Speaker Cable Advice Sought - Tidy Up Time

[psurquhart]

Hi all.

I want to tidy up ? Or upgrade my speaker cable. Could do with some advice please.

I have a Sony DA5400es av amp, awesome as a movie amp as expected but lacking as a 2 channel analogue streaming via App Airport Exp / cd playback amp. Bear with me, I know Im probably stating the obvious.

My front / centre set up are PMC GB1's and DB1. I love these speakers. Rears ( slight overkill are Mission 752 Freedoms which I cant bear to sell ).

Thinking of assigning the rear "7" channels to the front left / right speakers to get the best out of my system in a 5.1 set up.

I have QED Silver 25th Anniversary speaker cables all round - which I am very happy with but wondering if it could all sound better ?

I was thinking of either -

a: Buying some more QED cable to bi-amp ( is that the right term, always confuses me ) the front left / right ( can I still get 25th Anniversary cable to match rest ) ? And then Airloc all my existing cable - which is the tidy up bit - but its about £15 an Airloc, so its going to be very costly. Do the Airloc's make that much difference / is this the way forward ?

or

b : Flog the existing cable and buy Chord Carnival Silver Screen and upgrade my overrall sound ? This way I could buy them all terminated to tidy up my cabling and achieve what I ultimately am trying to achieve ? Again very costly but either way its going to cost so might as well get the best option ?

Quite alot to chew on there so please chip in with your thoughts.

I must also add, I dont have space for a pre-amp but want to get the best 2 channel sound I can achieve out of my system. I used to have a Denon AVR3803 with an Arcam DV79 ( still got ) and 2 channel sound was lovely compared to this Sony amp. its lacking but i am stuck with it for now so just want to squeeze more 2 channel life out of it. ( Yes I know I need a DAC ).

Sorry for the waffle, just wanted to put as much info on here for advice.

What do you all think ?

Am I missing something ?

 

[the record spot]

There's one school of thought that says, yes, interconnects and speaker cables, power conditioners and all other manner of accessories can make a difference and sometimes those claims are embellished with "night and day", "huge" and the like.

The other is that these things exist for a purpose, to carry a signal, but beyond that any attempts to tune the sound should be done via speaker positioning and/or component change. The other is to use or find recordings or well mastered recordings for your preferred artists (they're not all the same y'know!).

I've mentioned this so much, folk, not least the regular staffers on here will be banging their heads off the respective desks, but having tried several interconnects and two different speaker cables, I ended up using a pair of QED Qunex 2s and some Computergear generic types and they offered no less a presentation (for want of a better word) than those from DNM (Bullets), van den hul (The Name), Audioquest (Turquoise and Copperhead) and Monster (Interlink 300s). All of those interconnects ranged from £7 to £85, were all copper based and there was no significant audible difference between each.

Speaker cable, I went from Audioquest Type IV, which is a single solid core cable, to 322-strand generic. 10m cost me £5.50 and again, performance is excellent and if there is a slight difference, that might be down to the multistrand v. solid core, but to be fair, I couldn't tell one from the other and at what is effectively 55p a metre, I'm delighted with the results.

In the end, you pays your money and makes your choices - try some of these things out by all means, but ultimately, enjoy what you have.

This is one hobby where opinions and hype are sometimes given more attention and credibility than they are perhaps due. You could do worse than have a look at Roger Russell's site and his explanation on what a cable is all about. Likewise, Blue Jeans Cable in the States has a good summary on their site.

 

[stephennic]

Hi,

I found the QED a bit bright and a little lean in the bass on my system. I chord silverscreen is more balanced tonally, with a fuller bass.

Cheers

Steve.

 

[Anonymous]

I have just measured the frequency response of my cheap 4mm squared 7m speaker cable and there are no peaks across the audio band upto 20khz and into a 4 ohm load there is a loss of -0.02dB at 20khz. This is inaudible given that human hearing is most sensitive between 1 and 5khz being able to hear at best a 0.2dB difference in level. So I dont quite know what you are talking about with regards to your cable, unless its a very thin cable and cant handle the current at low frequencys, thats would maybe explain the lean bass, how thick is your cable and how long is it.

 

[psurquhart]

Although much appreciation to those who have replied, I have taken your views into account.

Can anyone else care to comment please ?

 

[CnoEvil]

Hear are my thoughts:

You have great speakers, and bi-amping is a good idea.

The DV79 is great for 2 channel (I own one) - can it be brought into service again using phono.

The speaker cable is not doing you any favors - replace front stuff with Telurium Q or Atlas.

2 channel is never going to sound great through the Sony - only choice is to spend more money on more musical AV amp or use pre-outs (if there are any) to dedicated stereo amp (if there's room)

Hope this helps

Cno

 

[psurquhart]

Hear are my thoughts: You have great speakers, and bi-amping is a good idea. The DV79 is great for 2 channel (I own one) - can it be brought into service again using phono. The speaker cable is not doing you any favors - replace front stuff with Telurium Q or Atlas. 2 channel is never going to sound great through the Sony - only choice is to spend more money on more musical AV amp or use pre-outs (if there are any) to dedicated stereo amp (if there's room) Hope this helps Cno

Thanks CnoEvil.

My mate has my DV79 on a borrow, seriously thinking of getting it back because if anything can get me back to where I want to be its that - streaming just isnt the same.

Your right too about my AV amp - ultimately I am going to upgrade to an Arcam eventually.

Had a look on the Teluruim website and intereseted now ( plus my local Maidstone hi fi specialists where I got my speakers from stock them ). Well worth an audition. Can you tell me a bit more about them - cost etc ... what cable to try.....

Dont know much about either the Telurium Q or Atlas range - any feedback appreciated.

Also, can you tell me what inputs and settings I should be using to get the best out of the DV79. I still have some Van Den Hull C-102 interconnects to hook it all up. Never sure if I should be using the amps dac or the Arcams dac and what settings to put it all on.

Thanks for replying but please feel free to educate me some more.

 

[CnoEvil]

Hear are my thoughts: You have great speakers, and bi-amping is a good idea. The DV79 is great for 2 channel (I own one) - can it be brought into service again using phono. The speaker cable is not doing you any favors - replace front stuff with Telurium Q or Atlas. 2 channel is never going to sound great through the Sony - only choice is to spend more money on more musical AV amp or use pre-outs (if there are any) to dedicated stereo amp (if there's room) Hope this helps Cno

Thanks CnoEvil.

My mate has my DV79 on a borrow, seriously thinking of getting it back because if anything can get me back to where I want to be its that - streaming just isnt the same.

Your right too about my AV amp - ultimately I am going to upgrade to an Arcam eventually.

Had a look on the Teluruim website and intereseted now ( plus my local Maidstone hi fi specialists where I got my speakers from stock them ). Well worth an audition. Can you tell me a bit more about them - cost etc ... what cable to try.....

Dont know much about either the Telurium Q or Atlas range - any feedback appreciated.

Also, can you tell me what inputs and settings I should be using to get the best out of the DV79. I still have some Van Den Hull C-102 interconnects to hook it all up. Never sure if I should be using the amps dac or the Arcams dac and what settings to put it all on.

Thanks for replying but please feel free to educate me some more.

Here is my advice - though always check for yourself.

Get your DV79 back and connect with your phono VDH into the amp (this is using the DAC in DV79). Set amp to "stereo direct" if that's an option.

The Telurium Q "Blue" is not that cheap (£32/m unterminated) and may be worth getting if an upgrade of amp is on the cards, in the not too distant future. Take the advice of the dealer and get a listen anyway - borrow some for home dem if you can.

If an upgrade of amp is distant, then the TQ cable could be overkill - but try it!
IMO Atlas is then the next choice, possibly Hyper 2.0, which should be at least half that price.

Streaming can be very successful with the likes of a Linn Sneaky....which easily outperforms the DV79 and may also be one to consider for the future.

Hope this helps

Cno

 

[aliEnRIK]

Personally I hate QED cable. Id recommend replacing with Van Damme UP LC-OFC (less grain than standard OFC copper). To my ears it would sound far better than the QED which I find hard and bright.

Im not generally a fan of biwiring as the crossovers are usually not designed for them to be wired that way (even though they have biwire terminals). In a speaker not designed for them, there will usually be a 'hole' at the crossover point which tends to affect voices and the like. My speakers definitely sound better single wired.

However, the missions I had many moons ago did sound a lot more detailed to me when I biwired them, so id recommend both ways to see which way you think in your setup (And different speakers might behave differently, so you might find some sound better single wired and some better bi wired). If single wired, take the jumpers out and use some of the speaker cable as jumpers.