Home cinema cable conundrum

[Liam19]

My last upgrades were a couple of Clearer Audio Copper-line Alpha mains cables, which have done a nice job of polishing up my system's video and audio performance that extra little bit.

Now I'm contemplating the cables on my Onkyo all-in-one system - namely the speaker cables and subwoofer cable, all of which were bundled with the package and are very much on the thin and flimsy side. I was considering the QED Performance subwoofer cable (£28 at Amazon), and to be honest the array of QED speaker cables available baffles me!

So just a couple of questions:

1.) Do you think my admittedly modest surround system would benefit from said upgrades?

2.) Which budget speaker cable (ideally no more than £3-4 a metre, £5 at a push) do you think would suit best?

Cheers in advance,

Liam.

 

[Anonymous]

Run for the air raid shelters quick

 

[professorhat]

First, you need to be sure the connections for the speaker wire on both the amp and the speaker don't use some kind of proprietary connection - quite a few of the the all in one systems do. If you're okay on that, I think an upgrade could well offer an improvement. Personally I've longtime been a fan of the QED Silver Anniversary XT cable which can be found for about £4/m though WHF have for a while now recommended Chord's Carnival Silver Screen over it (which I haven't tried for myself).

For the sub, either the QED Performance or Chord Crimson are good budget cables in my opinion.

 

[Liam19]

professorhat:

First, you need to be sure the connections for the speaker wire on both the amp and the speaker don't use some kind of proprietary connection - quite a few of the the all in one systems do. If you're okay on that, I think an upgrade could well offer an improvement. Personally I've longtime been a fan of the QED Silver Anniversary XT cable which can be found for about £4/m though WHF have for a while now recommended Chord's Carnival Silver Screen over it (which I haven't tried for myself).

For the sub, either the QED Performance or Chord Crimson are good budget cables in my opinion.

The amp in my system is essentially the same as the Onkyo 506, so it just has the regular speaker connections I assume most other receivers have.

Thanks prof, I'll have a look at those speaker cables and probably order the sub cable now!

 

[Liam19]

Having had a good look on the interweb, I'm leaning towards QED Silver Micro cable for the the fronts, and cheaper QED Micro cable for the rears. This seems like an affordable combination - do you think it will suffice? Surely has to be better than my bog-standard bundled cable?

EDIT - Now thinking Chord Carnival SilverScreen for the fronts, and possibly Carnival Classic for the rears. Sorry, I'm rambling on a bit here!

 

[Liam19]

EDIT AGAIN! Ordered last night. Chord Crimson sub cable, £21 off eBay . Chord Carnival SilverScreen for the front three, 2m at just over £5 per metre . And basic QED Micro for the rears, 12m at just £1.90 a metre! All in all, seems like a (fingers crossed) decent upgrade for what really wasn't much cash (even by my standards!)

Cheers again for your input prof!

 

[professorhat]

No problem, let us know how you get on!

 

[Liam19]

All cables arrived early this afternoon.

I was taken aback at the sheer thickness of the Carnival SilverScreen, and soon realised I'd been optimistic in ordering just 2m to serve the three fronts (just ordered another 1m, should do it). So only the front left and centre speakers have been upgraded with it so far, with the front right still on its old cable.

I think this may have been a blessing in disguise, however - just spent a quick 30 minutes testing a few scenes from both DVD and Blu-ray, and the difference between the 2 upgraded speakers and the untouched one is really pretty staggering already. The front right sounds so dull and lifeless compared to the other two now. The sound is noticeably clearer, louder and punchier, albeit not too bright-sounding either (a fear I had). And hopefully the sound will continue to get smoother as the cables burn-in too

.

Same can be said for the rears, newly fitted with QED Micro (which was sooooo much easier to cut than the Carnival, which was pretty hellish!). All of a sudden the soundstage feels wider and livelier, and the rears make themselves heard a lot more but without becoming intrusive.

Combined with the new Crimson sub cable, the whole system seems to have been given a jolt, and the difference (even after just 30 minutes) has left me delighted! Will finish off the upgrade when the rest of the Carnival arrives tomorrow, and then roll on the Harry Potter and Inglourious Basterds Blu-rays on Monday!

 

[professorhat]

Excellent stuff - always good to see when my advice actually pays off!

 

[clearer_audio]

Liam19:
My last upgrades were a couple of Clearer Audio Copper-line Alpha mains cables, which have done a nice job of polishing up my system's video and audio performance that extra little bit

Really pleased you have been happy with the cables Liam.

Best regards,
Darren