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I need your expert advise

I am relatively new in the high end stuff. In fact, I am really probably more in the mid-high end with my gear. Being a novice makes deciding on speaker cables a real challenge. There are so many, all with those glowing reviews. My current system is PSB Stratus Goldi speakers, NAD Silver S100 Preamp with companion S200 amp. I currently have a NAD 515 CD player (my next upgrade). What I need is your expert advise on speaker cables. I am searching for a 10ft external bi-wire set up. I am currently using Monster Z2. They are fair but I'm sure I am missing something by not having better speaker cable. Room size is very large with cathedral ceilings. Speaker cable budget is $500-$600. I am more than willing to buy bulk cable and terminate it myself to save some $. When you are new to this hobby and don't have all the years of trial and error experience on cables, it can really be tough to make a selection. My musical taste is mostly jazz: Pat Metheny, John Coltrane, Eric Alexander etc. I like a warm but dynamic sound with deep punchy bass, smooth mid and crisp highs. I can't handle a bright, sharp or edgy sound. I play it loud. I'm thinking perhaps Geortz M1 2, Analysis Plus, MIT t2, DH Labs Q10 but I am wide open to advise from those who have been there. Any suggestions for my set up would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
boski
myraj
351 posts
 
Boski,
You did not mention your interconnects. You can have great speaker cables but if your interconnects are your weak link, your sound will only be as good as what that weakest link is capable of transferring to the next component of your system.
natalie
404 posts
 
Put the 600 into a proper source.
That will get you more bang for your buck.
Take a step back figure out how much you can put into a source.
The 600.00 you have will move you way up the digital food chain.
tacs
220 posts
 
I think Natalie's advice is good, if by "good source" s/he means good recordings. Good recordings sound good even on cheap CD players these days, expensive CD players never make bad recordings sound good and will barely scrape anything new out of good ones that your NAD won't. Cheers!
dekay's avatar
dekay
5,671 posts
 
Tacs: I am pretty certain that Natalie is referring to upgrading the CD player. Sorry, but suggesting that one limit their musical library by the quality of the recordings seems a bit ludicrous to me.

Boski: I would upgrade the player first (to something that really sings for you) and look into cable after you are familiar with the sound of the new unit.
seandtaylor99
1,262 posts
 
You did not mention what you feel is missing with your current system, just what you are looking for.
In my experience even an inexpensive ($500) CD Player will suffice for all relatively inexpensive systems (<$5000). I doubt that changing the CD player alone will give you a startling upgrade (i.e. will be low bang-for-the-buck).
Without knowing what you would like to add it's impossible to make cable recommendations. The previous post asking about interconnects was also correct ... interconnects have an equal bearing on the sound as speaker cables.
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