[Big Red Machine]

I dropped in a set of Anti Cables copper speaker cables in place of my Analysis Plus Big Silver Ovals.  The Ovals will be on Audiogon shortly!  Granted the AC's appear to be Romex wire w/o insulation and I will strip down some wire or pull the grounds out to try this.  They may be a better copper alloy than Romex, don't know. 

How do they sound?  The music was beefier, the tinny, bright highs were gone (most likely a silver versus copper thing), the depth of the soundstage solidified, and to me, the clarity of presentation let more detail come through that the silver was supposed to do but didn't.  The sound was sexier.  Great audiophile term, I know.

Now you can imagine how silly the HT3's look with these tiny red wires feeding them, but the sound denies their visual impact.

So any of you HT3 owners out there who were thinking of giving these a whirl I would most definitely try them.  I now there is an AnitCale thread elsewhere, but wanted to let Salk owners know.

[zybar]

I haven't tried the Anti-Cables with the HT3's, but I can say that the Gregg Straley Reality Cables absolutely are killer on the HT3's!!!

Either way, sounds like some great sound can be had for very little money.   

George

[robert1325]

I've used them for a while and am happy with them,  yesterdag my dad hookep em up in his system instead of the Nordost Solar wind SPK cable and Blue heaven IC's and was surprised at the improvement it gave on his system ( AUdion silver knights and B&W 801 s2 + Wadia cd23)   

The only thing he did not really like is the high-end , not enough bite on the cymbals,  Nordost is quite bright sounding...   He is getting used to it now I think,  His system is not as fatigueing ( did I spell that right ?)       

His comments where that he does not skip music as fast on his cd's , before he did because there was to much glare in the highs.

They also show much more colors in different instruments,   that was what I heard in my system and he did to in his system.

Robert   

[Big Red Machine]

I agree with you and your dad.  I re-listened to a CD I have heard a million times just because I was hearing it differently than I had before and really liking it.  I have tried Nordost before and the Signal Cable was every bit as good for less money.  And I went for the silver on tubes, copper on SS theory I had read about thinking this was the way to go.  Now that I got off my duff to try these I am really glad I did.  I want to try and make my own out of Romex and just see what I get (unshielded of course).

[95bcwh]

Pete,
  Have you tried the Anti-cable Jumpers?
cheers
barry

[Big Red Machine]

NO, I bought some neat custom copper wire jumpers from Audiogon that I had spades put on one end and bananas on the other.  So the banana goes in the feed-side posts and the spades go on the other set.  For such a short length do you think it would matter?  BTW, I feed the woofer and jump up to the other set.

[zybar]

NO, I bought some neat custom copper wire jumpers from Audiogon that I had spades put on one end and bananas on the other.  So the banana goes in the feed-side posts and the spades go on the other set.  For such a short length do you think it would matter?  BTW, I feed the woofer and jump up to the other set.

Jumpers do make a difference (at least to my ears and with the HT3's).

Try jumping in both directions and see which way you like better.

George

[95bcwh]

NO, I bought some neat custom copper wire jumpers from Audiogon that I had spades put on one end and bananas on the other.  So the banana goes in the feed-side posts and the spades go on the other set.  For such a short length do you think it would matter?  BTW, I feed the woofer and jump up to the other set.

I don't know..I have tried two jumpers (Nordost & Exodus) but I cannot say I can hear any difference..but certainly there're people that can hear a difference.

So now you can try 3 things - Bi-wire, jump up from woofer, jump down from tweeter, and report back

[Big Red Machine]

NO, I bought some neat custom copper wire jumpers from Audiogon that I had spades put on one end and bananas on the other.  So the banana goes in the feed-side posts and the spades go on the other set.  For such a short length do you think it would matter?  BTW, I feed the woofer and jump up to the other set.

I don't know..I have tried two jumpers (Nordost & Exodus) but I cannot say I can hear any difference..but certainly there're people that can hear a difference.

So now you can try 3 things - Bi-wire, jump up from woofer, jump down from tweeter, and report back

Okay, I will get on it!

[robert1325]

Big red machine:

Did you try the anti-cables both ways  ( by turning them around?)    This can make a huge impact on the sound,   listen for the warmer more laidback tone and you are right...    They can sound awfully bright when wired up wrong 

[DSK]

NO, I bought some neat custom copper wire jumpers from Audiogon that I had spades put on one end and bananas on the other.  So the banana goes in the feed-side posts and the spades go on the other set.  For such a short length do you think it would matter?  BTW, I feed the woofer and jump up to the other set.

Jumpers do make a difference (at least to my ears and with the HT3's).

Try jumping in both directions and see which way you like better.

George

I agree with George. On my previous speakers I replaced some thick, high quality copper, solid core jumpers with a pair of Audience Au24 jumpers. Until burned in, the Au24 jumpers sounded very opaque and 'closed in'. However, as they burned in they opened up and let more inner detail and venue acoustic information through. They sounded more effortless and natural.

EDIT: Forgot to mention... I always ran the speaker cables to the 'highs' terminals and jumped from there to the 'lows'. This was in order to put minimum of connections and cable in the path to the more delicate highs and mids.

[Big Red Machine]

Big red machine:

Did you try the anti-cables both ways  ( by turning them around?)    This can make a huge impact on the sound,   listen for the warmer more laidback tone and you are right...    They can sound awfully bright when wired up wrong 

 

[Big Red Machine]

I tried the feed to the high end to humor you guys and heard no difference.  Now that that is out of the way!

[95bcwh]

Have you all read this?

http://db.audioasylum.com/cgi/t.mpl?f=cables&m=120292

[robert1325]

I use them without terminations to 

[95bcwh]

I use them without terminations to 

How do you do that?

[jdaly]

Pete,
  Have you tried the Anti-cable Jumpers?
cheers
barry

fwiw, I recently replaced my Audience Maestro jumpers with A-C jumpers and honestly can't tell a difference. So I returned the maestros ($135). Just wasn't worth the price to me.  I also have A-C speakers cables (still in box), just haven't had a chance to compare them to my Audience Maestros speaker cables, which I'm very happy with).

[BradJudy]

If you don't want to use terminations, it looks like Anti-cables sells the speaker cable by the foot for a very good price ($1.25/ft - need two runs for each speaker).  No sense in spending extra money if you aren't going to use the spades. 

[gooberdude]

Anti-cable in bulk is a great deal...no need for terminations with this stuff.

if you're gonna buy some bulk cable and need jumpers, simply order an extra 1' of cable and make
bulk jumpers also...  its easiest with sp posts that have banana plug inputs and spade screw-downs.

remove 1/2 or so of the insulation on each end of the jumper.  insert each jumper end into the banana jack and carefully bend it 45 degrees or more...you'll notice how the bare end stays in the hole afterwards on its own.  take it out and bend the tip of bare end a bit more, so that when it goes back in it audibly and physically snaps in place...like an intenal spring.  this way there's a lot of conductive area and the ends are secure on the posts.      I came up with this after i busted a brand new set of eichmann cablepods with the a-c's...the thin plastic screw downs couldn't handle the weight/tension of the solid core ends.   the new plug ends stay put upside down underneath my speakers and there's no degradation in sound.

dielectric-less & solderless banana plugs for free...