Gregg Straley Cables

Jon L · « **Reply #80 on:** 1 Nov 2005, 10:13 pm »

Gregg, any tricks to solder the Vampire RCA's? I just burned my finger last week trying to solder the return wire to Vampire ground barrel. I suppose "roughing" the surface with some sandpaper and using lots of heat will help..

Nick B · « **Reply #81 on:** 2 Nov 2005, 01:56 am »

Thanks for the explanation, Gregg.

drphoto · « **Reply #82 on:** 18 Nov 2005, 07:53 pm »

Finally got my own set of Reality speaker cables installed on my repaired Merlin TSM-M. Absolutely fantastic improvement. The level of detail is astonishing, yet even more relaxed than before.The sound stage is significantly larger too.

The only big name cable I ever had in my system (and that was w/ ProAC 1.5, not the Merlin) was the Sonoran Plateau. It was a pretty great, improving detail, and most especially size of soundstage. Though it's not an direct comparison (as the Merlin is considerably better than the ProAC IMHO) I feel like the Reality Cable is at least as good as the Sonoran, if not better. However, the Sonoran, at 12' was something like $1600! (I just had them on loan for a few days) Gregg's cable are an amazing bargain.

I predict you won't find many, or any on the used market. Even if someone finds something 'better' (for which I'm sure they'd pay a bundle) his cables are so affordable, one would just put them in a second system. As I mentioned in a previous post, a friend of mine who has the little Onix SP3/Ref 1 package got his cable and the benefits were dramatic.

BTW: the speaker cable being replace was the humble Kimber 8TC. I'm still using Groneberg TS IC's. (might borrow my friends Reality IC for a comparison next week)

Nick B · « **Reply #83 on:** 18 Nov 2005, 11:24 pm »

Whatever happened to the results of the contest naming the cables? Did I miss that?

gstraley · « **Reply #84 on:** 19 Nov 2005, 05:25 am »

Hi Everyone,
I apologize to everyone for not doing anything yet with the naming contest.

The plan was to come out with a newly redesigned website and the name of the cables would be decided and included in the new web site. Due to some snafus, mostly on my part the web site has not progressed the way it was suppose to. I hope to have something within the next 3 weeks on this. I am trying to coordinate this with the web designer. There are some new and improved pictures of the cables in the works along with a price list. There also is going to be a new version of the XLR balanced cables coming out soon. I am doing some listening tests with new XLR connectors. It will most likely be between the Xhadow XLR connectors or the Furutech Rhodium XLR connectors.

Thanks for you patience,

Gregg Straley

Reality Cables

Belly · « **Reply #85 on:** 26 Nov 2005, 12:59 pm »

Hi people! I am a newbie here so bear with me.
Just wanted to communicate my first impressions of Gregg's speaker cables. Formerly used Bogdan silver speaker cables and interconnects.

Now have Gregg's speaker cable and VH pulsar inter's in the system.
Once the speaker cable settled in the whole listening experience got a WHOLE lot better. Background is black, soundstage became much larger.

These things don't really impart a character of their own, they just let what ever is on the recording be heard. Great detail, non fatiguing much better tonal balance than the Bogdan cable. Coherent throughout the spectrum, just a real pleasure in my system.
I listen to a wide array of different stuff. No classical. Jazz, blues and rock.
Anything from Cassandra Wilson to Oscar Lopez to Eric Clapton to Marley to Peter Gabriel.. well you get the picture. System is passive-pre, edge M6-SS amp, SCD-555, AN kit 1.1 dac, Ellis 1801 and Avance 670's.
Gregg's stuff is affordable too!! Great value and sound IMHO!

LadyDog · « **Reply #86 on:** 28 Nov 2005, 02:53 am »

I rarely do reviews, mostly due to my belief that everybody is their own movie critic and systems are room and synergistic dependent. That and I am no audiophile in any sense of the word. Actually the best audiophile sound I know of is the belly laughs on my two kids. Anyway, since I was bored and stuck at work on a Sunday evening I thought I would put pen to paper and offer my thoughts on one of the current hot products.

Reviewing or comparing cables is not easy, it takes a far more focused or critical ear to hear the minisule differences in cabling than in components persay.

I have more than system but the one these cables were used in is fairly revealing. Making it fairly easy to spot differences in components or cables. One of the many qualites I prize in a cable is neutrality, so that no specific frequency range leaps out at you, or conversely is missing. I still like to hear as full a frequency range as I can, given the recording, just not an overblown, bloated, sketchy, or too compressed one. But most important, the gear has to be musical. I need to feel the music, for it to pull me in emotionally and mentally.

Construction: The cables are well made and look nice. The person who coined them the “Licorice Cable” was dead on. They do look like a piece of twisted red licorice. Ever consider changing their name Gregg?

My initial listening impression was simply, this is nice. A general feeling of rightness in my realm of the world, as if the galaxy were in order and harmony had been restored. Sorry, got carried away there for a bit, I was day dreaming about a job writing reviews for the mags. Seriously though, what do I mean by this? That there is no aspect of the performance that is emphasized. Everything is given its proper weight, very balanced in the frequency spectrum. Remember I prize neutrality. Most cables I have heard will emphasize something, or deemphasize something. And this may give you wow-factor initially, but ultimately leads me to a dissatisfying long term relationship.

Since the Reality Cables are neutral, there was no wow factor, just a "yea, this is nice" feeling, again a sense of rightness with what I was hearing, whether lisening for dynamics, depth, harmonics, coherence, frequency extension……..add your own noun. Most importantly, I was connected.

Now for some of those audiophile aspects that everybody is possiblt waiting to read. Or I guess I should say the ones I find impressive:

Sense of Air: This cable is fairly remarkable. Listening to notes, it becomes very easy to distinguish the air or space between each note. Performers now have an added layer of dimension.

Staging: Hard to imagine a better stage through speaker cables, the cables have terrific center fill, great width and depth too. Frequencies were all present without calling attention to themselves.

Bite: Transients had the proper attack. It has been a while since I attended a show but then I started listening more and more, to many different cd’s, different performances, different genres, and I began thinking back to what a trumpet sounds like live. And that made me realize a live trumpet has bite, real bite. Kind of a grab you and make you pay attention bite. This, to my mind, is indicative of the speed of the speaker cables, when the rest of the system is up to it. These speaker cables gave me that feeling of harmonic correctness.

Onto the Sound: These cables define neutrality about as good as I have heard. Timbre is incredibly spot-on. I have been burning them in while doing various other things and been suddenly startled, convinced that I had heard people talking in another room. Nope, just the voices on the cd I was listening to. In my limited experience, is about as good as it gets in our audiophile world; to be convinced, with your back turned, that you heard a live sound.

This neutrality extends throughout the frequency range too. Sax sounds incredibly present, but never overbearing. Bass notes have a natural fullness and bloom. Music just flows from my system

Having said all of this, I can say that these cables are an unqualified success in my system. They insert a more realistic and dimensional presentation of music, with no obvious or apparent faults that I can perceive.

As most here on A/C knows the room acoustics and system synergy will have a big affect on the performance of a given combination of audio components. And generally do not like to compare apples to oranges so I will not offer any insight if these cables are better than the Zu Wax, Ridge Street Pioema’s or BPT 6’s that I also own. That is for everybody else to decide. I am sure there may be better cables, but not too many I would venture to say at this price. And at quite a bit higher too! Overall I find these cables to be quite neutral and do not favor any type of music, though certainly revealing of the source equipment. I don't even think about them anymore, they just don't seem to be there. Which I think is about as good of a compliment of any cable as I can give.

Every once in a while, you find a company that offers an excellent product for a very modest price. If you're lucky, you find an exceptional product for a very modest price. I feel I have done that. I hesitate to go too overboard but these cables are the essence of an amazing bang for your buck product. But they represent something more, they happen to beautifully portray the natural soul of music. And does so at a price almost anyone can readily afford.

Lastly, it goes without mention that Gregg is one of the nicest guys in the business. I wish him all the success he deserves.

We’ll I think that about does it for now. Who knows, once Gregg’s interconnects break-in a bit more you may hear from me again.

Best Regards,
Jeff

TheChairGuy · « **Reply #87 on:** 1 Dec 2005, 09:00 pm »

So, I wound thru this post again...and saw that a 8' pair of speaker cables is about $240.00 (thank you , Carlman

)

But, what's the cost of a 1 meter IC? Info is scarce here and on website.

Thanks.

ctviggen · « **Reply #88 on:** 1 Dec 2005, 09:08 pm »

I paid $225 for a one meter unbalanced pair of ICs.

RPM123 · « **Reply #89 on:** 3 Dec 2005, 08:14 pm »

I have a 10 ft. pair of the speaker cables and music sounds much more... "real". Bass is deeper and tighter, vocals are more open. Highs are extended and airy. I can pick out more details than ever before, if I want to be analytical or anal.

Yet, I can listen for long periods without any fatigue or when my wife tells me to get off the sofa and help her with something. What a great cable and the price is a stupendous bargain! It bettered the Audience Au 24 that I had been using for the past year. I can't wait until Gregg finalizes his XLR ICs.

TheChairGuy · « **Reply #90 on:** 3 Dec 2005, 08:25 pm »

Quote from: ctviggen

I paid $225 for a one meter unbalanced pair of ICs.

Thanks Saab-lovin' Bob in CT

brj · « **Reply #91 on:** 6 Dec 2005, 04:18 am »

Does anyone know if Gregg offers a specific digital coax cable, or have people just been using one of his standard IC's in that role?

Thanks!

Nick B · « **Reply #92 on:** 6 Dec 2005, 05:08 am »

I was just on Gregg's website and prices are now shown. Speaker cables are also available in a white or black cotton sleeve cover which is a big improvement over that hot pink.

jermmd · « **Reply #93 on:** 6 Dec 2005, 01:27 pm »

I just wanted to point out that I have the record for the longest run of speaker cable Gregg has ever made. I have a 50 foot pair of cables.

I have a very powerful amp and can discern no signal loss or interference at all. As you can imagine, the price was very high (at least to me it was) but it was still less than $1000. Can you think of any other high end cable manufacturer that sells 100 feet of speaker cable for less than a grand?

zybar · « **Reply #94 on:** 6 Dec 2005, 02:10 pm »

Quote from: jermmd

I just wanted to point out that I have the record for the longest run of speaker cable Gregg has ever made. I have a 50 foot pair of cables. I have a very powerful amp and can discern no signal loss or interference at all. As you can imagine, the price was very high (at least to me it was) but it was still less than $1000. Can you think of any other high end cable manufacturer that sells 100 feet of speaker cable for less than a grand?

Joe,

How is everything sounding?

George

jermmd · « **Reply #95 on:** 6 Dec 2005, 03:32 pm »

Quote from: zybar

Joe,

How is everything sounding?

George

George,

I've been listening to music every spare minute. The sound I'm getting right now is the closest I've come to perfection. When my Bolder modded SB3 arrives and with continued system break in, I expect my system will rival the very best sound possible.

Tbadder1 · « **Reply #96 on:** 6 Dec 2005, 07:02 pm »

What's his website?

brj · « **Reply #97 on:** 6 Dec 2005, 07:07 pm »

http://www.realitycables.com/

kbuzz3 · « **Reply #98 on:** 7 Dec 2005, 04:35 am »

order my set of greg's cables last week. Now im trying to get him to add the cotton cables. Damn that WAF factor. So what if the infants like to pull hot pink cable and not boring white cotton.

mca · « **Reply #99 on:** 2 Jan 2006, 06:52 pm »

As an FYI, Greg's site has now been updated with prices.