The big audiophile dilem

In another thread on 1/18 you said that your Transparent References were a "really great match" for the Mini-Utopias. Has anything really changed in less than two weeks?

The Stage lll Concepts cables are absolutely some of the best cables I have heard at any price. I am using Nordost SPM Reference at the source and Stage lll Concepts Emperors from pre to amp. I will purchase a pair of the Stage lll Monument to replace the SPM at some point in the future. The Monuments are the Top of the line models and while not cheap, they will surely embarress many competitors whose cables cost up to 4x as much. The Emperors come close to the performance of the SPM reference, they are amazing cables and not at all "bright" like the SPM can be in some systems. They do resolve almost as well as the SPM and provides gobs of layering and micro resolution of information contained within the recording.
They are hand drawn by the owner of the small company and are completely backed by him as well; one may even trade up cables for full credit towards a new pair. The silver used is hand-drawn and crafted into very high quality jackets, then terminated with top notch ends (Cardas, WBT maybe??, don't remember exactly) they are killer though and I can tell you they can hang with the best available commercial high-end cables, no problem. Everyone trusts the big names so much that sometimes a small hand engineered product like this can go unnoticed because of mass marketed hype b.s. cable companies, well these cables are no joke, they are just amazing.

(Though I mention the interconnects above, the speaker cables share the same virtues.)

Good luck,
Chris

Well, I've plenty of experience with the JM labs stuff, and know the sound of the YBA gear as well. MY suggestion would be to go with some Harmonic Pro 11 or 9 wires, if you can spend the money they command. At that price, there's nothing that competes, really! Actually, I take that back, Acoustic Zen Satori's are in that class as well, but a bit more money overall. I've tried just about every immaginable cable out there...Nordost's stuff, Audio Quests offerings, MIT, Cardas Golden Cross, etc, etc, and I find those HT cables to be as clear, detailed, neural, and resolved as any!!...very good indeed. The pure silver cables out there for speaker wires will ALWAYS be lean sounding overall. And it's gotten to a point, with better cable designs, where the copper stuff has lot's of detail and extension if done right! Although sometimes this costs, oh well.
Other chioces for really clear sounding, ultra rez/detailed cables, w/good balance throughout, are the Audioquest cables above the Caldera's. Cardas golden Ref's are worth a try, and sounded extermely good in some of the sytems I've heard over the last few months. I assume you can spend a bit, as you have Mini Utopia's.
Good luck

Have you tried Siltect cables? They are very transparent and musical with great details. Check them out.

My local YBA/Pass Labs dealer is a custom speaker builder.
They use Focal drivers in their top speakers. They recently changed to the top Ixos cables in their reference system.
Everyone who's heard the new cables liked them - even before they were fully broken in.
Jaques Mahal visited & even he was impressed..
The speaker cable retails for $1200.00 a pair, I believe.
I have the next level down, at $200.00 a pair it beat the $600.00 XLO I was using...

Daniel