I have been using Chord Rumour speaker cable for about 3 years now and been very happy with it along with my Rega R3's, however i decided to visit Maplin today to buy some "cheap" speaker cable for my 2nd system. I came away with a few metres of £2.99 Oyygen Free Copper cable. Out of curiosity i decided to try it with my Cyrus/Arcam/Rega setup and to my surprise after about 10 mins, i realised that i prefered the sound of the "cheap stuff" compared to my Rumour which was incidently £10 per metre. Now i'm not saying it is "better" but just that i prefer the sound, a little less harsh perhaps but not lacking any of the detail. I know there have been various debates about the merits of expensive cabling but i must admit i have been very, very surprised. I think the cable is staying for the moment.
Maplin £2.99 speaker cable Vs Chord Rumour
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chiefbrody: i prefer the sound, a little less harsh perhaps but not lacking any of the detail.
Perhaps you intrinsically prefer a less forward or less trebly sound?
Perhaps you intrinsically prefer a less forward or less trebly sound?
Not the result you would expect, but it does show at least in chiefbrodys case that not all cables sound the same....I changed my speaker cable to some chord carnival silver from QED silver bi wire and my interconnect from a QED silver spiral to Van de hul The Name and the differnce was quite prononced(better)....In fact by far the biggest differnce ive heard cable make in my system
I go on a few hifi forums and one guy SWORE by a lot of Maplins stuff and to his mind you cant physically get better speaker cable than maplins due to the geometry, the copper used and the impedance factor
Id have to disagree and say you CAN get better, but his point is its EXTREMELY fine for the price
Id have to disagree and say you CAN get better, but his point is its EXTREMELY fine for the price
Absolutely!! My mate thinks my Cyrus system is too bright but my ears like it so and I find his system too laid back (relative to mine even though we have similar boxes) as he uses Cyrus's own interconnects and speaker cables!! A small change can make a big difference.
garethwd:Not the result you would expect, but it does show at least in chiefbrodys case that not all cables sound the same....I changed my speaker cable to some chord carnival silver from QED silver bi wire and my interconnect from a QED silver spiral to Van de hul The Name and the differnce was quite prononced(better)....In fact by far the biggest differnce ive heard cable make in my system
I went from silver spiral to vdh hybrid and the difference was staggering to my ears. (And made me question why people rated the QED so much)
I still use the vdh on my treble but have some custom made cables for the bass now
I went from silver spiral to vdh hybrid and the difference was staggering to my ears. (And made me question why people rated the QED so much)
I still use the vdh on my treble but have some custom made cables for the bass now
chebby
Well-known member
Worth me having a go I suppose. I only use Chord Carnival Silver (£5.50 a metre I seem to remember) but I have never tried anything else with the R3's. It was all the dealer had on the day and I got away with £35 for a 2 metre terminated pair. (The chap at the shop went out the back and soldered all the bananas on for me while I went over the road and had an all-day breakfast and read a hifi mag
)
I have read since - here and there - that pure copper cables can sound better than the silver plated stuff.
(I get confused between my Chord Carnival Silver and the more recent Chord Carnvival Silverscreen. Mine are silver plated copper strands but are the current 'Silverscreens' silver-plated or just plain copper inside? If only copper, then why call it Silverscreen! Aaaargh!)
If someone can definitvely tell me if the most recent Chord Carnival Silverscreen cable is not silver plated copper - but just copper - then I may have a punt on them and see if there is a difference through my R3's.
I have read since - here and there - that pure copper cables can sound better than the silver plated stuff.
(I get confused between my Chord Carnival Silver and the more recent Chord Carnvival Silverscreen. Mine are silver plated copper strands but are the current 'Silverscreens' silver-plated or just plain copper inside? If only copper, then why call it Silverscreen! Aaaargh!)
If someone can definitvely tell me if the most recent Chord Carnival Silverscreen cable is not silver plated copper - but just copper - then I may have a punt on them and see if there is a difference through my R3's.
I would, for the sake of a few quid. I must add though i also bought a set of Maplins' Profigold Spade Connectors instead of the Banana plugs, to fit on my R3's. £9.99 but i prefer them to Banana plugs. Not sure there is any difference in sound though, don't think my ears could tell anyway.
Messiah
Well-known member
chebby
Well-known member
Thanks. I forgot WHF had reviewed them.
I may order a 1.5metre terminated pair for £40. (Gives me the excuse to reduce the overall amount of cable by another metre which is always nice.)
I may order a 1.5metre terminated pair for £40. (Gives me the excuse to reduce the overall amount of cable by another metre which is always nice.)
Messiah
Well-known member
Messiah:Yeah, thought it was bit unlike you to not to have checked first.
Aye, he must be drunk (Oh, that's me, sorry)
Aye, he must be drunk (Oh, that's me, sorry)
This may be exactly what I'm looking for. I own a set of B&W 685's driven by a Rotel RA-04.Occasionally, I find the sound can be slightly too bright at the top end, which I guess is down to the aluminium tweaters. It doesn't really bother me, but I always wanted to tweak it a little.
Looking on the Maplin site here: http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=51
there seems to be two varients of the cable you describe. I assume the one you have tried is the S12?
Looking on the Maplin site here: http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=51
there seems to be two varients of the cable you describe. I assume the one you have tried is the S12?
8009514
Well-known member
chiefbrody:I would, for the sake of a few quid. I must add though i also bought a set of Maplins' Profigold Spade Connectors instead of the Banana plugs, to fit on my R3's. £9.99 but i prefer them to Banana plugs. Not sure there is any difference in sound though, don't think my ears could tell anyway.
I too have bought this Maplins speaker cable. (Currently working out how to thread it behind the coving to the furthest away wall mounted speaker). I couldn't really justify to myself spending £6 a metre on cable (need 10 metres in total) for a system which only cost £320 to begin with, DM37 and BR1s.
My question relates to the Profigold Spade Connectors. I'll be putting these on at the equipment end, not a lot of room behind the 37 and bananas stick out a bit. Have you used the screws to secure the cable to the spade or solder? It's quite a substantial chunk of metal and I reckon would require some considerable heating with an iron to get the solder to flow. How did you do it?
I too have bought this Maplins speaker cable. (Currently working out how to thread it behind the coving to the furthest away wall mounted speaker). I couldn't really justify to myself spending £6 a metre on cable (need 10 metres in total) for a system which only cost £320 to begin with, DM37 and BR1s.
My question relates to the Profigold Spade Connectors. I'll be putting these on at the equipment end, not a lot of room behind the 37 and bananas stick out a bit. Have you used the screws to secure the cable to the spade or solder? It's quite a substantial chunk of metal and I reckon would require some considerable heating with an iron to get the solder to flow. How did you do it?
8009514
Well-known member
chiefbrody:I used the screws to secure the Spade to the outer shield. Keeps it nice and tight.
OK, thanks for that. I'm still considering a solder job but may need a bigger bit for my iron.
OK, thanks for that. I'm still considering a solder job but may need a bigger bit for my iron.
Is the £2.99/metre Maplin cable the same stuff as "profigold PGC7254 bass relex" speaker cable which can be had for £1.99 elsewhere?
chiefbrody:I believe it is this one:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=97993
Ah, cheers for that.
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=97993
Ah, cheers for that.
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