Different cable front and rear?

[giggsy1977]

Hello people.

Finally got my Quad L-ites in Rosewood after Hifi Suppliers (same as Weymouth Hifi) sent me a silver set along with a Rosewood

sub! They delivered proper speakers and took others back straight away though so well impressed with the service they provided.

Anyway, I am going to bi-wire the front 3 speakers and single wire the rears. I was going to use QED Silver Anniversary XT

for the front 3 speakers and QED micro for the rears to maintain tonal consistency. I understand this would be a touch lean

however and am now looking at the Chord Carnival Silver at £6.00 per metre as this offers a fuller sound.

Don't fancy shelling out for 25 metres of this though and then banana plugs on top, so if I did use this for the front 3, what

would people recommend I use for the rears? Can i get away with mixing
Chord cable at front and QED at rear, or should I bite the bullet and
put chord all round? (it is quite chuncky however).

Room has carpet but is fairly empty at the mo. Amp is still to be purchased. Thinking Denon 1909 or good deal on Onkyo 875.

Thanks people

 

[Anonymous]

To be honest even in these days of PCM, DTS MA, etc rear channels, I think you'd be hard pressed to hear a tonal difference front to rear.

Think of it this way, most peoples rear speakers are smaller than the fronts, even though they may have the same drive units. A smaller cabinet size must surely affect the sound more than cable type??
Is your centre speaker long and flat like most? I bet that makes a difference too but they can still sound great as a package.

I've got a Denon 3808 with B&W FPM 4,5 and small 2's. They all gel nicely, silver anniversary for fronts and micro for the rear.

Even if all your speakers are the same size I doubt you'll hear a difference. I'd save your cash.

R

 

[giggsy1977]

I'm torn as I'm hoping to be keeping the speakers for the next 3 or 4 years before upgrading.

I suppose I could always go cheaper cable now and upgrade when I have the cash available.

Speakers are Quad L-ites (all same size except centre speaker has two mid/bass drivers).

Just worried about the sound being a bit lean - want it nice and chunky!

 

[Anonymous]

I originally had my entire system wired with QED Silver Micro and it sounded good. I then had the chance to inexpensively replace the front cables with Chord Odyssey2 which resulted in a more expansive and detailed sound. However I have never felt the need to upgrade the rear cables. There are plenty of other things out there which for less money would probably make more difference.

 

[giggsy1977]

I appreciate that the rears don't need as much money spending on them as the front and centre, but am curious as whether or not mixing Chord Carnival and QED micro would result in an unbalanced sound (front and centre rich and full, rears a bit on the thin side). I don't want to have to bi-wire the fronts with Chord and single wire the rears with Chord if I don't have to! too much money!

do want the best sound possible within a reasonable budget though. At moment I need approx 25 - 30 metres of cable. That would be over £150 without connects fitted! I think from looking at your psot above I would be tempted to try the Chord at the front and the QED micro at the back as you have done auntybobbo (I assume the sound doesn't come across as unbalanced as the rears don't do as muc has the front and centre?!)

 

[Anonymous]

The sound seems balanced to me! I am using an Onkyo 905, M&K K5/K4 system. The sound balance has been set using the auto set-up on the amp. The best example of the sound being balanced is the scene in Gladiator when the arrows are flying from rear to front you hear them whoosh by and over you in a convincing way. Prior to using the Onkyo I had a Sony 1200 something AVR and although the sound effects were not as striking there was a coherency to the surround sound. As I said before, I have not felt the desire to upgrade the rear cables. (save your money and spend it on a set of Stillpoints for your DVD player, even my wife noticed the difference (although there was the possibility that she was taking the ....)

 

[professorhat]

I'm with other people here. Whilst I fully know that different speaker cable can affect the sound coming out of your speakers, I think this is more an issue with subtle nuances in music, rather than any tonal balance effects from rear surrounds. The "swoosh" of an arrow going from behind you to in front of you could possibly sound different if you use a different cable to your rears, but the point is, when listening to music, your attention is soley concentrated on these nuances, whereas watching Gladiator, (hopefully) most of your attention is focused on the action on the screen. The sound coming to your ears emphasises and reinforces that action and puts you further into the film, but I don't think there's enough concentration on that sound coming from the rears going on to really tell the difference between different types of speaker cable...
Just my opinion - I also have QED Micro running to the rears and Silver Anniversary XT to the front three speakers and I know this works well for me.

 

[Sorreltiger]

I'm using Silver Anniversary XT for my fronts (Quad 12L2s) and Micro for the surrounds and rear (Quad L-ites). ÿEverything sounds great as far as I'm concerned. ÿI'd take a lot of convincing to replace a set of 5 star cables just in case there might be a slight improvement.

 

[giggsy1977]

I think I'm crediting my ears with too much sensitivity or the rears with providing more effects than first thought!

It is chunky cable the Chord Carnival Silver Screen, but reading the Awards issue this morning I see it won - wish it hadn't!

Think I will use chord for the front 3 speakers and qed micro for the rears. Can't wait to get it hooked up! Just need an amp now....

Thanks for responses guys - really appreciate the help. Keep it up!

 

[Sorreltiger]

If you want to give your surrounds a real work-out, get yourself a DVD Audio disk. ÿThe special edition of The Beatles 'Love' album, remixed by George Martin and his son for Cirque de Soleil last year, sounds astonishing. ÿThe music is all around you and some of the effects are breathtaking. ÿI would also recommend the old Genesis albums in DVD-A /SACD (but that's my era and may not be your thing!)

 

[Gerrardasnails]

giggsy1977:I appreciate that the rears don't need as much money spending on them as the front and centre, but am curious as whether or not mixing Chord Carnival and QED micro would result in an unbalanced sound (front and centre rich and full, rears a bit on the thin side). I don't want to have to bi-wire the fronts with Chord and single wire the rears with Chord if I don't have to! too much money!

do want the best sound possible within a reasonable budget though. At moment I need approx 25 - 30 metres of cable. That would be over £150 without connects fitted! I think from looking at your psot above I would be tempted to try the Chord at the front and the QED micro at the back as you have done auntybobbo (I assume the sound doesn't come across as unbalanced as the rears don't do as muc has the front and centre?!)

If you use your front two for music then fine, if not, don't bother bi-wiring them for home cinema. I don't think you can beat Chord cable. I have Odyssey 4 for my front left and right (stereo speakers) and Rumour 2 for the centre. My rears are connected with out of the box micro cable (from an old Jamo speaker package). I also agree that mixing cables for home cinema is not an issue. I also believe that the speakers you have, spending more than £5 per metre on cable is a waste also. I would get the QED micro for all the speakers but if you are going to listen to music with the front left and rights, go with Chord Carnival for just those two.

 

[giggsy1977]

Due to the length of cable required for the rear speakers (getting on fo 18m) using micro would be more cost effective. Question is do I use QED Micro Speaker Cable (approx £1.50 per metre) or QED Silver Micro Speaker Cable (approx £3.00 per metre)? Am I likely to hear much difference (bit of a perfectionist and always wonder what if I'd spent more - very bad!) Comes a time when I need to bite the bullet and stop faffing!

 

[Gerrardasnails]

giggsy1977:Due to the length of cable required for the rear speakers (getting on fo 18m) using micro would be more cost effective. Question is do I use QED Micro Speaker Cable (approx £1.50 per metre) or QED Silver Micro Speaker Cable (approx £3.00 per metre)? Am I likely to hear much difference (bit of a perfectionist and always wonder what if I'd spent more - very bad!) Comes a time when I need to bite the bullet and stop faffing!

Seriously, go with the cheaper one, you won't notice any difference.