Inteligent high end cableing


Good grief.....I thought mating my electronics, speakers and budget was tough, but getting any consistancy with cableing advice seems impossible. I have recently acquired Proceed HPA3 amp (250/Ch), Proceed AVP pre-amp, Proceed PMDT DVD transport and will be linking them to either Watt Puppies 5.1 or to Revel Salons (there's a conversation right there). However, my real issue is what speaker cableing will match this setup. I can rationalize spending $40,000 on my system, but cannot get past $895 per foot for Audioquest top of the line. There's got to be a better 'mousetrap'. Any intelligent advice will be appreciated.
johngalt
Despite your title being oxymoronic (is that the opposite of redundant?), here is my two cents. I do not have golden ears, but I can tell you that it really is not going to matter IN THE BEGINNING, what you get. Get whatever the best deal seems to be on cables that are as close to fully broken in as you can get. Hook everything up and play the heck out of it, listen and enjoy like crazy! Maybe a couple months. THEN, AND ONLY THEN will you have established a "base" (sonic signature, whatever) for your system, and then you can start introducing ONE SINGLE CHANGE at a time, based on how you might like to hear the system change, if any. You can audition or buy used at that point to your heart's content, because you are now depending on the science of what you bought versus the magic of all of the various forms of--to use the nicest word I can think of-- advertising that jumps in the way of what you are actually hearing. And do not forget to tune the room.
I am certain that the myriad cable manufacturers "voice" their products with certain components (eg. Levinson, CJ, ARC, Wilson, etc). I suspect that there is a deliberate conspiracy on their part to conceal the details of these components so that consumers will purchase their cables (unaware that they may not be optimally suited to their personal audio-gear). This wilfull concealment makes economic sense to cable manufacturers as there is greater potential to maximize their profit by foisting their cables on a greater number of "ignorant" consumers. One of the advantages of acquiring a whole system (e.g. Linn, Naim) is that they often customize ("voice") their "house" cables for their own systems, thereby saving the customer the exasperation, and, often, bruising expense that independent cable manufacturers often exact. In short, I feel certain that cable manufacturers conspire to keep us ignorant since this is economically advantageous to them! I have tried directly to approach various speaker and amplifier manufacturers to find out their cable preferences (as I surmise they must use them in product-development). However, they consistently duck the issue by suggesting that cable choice is a matter of preference. Perhaps... but only to a point! No wonder we audio-enthusiasts and 'philes are generally such incurable sceptics - our hobby is saturated with endless propoganda and rank lies. Which is why Audiogon is such a great forum - it fosters some healthy bullshit-sniffing thereby allowing us to 'retaliate' against this conspiracy of lies. P.S. I do not think I suffer from paranoia, nor is this a political manifesto! I apologize for any obscenity - I am merely passionate about music and regret that the hobby is often bedevilled by the issues I have raised.
I have the same Proceed components along with B&W N802s,805s. After trying Audioquest, Tara, Synergistic, MIT, I decided on Stealth cables as mentioned in the previous posts. Started with eval'ing the speaker and ended up with using them throughout my system. The best sound out of my system so far. Also, adding Powersnakes to the Proceed is highly recommended. Good luck...
Just wanted to check in. From my experience, most cables sounds right in some systems, and not others(some seem bad always). You have to try and see. I agree that there are many $300 cables that sound better than $1200 cables(you guys are right about Coincident). But there is one cable I am always on here touting, only because I see no one else talking about it. I think many of us should try it, assuming they have the right system for it. Pure SOLID SILVER interconnect from HomeGrownAudio. Their version of Kimber KCAG(and we know that can be great cable in many systems), using solid core wire in place of the stranded Kimber. It also features pure Teflon insulation. $70 for 1 meter, terminated!!! Yes, you read that right! The fact is that cable SHOULD cost this much. Not 10X this. They also offer a money back guarantee. There is nothing to lose, and it loses NOTHING to any other cable. Hoping to spread the word...