Best speaker wire for my setup and music?

[admin_exported]

Hi all,

haven't been on here for a long time but have now got my amp (Quad 405 mk2 with Quad 34 preamp) and am after some decent speaker wire!

What I have at the moment is 8 core copper wire (not specifically speaker wire I don't think) and I am finding that whilst slower paced music sounds great - something like supertramp for example - If I play some fast paced tunes like a bit of muse, it sounds as though it can't keep up, sort of muffled.

I'm pretty sure its not anything else in my setup (Itunes AIFF - Xitel DAC - Quad 34 - Quad 405 mk2 - Wharfedale Diamond 9.1

I had in mind something like chord silverscreen or QED silver anniversary xt, any suggestions?

 

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Quad and Wharfdale are a particulary warm combination hence the "muffled" sound you are hearing. A silver coated cable such as QED anniversary XT should brighten up the sound slightly, however I doubt the pace of your music will improve much.

Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the advice!

 

[Anonymous]

I went with the QED and balaanced out the lengths (i did have 6m and 1m!!) and it sounds noticeably better!

thanks again!

 

[Anonymous]

Oli Woods:

If I play some fast paced tunes like a bit of muse, it sounds as though it can't keep up, sort of muffled.

The Resistance album from Muse uses a lot of distortion/compression on the vocals along with some heavy dynamic limiting and clipping applied during mixing/mastering. So it has built in distortion and muffledness. It is not really a good test of quality in a music system.

 

[Anonymous]

How about origin of symmetry, that's what I was talking about?

wasn't just that though, most stuff by streetlight manifesto and rancid sounded naff that now sounds great!

cost almost double what I expected, though!