Anyone try Acoustic Research Pro cables?

One of my buddies sent me his Acoustic Research cables to "burn" for him on my Mobie. He absolutely HATED them. I hooked them up when i got them and found them to be dead, lifeless and lacking any form of spacial or ambience cues. On the other hand, they were bright as could be in his system. Go figure. I've got them on my burner and will be taking them off this weekend. I'll give them another listen then, but i'm not expecting much....

Cables are VERY system and personal taste dependent. As i pointed out, how specific cables sound in System A might have very little correlation to what they do in System B. I had the same results with Analysis Plus Oval 9 speaker cables. Many people find them to be an incredible bargain. I absolutely hated them. Once again, "go figure".... Sean
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I bought some for a Rotel receiver, CD, Tape Deck, Phono setup I put together for my parents (they're not audio nuts, they just want sound). For the money they are better than the cheap OEM stuff they give away free with Hifi gear, especially in the higher frequencies. They are not much better than OEM cables for bass. (Probably why Sean found them bright.) They are shielded and grounded properly, so they are better then OEM cables in that department. If the choice was between them and the lower end Monster stuff, I would save the money and get the AR.

Sugar, i thought they sounded dull and flat in the system that i installed them in. The owner of these cables found them bright, harsh and glaring. In terms of comparing them to Monster, i would not doubt if Monster actually made these for AR / Recoton.

The design of the cables that i have here is quite "valid" from a technical standpoint. They use twisting and shielding to maximize RFI rejection. I just don't know about the quality of materials used ( insulators and copper ). The connectors are of pretty good quality. The owner was going to throw the cables out but save the connectors, so that should tell you something... Sean
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Compared with what most of us consider decent cables, I agree. For someone wanting something better than the $2 OEM variety, they are fine. That system for my parents; other than the Rotel receiver, is all Onkyo gear and a Dual turntable and some decent Boston Accoustic speakers. For this kind of system whether audio or HT, I would think these are fine. The cheap cables caused a humm, so I got the AR and it went away. So the ground and shield is better.