Speaker Cable advice please

Hawkwind16

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Hi

My current main system is number of sources into a slightly vintage Marantz PM 8200 Amp - QED Silver anniversary cables - Monitor Audio Silver standmounts.

The sound is very good but its a little bit lean, bright and thin. I have read that silver cables tend to bring this to a system so i'm looking to upgrade the cables to give a meatier sound, better midrange, good detail.

Any suggestions ? Copper cables ? I think I'm looking in the £15-£40 per metre range, and will look at used on ebay.

Thanks
 

insider9

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How much is "a little bit lean, bright and thin"? Have you tried DSP/EQ? Have you spent enough time trying different positioning of speakers... toe-in, tilt, distance to walls/ listening position?
 

calpark46

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I recently changed to Van Damme UP LC-OFC 4mm and have no regrets. Lots of copper and, although I also changed the position of my speakers in the room, my initial impression was that the sound was warmer.
 

drummerman

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Rather than worrying about the wire material I would suggest using very thin gauge wiring. .3 or .5mm for a 5 meter run. That way you are reducing damping factor ie. A more full if less controlled sound.

Admittedly the opposite of what many try to achieve but you may like the result and it won't be too expensive.

The original DNM speaker cable was thin but nothing much over half a mm or so will likely reduce damping factor on typical short domestic runs into average loads.

A valve buffer stage may be an other solution.
 

insider9

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Hawkwind16 said:
Thanks, but I think i'd lose the quality and detail that i'm trying to achieve. What about more mid / high end stuff that i can look for on ebay?
How many meters do you need? And how much are you considering to spend?

Was I to buy cables now I can only see one that I would be ordering EWA LS25. Ooops sorry just saw max £40 per meter.
 

Hawkwind16

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Al ears said:
Hawkwind16 said:
Hi

My current main system is number of sources into a slightly vintage Marantz PM 8200 Amp - QED Silver anniversary cables - Monitor Audio Silver standmounts.

The sound is very good but its a little bit lean, bright and thin. I have read that silver cables tend to bring this to a system so i'm looking to upgrade the cables to give a meatier sound, better midrange, good detail.

Any suggestions ? Copper cables ? I think I'm looking in the £15-£40 per metre range, and will look at used on ebay.

Thanks

Personally I don't think what you're lacking is down to speaker cables. But that's just my opinion.

Do you have any mates that might lend you some different ones just to find out?

For your information your current speaker cables don't have any silver in them.....

Whaaaat - no silver in silver anniversary ? hmmm

I suppose I'm experimenting, using spare cash, and then selling anything surplus on fleabay.

What other hi fi road do you recommend ?
 
Hawkwind16 said:
Hi

My current main system is number of sources into a slightly vintage Marantz PM 8200 Amp - QED Silver anniversary cables - Monitor Audio Silver standmounts.

The sound is very good but its a little bit lean, bright and thin. I have read that silver cables tend to bring this to a system so i'm looking to upgrade the cables to give a meatier sound, better midrange, good detail.

Any suggestions ? Copper cables ? I think I'm looking in the £15-£40 per metre range, and will look at used on ebay.

Thanks

Personally I don't think what you're lacking is down to speaker cables. But that's just my opinion.

Do you have any mates that might lend you some different ones just to find out?
 

Hawkwind16

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May 22, 2016
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insider9 said:
Hawkwind16 said:
Thanks, but I think i'd lose the quality and detail that i'm trying to achieve. What about more mid / high end stuff that i can look for on ebay?
How many meters do you need? And how much are you considering to spend?

Was I to buy cables now I can only see one that I would be ordering EWA LS25. Ooops sorry just saw max £40 per meter.

Sorry a fuller response

2 x 3m runs

Around £15 - £40 psm (as per my original post)

Thanks
 

insider9

Well-known member
Al ears said:
Hawkwind16 said:
Hi

My current main system is number of sources into a slightly vintage Marantz PM 8200 Amp - QED Silver anniversary cables - Monitor Audio Silver standmounts.

The sound is very good but its a little bit lean, bright and thin. I have read that silver cables tend to bring this to a system so i'm looking to upgrade the cables to give a meatier sound, better midrange, good detail. 

Any suggestions ? Copper cables ? I think I'm looking in the £15-£40 per metre range, and will look at used on ebay. 

Thanks

Personally I don't think what you're lacking is down to speaker cables. But that's just my opinion.

Do you have any mates that might lend you some different ones just to find out?
Or a dealer that would do home demo. Or simply order online from somewhere that does no hassle returns.
 

abacus

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If you believe fancy designed cables make a difference (No one has yet provided any verifiable evidence) then as I always say, forget it and get some from a pro music store, (That way you will get what is used in pro movie & recording studios) and avoid anything made by Hi-Fi cable manufactures, as they just stick a fancy name on a cable, add some gobbledegook (To confuse those without any electrical knowledge) and charge a fortune for it. (If you are spending over £5 a metre make sure you get it on a buy or return basis, that way when you don’t find any difference you can get your money back)

Bill
 

gasolin

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I use supra classic 6.0 and have never found a better cable for a reasonable price

Have never the last 10 years tried speaker cable as expensive as 10-15£,im fine with speaker cables less than 8-9£ or 9-10€ pr meter
 

CnoEvil

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My advice is go to a dealer and borrow ones at various prices - You might look at Telurium Q and Atlas

eg. https://telluriumq.com/ultra-blue-speaker-cable/

https://www.futureshop.co.uk/atlas-hyper-2-0-speaker-cable

Linn's higher spec cable is the K200...but the K20 is very good (used to be Naim's NAC A4).
 
D

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Tbh before spending money I would first move the speakers around. If they’re lean and thin move them back a little and give them just enough toe in to make the centre image stable. Speaker cable really won’t make much difference other than small tuning differences. It could be just a trait of those particular speakers. Maybe look into a small musical subwoofer, a Rel q150 can be had for roughly the same as 2 runs of your max budget. And would help warm up the sound and certainly get rid of any thinness.
 
Hi Hawkwind16

I’ll recommend that you should also consider basic 500 strand speaker cables and fwiw earlier on today we were using these cables with Monitor Audio’s Silver 500’s and ATI’s 542NC power amp.

They’re simple, effective and you can also buy them from most local electrical stores for not much money.

All the best

Rick @ Musicraft
 
Linn k20 as already suggested is a good honest cable that won't cost the earth and delivers the goods.......a cable will only fine tune a system..it won't get rid of any brightness or dull sound..(Unless it's a naim system).that my friend is in the hardware and would need looking at along with either the room,it's acoustics and speaker/listening position.....lots of variables are going to come into play when you ain't happy with your sound.
 

Gazzip

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As somebody who has been a long way down this path, Chord Signature & Sarum; Nordost Frey 2; Atlas Mavros; Tellerium Q to name a few, I would advise against treading the same road. Most of the cables I have had changed the sound in one way or another, but the results were quite unpredictable and a subsequent change in electronics would invariably throw the whole system out of kilter.

So I got rid of the lot a couple of years ago and invested in some heavy gauge, £6/M Van Damme pro-audio cables as a reference set around which I can build my system. I have not looked back. If I wanted to change the sound of my system now it would always be the electronics or loudspeakers, not the cables. Save yourself thousands on cables and spend it on what can really improve your system instead.
 

Hawkwind16

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Lots of different views here -thanks guys.

I always thought speaker cables would make a difference, like interconnects seem to. I think i'm going to have to experiment a bit !
 

drummerman

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If I was to buy a mid/high cost cable it would be either VDH CS122 Hybrid or kimber 4TC.

The former because I've tried it in the past (And can't say anything detrimental about it) the latter because construction seems good And there is a 60 day return policy with Russ Andrews.

Both are still in the 'almost sane' category.

Other than that VanDamned will likely do the job too just as well.

My 2ct's
 

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