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
treebeard1...

Those look interesting - hadn't seen them before.

Do you have to replace the batteries every 5 years, or so?  Or just the cable - when the batteries die?

toderone...

Yes... the "magnet wire" is stiff and hard to work with... but... you don't need cable stands / lifts to insulate from the floor / carpet.  Same is true for the Anti-Cables.
OK...

Ordered a pair of the AQ CV-8's, also. Will try and compare them to my Anti-Cables 3.1’s and let you know how they compare. We’ll see.

And... I did discover you just replace the batteries, when they die.
@erik_squires  
What do you mean by line-level, not speaker level?  Are you saying they are interconnects?

@4425  
I'll keep that in mind for my 2nd system.

@bassdude  
I would love to know how they compare against the anti-cables.  I'll post a comparison against my existing cables as well.


As a female, let me just say this: I think your original cables look very tidy! And I would've wept to see the Vandies leave. Curious about the CV-8 so looking forward to your report.