Acou Zen vs Anaysis Plus vs Cardas Clear Sp. Cable

I have some results from my speaker cable trials. I tried the following speaker wire: Cardas Clear Light, JPS SC V, AP: 9, Solo Crystal 8, Purist Audio: Musaeus, Elementa Advance, Aqueous and Venustas.

My processor and amps are now McIntosh with Egglestonworks speakers. The speaker wire that sounded the best for my application was the Purist Audio Venustas. Very natural dialogue with great midrange, but not in excess or bloated, effortless full bodied smooth sound, large 3 dimensional sound stage, and fairly high resolution that was not edgy or fatiguing in any way. Lots of testing, but I am now very happy with the results.

During the demo process I learned just how different speaker cables sound. Without demoing various speaker wire in your particular system, it's impossible to predict which one will perform the best. Reading and member assistance can help narrow it down though. :) Thanks all for your advice along the way.

The Satori Speaker cable have a more open natural revealing sound than the Oval 9, which sounds much smoother and warmer than the Satori, perhaps a little too smooth to me.

In my system (Almarro 318B amp, Zu Druid Speakers, Zen Wow interconnects), the Oval 9 smoothed the treble including cymbals and snare drum a little too much, yet added an appealing richness to the mids, although it seemed the oval 9 imbued the sound with a little too much richness of warm coloration to the point of blunting the music slightly.

Which is best depends of course on your listening room, other components, and preference in music.

I found the Oval 9 took a little too much sizzle and life out of the music, however, a friend of mine with brighter speakers than my Zu Druids, and a brighter listening room, and more revealing interconnects, prefers the Oval 9 and considers the Satori a little bright (I don't hear that at all in my system and I don't like silver cables or bright sound).

Suffice to say, the Satori are balanced and open and natural without being bright or harsh, convey a lot of information, and are a bit faster and more dynamic than the Oval 9 which color the music a bit on the warm side.

I notice a little more midbass with the Satori, yet the Oval 9 seem to be a little tighter in the bass have more deep sub base.

I am keeping the Satori and selling the oval 9. However, part of me wonders what would have happened if I had put in the more open (than Zen Wow) sounding Zen Matrix Reference interconnect cables (which sound beautiful), while using the Oval 9 to open the sound up a bit.

I am also wondering if I can change the net sound with a slightly warmer interconnect cable and if there is an interconnect cable that is slightly warmer than the nicely balanced Zen Wow to add just a little more richness to the Satori in my system without blunting the sound as much as the Oval 9 did.

So far, the Acoustic Zen Satori are the best speaker cables that I have heard (for my system of course). Yet I am open to suggestions about a different interconnect cable.

I replaced inexpensive AQ Indigo with AZ Satori (Shotgun) with great results. Satori keeps bass very tight but adds a little to lower midrange that sounded thin with Indigo and class D amp.
It added "body" to instruments and "chestiness" to male voices. I also noticed that voices are silkier/cleaner and percussion instruments are snappier. Soundstaging got a little better. It sounds good in combination with AZ Absolute 0.5m XLR interconnect (silver), but my speakers have soft dome tweeters and are very warm sounding.