Any speaker cable's sound quality just blown you away?


Among all of the tons of speaker cable out there, which model has stood out in your mind as the best that you have ever heard, and why? If you remember the audio system (especially the speakers) that you heard them with should prove to me most informative. What was the configuration (i.e. single run, shot-gun, bi-wire, or tri-wire), and the length? We know most are looking for a great cable at a little price, while we all dream of the ultimate cable in our audio system. And with so many companies out there making good stuff, it seems that more offen than not, the best sounding cable, though definitely not the cheapest, is not the most expensive either. What is your experience?
wenterprisesnw
I disagree with Mr. Campbell. (though I still think he's a great guy). I was actually blown away when I replaced my nordost red dawn/harmonic tech/analysis+ cabling with all nordost quattro-fil i/c's and spm speaker cable. My friend who was there too was blown away too. My system's resolution increased tremendously. (it should have given the cost increment!) Much more of a difference than I would have thought possible. I find these cables simply increased the resolution of the system. I did try several other cables, and to me, they were the best. This initial test was done using ARC vt100m2, ARC Ref 1, and Vandersteen 5's.

I also used these with audio physic virgo's, magnepan 1.6QR's, and now audio physic avanti-centuries. They just have this grain free, very open, high resolution quality to them. Some other silver cables had the same high resolution, but at the expense of this graininess or harshness.

Some speakers which emphasize low level detail a little less, like the vandersteens (and the magnepans), do not benefit as much. Others such as the Audio Physic avanti-centuries, see enourmous benefits. I'm not knocking vandersteens or magnepans - they excell over the AP's in other areas. (bass and orchestral soundstage)

One thing I found interesting is that my magnepan 1.6's and some borrowed wolcott p220's produced some of the best sound I have ever heard using these cheap brown and black kimber biwire cables I obtained on a trade. Magnepans have this slight (very), very low level background noise to them that seems to make big-dolla speaker cables less effective.
I found out Home Depot is clearing out their 'audiophile quality' cables and interconnects. I bought two 25 ft. rolls of Carol 16 ga. silver plated OFC wire for $10.00 each. WOW! Best bang for the buck, gentlemen...
Take a look inside your amplifier. See what type of wire the designer has used to connect the output stage to the binding posts. Regardless of whom the manufacturer is, I'd be surprised if it's anything more than Belden or something along those lines. Take a look at the wires inside your speakers, connecting the binding posts to the crossover, and on to the drivers.

Now imagine a two-lane road going to a four-lane bridge, and then back to a two-lane road on the other side. Doesn't make much sense, does it?

Anything over $300 retail for speaker cables is excessive.
Guess I'm very "excessive" based on the previous post :)

MIT Oracle V2/Spectral Ultra Wide-Band.

Phenomenal speaker cables.

Destroyed Synergistic Designer's Reference, which are very highly rated.

Yes, they are VERY expensive, but awesome in the right system.
Read the rather lengthy thread for the Sakura Systems OTL cable half way down the cables page. This 'modest' wire as a revelation.