Wanted - Speaker cable

[Salty]

Hiya guys,

I'd like to upgrade my speaker cable, I'm currently using silver anniversary. I'm unsure which direction to go in as there is so much information out there.

Preference is between 2.5 and 3.5 meters. ideally id like termination and also the jumbers, but im open to options, 4 to 2 configuration would be good.

I'm quite interested in the DNM cable, or possibly the Chord Epic? humm

Basically I'm asking you to try and sell me some cable, or point me in the right direction.

In an ideal world it would be nice to test some, but I dont want to push my luck :)

Thanks everso guys.

Joe

System: EB Acoustic EB2 - Leema Pulse iii

[Effem]

How much is your budget? :eyebrows:

Under £20 buys you some Belkin speaker wire which gives results as good as cables costing 3 figures
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Belkin-AV53001-Speaker-Cable-4M-Wire-12-FTHigh-End-OXYGEN-FREE-QUAD-SHEILDING-/200668042714?pt=UK_Computing_CablesConnectors_RL&hash=item2eb8bf55da#ht_2535wt_952

[Salty]

I think 100quid really, more than that and id feel like im buying posh copper :)

[Effem]

In that case I would buy the Belkin cables and splosh the rest of your budget on music ;)

The Belkin cable is only single wired, but you could add a second set for biwire, although I have never derived profound gains from biwiring

[Salty]

I've seen some Chord Epic for under £100, surely this would outperform that Belkin wire? Better yet, wouldn't my existing Qed silver anniversary be to a higher standard than the Belkin?

[Effem]

I've seen some Chord Epic for under £100, surely this would outperform that Belkin wire?

"never judge a book by it's cover" translates into "never judge a cable by it's price tag" :eyebrows:



Better yet, wouldn't my existing Qed silver anniversary be to a higher standard than the Belkin?

Errrrrrrm, no, by a country mile

I personally rate highly the Sterling Black Mamba, but unfortunately it comes only in 2.5 metres length and single wire only.

Arrow biwire cable can be found on ebay and that too is good value for money.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Belkin-AV53001-Speaker-Cable-4M-Wire-12-FTHigh-End-OXYGEN-FREE-QUAD-SHEILDING-/200668042714?pt=UK_Computing_CablesConnectors_RL&hash=item2eb8bf55da#ht_2535wt_952

[Salty]

humm, cant biwire my amp, was hoping to maybe go 2(amp)-4(speakers), to eliminate the need for jumpers, whats your thoughts?

[Effem]

humm, cant biwire my amp, was hoping to maybe go 2(amp)-4(speakers), to eliminate the need for jumpers, whats your thoughts?

These are my thoughts then, which involves a drop of logic.

A jumper link measures 3, maybe 4 inches long, so has a TINY amount of resistance, negligible capacitance and inductance in that short length of wire - in effect a short circuit.

The same wire in a 3 or 4 metre length as a biwire configuration does exactly the same job, offering in it's simplicity a short circuit across the speaker terminals the same as the jumper wire, except for the acquisition of some additional resistance, capacitance and perhaps inductance too depending on the wire gauge, material, insulation, etc.

Yes you can take the individual sonic "benefits" from using different cable runs in biwire, i.e. using heavy gauge copper wire for the bass connection and a small gauge pure silver wire for the treble connection, but 2 parallel runs of identical budget cable rarely if ever produces a worthwhile sonic gain in my opinion.

[Salty]

Well I'm using some bare QED silver anniversary cable for jumpers at the mo, stick with that then, if I'm understanding your post correctly? Would that be your advice.?

[loosend]

I can do u some very nice xindak I think LS 2.5 speaker cable it's 2.5m long and can d u a set of nice silver jumper cables for £75 including delivery the xindak was £250 retail.

[Salty]

Hey Dan,

Thanks for the reply, are they the FS gold?

[vinylspinner]

Hi Joe,

I have a pair of Chord Epic cables, 2.5mtrs as new, £80 inc postage if you are interested.

Nigel

[loosend]

No they are not the gold.
I also have a 2.5m pair of sterling black mamba, can do the same silver jumpers again also for the same price of £75

Thanks

[The Grand Wazoo]

Well I'm using some bare QED silver anniversary cable for jumpers at the mo, stick with that then, if I'm understanding your post correctly? Would that be your advice.?

My advice & that of several others here would be to take those jumpers & anything else that you own that has the words 'QED silver anniversary' even remotely connected to it & bury it in a very, very deep hole & cover it up quick. Forget you ever owned it & replace it with almost anything else (including solid core twin & earth mains cable which costs pennies per metre) and you will have made a massive improvement.
Listen carefully to what Frank has said & then use the AoS search facility to find out about the Belkin stuff.
I use it with my Mark Levinson power amplifiers & am not inclined to swap it any time soon.

[vinylspinner]

Hello again Joe,

I have some of the Belkin pure av53001 speaker cables, a 4mtr pair, £12.50 plus postage, if you want to try them and don't like them after a month, I will send you your £12.5 back on return receipt of the cables, how does that sound?

regards

Nigel

[Reid Malenfant]

:lolsign: This thread is great :eyebrows:

My advice would be to listen to what Chris has suggested & then take Nigel up on his most generous offer :) I know you won't be sending them back :cool:

Lots of people on here have replaced much more expensive cable with the very same Belkin cables, they aren't renowned for being deaf or stupid :exactly:

[Salty]

Chris, thanks for that advice, I'll take that on onboard :). Nigel, I'll take you up on that offer. But still, unsure what to use for jumper cable, unless I cut some of the Belkin off. Is it terminated?

Cheers.
Joe

[Reid Malenfant]

Yes, It's terminated in Banana plugs.

Just get some solid core mains cable, 2.5mm^2 will do. By 1M from a DIY store & use a few inches of that. It'll be better than that QED sh*te. QED do make some good cables, that was a bloody awful one though :eyebrows:

[Salty]

Thanks, please help me here. If the Belkin is a decent cable, would I not want to use something better than mains cable? Sorry to cover what I'm sure is old ground. Is mains cable the best it gets. After spending £800 quid on my speakers, I kind of feel they deserve more. But please correct me guys.

[Reid Malenfant]

Joe, in theory the gap between the two speaker terminals that you are "jumping" is so short that not a lot will make a difference. You could probably leave in the SA with no deleterious effects, or you could change it to copper.

I wouldn't go stipping the Belkin stuff as it has different sized individually insulated conductors & as a consequence is a pig to strip & reterminate. Just leave the SA in if you must, or change it for copper.

[Effem]

You could probably leave in the SA with no deleterious effects, or you could change it to copper.



I had ONLY three inches of the wretched stuff as jumpers on a pair of Castle speakers I bought and it really did stuff the sound royally. I dread to think what three metres of it sounds like :spew:

[Reid Malenfant]

I had ONLY three inches of the wretched stuff as jumpers on a pair of Castle speakers I bought and it really did stuff the sound royally. I dread to think what three metres of it sounds like :spew:
:eek: Bloody hell, change it for copper Joe ;)

[Salty]

Will do guys, thanks. What about mains for the entire cable? Or stick with the Belkin?

Thanks for all the advice and help.

[Effem]

Will do guys, thanks. What about mains for the entire cable? Or stick with the Belkin?

Thanks for all the advice and help.

The Belkin cable is streets ahead of any solid core mains cable and looks a damn sight better too.

Take up the kind offer of a pair and if you don't like 'em that very nice man Nigel will refund your cash so you can't lose.

We are only talking less than fifteen quid here y'know :eyebrows:

[Salty]

In the end I went for some cable talk, talk 3 cable, 4quid a meter. Advised by EB Acoustic, who made my speakers and I'd also read good things for this very competitively priced cable. Will let you know how I get on.

Cheers.

[RichB]

Hi there, dunno if it is any good for your system but you might just be able to profit from my misfortune... I just bought 6m of Rega FSC Quatro, as i no longer need biwire cable and was thinking to split it into 2x 6m pieces... so guess what I only went and chopped the ruddy thing thinking i was biwiring... so i guess that gives me 2x 3m of biwire which isnt quite enough. it was bargain at the local dealers, normally retails for £8/m i think, has never been used and its yours for £25 posted (UK presumably?)

Let me know if its any good, otherwise i'll put this in the classified bit and try to recoup some of my losses.

cheers

[RichB]

dohm just seen you are now sorted... over to the classifieds it is....

[icehockeyboy]

:lolsign: This thread is great :eyebrows:

My advice would be to listen to what Chris has suggested & then take Nigel up on his most generous offer :) I know you won't be sending them back :cool:

Lots of people on here have replaced much more expensive cable with the very same Belkin cables, they aren't renowned for being deaf or stupid :exactly:


Me being one of many!

I also thought using QED SA was good for jumpers, until Effem showed me the error of my ways.

The Belkin cable folk are raving about will not be replaced any time soon in my system either!!!!!!! :)

[icehockeyboy]

In the end I went for some cable talk, talk 3 cable, 4quid a meter. Advised by EB Acoustic, who made my speakers and I'd also read good things for this very competitively priced cable. Will let you know how I get on.

Cheers.

Oh......seems you did not take the advice offered about the Belkin stuff............pity....... :doh:

[julesd68]

Oh......seems you did not take the advice offered about the Belkin stuff............pity....... :doh:

Craig - am I right in thinking that you used to have Silver High Breed speaker cable? Just wondering if you are still using it and what you think of it?

[worthingpagan]

I had ONLY three inches of the wretched stuff as jumpers on a pair of Castle speakers I bought and it really did stuff the sound royally. I dread to think what three metres of it sounds like :spew:



:lol: The word "Putrid" comes to mind ;)

[realysm42]

This thread has piqued my interest because I may have the same cable the OP has mentioned; I plan to substantially upgrade my (whole) system soon, could someone please provide me the exact name of the Belkin cable mentioned?

I plan to Bi-wire my speakers; would it be suitable (eg not bottleneck) for a Caspian M2, with TR5 speakers, or should I be looking for something sexier? I'll need 2(4) lenghts of 2 meters and have a budget of about £200 (tops), any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[julesd68]

This thread has piqued my interest because I may have the same cable the OP has mentioned; I plan to substantially upgrade my (whole) system soon, could someone please provide me the exact name of the Belkin cable mentioned?

I plan to Bi-wire my speakers; would it be suitable (eg not bottleneck) for a Caspian M2, with TR5 speakers, or should I be looking for something sexier? I'll need 2(4) lenghts of 2 meters and have a budget of about £200 (tops), any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Martin,

Here is the Arrow bi-wire cable which is cheap as chips but recommended on AOS -

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p5197.m570.l1312&_nkw=arrow+bi-wire&_sacat=See-All-Categories

Why don't you try this before spending a lot of money and see if bi-wiring is the way forward for your system ...

Here is the Belkin -

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Belkin-AV53001-Speaker-Cable-4M-Wire-12-FTHigh-End-OXYGEN-FREE-QUAD-SHEILDING-/200668042714?pt=UK_Computing_CablesConnectors_RL&hash=item2eb8bf55da

[realysm42]

Cheers for the info Jules, Ebay is blocked at work but I'll research this tonight :)

[The Grand Wazoo]

There's a thread about it here (http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?t=10894) Martin