[mark funk]

Hi, I use Belden 5T00UP 10AWG it is $0.57 per foot, I got it at  bluejeanscable.com  It works well for me

[hmen]

Speaking of coat hangers, has anyone actually tried unwinding old coat hangers and trying it as speaker wire?  I am talking about the old 1940s coat hangers, not the modern plastic kinds.  Might do wonders for some systems.

Frank Van Alstine

I'm sure I'm not the only one here who remembers when coat hangers were the standard TV antenna.

[WEEZ]

Yeah...and sometimes with tin foil wrapped around the ends for fine tuning...

[DSK]

OMG these threads are sooooooo funny!  Buy 16 gauge zip cord and spend the rest of the money on MUSIC.......duhhhhhhhh. I come here to get a really good laugh at people spending mega bucks on cables and talking about how great they sound. Wow........how many of you have been buying $100,000 houses for $1,000,000 latetly too? I'm sorry but this place cracks me up.

Zip cord ... yes, that's where we all started.

We're not saying you need to spend 'mega bucks' (most of the suggestions have been under $200 which is a small per centage of the cost of some of the systems here) or that improvements are huge. But many cables provide a small but worthwhile improvement for relatively low cost.

Still, some people are closed minded and will never experience the improvement. I hope they enjoy mediocrity.

[tvyankee]

hey

i don't know if this means anything to anyone but these guy's are having a sale on cables.

http://www.bestdealcables.com/default.aspx

[RPM123]

Dittto on the Straley  cables! 

[BubbleChamber]

Don't think coat hangers are pure copper. Besides, they are too stiff and not insolated. Did anyone try to use Romex electrical wires? I've been thinking about giving it a try. They look every bit like the Anti-cables. The only problem is the cheap plastic insolation. I am saving up my worn out cotton underwears, shred them up in to teflon tape size strips to wrap around the Romex wire. 

Speaking of coat hangers, has anyone actually tried unwinding old coat hangers and trying it as speaker wire?  I am talking about the old 1940s coat hangers, not the modern plastic kinds.  Might do wonders for some systems.

Frank Van Alstine

I'm sure I'm not the only one here who remembers when coat hangers were the standard TV antenna.

[Fiji5555]

Speaking of coat hangers, has anyone actually tried unwinding old coat hangers and trying it as speaker wire?  I am talking about the old 1940s coat hangers, not the modern plastic kinds.  Might do wonders for some systems.

Frank Van Alstine

You better watch out giving your opinion there Frank or you might get a "warning" from the moderators here. No wait you're an established figure here so that's okay 

[Fiji5555]

OMG these threads are sooooooo funny!  Buy 16 gauge zip cord and spend the rest of the money on MUSIC.......duhhhhhhhh. I come here to get a really good laugh at people spending mega bucks on cables and talking about how great they sound. Wow........how many of you have been buying $100,000 houses for $1,000,000 latetly too? I'm sorry but this place cracks me up.

Zip cord ... yes, that's where we all started.

We're not saying you need to spend 'mega bucks' (most of the suggestions have been under $200 which is a small per centage of the cost of some of the systems here) or that improvements are huge. But many cables provide a small but worthwhile improvement for relatively low cost.

Still, some people are closed minded and will never experience the improvement. I hope they enjoy mediocrity.

Why thank you very much, my mediocrity is souding very nicely by the way  aa

[TheChairGuy]

Fiji, if you take my comments in jest...then you misunderstand how your actions are wrong.  Do stay off of this topic and please steer clear of further such controversy in the future.  The members may choose to spend their money as they like on their hobby and may and should have a place to speak enthusiastically about their intended cable purchases without rancor from you or anyone else...and they do not need to hear your holier-than-thou attitude further on the subject 

We have reviewed your 20 posts on AC thus far and it's been suggested by Council members that you act as more troll than anything else.  Your previous posts seem to indicate that AC is a laughingly amateur place - please keep away and afar if you find such a place beneath you to visit again .

As for Frank/AVA, he is an amazingly complex sort...part gadfly and part solid, midwest engineering and no nonsense.  Most of his posts are informative while often being snarky....this one was just utterly horse-crap and worthless spoofing as far as I can tell.

So, I'm banishing it as it serves no purpose in this topic that I can see. 

John / Moderator

[beachbum]

Ive tried anti cables, ps audio extream, plan old six gage stranded home depot wire, and i have settled for jps superconductor two, which has been upgraded to three, its a little expensive but well worth it, it may seem hard to believe, but i have found out that there is differences in wire, as much as we would like to believe that using 16 gage lamp cord is as good as hi quality cables its just not the facts, if you get a chance do a shoot out with different cables, let your ears chose,  JMO

[Tweaker]

I've been using JPS Labs Ultraconducter cables which is cheaper than the Superconductor even though "ultra" sounds like it should be better than "super". Anyway, works well in my system and can be purchased here:
 http://jpsdirect.com/

[chgolatin2]

I have been using DH Labs Q10 and Revelation IC's, great stuff and it works great.  Dont know if the brand name that I mention would fit your budget.  I spent over $350 for biwire and $250 for the IC's if you have a decent system get decent wires, if you have a low end system get low end cables.  Doesnt make any sense to overspend on cables, Ic, Pc's etc if your components are cheap.  Just my 2cts.  Good luck and keep us posted.  Good luck!

Btw, who the hell is this Fiji dude and what is his problem?    Oh well, kids will be kids 

[lonewolfny42]

beachbum :

...it may seem hard to believe, but i have found out that there is differences in wire, as much as we would like to believe that using 16 gage lamp cord is as good as hi quality cables its just not the facts, if you get a chance do a shoot out with different cables, let your ears chose,  JMO

Here's a man thats got it right....

[kallitype]

I second (third??) the Speltz anti-cable.  If you can live with the stiffness, they are transparent, rich, and high resolution cables that are easy on the pocketbook.  No comparison with stranded cables, they replced my expensive Tara LAbs Space&Time, which replaced Kimber 8TC and Monster wire, which replaced zip cord, a big jump in musicality with every change.  I am satisfied now and will stick with the Anti-cables.  Anybody tried the Anti-IC's???

[Turnandcough]

I tried the Speltz anti cables and IC's and they sounded too lean in my system.

 Frank

Same here. I kept the ICs for my Squeezebox but went back to my "garden hose" Cardas speaker wires. A hint less detail but warmer and with better dynamics.

[Wayner]

14 guage speaker wire from Monster cable (S14). Nice cable with nice polarity indicating insulators.

W

[TheChairGuy]

There is difference in wires - definitely.

I have tube amps now.  Thinking nothing of it, I strapped a 6' pair of Kimber 4TC to them when I got them and hooked them up to the speakers.  They sounded just fine with a number of (SS) amps I've had in the past 4-5 years.

Recently I read capacitance is a naughty thing for tube amps...the less the better for them.  The Kimbers are among the highest capacitance in the biz per foot...even tho I'm using 6' sections, it might be a lot more capacitance than my tube amps are happy with. Hmmm, says I, maybe it's time for a cable swap 

So, I swapped out some 16ga lamp cord with it this weekend. Kabloowey!! - a naturalness to the music kinda' bloomed (I knew it in a few notes only) and the slight trace of transformer hum - evident all the while with the Kimbers in place if you stood close - was now gone.  The Kimbers were creating some low grade oscillation to my amps as it turned out.

So, in this case, 16ga lamp cord was better than a well-respected wire from Kimber.  Most of you with solid state output amps won't likely ever notice the difference...but it was clear as day to me with my tube amps.

Tho it's overall preferred - things aren't quite as crystal clear as before with the Kimbers in place.  There may well be reason for highly pure copper over the standard garbage in the lamp cord...it sounds better all other things being equal.

This 'synergy' term is really overused a bit.  It's pretty clear to me it's one part subjective sound and one part electrical reality that makes a wire or component work in your listening area.  Unfortunately, except for the electrical reality, the subjective part requires trail and error to find something that is pleasant to your specific ears.

That takes years sometimes.  That's why we all band here at at AC and grouse about it 

[boead]

I'm looking for a pair of 3 meter bi-wire speaker cables to Connect my Atma-Sphere M60's to my VMPS RM40's. I was using cables from bettercables.com which I thought were good but not great so I decided to try some Canare Cables from bluejean cables. I'm not happy at all with the Canare cables. After about 100 hours I find them to be very constricted on the upper octaves and they show very poor transient response. I would like to spend about less than $500. Does anybody have any suggestions? Thanks. 

I agree, I didn’t' like the Canare either and I don’t like Belden or XLO or Kimber either.

I really, really like Synergistic Research. The Alpha Quads are great and you don’t need the active box, its a tiny improvement. I'd look on Audiogon for almost anything from them.
My all-time favorite are MIT S2's or S3's but they are expensive.


I also exhausted myself on CAT5 of varying braids which are a thin sounding but not bad. The Home Depot outdoor extension cable, RadioShack stuff and other heavy copper insulated gauge wire are mostly fat and slurred, the absolute worst! You can so much better with almost anything else including wire coat hangers.

I also didn’t like anything from ZuCable.

[boead]

These are SO GOOD!
http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?cablspkr&1181397829