View Full Version : {New speaker cable suggestions pls
Zoidburg
06-01-2013, 09:43
I am looking to replace the speaker cable in my system, currently im using the belkin pure av stuff which was highly discussed on here some time back. Im pretty pleased with it but due to its length and "chunkyness" i would ideally prefer to replace it with something more discrete which I can have cut to length (I only need approx 4 m in total).
Does anyone have any thoughts / suggestions please. I could go up to £15m if I had to and would prefer single wire rather than bi.
cheers,
vinylspinner
06-01-2013, 09:54
Hi Ben,
Consider the Black Rhodium Twist, £3.50 a meter and very good.
Nigel
Zoidburg
06-01-2013, 10:07
Hi Ben,
Consider the Black Rhodium Twist, £3.50 a meter and very good.
Nigel
Thanks for the suggestion Nigel,
Its certainly and appealing price, for the lengths i need i would hardly be out of pocket even if i didnt end up wanting to keep it in my system.
cheers,
Black Rhodium used to give their bigger dealers a 75% margin (profit margin, not mark-up which is a different calculation), so bear that in mind regarding the true cost of the cable.......
Not having seen how chunky the belkin stuff is, I really ought to suggest that chunky is usually good where speaker wire is concerned, since the amp will usually be better able to control the speaker (damping factor). Thin stuff as sold by the skipload by sevenoaks stores back in the day is absolutely useless, even if herself likes it!!!!!
"Fisual" speaker cable available on ebay is good stuff and the white jacket fits with many different environments. I'd probably look at the 2.5mm as a minimum myself and I'm sure the Chord Co stuff at £6 approx per metre wouldn't really be aby better.
Talking of Chord Co, they used to do an "Install" version of the popular Rumour and Odyssey cables. We sold loads of the stuff but be warmed, it does have that certain silver-plated "shiny" sound quality, probably because of the thin overall gauge on the one hand, and the silver plating on the other. Can be easily tucked under carpets though.
Lastly (collective sigh of relief ;)) beware also of ribbon cables like the Nordost Flatline, which gives superficial clarity but also a weedy presentation, relying on speaker boom to give "more" bass it hasn't actually got...
Stick with what you have and try to disguise it as much as possible :)
Black Rhodium used to give their bigger dealers a 75% margin (profit margin, not mark-up which is a different calculation), so bear that in mind regarding the true cost of the cable.......
Indeed, which is *precisely* why Cawley sells it! ;)
Marco.
I like NVA cables, got some LS1 here that is good value but not exactly discreet.
You can buy them on a sale or return basis from his ebay shop.
The LS 5&6 are supposedly very good.
Lastly (collective sigh of relief ;)) beware also of ribbon cables like the Nordost Flatline, which gives superficial clarity but also a weedy presentation, relying on speaker boom to give "more" bass it hasn't actually got...
Sorry to hi-jack a little, but would you include Rega's original flat cable with those David?
I think the Rega cable would be fine, but having been accused ad nauseum about shilling this bloody firm, I thought I'd post a few other alternatives.
To recap me and Rega - I sold the stuff for years, support their basic VFM philosophy and apart from their bigger speakers, which are too "raw and rough" for me, love their products muchly and enjoy using them when I am able. I also know and keep in touch with their Sales Manager, since we share a common audio dealer ancestry - so there! :lol:
Thanks for that. I have used it for ages and had never really considered replacing it.........until you mentioned ribbon cables...
Ali Tait
06-01-2013, 15:47
TQ Blue or the Black if you can stretch to it.
+1 for the TQ Blue if you want a lively presentation, or the TQ Black if you prefer a slightly mellower sound
Zoidburg
06-01-2013, 17:12
How much are the TQ cables per m generally?
How much are the TQ cables per m generally?
£16.50 per metre for blue and £46 per metre for black
and black rhodium do not give their dealers 75% and have not done for many, many years if ever
brian2957
06-01-2013, 18:16
Yup ,TQ Black is fantastic . However if you can't stretch to it I can certainly vouch for the Black Rhodium twist . For the price it is very good indeed.
Yup ,TQ Black is fantastic . However if you can't stretch to it I can certainly vouch for the Black Rhodium twist . For the price it is very good indeed.
agree 100% and the twist makes a blo..y good interconnect too! who would have thought that!
From experience I found the TQ Blue cable to be system dependant, it certainly didn't work well in mine. The Belkin cable I'm currently using outperformed the TQ Blue by a wide margin. Dave will see you right if it is not to your liking however ;)
icehockeyboy
06-01-2013, 18:37
TQ Blue or the Black if you can stretch to it.
What he says!
Fwiw, a dealer i know, and I won't disclose who told me, but they said, and I'm paraphrasing here, but the TQ stuff is way ahead in SQ than the BR Twist. :)
...and black rhodium do not give their dealers 75% and have not done for many, many years if ever
How about then, for the sake of fun, if we said instead: 'more favourable than most'? ;)
The margin would have to be decent, to attract Cawley!
Marco.
hifi_dave
06-01-2013, 19:53
The chains probably make that on the WHF recommendations like QED and Chord but no other dealer makes anything like that - unfortunately.
Wakefield Turntables
06-01-2013, 20:07
Hi Ben,
Consider the Black Rhodium Twist, £3.50 a meter and very good.
Nigel
This is an extremely capable cable, £3.50 is an absolute steal. I have it sitting in my Valve setup and love it to pieces. :D
Zoidburg
06-01-2013, 20:42
Very tempted to give the "twist" a try given the comments on here and it's cost. I only need 2 x 2m un terminated lengths, do AOS have a fav stockist for cables?
vinylspinner
06-01-2013, 20:50
Ben,
Happy to loan you a 2mtr teminated pair if you cover the postage, if you like them we can do a deal, if not , just return them.
Nigel
Zoidburg
06-01-2013, 22:11
That's a very kind offer Nigel and one I will gladly accept. .il pm you over some details in the morning.
Thanks again. :)
Floyddroid
13-01-2013, 09:03
Had both of the TQ cables and the cheaper blue is the more musical presentation of the two. I do honestlly feel a lot of bulsh is written and spoken about with regards to cables. I feel well qualified to comment as over the years i have spent pounds and pounds on the stuff. I have a flight case full of Kimber, Chord company, QED, Audioquest, Belkin, Supra et al. All of which have different sonic signatures so i use them as tuning devices.
I agree as i usually do with David and suggest you keep the cable you have in place. A good AOS member to speak to about this subject is Harry when he is not sucking Mandleson's lemons. If you still fancy new speaker cables following our rantings i would suggest you give Mark Grant a call. he's the man.
+1 reg. Black Rhodium Twist
+1 also reg. TQ Blue
Bought some metres of both from David (MainsCables R Us) and they were very much beyond expectations. Prefer the Blue in my system but the BRT sure as h@ll is no slouch!
Both bettered my Harmonic Tech Pro 11 Plus at some £500 per pair.
Regards //Mike
Well I'm going to buck the 'flavour of the month' trend and suggest Van Damme Professional Studio Grade Blue Series (http://www.van-damme.com/23.html) as an alternative to TQ (which IMHO is overpriced) and betters Black Rhodium even when sold at only £3.50 a metre (again, IMHO).
http://www.noom-hifi.com/webboard/file-lib/webboard/20120907104211.jpg
Mark Grant (http://markgrantcables.co.uk/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=46_21) does terminated or unterminated in any length you wish and does the black stuff too.
I personally use the blue (12AWG) cable and love it, very neutral letting you hear the music without colouration and its build quality is also very good. I think many people dismiss it purely because its such good value, I mean how can a cheap cable be any good? Harbeth use Van Damme blue for the internal wiring in many of their range and to my understanding its in my SHL5's, although I haven't taken the back off to physically check this, but have seen internal post production photographs clearly showing the Van Damme cable - so for me this is enough of a recommendation and I love how it sounds too. I would rather spend the money on buying more music ;)
TQ Black is my fit n forget for an all Rega system.
Its not the most expensive cable I've tried but it is the best. YMMV
Tellurium Q cables do too much to the sound in my experience, well for my personal tastes... lots of people love them.
For some no-nonsense cable I would look at the Van Damme LC-OFC cable (similar to the Hitachi stuff), which uses ultra-pure copper with 'linear crystal' construction, leading to a subjectively less grainy sound than normal copper.
Am not sure how the NVA cable sounds with a class A valve amp, but I've had great results from LS1 and LS3 cables & did prefer these to Tellurium Q Black.
Further up the market I would also consider some LFD speaker cable, it's all very good.
main thing is to listen with your own ears in your own system if you can.
David at MCRU, Mark Grant and others offer try before you buy (I think) so hear as many asyou can.
better that than a drawer full of cables youve tried and not liked. (checks drawer...yup)
Pretty much spot-on Gaz. I know all of the recommended cables can be demoed or purchased on 30 day sale or return.
better that than a drawer full of cables youve tried and not liked. (checks drawer...yup)
:lol:
As Gary says, nothing better than trying them yourself, that's the only true test - different ears, different results ;)
walpurgis
13-01-2013, 19:13
How about something different?
Merlin CR4, if you can get it. It's solid cored and very stiff, but sounds remarkable by any standards and it's not even top of their range. It's as good as any of the much pricier Nordost and VDH stuff I've used. It looks nice too in its pearl sleeving.
Zoidburg
15-01-2013, 13:33
Big thanks to Nigel for loaning me a set of teminated Black Rhodium Twist cables. ive only really had them a few days and so far initial impressions are very good. They seem to have a bit of "sparkle" about them that my old cables dont have.
Iv not had a proper chance to sit down and really listen to them yet but hopefully the weekend will see to that.
Well I'm going to buck the 'flavour of the month' trend and suggest Van Damme Professional Studio Grade Blue Series (http://www.van-damme.com/23.html) as an alternative to TQ (which IMHO is overpriced) and betters Black Rhodium even when sold at only £3.50 a metre (again, IMHO).
http://www.noom-hifi.com/webboard/file-lib/webboard/20120907104211.jpg
Mark Grant (http://markgrantcables.co.uk/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=46_21) does terminated or unterminated in any length you wish and does the black stuff too.
I personally use the blue (12AWG) cable and love it, very neutral letting you hear the music without colouration and its build quality is also very good. I think many people dismiss it purely because its such good value, I mean how can a cheap cable be any good? Harbeth use Van Damme blue for the internal wiring in many of their range and to my understanding its in my SHL5's, although I haven't taken the back off to physically check this, but have seen internal post production photographs clearly showing the Van Damme cable - so for me this is enough of a recommendation and I love how it sounds too. I would rather spend the money on buying more music ;)
+1
I am also using the 6mm sq Van Damme Blue speaker cable as I have a longish (8m) run. It was intended to be a stop gap while I scraped together the money to replace my previous Cardas stuff, but to be honest, it sounded so good that I didn't bother. It seems very neutral and open, not really imposing itself on the system in terms of tonal balance.
I like the fact that it is cheap, uses OFC stock, and has a good cross section. Given 14m cost me under £70 terminated, you can't really argue against it in terms of VFM or performance.
Cheers,
Alex
Another nice option.
http://store.haveinc.com/p-49380-canare-4s11-starquad-speaker-cable-14-awg-cut.aspx
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