Vandersteen Treo Speaker Cable Suggestions

I have Quatros and I very much enjoy Anticables. I’ve tried the audioquest sky (I think that’s what it’s called the blue one with the dialectic bias system) and couldn’t tell the difference after a month. Anticables sometimes need to be played for an hour after I’m away for a week, but otherwise they are strellar,

I ran Quatros with Clear Day Double Shotgun, two pairs for true biwire, and I thought they were a very good match, especially considering the price.  I did move on to some Elrod Gold Statement biwire cables that bested them, but at a much higher price tag.  You can try them out and return them to Paul Laudati if they don't light your fire.  They lit mine!

Clear Day Double Shotguns, a great choice. Paul has been dealing with health issues, and closed his business temporarily. I don't know when he is reopening, or if he perhaps already has. Do a Clear Day search here for more info.

Look at Purist get the best made best sounding cord.Enjoy!

I would recommend Audioquest Castle Rock speaker cables. They sound great on the Treo's and Quatro's. I would suggest trying them before you buy though. I have observed that Audioquest speaker cables sound best when you use their interconnects as well. I am not sure how they will play with your LFD interconnects. If LFD makes speaker cables you might want to try those also. Good Luck!

I’d suggest trying Goertz Alpha-Core MI 2’s w/RC networks (zobels). Alpha-Core offers a generous money back trial. Reasonably priced and work well with Vandy’s.

Cardas makes fantastic products that typically pair well with Vandersteen.
LFD fairly rare here in the USA but you might try it as you have some of it now.
i have a set of LFD biwire in 12’ that i used for a time between an Ayre VX-R Twenty and Vandersteen 7 mk2, pretty fine wires for not a lot of juice, loan em to you if desired...
Audioquest voices well with Vandersteen products it is no secret that Richard use AQ for his filter pigtails and AQ sourced silver speaker wire with the M7 amplifiers. He and Bill Low at AQ share the DBS patent.

Johnny Rutan, and Mr. V. are AQ fans.
I run my Treo's with AQ Rockefeller, but I had Johnny make a set of GO-4 which I will install once I get my kooky system together (long story).
The Rockefellers replaced a set of Transparent-one of my most expensive mistakes.
B

Thank you all for the input!

Does anyone else have experience with the Audioquest GO-4? I made a point to speak with Johnny Rutan, as he reps both Hegel and Vandersteen, and he recommended the same.

The consensus online seems to be that Cardas is "warm" which might not be what I'm looking for. However, I have no experience with Audioquest, so I welcome any further thoughts/feedback. Thanks.

I use double run AQ GO4 on my Treo CT, they sound wonderful. I think they sound as good as bi-wire AQ Castlerock cables. Pretty much the same material but two wires instead of one. Can’t go wrong with JohnnyR’s recommendation, he knows good sounding music and will get you the best sound in your price range. I keep hearing good things about clear day cables with Vandersteens. My suggestion is go with the GO4, save some money and maybe start thinking about a different amp with better synergies to go with your Vandies. Good luck!

I have Vandersteen 5A's with Ayre and am using ClearDay double run biwire.....have tried LOTS of different - Cardas (worst), Audioquest, Kimber, AntiCable, etc.,etc, and none was nearly as good as the Clear Day.  I know John doesn't like silver, but in my system, the Clear Day is a clear winner. He'll send a review sample to hear no charge - take advantage of his offer. 

I'm running AQ GO-4 in my system with Vandersteen 2ce Sig II's and the Belles Aria integrated amp. I don't have anything else to compare it to but they sound great. Expensive though!!!

“all Zobel networks are already incorporated in the crossovers”

RV

I was initially going to buy the CastleRock's, but Johnny said the GO-4 would be just as good.
I really hate spending more on cables than I possibly can.
@audionoobie, 
The GO-4's are relatively inexpensive, especially compared to those damned Transparent cables I had(and they didn't sound good with the Vandie's).
B

 I had two pairs of AQ Earth Series speaker cables when I got my Treo CTs.  As John R. predicted, they were indeed too "heavy" sounding.  The mid-bass emphasis was obscuring the beautiful treble the Treos are capable of.  After much research on A'Gon and other sites, I ended up with two pairs of  Paul Laudati's Clear Day Audio Double Shotgun all silver cables.  As several others previously mentioned they do sound great with the Vandersteens and do NOT have any unnatural treble brightness to them.  The frequency spectrum is balanced with an open soundspace and natural dynamic presentation.  

Paul has been recovering from back surgery but from the most recent posting from him is either up and running or about to be on making cables again.  Give him a call.  If nothing else, you'll have the pleasure of talking to a knowledgeable guy who is "salt of the earth"
http://cleardaycables.com/double-shotgun/

For those of you using Clear Day Audio Double Shotgun cables, how do you recommend bi-wiring these? (my amp only has one pair of speaker terminals)

Do you use jumpers, or just stack the spades? Sorry if this is super obvious, but again, new to bi-wiring here, so appreciate the advice.

Thanks!

gritter2,

I have two pairs of speaker terminals, so no problem here.  In your circumstance you can stack the spades (Clear Day cables are terminated in relatively thin but high quality silver spades). What you could ask Paul is if he can run both pairs of Double Shotguns into one pair of spades at the amp end.  Note:  Paul uses smaller high quality silver spades at the speaker end to accommodate to the terminal strip at the back of the Treos as it is hard to fit full size spades.  In other words, if you call Paul and discuss it, he will tell you what he can do.

As you can tell from your thread, Paul's cables mate well to Vandersteen's as many of us have had the good fortune to use them in our systems. I would strongly suggest you give Paul a call and chat with him.  At worst, you'll have an enjoyable conversation.  He will be straight with you and not pitch his cables.  They speak for themselves. 👍

All the best! 

looks like Clear Day plans to be up and running January
you are welcome to borrow the 12’ LFD i mentioned till you can get his cables....

thin spades are good, you want what is called a gas tight connection stacking is acceptable but you will need to be hyper vigilant to maintain a great snug connection

if Paul can terminate the two runs into single spades at the amp end that is by far preferrable

@tomic601  Right on point! 

@tomic601 Thanks for the generous offer!

I will be reaching out to Paul shortly to see what he can do and will report back.

(((I have Vandersteen 5A's with Ayre and am using ClearDay double run biwire.....have tried LOTS of different - Cardas (worst), Audioquest, Kimber, AntiCable, etc.,etc, and none was nearly as good as the Clear Day.)))
 
 Stringeen ,
 Did you actually ever experience or have any of the latest
  Audio Quest DBW DBS cables in your system?
   Best,
 JohnnyR
 

to John....nope

Just wanted to follow up and say that I found a used pair of Audioquest Castle Rock cables for my Vandersteen Treos and have been quite pleased with the results so far.

I am still playing around with speaker placement and tweaking the listening height on the Treos, so will report back when everything is dialed in.

Thanks again for all your input!

gritter2

cool
keep us in the loop
i have a pair of the Treo CT on order in a wild ( well I think it is wild ) Ambrosia Maple veneer - I plan to start off running the LFD cable I spoke of.......

your setup thoughts and room tuning exprrience will be valuable

cool
keep us in the loop
i have a pair of Treo CT on order

Gritter2
 Glad you are making progress.
 Make sure you read the Owners manual with distance and tailback.
 after you get that right try and find a Hegal Dac 12 and run it Balanced with an AQ Yukon XLR it will open up your digital to another level by comparison to the internal DAC and complement the system. 
 Best,
 JohnnyR

So, for those who are interested, I took Johnny R's advice and ended up with an asymmetrical placement for my Treos based on the Vandersteen manual's math. Compared to my initial setup (which I just eyeballed), it is night and day! The soundstage is vastly improved, as is the bass response. I am very surprised/impressed by how much these simple adjustments have improved the overall sound and experience of the Treos. Really starting to love these things!

I am still experimenting with the listening height, and will see what works best for my listening room.

@audioconnection I have my Treos sitting on three Herbie's Decoupling Gliders (http://herbiesaudiolab.net/spkrfeet.htm). These raise the speakers about 5/16" (8mm) off the floor, but don't effect tilt. Do you think I need to take this into consideration when setting the listening height/tailback adjustment? The Vandersteen chart situates me at 7 or 8 washers, and I've erred on the low end due to the added height of the gliders. So far, it sounds pretty damn good to me, but will experiment more and see what works best. Would appreciate any feedback.

@audioconnection Thanks for the Hegel D12 suggestion. Something to consider down the road for sure.

Yes, it affects the proper tilt back readings.
 Have you tried it with and without the gliders?
Absorbing energy from Gliders is an easy way to soften up your leading edge details.
Make sure you are aware of what it does in your system not just do it cause some other fellow gushes how it worked for him in his system that was crude, to begin with. Take a laser pointer to establish both speakers are tilting back the same on top of speaker firing forward shoot behind your head position on wall mark it with a post-it note sharpie to get both speakers verified at the same tilt back. Reading the manual of sitting higher on a pillow then normal and then sitting low. Using a live piece of well-recorded music like Diane Krall verve
 One of those three will sound right then adjust to your correct measured seating height acoringly.
 Best JohnnyR

Another vote for Anticables ("true" bi-wire configuration).  The stiff -- though quite malleable -- wire makes it easy to keep the cables off the floor, and I really like the "medium" spades they use on the Vandie end.