[Letitroll98]

Check eBay for Zu Audio cables.  Sean sells his overstock direct there and you can get some great deals in your price range.

[fsdaron]

I like KnuKonceptz cables.

[rhing]

White Lightning Moonshine. 

Have fun,

Jerry

Ditto. A pair of these beat out Kimber Kable 8TC in my system. Not sure if the 40 ft. Woods Patio Cable is still available in its original form. Better yet, terminate the cables with Neutrik NYS508-R and NYS508-B dual banana connectors. They follow the low metal mass formula and they are C&C.

You can take the extra cable, strip off the white PVC jacket and tri-braid the three 16AWG conductors to make PBJ interconnect clones (2-ground, 1-signal). It sounds much better than the White Lightning Moonshine interconnects as described in the Six Moons article. Canare F-10 or Switchcraft 3502AU/3502ABAU make fine C&C RCA connectors.

[DaveC113]

Ah, yes the article on Mr. Woods there!

When I switched to them I wouldn't call it a "lateral" move from lamp cord, milspec, etc, that I've tried. It's clearly a cut above.

WLM cable is ok but it's not a cut above most other decent, but cheap speaker cable IMO... just different trade offs. The star quad mil spec I suggested is way better imo.

[Folsom]

Perhaps I'll try something else some day.

I do NOT use Woods for interconnects. I just use Blue Jean's Cable.

[rajacat]

deleted

[persisting1]

Ah, yes the article on Mr. Woods there!

When I switched to them I wouldn't call it a "lateral" move from lamp cord, milspec, etc, that I've tried. It's clearly a cut above.

I only knew of these as the White Lightning Moonshine. Thanks for the update.

[jtsnead]

I used to use very high end cables, then 2009 came and I had to down grade, ended
up using ref 3 for interconnects, could not afford the speaker cables, I read about the
home theater products they offer and got some speaker cables 8 ft biwire, the specs and
construction are almost the same as the reference series, I paid around $120 for 8 ft pr
granted they were from overseas but well worth the money, see link below for the same
type but in 15' pair, you might be able to find shorter ones for less money

http://www.ebay.com/itm/XLO-HT-PRO-HTP12BW-Bi-Wire-Speaker-Cables-15-Pair-With-Bananas-/121245055448?pt=US_Audio_Cables_Adapters&hash=item1c3ac4b9d8

[jarcher]

In a well known name brand, I'm partial to Wireworld. Their lower end Luna speaker cables have a lot of the goodness of say their higher end Oasis cables, but with a thinner gauge. You can get a discount on 2.5M spades or bananas for the discontinued Luna 6 speaker cables for under $75 here :

http://www.commandav.com/demo.html

You can probably get a 2.5M pair of the current gen Luna 7s for very close to $100 as well from this dealer. Friend of mine bought a pair of Luna 7 speaker cables from this dealer and they were much better in every repect vs the midrange monster cables he had before. He has midrange marantz / parasound gear with KEF speakers.

Jeff / Command Performance is my local dealer and can't recommend him highly enough.

[Speedskater]

For budget cable I prefer a star quad of silver plated teflon insulted mil spec wire. [......................................]
Just take 4 strands and put one end in a drill, have someone hold the other end and twist. If you use 14g wire for an 11g total. [...........................]

I did that about 20 years ago. Somehow I ended up with a partial reel of 14 AWG silver plated Teflon insulted wire.  Then the parts store sold me some clear shrink tubing at a way low price. So I ended up with great speaker cables with very little cost.  Back then I didn't know that speaker cables should be twisted, so I missed that step.

[raysracing]

Ditto. A pair of these beat out Kimber Kable 8TC in my system. Not sure if the 40 ft. Woods Patio Cable is still available in its original form. Better yet, terminate the cables with Neutrik NYS508-R and NYS508-B dual banana connectors. They follow the low metal mass formula and they are C&C.

You can take the extra cable, strip off the white PVC jacket and tri-braid the three 16AWG conductors to make PBJ interconnect clones (2-ground, 1-signal). It sounds much better than the White Lightning Moonshine interconnects as described in the Six Moons article. Canare F-10 or Switchcraft 3502AU/3502ABAU make fine C&C RCA connectors.

I see lots of Woods cords at Home Depot, but if you do not get the exact Model ones do you lose the magic? I wonder if I get any Woods three lead heavy duty extension cord if they will be as good?  Might be green too.  Not too thrilled about that either.

But for certain I need new cables for my set-up and don't want to cut my super long cables I have right now. I am going to try the Woods cables (two leads for positive) bare wire end at speaker and banana at amplifier then buy the spade terminal and low mass bananas and keep tweaking them.

[Quiet Earth]

There's no rule (or guarantee) that speaker wires have to be twisted. You may actually prefer them when the positive and negative leads have an inch or so of separation. Try it and see.

There's no rule (or guarantee) that speaker wires need to be bigger than 18 gauge. You may actually prefer the sound of a thinner speaker cable, even though your brain tells you it should be bigger just in case. Resistance for a few meters of speaker wire is really a moot point, especially considering what you're hooking it up to. Try it and see.

[DS-21]

http://shop.emotiva.com/collections/interconnects/products/xss

The splitter on that cable is pretty sharp looking. Pity those kinds of pieces are basically impossible to find, especially if you don't want some wire-scammer's name/logo on it.

I see lots of Woods cords at Home Depot, but if you do not get the exact Model ones do you lose the magic? ***

Obviously, yes!

Expect someone to be selling the "exact model ones" at an unconscionable markup in two years. You read it here first.

(Mere wire is not a "component," so use whatever you want and unless it's a really bad choice it won't make any difference. That said, if you have any part of your run that's in wall, use correctly-rated wires to meet code in your jurisdiction.)

[Letitroll98]

Well that was helpful and constructive.  Do you want to buy a set of White Lightning Moonshine cables from me?  Let me tell you, for the price you'll get, such a deal.

Actually I agree with Dave here, the Woods cables were just ok.  Bested by most everything I had laying around the house, but they have a very pleasant and unassuming presentation, just not the last word in detail or impact.  FYI, I got the white colored extension cables as detailed in the original article, not the green ones, and used them with a couple of different economical bananas befitting the price level of the cable. 

[DaveC113]

I did that about 20 years ago. Somehow I ended up with a partial reel of 14 AWG silver plated Teflon insulted wire.  Then the parts store sold me some clear shrink tubing at a way low price. So I ended up with great speaker cables with very little cost.  Back then I didn't know that speaker cables should be twisted, so I missed that step.

Mil Spec wire is such a good deal for the quality, it's a no brainer unless you want to spend A LOT more cash on UPOCC copper.

There's no rule (or guarantee) that speaker wires have to be twisted. You may actually prefer them when the positive and negative leads have an inch or so of separation. Try it and see.

There's no rule (or guarantee) that speaker wires need to be bigger than 18 gauge. You may actually prefer the sound of a thinner speaker cable, even though your brain tells you it should be bigger just in case. Resistance for a few meters of speaker wire is really a moot point, especially considering what you're hooking it up to. Try it and see.

I agree here too, although technically twisting is a good idea for noise rejection, on SCs I've found it doesn't matter so much.

That's very true for speaker cable gauge too, I think often heavier gauge wires sound better not because they are heavier but because larger gauge wires have more surface area. What I notice is a decrease in dynamics in the bass frequencies if the gauge starts getting too small for the system. I think 14 gauge works fine for an "average" system of a couple hundred watts, med efficiency speakers and shortish cable lengths. I'd double down to 11g for less efficient, low impedance speakers and/or long runs. With expensive speaker cable the extra gauge is very expensive, if you're just making a star quad of mil spec than it's no big deal to err on the side of "too big" it probably won't sound much different.

Well that was helpful and constructive.  Do you want to buy a set of White Lightning Moonshine cables from me?  Let me tell you, for the price you'll get, such a deal.

Actually I agree with Dave here, the Woods cables were just ok.  Bested by most everything I had laying around the house, but they have a very pleasant and unassuming presentation, just not the last word in detail or impact.  FYI, I got the white colored extension cables as detailed in the original article, not the green ones, and used them with a couple of different economical bananas befitting the price level of the cable. 

It sounds shockingly good right at first which seems to throw people off. After a while you realize it sounds much more pleasant than accurate. Still good for the price though I guess...

[mick wolfe]

There's no rule (or guarantee) that speaker wires have to be twisted. You may actually prefer them when the positive and negative leads have an inch or so of separation. Try it and see.

There's no rule (or guarantee) that speaker wires need to be bigger than 18 gauge. You may actually prefer the sound of a thinner speaker cable, even though your brain tells you it should be bigger just in case. Resistance for a few meters of speaker wire is really a moot point, especially considering what you're hooking it up to. Try it and see.

Good point. I achieved better results ( in an all tube system) when I dumped my "garden hoses" and went to an unshielded, thinner cable. Probably went from an 11 gauge equivalent to 18 gauge.

[bregez]

I see lots of Woods cords at Home Depot, but if you do not get the exact Model ones do you lose the magic?

The distributer (out of Waukegan, IL) of the Woods extension cord changed suppliers a long time ago.  The tested “White Lightnings” were made in China, had a gloss white finish, and thin paper between the three wires and outer white insulator.   The new supply of extension cords are made in Taiwan, have a matte white finish, and powder between the wires and outer white insulator.   I also noticed that the new supply cords have a lower strand count (visual inspection) with slightly larger diameter strands.    Do they perform different than the originals, I have no Idea.

[Thirsty]

Have you considered Supra Ply 3.4S?, great sounding cables and within your budget.

[putz]

Too bad Coz no longer makes cables. I'm very happy with mine.

[rollo]

Have you considered Supra Ply 3.4S?, great sounding cables and within your budget.

   For the money excellent recco. You can also consider thermostat wire from the hardware store. soild core 3 wire. Use one leg for positive, one leg for neg. and one as a ground plane. the ground plane wire is not connected at the amp end just negative sprk terminal. You are going to be surprised.



charles