Oh no, another pesky CABLE question.

[plastic penguin]

S'okay, for the next 3-4 months I won't have the time to gallivant around listening to different gear. To keep my finger on the hi-fi pulse (no pun intended) I'm looking at freshening up my speaker cables.

Currently have SilverScreen and I'm looking at buying blind from one of the auction sites. Which ones will make the biggest difference without being an overkill?

I've always sat on the fence when it comes to cables, solely because I've only heard budget offerings, generally £1.99 per mtr to £8.00. So would Chord Odyssey 2 be a worthwhile upgrade? Other suitable suggestions are very welcome.

Ta, PP.

 

[Anonymous]

My opinion, PP, is to save your money for the next component upgrade. What you have is perfectly up to the job.

 

[Gazzip]

I switched from QED Silver Anniversary XT to Chord Odyssey 2 and found there to be a marked step up in quality. It took a lot of the brightness out of the sound I was getting as well as bringing an improvement to the soundstage.

I remember the day well that I originally posted on this forum my findings re. the improvements that the cables had brought. It's astonishing the number of people on here who will aggressively attack anybody who believes that cables can make a diference without having ever tried anything more exotic than bell wire themselves.

 

[Anonymous]

I am going to go from QED Silver Anniversary to DNM solid core cable (the same as the Cyrus solid stuff). That's what the WHF team tested on the review of my kit so if its good enough for them...

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Hi PP, The Odyssey is very good. You could wait for my Tellurium Q Black to show up and hopefully I can rave over it and you could try the Blue cable. I think it's around £20pm.

I went from a QED cable to Chord Rumour and then Odyssey before ending up with Epic. The Odyssey gives a more solid, fuller sound than the QED.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

I am going to go from QED Silver Anniversary to DNM solid core cable (the same as the Cyrus solid stuff). That's what the WHF team tested on the review of my kit so if its good enough for them...

With your speakers, you are going to hear a real improvement!!

 

[Big Chris]

Other suitable suggestions are very welcome.

Don't overlook Atlas Hyper 2.0.

Natural, detailed, neutral. No harshness or booming... Just a fine cable.

RRP is £15 per metre, but I was patient and picked up a 3 metre pair, factory terminated with Atlas Z plugs (BFA friendly) for £50 on eBay.... Then did exactly the same thing with a second pair.

 

[Inter_Voice]

Previously I used Chord Odyssey with my Pulse II and they sound wonderful. I am now using Tucanna II and I still retain the Odyssey cable and they still match perfectly well.

If you prefer a little bit of warmer sound why not trial out Van Damm speaker cables. I have used VD before and they are very very close to Odyssey and only failed marginally in the very high frequencies and the sound from VD is a bit warmer. The price per meter of VD is much cheaper and you can search it in the Bay.

 

[plastic penguin]

My opinion, PP, is to save your money for the next component upgrade. What you have is perfectly up to the job.

Cheers, Iggle. Where do I start?

As it stands I'm perfectly happy with my set-up 'as is', given the money spent, and I don't want to upset the "apple cart" - Odysseys should have a common tonal balance with their other cables.

Yes I would benefit from better components. The PMC DB1is, heard several times, and the Totems are both cracking speakers. However, they don't do enough to justify spending that sort of money. The newer 22 series looks like a stonker, but can't afford at this stage.

I know Gerrard used Odyssey cables with his RS6s and Cambridge to good effect, and I would suggest the Leema is more like his Moon when it comes to SQ.

 

[the record spot]

I think you've answered your own question PP - "...I'm perfectly happy with my setup as it is...". And Igglebert's right. I'd suggest reading the likes of Roger Russell's site, or going to Blue Jeans Cable both of whom have good background info on what cables "do". I imagine that's not something you're aiming for though. You could have my Atlas Navigators though. (For a price!).

 

[plastic penguin]

I think you've answered your own question PP - "...I'm perfectly happy with my setup as it is...". And Igglebert's right. I'd suggest reading the likes of Roger Russell's site, or going to Blue Jeans Cable both of whom have good background info on what cables "do". I imagine that's not something you're aiming for though. You could have my Atlas Navigators though. (For a price!).

Just because I'm happy with my current gear doesn't mean it can't be improved upon. As I'm going to be up to my eye-balls over the next few months, I need something to drag away from surrealism.

I've worked out I only need 3 mtrs of the stuff, and someone on Fleebay is selling Odyssey for £15.95 per mtr.

 

[CnoEvil]

PP, as you are all too well aware, the views are so polarized on this, that the answer you will get, depends on who you ask.

My view is that you would need to go the likes of Atlas Hyper or TQ Blue to make a potential improvement, but only you will know if its worthwhile/economic.

If I had to guess, I suspect that with your "no nonsense" approach, you would feel the money better spent elsewhere.....but you never know for sure where Penguins are concerned.

 

[plastic penguin]

PP, as you are all too well aware, the views are so polarized on this, that the answer you will get, depends on who you ask.

My view is that you would need to go the likes of Atlas Hyper or TQ Blue to make a potential improvement, but only you will know if its worthwhile/economic.

If I had to guess, I suspect that with your "no nonsense" approach, you would feel the money better spent elsewhere.....but you never know for sure where Penguins are concerned.

Does "no nonsense" translate into honesty? :?

 

[CnoEvil]

Does "no nonsense" translate into honesty? :?

No,not really. :shifty:

What I mean really applies to subjectivity, and thus the value, that you personally, feel any improvement is worth in monetary terms.

 

[plastic penguin]

Does "no nonsense" translate into honesty? :?

No,not really. :shifty: What I mean really applies to subjectivity, and thus the value, that you personally, feel any improvement is worth in monetary terms.

In layman's terms, I'm a tolerable rogue in flippers? Hehehe...

BTW, Congrats on passing the 3k post mark and still have a whole skin...:cheer:

 

[CnoEvil]

BTW, Congrats on passing the 3k post mark and still have a whole skin...:cheer:

Thank you Sir......nearly ready to earn my "papers". :roll:

 

[Dave2860]

dont know how to ask a question so ill pop it on here,

question: how much difference is speaker cable going to make?

got cambridge audio sr10, bose 301 speakers and stands, but ive using old worn mapplins cheap speaker cable and it sounds pretty good to me, if i bought some proper speaker cable (not too expensive) would it make a noticeable difference to the sound?

thanks

 

[plastic penguin]

From your question you'll probably receive about ten different answers, so I'll tell you of my experiences with cables.

Yes, changing from very cheapo cables to more established brands you will get an uplift in sound. How much of an improvement will depend on you the type of cable you choose (copper, silver, very budget, more expensive), allied to your system's capability and of course... your interpretation.

Generally speaking the basic rule of thumb is to spend approx 10-15% of your system value. So if your set-up is around £1,000 you should be looking at spending around £100-£150 on all cables.

Chord cables are generally my favourites (SilverScreen speaker cables and Cobra interconnects).

Because I've always bought budget stuff, I'm now 'upping the ante' and plunging for a more expensive speaker cable, and hope it reaps the sonic rewards required.

But based on personal experience of budget wires, the differences are generally subtle in changing tonal character.

 

[the record spot]

£100 to £150 on cables for a £1000 system is madness. Who came up with that rule anyway?

My system's about £1500 worth. I went BACK from expensive cables to "budget" wires. Atlas Navigators? £220 a shot. Replaced by a 2m interconnect that cost me £7. Why? There was no major difference in sound quality that made any sense in me retaining the more expensive set. Subtle but not better. Likewise, I swapped out some Audioquest Type IV speaker cable and put in some 400+ strand replacements instead and which was (actually, is as I still use it) excellent.

I did this with two systems (my former and my current one) and on both occasions neither was the poorer for it.

Hifi is riddled with stuff like this and it's the poorer for it IMO. The 10-15% rule has been kicking around for years and it doesn't deliver in real terms; I've tried plenty of cables - cheap, expensive...I don't know how much you need to spend to really get something substantial out of a cable, but you could put the money towards better components or work out which music you like that has the best mastering available and spend the money on that.

By far and away the best upgrades I made to my sound was the change of speakers, the amp, some sources and speakers positioning. Then the music itself, the best masterings you can get (have a look at the Steve Hoffman forum; a great resource). After that, cables, just because you need to hook the stuff up in the first place.

 

[Paul.]

Why not look second hand? I bought three meters of Rumor 4 off of eBay for less than £20. As long as you buy unterminated there are some real bargains, and cut a couple of inches off of each end to freshen it up. The best way I found was to buy a single length and cut in half, then terminated myself with nakamichi plugs (also eBay). I think it makes a difference, but it cost me so little it doesn't matter if it doesn't!

 

[chebby]

My cables should have cost quite a bit (in percentage terms) but I got two QED HDMI cables (worth £70 RRP each two years ago) for £3.55 each in Tesco.

I got some decent QED speaker cables (2 x 2.5m soldered/terminated by my dealer) as a swap for 2 x 3.5m NACA5 speaker cables. (I would have got less selling the Naim cables on ebay after fees.)

I use a 1m optical cable that came free with my Beresford DAC a few years ago.

As for PP's 'guideline' figure...

Ten percent of £1000 only gets a few metres of Chord Silverscreen (factory terminated) and a single Chord Crimson interconnect* nowadays. So it's not such an outlandish figure and is on a par with the price of a decent pair of budget speaker stands for instance.

(Fifteen percent gets you another Chord Crimson interconnect for a second source.)

 

[chebby]

#

 

[plastic penguin]

£100 to £150 on cables for a £1000 system is madness. Who came up with that rule anyway?

My system's about £1500 worth. I went BACK from expensive cables to "budget" wires. Atlas Navigators? £220 a shot. Replaced by a 2m interconnect that cost me £7. Why? There was no major difference in sound quality that made any sense in me retaining the more expensive set. Subtle but not better. Likewise, I swapped out some Audioquest Type IV speaker cable and put in some 400+ strand replacements instead and which was (actually, is as I still use it) excellent.

I did this with two systems (my former and my current one) and on both occasions neither was the poorer for it.

Hifi is riddled with stuff like this and it's the poorer for it IMO. The 10-15% rule has been kicking around for years and it doesn't deliver in real terms; I've tried plenty of cables - cheap, expensive...I don't know how much you need to spend to really get something substantial out of a cable, but you could put the money towards better components or work out which music you like that has the best mastering available and spend the money on that.

By far and away the best upgrades I made to my sound was the change of speakers, the amp, some sources and speakers positioning. Then the music itself, the best masterings you can get (have a look at the Steve Hoffman forum; a great resource). After that, cables, just because you need to hook the stuff up in the first place.

Err, WHFI S&V...

 

[Anonymous]

A couple of people have recommended Atlas Hyper 2 and DNM solid core. I bought cables for the #2 hifi blind after reading reviews and settled for the DNM interconnect and Atlas Hyper Biwire (1.2 + 2 combination). I would have preferred to have tried them before I bought, but couldn't be bothered with the hassle, and was happy with the end result.

So I will +1 on both these recommendations.

 

[plastic penguin]

My cables should have cost quite a bit (in percentage terms) but I got two QED HDMI cables (worth £70 RRP each two years ago) for £3.55 each in Tesco.

I got some decent QED speaker cables (2 x 2.5m soldered/terminated by my dealer) as a swap for 2 x 3.5m NACA5 speaker cables. (I would have got less selling the Naim cables on ebay after fees.)

I use a 1m optical cable that came free with my Beresford DAC a few years ago.

As for PP's 'guideline' figure...

Ten percent of £1000 only gets a few metres of Chord Silverscreen (factory terminated) and a single Chord Crimson interconnect* nowadays. So it's not such an outlandish figure and is on a par with the price of a decent pair of budget speaker stands for instance.

(Fifteen percent gets you another Chord Crimson interconnect for a second source.)

Even going by the original retail prices of my amp, CDP and speakers (£2,400), I've only spent with the Merlin Chopins and SilverScreen £109.