cable advice


Hi all-

I'm back for interconnect and speaker cable advice for a friend's (new) system. She just purchased:

Harbeth P3esr speakers

and will put them with the Rega Elex amplifier and the Line Magnetic 215 CD Player.

Thoughts on cables? Many thanks!

Margot
mcanaday
Almarg - I get your point :-)

But if the KLEI's are too pricey I would recommend taking a look at Signal Cables Silver Resolution series for very good performance and more reasonable pricing

Regards.
Al,
I agree with what you said about Clear Day. I still have the first email that I sent to Paul asking him about his cables. And the moment he sent those pics, it was a clear no-no for me. I did not contact Paul till 2 years later and last year I finally decided to give Clear Day a try. After all, I did not stand to loose anything but $8 return shipping.
The moment I put the Clear Day shotguns in my system, I realized what a mistake I made by waiting for 2 years. I ordered my 8 foot along with jumper cables. I would certainly not know the results if other configs are used, but if you read the forums you would certainly find that people have used them with excellent results. And BTW, I do trust user reviews more than the press reviews.
Given that this is a new system, for someone possibly not haven owned a quality system prior, I think I would start with budget cables. She could then develop an ear for her system while it is breaking in and, in the mean time getting accustomed to its sound. Then afterwards any tweeking provided by better cables might be better addressed once she has a better understanding of what improvement she is after.

There are so many budget interconnects available on the used market. I have bought, sold and continue to use Audioquest.

Regarding the speaker cables, 17” is a long run and more difficult to find used. I would consider trying the Canare 4s11. It can be purchased new for ~$1.50/ft online including shipping. Terminate them yourself. They might just prove very adequate, and at a very reasonable cost. If not they could be easily sold.

Given the disparity between cable cost and sonic value for any given system I believe it best to start budget conservative and then upgrade.
I have enjoyed my Chimera Labs interconnects.
Lots of detail, a little bit of warmth. Very clean.
Second the Clear Day speaker cables; haven't heard the GH.
If you do decide to start near the less expensive end of the spectrum consider Virtue Audio Nirvana cables. To my experience they have a rich, musical presentation and amazing for the price. I'm currently using the speaker cable with a Morrow Audio MA2 IC having taken out the Nirvana interconnect for sounding too big.
I may consider Morrow Audio speaker cable as well...if anything the Nirvana cables may be too big sounding for my system (LFD integrated/Tekton LORE Reference speakers) but if I had small monitors they might be just the thing. I've owned many expensive and inexpensive cables and realize more and more the importance of synergy over cost.