Hi Dave, well I've never listened so intently to speaker cables before. Literally I've been swapping the 2 speaker cables that you sent me back and forth and even had my lady and my 15 year old boy both sit down with me tonight at separate occasions for a good intensive listening session and they both gave me "the same" feedback. I tried not to get involved with their decisions and let them both know that there is no right or wrong with the cables and to just let me know which ones they liked better and why. What was unexpected is that we all came to the same conclusions on sound and preference.
We listened to 3 songs on each cable ~
(1) Ani DeFranco - 32 Flavors. I chose this song as it has great sort of breathy female vocals and there is a lot of percussion involved (especially in the beginning).
(2) Miles Davis - Saeta (from Sketches of Spain). I chose this songs as the percussion starts off very delicate and clicky (if that's even a term) and then builds, and the sound stage moves from left to right subtly ... one minute you're hearing percussions on one side and then horns move to the right ... really just a mesmerizing track.
(3) Neil Young - Cortez The Killer. This has to be one of THE most classic rock songs of all time, the guitar work is outstanding (no doubt as its one of Rolling Stones greatest guitar solos of all time), but the cymbal work on this track is especially outstanding in the recording as well. I literally cannot think of another song in my library that matches the awesome recording of the cymbals and percussion on that track.
All tracks were 192/24 hi-res and used with a McIntosh C220 preamp, Decware Taboo MK II amp, Rega DAC, Omega RS7 Loudspeakers and an Asus VivoPC with Windows 8.1 and JRiver MC 19 (volume was set the same throughout the entire listening duration). The speaker cables used were your UPOCC Copper in 17 and 20 gauges and compared to my 14 gauge Oxygen Free Copper cables.
I don't know a lot of audiophile terms, but so far here is what we have come to believe ...
First off, both the 20 and 17 gauge speaker cables are fast compared to the Oxygen Free Copper cables I had before. And both cables are good at the retrieval of information. But to be 100% honest, the 20 gauge UPOCC are only slightly better than the 14 gauge OFC cables that I already have in there. I tried them both over and over and I don't think I could pick them out in a blind test. Despite the gauge differences though ~ the edge would go to your 20 gauge cables as I felt they could retrieve a tad more info from the tracks than the OFCs.
But that is where the road ends. Your 17 gauge are freaking mind blowing in my system! First off, we all thought that the percussion instruments sounded live, as if they were almost in front of us. The 20 gauges were good at this as well, but they sounded as if the drummer was further in the background in comparison.
The 17's however sounded as if the drummer was literally in front of us. Things that were in the background moved forward as if on the same stage or plane as the other players. I've never heard this happen on another cable and seriously ... I never thought that speaker cables would have this dramatic of an effect on my system.
As you may remember, I've been having troubles with cymbals. I had those mil-spec silver over copper cables in there and was getting a tizziness that were destroying my enjoyment of music. I moved to the OFC copper and that at least fixed the tizziness, but I felt that there was just something missing from the music as if everything important was in the background, but with your 17s there has been a retrieval of information and a placement of the musicians up front that I was not expecting to happen. To say that this made a difference in my musical enjoyment is an understatement as I'm sitting here at almost 4:00AM and haven't gone to bed yet as I can't stop listening to music.
OK, so here's my comparison of the 17ga vs 20ga after only one night of listening. The 20 gauge seemed faster and the bass seemed more taught. But the 17's retrieved WAY more info, the decay of instruments (especially cymbals) was off the charts and spooky real, the bass (while not as taught as the 20g) was fuller and the tones overall much richer. IMO, the 20 gauges are really good, but the 17's are probably the most significant upgrade to my system that I have heard to this date.
Next up ... your interconnects...