Electrostatic speaker cables...

Propagation speed????? You must be joking. This is not a common-clock digital system. This is analog audio for kripes sake! Series inductance is the most important parameter, followed by capacitance and dielectric absorption.

If you need a low-inductance, low capacitance cable, Which you do, this is a hard combo to come by. Most manufacturers dont even publish their numbers because they are so abbysmal. Here are the numbers on my cable for comparison (I consider this low inductance, moderate capacitance) I have quite a few customers with electrostatics - single-wired too:

At 10 kHz: L = .033 UH/foot, C = 118 pF/foot.

Nordost Valhalla comes close to this - measurements were published in Stereophile.

Bear: Velocity of propagation of cables IS quite pertinent in RF applications if you want to do things "right". Using cables cut to random lengths without factoring in the velocity factor can introduce errant vswr readings and alter the load impedance that the transmitter sees. This can be used to ones' advantage though if you are trying to use the cable as an impedance transformer.

Audioengr: The specs for your cables ( Empirical Audio ) are very similar to those of Kimber 8TC. The specs i've seen on these show .03 mH / 100 pF per foot. Their nominal impedance is 17 ohms. Electrically speaking, your cables and the Kimber 8TC's should load up relatively identically ( for all practical purposes ). Sean
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Bear, how bout the specs on your cables? you said they were both low capacitance and low inductance; can you give us the measurement?

UPDATE: I've done a lot of mulling over cables, and wasn't really sure what to do. I almost "rented" some cables from the Cable Co. www.fatwyre.com , but by the time I auditioned the cables I wanted to audition, and then paid FULL price for the cables I ultimately decided on, I decided against it (see their policy to see how they work).

From this thread, I started a private email conversation with Bear at BearLabs, and ordered some of his silver ICs and speaker cables. I just got them today... and they are AWESOME. I went from "Acoustic Research" ICs and MIT4 biwired cables to his Silver Lightning and Thunder, and my system has opened up. The music is much more enjoyable at lower levels. It sounds like it's been released from some kind of constraint. Or, like some kind of cover or haze has been removed. Much clearer, which really effects the lower and background instruments and voices. The music sounds freed...

I'm very very happy. The whole package (two sets of ICs, two sets of speaker cables) cost me somewhere under $1300. What a deal!

Just thought I'd share my findings on Bear's cables. The improvement was obvious. And that is a big deal for me, since I hardly heard the difference when I upgraded my CD player.

Dennis, it seems you had a similar experience to mine with the Bearlabs/Stators combination... But then, Bear uses stators too doesn't he? Strangely, in my present dynamic/dipole speaker configuration the full Bearlabs set has two competitors: S-Lightning + Valhalla and S-Lighting + Kharma (the next to top). My little system can't tell which is best; my banker can and I remain, with the Bearlabs (or is it, "I remain, clueless" ;)).
Cheers