[weirdo]

Just finished breaking in a pair of "Anti-Cables" speaker cables.        ( 90.00 for a 9 ft pair, nicely terminated ). Sweet. Best cable yet for me . Best yet with my AVA Solid State Gear and Gallo Speakers. My Audioquest Bedrocks are going up for sale. A no nonsense balanced sounding speaker cable. Fits the resolution of the Omega Star EC pre-amp to a "t". Solid product form a mom and pop shop in Minnesota. Consider this one before paying out the wazoo for speaker cables. 

[robert1325]

I've had my anti-cables for a week now , so not fully burned in yet.

Love the sound, it's very open and smooth and has very good instrument seperation.  Compared it to nordost solarwind / blueheaven.  They sounded more "in your face" and not as subtle.      My speakercables are connected bare-wire ( cheaper for Bi-wire and is suposed to sound better)

You can't go wrong for the money,   they are very musical and subtle but can make you jump when art blakey kicks his drums.

One thing to take in consideration when using them is directionality,    you'll have to try wich way they sound best.    This will differ per system.     I found great difference,   the one way it sounds very harsh and dynamic the other way very laid-back and soft.    I got something in between by turning around the Anti-IC's as well.

[Wayner]

All the anti-cables are is 16 ga. solid enameled coil wire, like that used for induction coils.

I'm not sure how to train the electrons which way is the best to travel.

W

[boead]

All the anti-cables are is 16 ga. solid enameled coil wire, like that used for induction coils.

Litz is enameled coated stranded wire that is braided into a variety of different patters. Some Litz wire is also magnetically charged. My speaker wire (DIY’ed) is a 400+ stranded Litz Type-4 braid and is magnetic. It’s only wrapped in cotton and was made for NASA lab and satellite equipment. I got it from a surplus store for a few dollars a foot, it’s a single conductor. Litz wire isn’t easy to find and it’s usually not cheap.

I'm not sure how to train the electrons which way is the best to travel.

 

What he is saying is that your are out of your mind if you think you hear a difference in direction, its simply not possible according to the laws of known science. You are hearing things in your head, a placebo – nothing more.

[Wayner]

Hey boead, back off. The comment about direction is humor, P.S., some of your comments are hard to understand as well. I've seen pictures of the "anti-cables" and it is not Litz wire as far as I can tell. It is solid core wire with enamel coating.

[gooberdude]

I've had the anti-cables for almost 2 years now...dunno whats up with them but i can safely classify them as 'directional'.  One way sounds good, the other bad.  let the good burn in & you have a killer speaker cable for $50 or so.

Weirdo - i hate to say this but lots of folks lop the terminations off anti-cables claiming raw wire sounds best.  i got them in bulk, so have no direct experience.   somewhere on paul's site it talks about spades & what not...   glad you are enjoying them though, i couldn't be without.

boed - you're right there's no way to test for this, but given the crystalline structure of the metal is it not possible one way might let the electrons flow better?  these cables are beaten into shape, they don't go from a liquid state to a cable instantly.  obviously there isn't much if any 'science' on this topic...but with every set of cables I own listening for harsh vs warm right of the bat has made a big diff.  also, anti-cables are not made from super long grain copper, the 100m long stuff for example.  with that quality one could certainly argue directionality...isn't.     

i never want to enter a debate w/anyone about this, but i will always ask 'have you tried to listen?'.   my ears have been beaten by soooooo many live shows & car stereos...but i can hear it.           

that said, i have 2 sets of anti-ic's and the sp cables...for me the warm & smooth sounding direction has always worked out best...i follow the bass.  paul speltz has made being a cheapskate quite enjoyable!

GD

[Steve Eddy]

boed - you're right there's no way to test for this, but given the crystalline structure of the metal is it not possible one way might let the electrons flow better?

Well, keep in mind that under normal conditions (i.e. room temperature) that the electrons are being slapped silly in all directions due to thermal energy which causes the crystal lattice itself to vibrate. In fact this is what accounts for virtually all of the wire's resistance in the first place.

se

[avahifi]

I am letting this thread run just for fun, but please understand that it implies no indorsement or approval on my part of any of the various brands of cables mentioned here.

My own advice is that if you have paid more for cables than you would have at Home Depot, you have thrown money away.  All our in house double blind tests say its all sugar pills, except for high capacitance braided cables, they always make any equipment misbehave (overshoot and ring) and is strongly not recommended.

Frank Van Alstine

[hertz]

What is this thing about superior soldering of the terminators. Audioquest claims it uses superior “audoquest solder” and use high current welding for what they claim to produces a superior connection. Do these things make any difference ?

[weirdo]

I am letting this thread run just for fun, but please understand that it implies no indorsement or approval on my part of any of the various brands of cables mentioned here.

My own advice is that if you have paid more for cables than you would have at Home Depot, you have thrown money away.  All our in house double blind tests say its all sugar pills, except for high capacitance braided cables, they always make any equipment misbehave (overshoot and ring) and is strongly not recommended.Frank Van Alstine

You should let it run. It is fun to see that many people ( myself included) are coming back to simple connections and concentrating more on equipment. It is a good trend. I don't share your feeling about ssugar pills, but the absurdly priced wires haver seen their day I think. 

[gooberdude]

I've only read glowing reviews of FVA's Fet Valve Amps - hope to own one someday.   But i can't help but think his superior designs may negate some of the benefits of good cabling, and many, many other mfgrs PSU designs simply don't cut it & therefore those components (meaning all my components!)  benefit from better cables.     

I abhor spending major $ on silly stuff.  To date i've spent just under $1K total on 3 power cords, 4 IC's and 1 set of speaker cables.  Spread the expenditure over the # of cords and the next 30 years of use.....it comes out to about $4.17 per year per cord. 

At least until i switch to all Revelation Audio lab cabling!!!!

GD

[gooberdude]

CE2,  for a year I tried every kind of cheap DIY wire recipe i could get my hands on...CAT5, HD magent wire, even the orange bulk HD power cords.  they all SUCKED compared to the 'just a bit more expensive' stuff i have now.   I like articulate, loud & chesty bass...plus i love music & better cabling just gets me 'there'. 

Since i haven't spent much on each cable, i have no guilt.
$4 per year per cord...

Plus, i have a passive preamp and my Muse amp has a captive cord...i stand in the middle of both camps i'd say - just keepin' it real.

One of the cool (yet annoying) things about this hobby is debating the undebateable...at the Slot Car forums i also frequent people hardly get into talking BS like on the audio forums...its more good natured ball breaking rather than 'you are wrong, i am right' juvenile stuff.   

yet both are fairly expensive male hobbies that thrive on the DIY spirit.


GD

[shep]

For what my two cents is worth these days...I think a lot of us have getting ripped off for a long time, maybe not intentionally (benefit of the doubt). Interconnects maybe another story but speaker cables...
I posted a link and here it is again. Worth a try don't you think? As you can imagine (this has a lot to do with imagination and expectations) the purer the copper, the easier time the signal has of it. So it stands to reason that this kind of copper, decently insulated, should sound very nice. I think anti-cables are a clever re-discovery of this. Please don't lambast me for my un_scientific approach! Maybe we hear what we want to and then again maybe the brain processes information in ways that is hard to qualify/quantify.
If you want all cables to sound the same, they will by God!
http://www.ahfartaudio.com/ Look under "components/wire" I am putting my euros where my mouth is.

[robert1325]

cables can really make a system sing!    With the anti-cables I have now everything is so much clearer and faster...

I tried a Mit z-cord II on my modded squeezebox yesterday,  and WOW  couldn't believe what I was hearing. My future upgrades are my power cords and some conditioning.

[boead]

Hey boead, back off. The comment about direction is humor, P.S., some of your comments are hard to understand as well. I've seen pictures of the "anti-cables" and it is not Litz wire as far as I can tell. It is solid core wire with enamel coating.

solid enameled coil wires a 16ga.  solid core conductor? How do you know its enameled? Or do you mean it has a Teflon jacket or serving?

I don’t get it?

[gooberdude]

Boed, the answer is on Paul Speltz's site...it is an enameled solid core 12 ga copper wire.   Pretty cool stuff at $1.25 per foot.  Definitely not clothes hanger wire colored by Willy Wonka, and certainly not something to get ole 'yosemite sam' riled up about.   just wire....


GD

[Wayner]

Thanks gooberdude. I have no comments one way or another on the sonic performance of the wire. I'm just telling boead what the wire is, and how its made. This wire is like inductor wire or wire that is used in motor windings. It is solid, like house wiring, but without any plastic insulation, and it has an enamel coating on it to act as an insulator instead of TPFE or some other type of insulation. Paul Spelts claims that the normal heavier plastic insulation interfers with electron migration within the the crystaline structure of the copper conductor and that the insulation must be minimal. That is why he chose enameled solid core wire.

W

[gooberdude]

Hey Wayner, and I appreciate so much that Paul did!     Honestly, the only other sp cable that i dig is Chris Venhaus' CheLa, but it costs 8x what the speltz set cost & is on the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of design.   

i dunno what the enamel stuff is on the anti-cables....its a pain to remove though.

GD

[SET Man]

... Which company is gonna come out with zero gravity mfg'd cables, when they have acess to shuttle rides?  Maybe they should make em in vacuum chambers...

Hey!
 
    CE2, be careful what you wish for. I think this comes very close to that.. Tara Labs "The Zero"



     Just only about $14,900.00 per 1 meter pair. I'm pretty sure that they would be a 150 times better than my homemade cable

Take care,
Buddy

[boead]

normal heavier plastic insulation interfers with electron migration within the the crystaline structure of the copper conductor and that the insulation must be minimal.\.

W

Now thats not very scientific is it?

THAT You believe?! 


Your crazy - I think I'm starting to like you.  aa