Cable suggestions for Martin Logan

See my system below:

-Martin Logan ReQuests.
-Krell FPB 600.
-Krell KRC/Reference Phono.
-Sony SCD-1.
-Old VPI table, SME3009 arm, and various cartridges.
-All interconnects, speaker cables: Pure Note Epsilon Reference, www.purenote.com.

I have been a fan of pure silver cables until now. I have tried the usual; Silver Smith, Silver Audio, Acoustic Zen, Empirical Audio, etc. There was always an unreal presence with silver cables. I moved on to Nordost, the Quatro-fil did not impress. I borrowed a pair of Valhalla from a friend but they lacked body. I read about the Pure Note buzz, I figured with a free trial, why not. A pair of 1m i/c is only $800. The Pure Notes finally did it for me. They are the first cables that sound like music in my system. No edge, liquid midrange, black background, well focused stage.

I had the Martin Logan Aerius i and used Goertz AG1 (silver) on the panel and their copper MI cable on the bass. This was an excellent and cost effective combination since silver cables, for whatever reason, work wonders with ML speakers. Since it requires almost no power to drive the electrostatic panel, the smallest diameter, lowest cost AG1 is fine for the panels and you can match the output of your power amp to the copper MI cables,using the MI 1, MI 2 or MI 3 at a very reasonable cost.

Have VAC amps and AI pre (tubes) with my ML Aeries(SP). Use and love XLO 5.1 speaker cables. FYI JPS interconnects. Hope this helps.

Martin Logan uses MIT and Transparent through their reference system and the factory. ( per- recent stereophile interview ) You may want to try moving further up the MIT food chain?

I sort of specialize in electrostats, as an owner of and dealer for Sound Labs and owner of Quad 57's. I conducted a rather extensive search of speaker cables to find what worked well, and found that cables with wide, flat geometries which minimize skin effect (such as the Goertz mentioned above) work the best. Such a geometry audibly improves clarity and dynamic contrast by reducing time smear (more significant with an electrostat than with less coherent designs), and since a flat cable has absolutely zero series inductance that delicious top-end air of the electrostats is preserved. Their typical low impedance at high frequencies makes electrostats especially sensitive to being dulled by a cable with series inductance.

The best speaker cable I found in its price range is the Magnan Signature, so I became a Magnan dealer. The Magnan Signature is probably the ultimate expression of the wide, flat geometry. I also like Goertz and Analysis Plus (and sell the latter), both of which take steps to minimize skin effect and series inductance. In my experience networked cables don't work particularly well with electrostats (I used to have MIT Terminiator 2's and MH-770's, and have tried others). I find most Nordost cables to sound thin with electrostats, with the notable exception of the superb Valhalla.

One of my Martin-Logan customers tells me that it's worthwhile to use the Magnan Signature on both the panels and woofers, which gets a bit pricey. I would have thought you could get away with just using the MagSigs on the panels, but he says the improvement in coherence is significant. So, for what it's worth, I pass that along as a vote in favor of using the same cable on both woofer and panel.

Best of luck to you, Sugarbie!