FS: MAC (My Audio Cables) CuQ Sound Pipes spkr cables, 10 ft pair

sunnydaze · « **on:** 24 Mar 2015, 09:29 pm »

Cleaning out the closet, these have been sitting idle for several years. I am the first and only owner. Single wire pair, 10 ft tip-to-tip. Spades on amp end, bare wire on spkr end.

VG overall condition, solid construction. Sheathing has no pulls, snags, rips or tears. Spades in good shape. I have cleaned all tarnish off the bare copper ends, so you are set to go!

This is a very nice and sanely priced starter cable that will actually hang in rigs beyond entry level. Been awhile since I used them, but I remember them as easy to listen to: smooth up top, a bit full on the bottom, a touch on the warm side, and dynamic. Not edgy or aggressive. I suspect they will fill out and warm up a leanish cool speaker

Do the Google to find lots of positive online comments / reviews.

I believe these retailed for about 400 bux. I'd like to get $160 obo. I'll pay shipping. Add 3% if you don't use PayPal friends / family / gift option.

Thanks!
John

sunnydaze · « **Reply #1 on:** 1 Apr 2015, 04:49 pm »

sunnydaze · « **Reply #2 on:** 14 Apr 2015, 12:10 am »

sunnydaze · « **Reply #3 on:** 22 Apr 2015, 02:41 pm »

sunnydaze · « **Reply #4 on:** 29 Apr 2015, 04:09 pm »

sunnydaze · « **Reply #5 on:** 16 May 2015, 02:04 am »

sunnydaze · « **Reply #6 on:** 27 May 2015, 11:47 pm »

sunnydaze · « **Reply #7 on:** 5 Jun 2015, 12:12 am »

Offers allowed

sunnydaze · « **Reply #8 on:** 19 Jun 2015, 06:54 pm »

sunnydaze · « **Reply #9 on:** 7 Jul 2015, 04:28 pm »

sunnydaze · « **Reply #10 on:** 29 Jul 2015, 03:42 pm »

bump.

sunnydaze · « **Reply #11 on:** 7 Aug 2015, 12:37 pm »

sunnydaze · « **Reply #12 on:** 15 Aug 2015, 12:18 pm »

sunnydaze · « **Reply #13 on:** 24 Aug 2015, 04:39 pm »

sunnydaze · « **Reply #14 on:** 3 Sep 2015, 05:59 pm »

sunnydaze · « **Reply #15 on:** 13 Sep 2015, 03:32 pm »

sunnydaze · « **Reply #16 on:** 22 Sep 2015, 02:38 pm »

Lots of positive comments / reviews online. Compared to his reference cable, this reviewer found some very nice improvements upon inserting the CuQ into his rig:

"....the CuQ has easily surpassed it. The soundstage is deeper and more stable, its images having great presence and palpability and a very cohesive presentation overall, indicative of excellent phase integrity. Central images (typically voice and solo concerto instruments) benefit from a gentle natural spotlighting that elevates them slightly in the mix; an appealing presentation achieved without any suggestion of forwardness. Bass frequencies gained significantly in power, extension and ‘slam’, yet with such control that, paradoxically, the increased quantity of bass provoked much less boominess in my ill-behaved listening room. I have already mentioned the deliciously smooth, silky tonality – the sound permeating every millimetre of the space between the speakers “like syrup on a pancake”, according to my notes, though I might just have been hungry! – which exposed a mild ‘glazed’ midrange colouration in my old cables that pinched vocals and bleached some of the harmonic richness from acoustic instruments, especially solo piano. The CuQ, by contrast, paints from a larger palette of timbral colours.

Dynamically, the CuQ was an ear-opener; my system’s ability to swing big transients with utter composure was greatly enhanced. While capable of sounding incredibly delicate and refined, when required, it more typically offered a satisfyingly confident and robust presentation that suited all musical genres and proved highly tolerant of less well-recorded material. Music sprang to life with great vivacity and rhythmic drive, furnishing fresh insights into the performer’s delivery; David Gray’s aggravated assault on his acoustic guitar in “Red Moon” now defined a precise signature to each percussive impact, delineating the subtle overlay of string ringing and fret buzz and confirming (as any guitarist will tell you) that no two strums ever sound exactly alike.

I heard a level of detail resolution on familiar recordings through the CuQ that my system had not achieved before, certainly, but more intriguingly my listening notes make regular mention of an “extra dimension of reality” to the sound. I can illuminate this point only with difficulty, and at the expense of my remaining street credibility (a small price, I confess) … by admitting that I listen to naturally-recorded birdsong! While even those hopeless nerds who queued in costume for the premiere of the latest Star Trek movie must be laughing at me now, I’ll say just this in my defence; I don’t do it often, nor particularly for pleasure, but it can be incredibly revealing of a system’s naturalness. The familiar sounds of the rainforest (which blankets the hills close to my home), when played through the CuQ were startlingly more realistic, both in the unexaggerated tonality of the birdsong (rare indeed is the audio system that achieves this) and in the ephemeral ambient setting that frames it. This alone proves the CuQ to be much more than just an impressive ‘budget’ speaker wire – it’s a serious contender, punching well above its weight.

As with other MAC cables before it, in assembling this clumsy jigsaw of the CuQ’s qualities I’m aware of failing to capture what most endeared it to me. It has the same knack of presenting music “all of a piece”; of unravelling the individual threads while still retaining a strong sense of the work’s organic wholeness. In so doing, it affords a clearer insight to the composer’s intentions, and this particularly increased my understanding and appreciation of music that I’ve previously found difficult to fathom. For everything that this cable achieves, no single attribute stands out intrusively. Not exactly “self-effacing” – its sound is too overtly musical for that – yet so even and artful is its blend of qualities that its contribution is easily ignored. It simply allowed music to sound wonderful, with an openness and lack of artifice that seduced the ear and effortlessly immersed the listener.

........ For what it’s worth, I felt that the CuQ’s notable top to bottom consistency, coherence and tonal neutrality endowed it a very special presentational and sonic synergy with the Mystic interconnects used through most of this evaluation. In providing this elevated level of performance at such low cost, the CuQ can certainly help to make the Mystics accessible to audiophiles whose overall cable budget would have appeared to preclude them.

........for what it did in my system, the CuQ is an outrageous bargain that no satisfied owner of MAC interconnects should be without, and it surely merits the close attention of anyone seeking maximum performance from a speaker cable for minimum outlay."

http://www.audiophilia.com/wp/?p=1749#more-1749

sunnydaze · « **Reply #17 on:** 6 Nov 2015, 06:35 pm »

sunnydaze · « **Reply #18 on:** 28 Nov 2015, 09:03 pm »

post turkey bump.

sunnydaze · « **Reply #19 on:** 15 Jan 2016, 01:24 am »

Bump for the new year!