Need Opinions for Different Cable Manufacturers/Cable Designs


I have a McIntosh 200wpc receiver [MAC7200] and Focal Sopra 3 speakers - and am using low-grade cables. I'm looking to vastly improve my system with a complete cable upgrade. I like a warm sound with lots of clarity and detail and naturalness. I have been reviewing tons of literature and am intrigued by Cu/Ag and Cu/Ag/Au combinations. I will probably buy used, and look at offerings in the midrange to lower high-end range of products. Cannot afford the best each manufacturer has to offer. Looking to spend up to $2,000 for 3m speaker cables and up to $700 each for RCA and XLR cables. Again, I hope to buy used.

 

I am interested in opinions on the following manufacturers:

AUDIENCE

DH LABS

PURIST AUDIO DESIGN

SILNOTE

SNAKE RIVER

Please feel free to offer your opinions on these and any other recommendations you may have. I really appreciate your time and advice!! Thanks!

kinarow1

My suggestion is that you don't spend your hard earned money on any set of cables unless you are able to first try them in your system. Many retailers will allow you to do this if you leave a deposit. Listen to each brand and go with the ones that sound the best to your ears. 

I currently have Kimber, Silversmith Audio FIDELIUM and Micca cables. They each sound a bit different but are well matched to my system. It is good to have a few different pairs handy because over time if your ears get tired of a particular cable, you can quickly change them up. 

The Miccas in particular are interesting because they are $40/pr on Amazon and sound awesome! 

 

 

 

 

 

PS, I agree with other comments that you dont need to mortgage your house on speaker cables because the returns will be de minimis. If cables are your thing, better to spend on interconnects because there is a much greater audible difference between low end and high end interconnects. 

Another vote for Cardas. Got the Clear Rev.1 for RCA and it blew me away. Tried some Clear reflection speaker . Not as good as Clear rev1 . Another one is Luna. Not very well known yet. But one of the best ratio price quality . 

Here's one. Get simple, affordable 12AWG OFC wires and you're set for life. That's all you need. Anything on top of that is pure marketing, and in many cases, the 'bells and whistles' some companies add on actually introduce noise. 

Choose science over snake oil, man.

I am not going to recommend a make, though I have Focal Utopia’s and what I use does sound excellent with them, but might push your budget because you don’t tend to find them used, for good reason.
What I do suggest is that whilst good design of experiment says "change one item at a time" the issue in most hifi cases is you will not see the full improvement until you have removed, or at least balanced out the bottlenecks though the system. I had bought an upgraded AES/EBU (within a dCS Vivaldi system) and a pair of same make XLR’s for variable output DAC to Vitus Power AMP. But was waiting on my Speaker cable upgrade and in the interim had been lent a pair of speaker cables from the same manufacturer but 2 grades down from the AES / XLRs.
Whilst the speaker cable made some improvement of the previous I was disappointed (less experience at that point) in the difference of swapping the AES/XLR’s in and out with against the ’basic’ Van Damme cables that had come with the dCS, However, when the speaker cable (and also actually a clock cable) were upgraded to the same level I could then hear a significant improvement.

So whether you home trial or find a dealer who has Sopra 2/3’s for an initial trial I would make sure you are getting them to either step up through a full system cable up grade, in either case start at base with your cables or same level if at dealer and then:

1 Increment speaker cable

2 Increment XLRs

Repeat loop until no further improvements, or you don’t trust yourself with the price increase on the next one.... but you will still have to know.

Of course according to naysayers it will never change and according to the (sometimes correct) diminishing returns fans it will reach an asymptote.

However, one situation that can confound the asymptote is when there is a change in for example the dielectric in an upper level cable. Then that can (and IMO and all who have experienced it in my system does) produce a bigger change than the still appreciable increment of those lower down in the range.
Happy testing.