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Best Cables for ARC gear

OK, I started a few months ago upgrading and can't stop! The current question is one frequently asked but if I may I will pose this question again:
Best balanced cables for ARC gear, ACR CDMKII-ARC LS25MKII-ARC VT100MKII. I have Single ended cables (Cardas Gold Ref and Transparent Plus) They each sound different for sure but when switching to standard mic cable, it totally blows the RCA's away. Not just more gain but cleaner, clearer,deeper, stronger, etc. I cant let my friends see cheap mic cables in my rig so I would like some opinion from those who have ARC gear. BTW for the purpose of this IC quest I have paired CD/PRE with my pair of Genelec studio monitors which in the near field can reveal EVERYTHING! Thank you
vdosc
rwwear
2,873 posts
 
I agree with Cmalak.
lostbears's avatar
lostbears
538 posts
 

People who have Audio Research cables tend to keep them. But they do show up on Audiogon and Ebay occasionally. Don't be fool by the fake ones on Ebay sold out of Canada. The real ARC Litz II cables are a thick cable covered in light gray rubber. The Litz I cables were wrapped with a shiny black plastic material.
cmalak
681 posts
 
Vdosc...I have Ref 3, Ref 110, and CD 7 set-up and I actually use Nordost Heimdall ICs and SCs and Shunyata PCs. The Shunyata PCs make a noticeable improvement and I think in their current line-up the Black Mamba hits the sweet spot. Within the Nordost line, i truly believe the Heimdall offers 80-85% of what the Valhalla offers at
1/4 the price. You may want to call the Cable Co and use their lending library to try out a bunch of options.
rrog
1,958 posts
 
The cables on ebay are not ARC. They are AR (Acoustic Research).
jazzgene
145 posts
 
I found there is less sound difference with balanced than SE. Between my ARC preamp and ARC amp, I tried different ones including Mogami 2534s. The 2534s sounded better than Kimber and Cardas. Audience was better than 2534s and I have settled on Oyaide Terzo XX which sounds the best to me so far.
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