Talk 3 speaker cable

[julesd68]

I needed a slightly longer pair of speaker cables. Due to penury and being a bit of a cable sceptic at the best of times, I wanted a "budget" pair with decent, solid plugs.

Decided to order the Talk 3 cable from Paul at RFC. Cost of 2.5M pair was £63 delivered. Got a very fast and friendly, no BS service - just what I like! At no point did Paul try to convince me to spend more than I wanted.

Paul silver-soldered the connections aswell as used the screw-locks. Nice. The Talk Z plugs are very good quality - really firm connection and they won't be coming out in a hurry. Did I notice shimmering new highs and tauter, deeper bass? Er no, but these really are fit and forget cables. I can't fault them, so for me it was a question of why pay more? :)

[realysm42]

Well, how do you know until you've tried?

Not to say these aren't great cables (I've heard good things about them) but you did ask ;)

[julesd68]

Sorry, hadn't intended to start another general cable debate!! I have tried a couple of more expensive cables recently but not with any better results. I purely wanted to put forward the merits of this cable, if like me, you are only considering budget cables ...

[Effem]

If it floats yer boat, who are we to argue? Enjoy :)

[realysm42]

Fair play; glad you're happy then :cool:

I must admit I've been interested by this particular brand simply because of what people have said about them.

[julesd68]

Exactly - I think I first read about Jerry (jandl100) enthusing over it ...

[icehockeyboy]

Exactly - I think I first read about Jerry (jandl100) enthusing over it ...
Indeed he was!
He was singing their praises only the other day when I spoke to him. :)

[MCRU]

Fair play; glad you're happy then :cool:

I must admit I've been interested by this particular brand simply because of what people have said about them.

why are you interested dude, it cannot hold a candle to what you've got!

[Reffc]

Indeed he was!
He was singing their praises only the other day when I spoke to him. :)

Yes,

I had brought a set of Talk3 over with me to Jerrys a while back and we compared it against some very exotic (read "expensive") speaker cable and it showed it a clean pair of heals...

The other cable was sold within a few days! I use the Talk3 myself. Its unbeatable at the price IMHO...come to think of it, its unbeatable at 5 times the price!

[realysm42]

why are you interested dude, it cannot hold a candle to what you've got!

I don't mean interested in buying it; I'd just like to hear what a cheap cable that everyone bangs on about sounds like.

My cables not going anywhere for a long time :eyebrows:

[Gromit]

why are you interested dude, it cannot hold a candle to what you've got!

Really?

I got hold of some Talk3 very soon after it was released onto the market, I didn't go gaga over it simply because I'm very wary these days of doing so, over any piece of equipment and even more so if it's extremely cheap. 'Cable-worship' is one can of worms I'd much rather leave the opener to locked well away in the drawer.

All I'd say is that the T3 does a great job and replaced a cable costing several times its price. I've no desire whatsoever to change it.

[Alex_UK]

Nice to see you back Richard - hope all is well with you.

[Gromit]

Nice to see you back Richard - hope all is well with you.

Thanks Alex - all fine here, trust also with you.

Doing only a v small amount of hifi-forum-posting these days, and most of that has been talking about motorcycles. :D

Hifi has been well on the backburner too, been too busy gigging/teaching/playing the new piano.

[julesd68]

Nice to see you back Richard

:thumbsup:

[Canetoad]

Hi Richard. Great to see you back! :)

I've replaced some Van Damme speaker cable in my bedroom system with some of this and it sounds very promising! At first it sounded like it was sucking some of the frequencies out but now, after a few days of use, sounds very good. Bass is excellent and upper frequencies are crisp and clear. Definitely a keeper!

[hifi_dave]

Talk 3 is selling steadily here. What's not to like at £3.99/mtr ? In fact, I've heard worse at £399/mtr..:rolleyes:

[isuckedmandelsonslemons]

Talk 3 is selling steadily here. What's not to like at £3.99/mtr ? In fact, I've heard worse at £399/mtr..:rolleyes:

Hi Dave. Care to tell me what the £399 stuff is. Just in case I'm minded to buy some expensive stuff at some time. Apparently people do ;-)

[hifi_dave]

That was sarcasm..:doh:

However, I have tried many verrrrry expensive, exotic cables which sounded worse. Not sure about exact prices though and I don't want to name names, because I don't want to offend.

[isuckedmandelsonslemons]

Offend away.

[DSJR]

Thing is, and sorry for saying it, but when this stuff had a dirty grey outer jacket and sold for £1.50 a metre but what looks like identical innards, no-one gave it any thought at all. In fact, many dealers waved QED original 79strand at me (even the shitty QED Micro!) and said that this was "the Best" low cost speaker wire, without trying the alternative that was more profitable too :steam:

Amazing what a change of jacket colour and a hefty price increase will do, isn't it?

[The Black Adder]

I've wired up the internals and external crossovers of my speakers with Talk 3.

[Reffc]

The latest Talk3 isn't the same as the first stuff and most certainly does better QED 79 strand IME. The latest Talk3 boasts very low capacitance (high capacitance being bad for amplifier output circuits...why do some manufacturers STILL insist in making ridiculously high capacitance speaker cables?) and a new dielectric developed specially for this cable. It's more flexible than the first incarnation, uses very pure and quite beefy OFC conductors, and as Dave's said "what's not to like"?

It's the only speaker cable that I currently advertise and sell unless someone wants me to make up a custom cable in some other brand for them, and I have put my money where my mouth is and replaced my Chord Odyssey II within my own system as it (to my ears) sounds better!

[DSJR]

It's re-badged Theatre 2.1, unless the gauge is different. The "old" 3.1 was a heavier gauge 42 strand in dumbell form as I remember :) Nowt wrong with that at all :lol:

[keiths]

... The "old" 3.1 was a heavier gauge 42 strand in dumbell form as I remember :) Nowt wrong with that at all :lol:

Just found about 10m of 'old' Talk 3.1 whilst tidying up this morning (plus some other old stuff I'd forgotten I still had)

http://www.simister.com/public/talk_3_1.jpg

Must solder some plugs on and compare to the Belkins some time.

It is 42-strand - just counted 'em :lol:

[DSJR]

It's re-badged Theatre 2.1, unless the gauge is different. The "old" 3.1 was a heavier gauge 42 strand in dumbell form as I remember :) Nowt wrong with that at all :lol:



Having just bought some CT Excel 4 for £1.50 a metre (used to be £4.50 per metre back in the day and a fig 8 version of the 4.1 dumb-bell cable) and having checked the Talk website (initially trawling for info on the very well priced and made Edwards Audio stuff), I realise that I'm in error on the gauge of the Talk 3 cable.

The "old" Theatre 2.1 was something like 1.75mm gauge as I recall, perfect for short runs but not the same as the 2.5mm quoted by talk for their current speaker cable. This new stuff is the same gauge to the old 3.1/Excel3 and 4.1/Excel4 I believe and since the inner insulation isn't the same as the 3.1, I expect the sound to be meaty without being dull and bland, and certainly not spiteful as some silver plated cables can be.

So, apologies to Kevin Edwards, and Talk Electronics in general, if I underestimated the Talk 3 speaker wire! :oops:

[Reffc]

Having just bought some CT Excel 4 for £1.50 a metre (used to be £4.50 per metre back in the day and a fig 8 version of the 4.1 dumb-bell cable) and having checked the Talk website (initially trawling for info on the very well priced and made Edwards Audio stuff), I realise that I'm in error on the gauge of the Talk 3 cable.

The "old" Theatre 2.1 was something like 1.75mm gauge as I recall, perfect for short runs but not the same as the 2.5mm quoted by talk for their current speaker cable. This new stuff is the same gauge to the old 3.1/Excel3 and 4.1/Excel4 I believe and since the inner insulation isn't the same as the 3.1, I expect the sound to be meaty without being dull and bland, and certainly not spiteful as some silver plated cables can be.

So, apologies to Kevin Edwards, and Talk Electronics in general, if I underestimated the Talk 3 speaker wire! :oops:

:lol:

That's right David, it is different. I must admit I did scratch my head a little when you mentioned it was the same as the old stuff. One of the boasts of the new Talk3 is that it uses a new dielectric coating on each multistrand conductor which helps keep capacitance lower than previously. You're also right IMHO (as I use this myself as well as being one of Talk3's retailers) in that the sound is quite meaty. It seems to deliver excellent bass and is nowhere near as spiteful as some of the (more expensive) silver plated cables. In fact "spiteful" and "talk3" are not two words you would associate together!

[DSJR]

Thank gawd we're agreed on something at last - my error, not yours! - apologies!

Good luck with the new amp by the way :)

[Reffc]

;) No worries David, it sounded like a very easy mistake to make. It's good stuff whatever it's lineage! Amp is weeks away I'm afraid but I may have the loan of a stand in to tide me over :)