Your speaker cable advice please!

[admin_exported]

Hi,

I am new to the site but have enjoyed reading all the interesting topics from afar - addicitive reading for a hi-fi rookie

Could someone give me some advice please about 2 different types of speaker cable i own. I ran my speakers for about 6 months with 2 x lengths of Qed xt Evolution and whilst i enjoyed the detailed and open sound i found the high frequencies quite harsh and suffered from sibilance on various types of music causing me some listener fatigue. Frankly they sound great on acoustic well produced music where the vocals are at the forefront but found that with my current set up , if i play fast rock or indie the sound was too bright.

This may be due to my actual set up which is CA 640C v2 CD > CA640A > Mordaunt short 902i connected with Merlin chopin cable and maybe the problems are due to the set up itself, however.....

Today i purchased some Chord Carnival Silverscreen and optimistically set them up in the hope that the brash harshness would be eliminated. I am pleased to say it was but instead i have found the sound to be the complete opposite - and not in a pleasant way!!

The sound is incredibly warm but not in a nice way. My first impressions are one of a muddy and murky sound with zero sparkle. Yes they seemed detailed with more bass than the qed's but seem to eliminate a lot of top end! I seem to have stepped out of the frying pan and into the fire and have a hundred quids worth of cable that i don't know what to do with

Can anyone help? what i would like to know is a) Will the silver screen brighten up after some burn in? b) can any of you wise experts offer some advice with my set up?

On a final note, and now as i have 2 lots of (albeit different) types of cable, will it be a good idea to use these to bi-wire?, is it recommended to use 2 different cable types and if so which one should i use for the high and which one for the low frequencies?

I would really appreciate your advice all!

Ta

 

[stephennic]

Hi,

I found that the chord carnival silverscreen do need burn in - intially they sound a little closed in and a bit muddy. The chord is known for an open top end see mag reviews on net (what hifi, techradar etc) and a fairly punchy bass. I would give them at least 30 hrs, the sound should open up and detail becomes more defined. They replaced my QED anniversary on my second system and I found the sound then became more balanced.

Let us know how it goes.

Cheers

Steve

 

[MUSICRAFT]

Hi jimmy1973

I feel you need to look at alternative speaker cables. Have a look at some standard speaker cables with several hundred strands of OFC. I have found these cables to pretty much give an even balance across the board regardless of price. The good news is these cables cost very little as they are generally available for not more then a few £/m and don't require running/burning in. Plug in and play.

Btw, i will recommend you single wire your speakers.

All the best

Rick @ Musicraft

 

[vinod_david]

Jimmy:

I too have the same amp+cdp, but different speakers, and recently changed from QED SA XT to Van Damme UP-OFC (6mm) speaker cables, excellent upgrade, weighty bass, smooth treble unlike the QED, plesant to listen for a long time. And, they're quite cheap! Have a try.

 

[simon3102000]

switch back to your original speaker cable and change your interconnect to chord crimson plus, sorts out harshness/brightness everytime.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

jimmy1973:
Hi,

I am new to the site but have enjoyed reading all the interesting topics from afar - addicitive reading for a hi-fi rookie

Could someone give me some advice please about 2 different types of speaker cable i own. I ran my speakers for about 6 months with 2 x lengths of Qed xt Evolution and whilst i enjoyed the detailed and open sound i found the high frequencies quite harsh and suffered from sibilance on various types of music causing me some listener fatigue. Frankly they sound great on acoustic well produced music where the vocals are at the forefront but found that with my current set up , if i play fast rock or indie the sound was too bright.

This may be due to my actual set up which is CA 640C v2 CD > CA640A > Mordaunt short 902i connected with Merlin chopin cable and maybe the problems are due to the set up itself, however.....

Today i purchased some Chord Carnival Silverscreen and optimistically set them up in the hope that the brash harshness would be eliminated. I am pleased to say it was but instead i have found the sound to be the complete opposite - and not in a pleasant way!!

The sound is incredibly warm but not in a nice way. My first impressions are one of a muddy and murky sound with zero sparkle. Yes they seemed detailed with more bass than the qed's but seem to eliminate a lot of top end! I seem to have stepped out of the frying pan and into the fire and have a hundred quids worth of cable that i don't know what to do with

Can anyone help? what i would like to know is a) Will the silver screen brighten up after some burn in? b) can any of you wise experts offer some advice with my set up?

On a final note, and now as i have 2 lots of (albeit different) types of cable, will it be a good idea to use these to bi-wire?, is it recommended to use 2 different cable types and if so which one should i use for the high and which one for the low frequencies?

I would really appreciate your advice all!

Ta

I think that if you take what the mag has to say about your cable, "Won't calm a brighter system" and your speakers, "Top end can be problematic if system-matching is poor", and that your electronics might be on the brighter side of neutral also, I suspect this is your problem. However, I don't think that changing cables are going to turn your system around. You might be able to tame the harshness but I would expect you would then lose some clarity. Basically, don't expect too much from your system. It's a very nice budget system but you have to spend more to get things improving ...

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your quick replies guys, really appreicate it.

A lot of food thought here and good advice. It will be a gradual process but slowly but surely i will upgrade my kit one bit at a time.

Gonna get some lengthy burn in on the Chord's to see how that works but i suspect that my MS speakers are the weak link so will start with finding a replacement for them first - money depending (darn recession!)

Cheers!

 

[floyd droid]

MUSICRAFT:
Hi jimmy1973

I feel you need to look at alternative speaker cables. Have a look at some standard speaker cables with several hundred strands of OFC. I have found these cables to pretty much give an even balance across the board regardless of price. The good news is these cables cost very little as they are generally available for not more then a few £/m and don't require running/burning in. Plug in and play.

Btw, i will recommend you single wire your speakers.

All the best

Rick @ Musicraft

Top post Rick

. Jimmy you can knock yourself some up in different strand numbers/core dia. And have a play around for peanuts pricewise. No need to spend out on plugs either, just bare wire them until you find a sound that you like.

 

[the record spot]

MUSICRAFT:
Hi jimmy1973

I feel you need to look at alternative speaker cables. Have a look at some standard speaker cables with several hundred strands of OFC. I have found these cables to pretty much give an even balance across the board regardless of price. The good news is these cables cost very little as they are generally available for not more then a few £/m and don't require running/burning in. Plug in and play.

Btw, i will recommend you single wire your speakers.

All the best

Rick @ Musicraft

I echo Rick's comments above - I used to use Audioquest Type IV, which is a very good single strand copper core bi-wire cable. I thought I'd try something a little more basic, so went opted for 322 multistrand copper cable. Single-wired too. Cost me about £5.50 all in including delivery. Works a treat, system sounds great, and not deterimental at all in comparison to what went before. The Type IV's going on Ebay sometime soon. Difference in cost for 10m of the stuff is probably around £50 or thereabouts, maybe more as the Audioquest's probably gone up since I bought it in the late 1990s.

 

[dibdab]

My brother has the same set up as you but with mission m33i speakers and he to found the treble to be harsh at times and that was using chord carnival speaker cable. We both recently moved to some cheap UP LC-OFC speaker cable and found it tamed the harshness in the treble.