whats the very best sounding cables for realistic money

I’m a solid core fan (lots of AQ items) and simply out of curiosity I bought an inexpensive (the MOST inexpensive they make, the MA1…2 tiny wires) Morrow Audio IC during a sale thing a couple of months ago. After a long break-in it’s seems like such a great sounding cable that I recently bought 2 more (actually bought one more but they were giving away a freebie with any new cable). Weirdly, Morrow has their own thing where they use the same small silver coated copper solid core in everything…basically more or less of it, and it works.

Interconnects: Ernst&Engbring 3-lead shielded microphone cable with the third lead as return for the shield or ground if used for balanced connection or DIN connectors with e.g. Naim equipment. This cable is used by Neumann and Rupert Neve and is intended for professional studio use. I have made interconnects with this cable that have proved to perform much better than cables costing over 40 times more per meter and at about $1.50/m it's a steal.

Speaker Cable: Klotz 1.5mm2 professional round speaker cable. Intended for stage monitors and similar use it is rugged and sounds fantastic for it's low price of about $2/m.

These are both no-nonsens professional cables that outperform many esoteric and expensive so called High End cables at a fraction of the price.

Another Speaker Cable that sounds much better than expected is Linn K20 / Naim Naca4 at about $8/m. It is however somewhat restrictive at the upper end of the spectrum so it's best suited for use with speakers and/or amps that sound a little too "bright". It is very musical and forgiving instead of being primarily analytical and transparent but it can remove unwanted harshness from some systems making the music more pleasant to listen to even if some details are lost in the process. Filtering out the nastiness it can sometimes be the right way to go... Please remember to connect it in the correct direction with the text on the cable originating at the speaker end as intended. It makes a small but noticeable difference.

As for Power Cables it is mostly the plugs that make a significant difference. Use good quality outlets and plugs. You can remove the connector all together on your equipment by soldering the cable directly into the unit or replace them with Neutrik PowerCon connectors. I live in Europe and our 240V Shuko wall outlets are much better than the US 110V outlets. If I lived in the US I would replace that end with PowerCon as well. If you want to be able to hot-swap PowerCon use the more expensive black and yellow type rather than the cheaper blue and grey as they are not intended to be connected or disconnected when power is switched on. There are plenty of professional Power Distribution Units on the market that utilise PowerCon but you can easily build your own if you want to save a few bucks.

When it comes to SPDIF the main factor is NOT to use cables that are 1m in length! This results in jitter as reflections due to impedance mismatching arrives just when the next bit is to be detected. Use either very short cables, 75cm cables or cables at least 1.5m but NEVER 1m cables! 1m 75ohm coax cables are intended for video, not audio, and should be avoided under all circumstances. 

Hey there, many folks in this thread have already discussed the various reasons behind the importance of each type of cable. I’ll just throw in my 2 cents with a recommendation for the cable brand I’m presently using and slowly switching to throughout my system, Snake River Audio. The following is a review I posted elsewhere on Audiogon for the Snake River digital cable. Sorry it’s a bit long. Really excellent stuff, and a great small company to deal with; they often have cables in their used section, for half price, that have only been to one audio show and back, which would fit your price requirements nicely.

Since I wrote the review, I have swapped out all of my power cables for Snake River ones, they replaced Cardas Golden Reference. My only other advice, besides buying just about anything Snake River, is to buy cables used. The 50% discount is not only better on the front end but makes it much less painful to sell if you decide to swap something.

Boomslang Digital Cable Review
The first time I was exposed to how much of a profound difference wire can make when well utilized in an audio system was in the early 1980’s. I traded up from the tinned lead hook-up wire that came with my speakers to some big, fat, stranded Monster cable with good connectors. Well, how about that I thought, more bass, better vocals... pretty much better everything - and all because of changing out those lousy speaker cables. I thought to myself, I wonder if changing my RCA cables would make a difference too, and lo-and-behold it did! I was hooked on the easy tweak of cable rolling.

Fast forward more than 30 years and it’s no surprise that I’ve changed cables more than a few times, particularly since my system has evolved significantly since then. Heck, I’ve even gone so far as to swap out the wiring inside of speakers and inside preamps. And guess what? It all makes a discernible difference - everything sounds like something. While not every change I have made has been for the better, most have yielded beneficial results and advanced my system’s capabilities. Companies such as Kimber, Tara and particularly Cardas have all spent time in my systems. Sometimes decades! So, yes, I tube roll, fuse swap and cable roll when I think I can better my current position and squeeze a little more out of my system.

Sorry it took me a while to get to the point, but this next part is what this review is really about... Recently, the good folks at The Cable Company loaned me three top shelf digital cables of differing designs. All three were high purity silver and handily outperformed my 12 year old copper digital cable, which had been a well reviewed Class A component in it’s day and had provided years of pleasurable listening. My cable wasn’t bad, per se, it was just that the newer designs and materials were so much better! The leader of the pack, and by a good margin, was a strikingly good looking flat cable by a small company out of Idaho, Snake River Audio ( http://snakeriveraudio.com ). All of Snake River Audio’s cables are named after various types of snakes and the cable in question was named Boomslang, after a particularly venomous tree snake. The Boomslang employs a thick multi-conductor cable that is flat but thicker than a conventional ribbon cable, presumably due to shielding. The RCA connectors were a locking design by WBT and the conductors were all high purity silver; moreover, the Boomslang was several hundred dollars cheaper than its competitors and longer, at 1.37 meters. Physical specifications aside, the cable simply sounds amazing! The Boomslangs are just musical, dare I say more analog sounding, providing a more natural leading and trailing edge to sounds and allowing for better delineation and clarity throughout. This accuracy and speed allows the listener to hear more of the micro dynamics that make a musical presentation sound more natural. Best of all, the Boomslangs do what they do without being overly bright. I fear I’m not doing adequate justice in describing how good these cables really are and what a difference they have made to my already finely tuned system. Mike Oldfield once quoted the old adage that "writing about music is like dancing about architecture" and this sure feels like that.

So, the Boomslang cables are outstanding! But, that got me thinking of how the other cables by Snake River Audio might sound in my system... Sound familiar? Unfortunately, a review of the other cables will have to wait for another time and a new fiscal year. I would like to close this review with advising anyone considering dealing with Snake River Audio that Jonny Wilson, the owner, is one of the most accommodating folks you will ever work with. His products are superb, handcrafted to a meticulous tolerance and he offers a 30 day satisfaction guarantee. I can unequivocally recommend Jonny and his fine products!

Best of luck and remember to enjoy!

Anticables all around.

Anti cables are great if you like mediocre sound.