looking at things from a different perspective, many audiophiles have heard differences in cable performance from one system to the next. While that, plus the scientific differences I referenced, points to many cables being systems dependent, that does not prove that all cables are so systems dependent that they will be neutral in one but not another. Thanks for the continued challenge to my reasoning Psychicanimal.

Allow me to rephrase: MANY cables may sound neutral in one system but not another; ALL cables will influence their systems to some degree; SOME cables may sound neutral in most systems. That's what I love about this forum -- it's a great learning opportunity for me so long as I listen.

Cheers
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