Best Cables for around $500

Let me suggest a slightly different approach. Rather than looking for a $500 cable, get a pair of Mogami Gold Studio XLR (less than $100 for a 6 foot pair) and than borrow some $500 cables and compare them. Make sure you invite some friends over to listen with you and ask them to switch cable such that you won't be subject to visual bias. You may be surprised to find that you can save $400 towards other upgrades.

I know that some of these threads can end up "try my cable, it is the best" however, this thread has already been very helpful so far. I have been checking out the two, new to me, cables from Crimson MusicLink and Gabriel Gold Revelations. The Crimson MusicLink is $537.00 in 1 meter XLR and I have emailed the company for prices on the newer Gabriel cables.

I have now tried two pretty good, but inexpensive cables. One is the Morrow MA 1.1 XLR retailing for $239 but often on sale for much less. The other is the Silver Serpent II Balanced XLR for $99.00. Both of these are pretty good but I feel that both are holding me back from hearing all the music. The Morrow's were initially tipped up in the treble and I had to pull them but later put them back in the system and used the Isotek CD conditioner. Now, I feel that they are, if anything, tipped down in the treble almost like a blanket has been put over the speakers.

I believe I can pick up a pair of AudioQuest Colorado 72v 1 meter XLR cables for about 1/2 retail (normally $900). Anyone have thoughts on this. I understand that the AudioQuest cables were a big discussion on another site but couldn't find the thread.

Thanks to all who have contributed so far!

I can sell you the best there is. What color do you like?

Give Morrow Audio a try. I've had great success with the ones I own and use on several systems.

:) listening,

Ed

The following will lose me street creds on my audio skills but just found out during my break in of the W4S STI500 and DAC2 when reaching around the back of my equipment, I had switched my Xindak digital cable off of the DAC2 and replaced it with identical looking Xindak audio cables (the difference was only a small band around one end of the cable). I had been connecting my Netgear 9150 system to my DAC2 with an audio cable!

The results were very interesting with tipped down treble as mentioned in my last post but rock music actually sounded pretty good! The sound was much more diffuse which seemed to work well with rock but took all the life out of the classical music. I was in the break in phase with the STI500 and DAC2 and had just used the ISOTEK CD conditioner. I was beginning to think I had screwed up my system using the conditioner CD!

Highs are back using the Morrow MA1.1 XLR cable and sounding very detailed. Will listen for a week or so with the Morrow Cable to get a fix on the sound before purchasing new cables.