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Please Help Me Choose a Speaker Cable

I need to replace my existing speaker cable setup with something more wife-friendly. I am currently bi-wiring with Audioquest Type 4 (tweeters) and Aperature 16 (woofers). About 20 years ago I bought the wires off a spool and had them built w/ banana plugs. You can see a pic of the offensive cable setup on my system page (https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/6318). I put a nice jacket over the cables hoping that would be enough to clean up the messiness.

What I want is something of equal quality that will also fit inside my VTI speaker stands. The stands have a 3/4 inch opening and the 4 banana plugs don’t fit through. I want to continue bi-wiring but would go single if the sound was just as good on a different set of cables. A bi-wired cable terminated with two spades at the amp side would fit through the stands (2 banana plugs might fit also).

I don't want to spend more than $600 and need a 10-12 ft. pair. There appear to be a lot of options on Agon right now. I see names I know are pretty good like Audioquest and Kimber. If I were to pick one I would probably go with the Audioquest Rocket 88 or CV-8 or maybe the PS Audio Xstream. Maybe there are better options for less? Will the cables in this price range be good as or better than what I have? If not, maybe I should try terminating the two cables into one set of banana plugs on the amp end to see if that fits.  I guess I would prefer spades because they would be more flush to the speakers, thus a little cleaner looking.  

Thanks.
treebeard1
gdnrbob
4,441 posts
 
It looks rather neat to me. But, I don't look in back of equipment much.
AQ Rocket 88's would be my choice with a double run.
Do you need bananas? Can you speakers accept spades? The latter are supposed to be better in terms of connectivity.
treebeard1 OP
148 posts
 
@jl35 
I certainly don't want to start that debate.  I don't know the answer but will need to figure it out via testing on my own.  Regarding the jumpers, I'm not sure how they accomplish anything.  The signal is not seperated until the end of the journey.  To me it seems the same.

@gdnrbob 
I kinda like it too.  Adds muscle.  But it's easy to see because of where it's located. Don't need bananas but I had spades on those wires before and they kept coming off or loosing connection.  Maybe it was the speakers problem.  It was a different speaker.

I notice a lot of more expensive speaker cables and interconnects have what AQ is calling a dielectric-bias system (DMS).  Is this something I should look for?  I have something like this on my interconnects but no batteries, just a bump in the cable.  Again, not loking for a debate for or against.
jl35
3,966 posts
 
much is a matter of personal preference.  many find internal biwire to be useless and use either double runs or jumpers.  read the Vandersteen website comments on this,  regardless of which speakers you own.
stereo5's avatar
stereo5
6,346 posts
 
After all those years, why is your wife suddenly against the cables you have now?  It looks quite neatly arranged to me.
treebeard1 OP
148 posts
 
@stereo5 
For 23 years she has been against the wires as well as the large floor standing speakers (replaced by R300s), the subwoofer that takes up the corner of the living room (soon to be replaced w/ wireless sub behind couch) and just about anything stereo-related.  If I have to chuck it all for a HEOS soundbar then at least I have great components to move to my basememt listening room.

I have been looking at reviews of the AQ CV-8 and they are all glowing. Haven't found a bad review yet.  They must be discontinued and have been on closeout for the last couple years.  Found a pair on Amazon for $360 with spades (retail was $900).  Sold by Music Direct for $90 less than they sell on their own site. They are not listed on the AQ site.
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