Looking to blow some more money :


I have VTL MB450's, Magnepan 3.6r's, CAT SL-1, VPI TNT 3 Table.

The Amps are connected to the preamp with Straightwire Maestro II interconnects. I have been using (forever) a biwire pair of Maestro speaker cables.

I have tried a few newer cables and haven't loved them. I recently tried the Audience AU 24's and found that the were the most detailed and neutral cables I had ever heard. Unfortunately, they made all my pretty tubes and vinyl sound like Spectral gear (mostly ice cold but phenomenally accurate).

When I put the Maestros back in the system, a level of fluidity returned that revived my tubes...but at a price. Most of the detail was there, but when the music got "busy", a fair degree of congestion came along with it. Plus, the Maestros are infamous for being bright....which they are. I think I am trying to say that I want the AU24's detail with a better degree of musicality. I am only willing to stay in the "mainstream" of cables because of resale value---a result of the audiophile disease. I am also not willing to buy a pair of cables that cost more than my CAT preamp.

I only need about 3 feet of biwired cable...and a psychiatrist.

Erik
yesfan
I found Wireworld cables very similar to Straightwire, but, the Wireworld seemed to be bit less tizzy on top.
XLO type 5 Speaker cables totally embarrassed my straightwire maestro's they are a absolute steal used now $ Wise
the audience au-24 is a very good ic and speaker cable. HOWEVER, it really, really needs to be used in combination with the audience power cord to get the true sonic signature (imho..)

the most netural ic i have heard to date at a reasonable price is the xlo signature 2...

another really reasonable combo is the soundstring...
i would a/b the vtl's against some neutral ss gear, such as mac. the wire game is usually symptomatic of some other problem