@wym2
My "3D space" comments were relative to interconnects, not speaker cables, in the context of my system at the time: Clearaudio TT/Arm/Cartridge, Aesthetix Io & Callisto Sig, CAT JL-3 amps, SoundLab A1.
@eziggy
I was a huge Magnepan fan and then sold them around 2000 or so. Then I wanted them again so I went to the Minneapolis dealer a few years later who had a store full of all the Magnepan and ML speakers. He gave me easily 3 hours of his time one afternoon as the store was not busy. One by one, he rolled in each ML speaker he had to compare with the Maggie 3.5 and then later the 20.1. There was not a single ML speaker that did anything for me compared to even the Maggie 3.5; the ML sound was just not my thing.....too sterile! All electronics were ARC which is what I had at that time. Even when I heard the CLS back in the early 80s at a Tucson dealer, my response was rather neutral. By 2004/2005, I heard the SL A1's that made my Maggie 3.5 sound like kiddie toys and I never looked back.
I guess I would have to say that NBS Statement ICs 15 years ago was the start of my discovery of 3D presentation, but that was significantly improved upon by Purist Dominus, then onto Stealth Indra, Silent Source and the awesome Jade Reference Platinum/Gold. Once I moved on from the Dominus, and I started to hear phenomenol tonal coherency and frequency extreme extension, I was no longer willing to give this up for cables that only excelled in the 3D performance. Once you hear it all, you want it all.
The link so critical here is from line stage to amp(s). Such cable differences between the DAC at the time (Manley Ref) and the Io phono stage into the Callisto, were nowhere near as dramatic which showed a pecking order that is quite different than what many others here report as the cables from source to line as being more critical. Every time I had money to spend to update a 1-2m IC in my system, I compared it every where. And the greatest differences were always into the amps.
As for speaker cables, after hearing my system fully loaded with KS Emotion, and then a mix of this and Dominus, I started to seek out a speaker cable not so expensive. I recall the Coincident cables, the top model at the time, was very tonally coherent. A Purist dealer sent me a huge box of various speaker cables and I discovered that the midline Opis model was outstanding with my system. It was neck and neck with the Coincident and half the price and much less than the Dominus and KS. I then compared the Opis a few years later to the Jade Audio speaker cables which just added a a little more extension on the top. But the Opis is one of those awesome values I have come across along the way. It is a keeper.
With all my cable listening efforts here, speaker cable differences with the JL3's and the A1's were just not all that dramatic. Huge differences in piano decays, tracking a musician moving around the stage, etc., were not huge like comparing ICs. So again, my experiences don't track with so much that is shared here. And except for a couple speaker cables that had serious peak/valley tonal issues and were immediately dismissed, most speaker cables that I tried were "acceptable"; this was not at all the case for ICs.
I have since moved the A1s upstairs with a project to do a HT setup with all electrostatic speakers. SF Amati Futura speakers are now mated with the JL3's in my basement music system. The system rack has been pushed to the side of the room so now my IC quest has started from scratch as I need a RCA cable 4-5m long for the amps between the speakers. I have 2 long Transparent Audio ICs to arrive in a few days. These are the latest Ref MM and Ref XL. From all I have read, these could be stunning with the Futuras being heard like never before. And then I can investigate the justification to try a speaker cable at a much higher cost than I have considered trying in the past.
My "3D space" comments were relative to interconnects, not speaker cables, in the context of my system at the time: Clearaudio TT/Arm/Cartridge, Aesthetix Io & Callisto Sig, CAT JL-3 amps, SoundLab A1.
@eziggy
I was a huge Magnepan fan and then sold them around 2000 or so. Then I wanted them again so I went to the Minneapolis dealer a few years later who had a store full of all the Magnepan and ML speakers. He gave me easily 3 hours of his time one afternoon as the store was not busy. One by one, he rolled in each ML speaker he had to compare with the Maggie 3.5 and then later the 20.1. There was not a single ML speaker that did anything for me compared to even the Maggie 3.5; the ML sound was just not my thing.....too sterile! All electronics were ARC which is what I had at that time. Even when I heard the CLS back in the early 80s at a Tucson dealer, my response was rather neutral. By 2004/2005, I heard the SL A1's that made my Maggie 3.5 sound like kiddie toys and I never looked back.
I guess I would have to say that NBS Statement ICs 15 years ago was the start of my discovery of 3D presentation, but that was significantly improved upon by Purist Dominus, then onto Stealth Indra, Silent Source and the awesome Jade Reference Platinum/Gold. Once I moved on from the Dominus, and I started to hear phenomenol tonal coherency and frequency extreme extension, I was no longer willing to give this up for cables that only excelled in the 3D performance. Once you hear it all, you want it all.
The link so critical here is from line stage to amp(s). Such cable differences between the DAC at the time (Manley Ref) and the Io phono stage into the Callisto, were nowhere near as dramatic which showed a pecking order that is quite different than what many others here report as the cables from source to line as being more critical. Every time I had money to spend to update a 1-2m IC in my system, I compared it every where. And the greatest differences were always into the amps.
As for speaker cables, after hearing my system fully loaded with KS Emotion, and then a mix of this and Dominus, I started to seek out a speaker cable not so expensive. I recall the Coincident cables, the top model at the time, was very tonally coherent. A Purist dealer sent me a huge box of various speaker cables and I discovered that the midline Opis model was outstanding with my system. It was neck and neck with the Coincident and half the price and much less than the Dominus and KS. I then compared the Opis a few years later to the Jade Audio speaker cables which just added a a little more extension on the top. But the Opis is one of those awesome values I have come across along the way. It is a keeper.
With all my cable listening efforts here, speaker cable differences with the JL3's and the A1's were just not all that dramatic. Huge differences in piano decays, tracking a musician moving around the stage, etc., were not huge like comparing ICs. So again, my experiences don't track with so much that is shared here. And except for a couple speaker cables that had serious peak/valley tonal issues and were immediately dismissed, most speaker cables that I tried were "acceptable"; this was not at all the case for ICs.
I have since moved the A1s upstairs with a project to do a HT setup with all electrostatic speakers. SF Amati Futura speakers are now mated with the JL3's in my basement music system. The system rack has been pushed to the side of the room so now my IC quest has started from scratch as I need a RCA cable 4-5m long for the amps between the speakers. I have 2 long Transparent Audio ICs to arrive in a few days. These are the latest Ref MM and Ref XL. From all I have read, these could be stunning with the Futuras being heard like never before. And then I can investigate the justification to try a speaker cable at a much higher cost than I have considered trying in the past.