All time favorite speaker cables

I would have to pick the new Synergistic Research Tesla Series- forced to pick one model I'd go with Precision Reference (I did). Apex is also right there. It comes down to system components and acoustics.

BTW Krell_man "Supra Sword" sounds like something Austin Powers might have returned to him after his long hibernation. "Oh behave"

: )

I suspect you are looking for some 'high end' recommendations - this won't be of any help. But, FWIW, after a couple of years and many high end cables I settled on some Cardas cable 10+ years ago (Quadlink) and used it thru several systems. It was OK I thought but it sure gave meaning to cable 'break in' for me. I was never convinced that it was optimum but had been told it was neutralish and bought in. (It sure was in comparison to some of the cable I had already tried!)

I reconfigured my room and needed some longer cables but since I didn't know if it was permanent I didn't want to spend a lot of money. I bought some Canare 4s11 and put it in. First thing I noticed is the lack of a need for serious break-in. The next thing I noticed was that it was 'synergistic'. Good cable. If anything it was a bit 'softer' than the Cardas.

The interesting thing is that for the past 2 years I've changed amps, speakers, etc, and guess what - the Canare is still in place, just much shorter lengths, the Cardas is still in the closet, and I have no interest in trying to 'improve' my system by making any more speaker cable changes. I have no sense of loss of fine detail from my components or speakers. Go figure. :-)

My pick would be the Cardas Hexlink Golden 5-C also. I have owned about every frickin' cable ever made and always go back to these. The Cardas Hexlink Golden 5 would be on my list too.

Leica_man,

I agree, the name 'Supra Sword' is different indeed! The company 'Supra' is a well known and long time established cable company in Sweden, they're just becoming known in the U.S. You'd have to read the review and see the drawing, but the 'Swords' are made in such a way that they have virually no inductance or capacitance. That makes them lightning fast, along with having their other virtues.

What caught my attention when I read the review was the comparision with the Nordost Vahalla. I had talked to Walter at Underwood HiFi before that and he told me that he had taken a set of Nordost Vahalla speaker cables in on trade and had already sold them, but that he did have them long enough to give them a good listen.

He said that they were a whole lot better than he ever imaged that they would be, he's not a Nordost dealer. He told me that if I ever had a chance to to pick up a used set on Audiogon, it would be worth my while.

When the Supra Sword review came out in HiFi+ and the end of the year award, I decided to seek them out and give them a try. They are so good and natural that one one night I fell asleep while listening to a CD. For some reason it startled me when it ended and I got up to flip the record over. I had forgotten that it was a CD that I was listening to!

I think that that is about the highest recommendation for anything in our hobby.

Krell_man,
I had a full Valhalla system (IC's and SC's) prior to going Tesla and I came to the same conclusion regarding Nordost performance. Perhaps that paper tiger is getting a little long in the tooth?