Speaker Cables? Your input kindly requested.

You should try the older Audioquest Midnight speaker cables since it will cure your harshness problem. Also it will make the presentation more musical.

here are a couple if suggestions. you really should look at your interconnects first ( they are the first to see and effect the signal )

speaker cables are important but i would start with the interconnects first.

try one pair cardas quadlink or cross between your cd & pre and maybe a pair of transperent musiclink plus or super (very smooth and coherant)between the pre to amp. the cardas is very warm and full bodied with excellent bass. I have reacently sold my balanced musiclinks pluses because my system was a little too laidback. dont be afraid to mix and match your interconnects, i tried all cardas, xlo, tara and transpearent. the best result i got was the cardas between pre to amp and xlo beteen cd to pre. the transpearant musiclink plus was very close to the cardas but i preferred the warmth of the cardas. the xlo was very revealing.

for speaker cable i would try some used xlo type 5 or 6 depending on budget.believe it or not i have read very good things on the monster 2.2 or 2.4s (biwire). i am not a monster company person but from what i have read( audio review)and people that i have corresponded with, they appear to be a good cable ( again check audio review)

note on biwiring: if a someone says it doesnt make a differnce, believe me it does. take some home and listen for yourself.

however, it should be a true bi-wire. either 2 pairs of cable or a shotgun design ( 2 pairs of cables that share a common termination at the amp end). some maunfactures take it a step further and even seperate the positive and negative cable ( i am selling a pair of tara master generation 1 here on audiogon if you want to see a picture). i am not trying to sell them to you,please note i would strongly suggest upgrading your interconnects before your speaker cables.

i hope that helps out.

best regards,

mike

Those are some great ideas. Thanks so much.

As far as the ICs, Mitch, I plan on upgrading those soon after speaker cables.

I see some AQ Bedrock bi-wires for sale here for resonable. Do you think those would improve over my Transparent wave 100s?

I may scrounge up a bit more money for some used AQ Calderas....I have heard good things about these cables.

Again thanks so much for the info.

Mikesinger hit the nail on the head. If you are having HF harshness, the IC's will most likely solve this, not the speaker cables.