What's Some Great Speaker Cable Under $300/10 Ft. Pair?

Music Maven · « **on:** 5 Nov 2004, 02:20 am »

Hi,

I'm looking for ideas of reliable, well-built, consistent-quality from batch to batch speaker cable, under $300 for a ten foot pair. Should be versatile electrically, not with fussy interface issues with most amps- I will be using a solid state amp under 100 watts per channel at 8 ohms. So, nothing with odd resistance, impedance issues...friendly with most electronics. And of course, as "invisible" as possible sonically. I would be happy to hear of some "real world priced" speaker cable you enjoy. I'll be using it as a single-run, not biwired.

Thanks, Jerry

Hantra · « **Reply #1 on:** 5 Nov 2004, 02:24 am »

No cable I have ever heard in that price range compares favorably to Audience Conductor.

Carlman · « **Reply #2 on:** 5 Nov 2004, 02:50 am »

I have some Audience 'Maestro' which is a step up from the Conductor that I've had for a year (a very long time for me)... I upgraded from the Conductor but went to a different pair of speakers so I don't know what the difference is...

Audience cable in general has been my favorite brand. However, for speaker cable, I tried some Tara Labs Phase 2 w/ TFA return. It's nothing special, wasn't expensive but sounded a little better with my amp than the Audience. This was after someone else experimented with the same DIY amp I had built and found it to be a particularly good match. So, I took his suggestion. I recently assembled an amp for a co-AC member and used the Tara cables on the amp output as well... it's great for this purpose.

The Tara doesn't 'blow away' the Audience but it does seem to have a little more control around the sounds. It's tough to describe but I'm very happy with it.

I'm holding onto the Maestro to experiment on some tube amplification, though. The Audience on tube amps is outstanding. I haven't heard a better cable on tube amplificaion in my experience.... and right now I don't have a good comparison amp but one is coming... So, I'll report more when I know more...

vpolineni · « **Reply #3 on:** 5 Nov 2004, 02:58 am »

If you could work with 8 feet instead of 10, the speaker cables Josh built look very nice...
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=14306

if not, wayne's m-80 speaker cables are highly regarded and are also well within your budget:
http://boldercables.com/Store.asp?m=TheBolderCableCompany&n=10&k=109874&s=Audio+Cables

Occam · « **Reply #4 on:** 5 Nov 2004, 03:05 am »

What speakers? What amp?
Or are the cables hooked directly to your ears from some other orifice?

warnerwh · « **Reply #5 on:** 5 Nov 2004, 03:40 am »

I"d make JoshK an offer on his home brew speaker cables. I'm sure you're not going to do any better. Those are as good as it gets really.

bubba966 · « **Reply #6 on:** 5 Nov 2004, 03:43 am »

Quote from: vpolineni

if not, wayne's m-80 speaker cables are highly regarded and are also well within your budget:
http://boldercables.com/Store.asp?m=TheBolderCableCompany&n=10&k=109874&s=Audio+Cables

I'll second the M-80 suggestion. And I'm pretty sure that they can be ordered with the Eichmann Copper Bayonet Plugs for under $300 a 10' pair.

I've got 10' M-80 runs that are terminated with the Bayonets. Great cable with great connectors.

Tyson · « **Reply #7 on:** 5 Nov 2004, 05:06 am »

3rd the m80s from Bolder. Use them in my HT setup and they are very good for the $$.

Music Maven · « **Reply #8 on:** 7 Nov 2004, 03:01 am »

Thank you all for your suggestions. I am exploring many of them.

Has anyone experimented with entry-level cables from Sonoran Desert, Analysis Plus, XLO, Tributaries, Acoustic Zen?... these are just a few that come to mind.

I didn't want to be too specific about my own equipment in my original request for your ideas because I did state that I was looking for versatile, well-behaved cable in a variety of installations, but suffice it to say I don't ever expect to have a solid state amp over 100 watts per channel at 8 ohms, and I use traditional vented dynamic passive loudspeakers, not planars, amplified or electrostatic. The sensitivity of my speakers will be 87db or greater.

Again, I'd like your feedback on more realistically priced cables from the brands above- or any others you might suggest.

Jerry

lonewolfny42 · « **Reply #9 on:** 7 Nov 2004, 04:43 am »

Hey Jerry,

Link....

http://www.fatwyre.com/index.html ...Good luck!

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Bemopti123 · « **Reply #10 on:** 7 Nov 2004, 04:54 am »

Near SOTA, 47 Labs straight wire knock offs.

or

an used run of the 47 Labs OTA cable for about $100 or a little more, 8-10ft pair runs.

All other stuff is simply excessive in weight, casing and also overpriced.

dyfromhawaii · « **Reply #11 on:** 7 Nov 2004, 08:53 am »

This cable blew me away...i've had it for about one month....

it'll cost you $100 complete for a 10' cable which will include USPS Priority Air to any of the 50 states...

arthurs · « **Reply #12 on:** 7 Nov 2004, 01:21 pm »

Quote from: dyfromhawaii

This cable blew me away...i've had it for about one month....

it'll cost you $100 complete for a 10' cable which will include USPS Priority Air to any of the 50 states...

I have a 12' pair of anti-cable in good shape, drop me a PM if interested.

SteveC · « **Reply #13 on:** 13 Nov 2004, 03:34 am »

I recommend DH Labs Q-10; had very good results with several systems.

Harmon · « **Reply #14 on:** 13 Nov 2004, 04:13 am »

If you want one of the best speaker cables on the market get in touch with Gregg Straley at [email protected]. He makes great interconnects also.

JLM · « **Reply #15 on:** 13 Nov 2004, 12:39 pm »

Here's a pretty no nonsense source for speaker cabling:

http://www.signalcable.com/

10 foot copper $85 - 109 for 13 AWG

10 foot copper $123 for 10 AWG

10 foot high purity silver/copper $379 for "composite" 12 AWG

Construction looks good, well reviewed, other cabling is even less expensive, seems to work best if the entire system uses their stuff.

Hantra · « **Reply #16 on:** 13 Nov 2004, 04:48 pm »

Quote from: Bemopti123

Near SOTA, 47 Labs straight wire knock offs.

or

an used run of the 47 Labs OTA cable for about $100 or a little more, 8-10ft pair runs.

All other stuff is simply excessive in weight, casing and also overpriced.

Near SOTA is a hell of a lot better than the 47 Labs. I own both.

Inscrutable · « **Reply #17 on:** 18 Nov 2004, 10:58 am »

Jerry,
I'm not a cable freak, but the Rapport line seems very good for the $ ... $200 for a 5-meter pair. I like them better in my system than the lower-level Zu, Kimber, and Museatex I have. These are used by Usher, and are reported to be essentially Acoustic Zen cables.

ctviggen · « **Reply #18 on:** 18 Nov 2004, 04:38 pm »

I've had both the copper and silver speaker cables from Signal Cable. I like both, although I'm currently using the silver cables. Unfortunately, I changed too much in my system to do a correct comparison between the copper and silver. (For instance, when I put in the silver speaker cables, I put in new interconnects too and went from biamping my system to biwiring it). In fact, I have biwire copper cables from Signal Cable that are 12 feet long just sitting in my attic (I was thinking of having them cryoed). Actually, I think I have two sets of 12 foot copper speaker cables -- one set is for biamping (two sets of spades on both ends, two wires per speaker) and one set is for biwiring (two wires for both speakers, but one set of spades on the amp end and two sets on the speaker side).

Al Garay · « **Reply #19 on:** 18 Nov 2004, 07:09 pm »

If you have a local Naim dealer, see if you can borrow their Naim NACA5 speaker cable. It's relatively cheap at about $5/foot and sounds excellent (at least with my system).

Though, I'm still very happy Vampire Wire STIII which is about $20/foot but cheaper if you go directly to Vampire.

Al