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Varun
24-07-2009, 20:23
Hello experts,

Well this platform is going to prove very useful. I have never worried too much about speaker cables and after reading another thread- have decided to try Mark Grant speaker cable. I need a longer length.

I noted Marco uses VDH-Wind cable and so wonder how Mark Grant's cable compares??

I use Slingshot by Missing Link and understand that silver (too much) can have an undesirable effect on sound by "brightening" it too much.

Any comments will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Varun

Mike
24-07-2009, 20:32
Hi Varun,

From my experience of 'The Missing Link' cables I'd say you have an excellent set of cables. You'll need to spend an awful lot of money to better them! :)

Cheers...

*Edit*... What length are your 'Slingshots?'... I might be interested in buying them! :)

Varun
24-07-2009, 20:56
Thanks Mike

six meters pair

I think you are right about slingshot. I may go for the dual helix- if I feel like it.

Varun

Varun
25-07-2009, 08:10
I was going to add that I have advertised 2 items on HI-FI world. I am hoping it will appear next month.

In case someone is interested they are: (This is not an advertisement by the way)

Slingshot cable- 6 meter pair for £150-I should have checked the current price first before advertising as cable prices have shot up.


Plinius Passive phono stage- made for me by Peter Thompson the ex-owner of the company.

Varun
26-07-2009, 12:08
No further take on my question, so please let me ask about Bi-Wiring. What is the general experience, opinion about the Merits and pitfalls and if cables of different types can be used?

I am going to try out the Mark Grant cable-mainly because it is so cheap.

As for cable upgrades- I know that it very much falls in the category of rapidly diminishing returns. I spent listening to various Kimber cables once and was not convinced that different types made all that difference- only that they shifted the sound image and perspective (and so perceived clarity or improvement). Of course the more expensive one was better than the cheapest one. So I decided to stay with the basic QED cable- and had no regerets.

Would value comments etc.

Cheers

Varun

DSJR
26-07-2009, 14:41
The only cable I ever tried that was bigger in gauge to "The Wind" was something that KJ had inherited from their previous incarnation back in '98. They were again two huge separate conductors per channel - loads of chunky copper strands and they had no "sound" at all to my ears.

The "Wind" is also very refined and smooth, with excellent reproduction of atmosphere and acoustic (important to me), making smaller gauge wires sound rather crude and (in the case of Chord Odyssey) raspy by comparison. I'm sure you'd get almost good a performance if you got some chunky instrument cable - 4mm or 6mm and laid them in two separate conductors to the speakers (we never twisted the Wind conductors together as I remember), using heavy gauge plugs/spades, preferably welded on(!)

Higher impedance speakers as Marco has used (SP100's and especially the Tannoys) don't always need such a huge cable, as they don't draw much current compared to modern 4 Ohm jobbies.


Bi-wiring sometimes works, but there are so many variables as the amp is seeing a different load amongst other things (twice the capacitance for one thing), I'm not sure. Harbeth introduced bi-wiring on their speakers twenty years ago, mainly to help them test the completed speaker and it raised a huge can of worns. I understand the newest models have reverted to single wiring and noone has complained about it. In fact, Sonus Faber did the same with their models once the crossover was properly sorted for phase tracking from one unit to the other.

Varun
26-07-2009, 16:10
Thanks,

That is marvellous Dave,

My Power amp and my B&W 803 both have posts for bi-wiring- but this is something I have never ventured into as no one seemed enthused about it. There must be degree of risk to the amp, especially if I am using long cable lengths. This is totally unknown area and being not a technical person-I better not risk it.

I bought SD Accoustics-1 speakers from KJ as they were getting high praise in those days. KJ encouraged me to buy their Tr-Wire cable- hard inflexible solid core with very poor quality connectors. I suppose things in those days (late 80s) were like that??

I presume by Wind you mean Van Den Hull cable?-mind you the Missing link-sling shot has no weaknesses that I can see, but will have a go with Mark's cables just for fun-I do need a longer length now that I have brought my stuff to Liverpool from Devon.

Cheers

Varun