Help me choice Audioquest speaker cables

So, you were looking at cables over $10K, jacked up a loaner set that you had for 2 months, and now balk at $6k? I feel sorry for your rep and dealer. 
 

Some advice that someone should have given you already: your overall system would benefit a lot more from better speakers and amps than it would cables. Just recently I had your same setup, and it’s “meh”. You’d be MUCH better off investing that money into better components. Given how narrow you have them placed, 800s are far too big if you don’t have more room for them anyway. Go for higher quality smaller speakers and a sub. There’s a set of MBL120s and a MBL amp on Audiogon that would mop the floor with your B&Ws. 

Buying used you get what no one else wants. Read reviews, then search for used. Look for good reviews of cables rarely available for sale used. This indicates they actually work.

People keep the good stuff, sell the junk. Think about it.

You may laugh, but after over a year in purchasing equipment and demoing AQ cables, I finally ordered AQ William Tell (Silver) biwire combo with U-spades on each end. I hope to receive them by Christmas and spend some time lessoning to some favorite tunes. I am considering some of the recommendations provided in this thread, as well as others in this forum, adding PCs and upgrading ICs. Wish me luck, and please continue to provide your recommendations.

Bob  

@juanmanuelfangioii

“ …. Go buy some counterfeit cables. Hell they all are the same.…”

NOT SO …, Rather, counterfeit fake cables are usually crap builds,

Go check out the OEM CARDAS and NORDOST quality cables versus fake crap build quality fakes explained . It’s graphic. .

http://www.element-acoustics.ca/audio_visits.php?aid=41

OEM CARDAS quality versus illegal fake crap build are vividly compared in the pic ….. Does anybody still think these illegal counterfeit fakes are “OEM knockoffs”“ in terms of same design and same parts and same build quality?

Fake Cables Discovery 1 - counterfeit Nordost

Nordost’s roots were in the Military, Medical and Aerospace industries. It gives the company access to the most advanced materials technologies known to man. Ever since the launch of the first audio products in the early 1990s, Nordost has always insisted on the highest quality, extruded FEP for use in cables’ dielectric and jacketing. FEP has many advantages; primarily, it is the most consistent and best performing dielectric material available, with the exception of air; which is where micro mono-filament technology comes in. The micro mono-filament technology is a process developed by Nordost to reduce the effect of the insulation material. It uses a thread of FEP which is helically wound over each highly polished conductor. A precision FEP jacket is then extruded over the thread and the conductor. A number of proprietory methods are used in this difficult and extremely precise manufacturing technique.

Now that we understand the construction of a genuine Nordost cable, it’s simply not easy to make. We can see that counterfeit cables DO NOT have the technology and manufacturing technique, and it is very costly to duplicate the same construction. Therefore, the counterfeit cable can only duplicate its appearance.

Couple things we can notice on these counterfeit Nordost cables:

- Fake Nordost uses cheap and rubbish rubber /PVC insulator.
- They don’t have the manufacturing technique for proper twisting; instead they need an inner wire for the twist.
- They have poor printing; sometimes misspellings. They also don’t have serial number, and often no box.
- They have poor soldering points, and also counterfeit connectors.
- The counterfeit can’t twist conductor like Nordost, they have to use inner wire (Pic 4)

Counterfeit cable has poor printing, and often in time, misspelling (Pic 3)

This counterfeit Valhalla power cord even comes with fake Wattgate plugs. (Pic 2)

See YouTube [Fake ODIN2 dissected vs the OEM ]

https://youtu.be/GZxnb_kxZIg

Hence, do they still think the fakes going to sound anywhere marginally decent or anywhere close to the OEM?

Your dealer is probably right that his recommendation sound better.
BUT …and it’s a big “but”…. The part he is leaving out is your independent personal assessment of the price Vs value matrix . In simple terms…. Yeah I guess they are “better” ,,,, but maybe not enough to warrant spending a lot more than lesser budget options.

I admit, I skipped to the end so I could post this link.

I for one do not buy into the snake oil. I'm not going to drink the Kool-Aid, as it were. My humble opinion of course. I did go for Audioquest cable, but at the entry point level more or less. I do recall when I first did this, replacing the el cheap-o speaker wire with Audioquest Type 4, I could not hear a difference. {my wallet had more of a hollow ring to it though}  Same with interconnects. Standard Big Box store RCA or Audioquest, I hear no improvement. Will multi thousand dollar testing equipment detect a difference? Most likely. But human ears? Nope! I bought them because they may be physically stronger and last longer.....and most importantly, they look nice.

During my speaker audition using the SA30 integrated, they first had William Tell Silver's hooked up. As I wanted something closer to what I use he swapped them down to something in the Rocket level. No, sorry. I heard no change.

When I picked up my new speakers yesterday I was offered to upgrade my wires from the Type 4 to "at least the Type 9" I politely declined. 

Just my two cents worth. But don't take my word for it. Google is your friend.