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Cables for a high-school newbie

Im on an extreemly tight budget. My goal for cables is simply to open up my current system, tighten the bass, and sharpen immaging, i dont want to color the sound at all (well, maybe a tad bit darker to counter the metal dome tweeters on my speakers). I have a sony cd player, Onkyo Tx 8211 reciever and a pair of NHT SB-3s (best speakers under $1k i've heard... and they're only $400 new if you shop around). are cables worth the dough at this level or not, and if so what brands should i be looking at? I need both interconnects and speaker cables. I listen to rock, small group jazz, metal (too bad metalheads can't figure out how to make a decent recording), and classical in that order.
thanks for the help
dk89
bignerd100
515 posts
 
I wouldn't call the Absolute Sound review of the extension cord "very positive," but cables are not going to change your set-up as much as a new receiver/integrated amp. If your budget allows for $400 towards an amplifier of some sort it may be worth looking at an NAD, Cambridge Audio, Rotel, etc. Then you can use an extension cord for wire. Or go to a local hi-fi shop and get installation 14/2 for $0.50/ft. It is OFC, CL-3 rated, and usually the same ugly orange color as an extension cord.

Good luck!
dopogue
1,773 posts
 
Sorry, Bignerd, if you didn't think that review was very positive, I honestly can't believe you read it. Dave
psychicanimal
1,738 posts
 
I second Albert's suggestion. I had my little sister get some cables from Blue Jeans. Canare terminals are very decent for the money and when professionally terminated real sweet.

For "taming" the tweeter I suggest you look at what you feed the tweeter instead. My first suggestion would be to use a deep-treated cryogenic outlet for the system (Albert sells some treated at NASA). Second would be a little ONEAC 3 amp isolation transformer for the CD player (around $15-20 used in eBay). Third would be some good isolation cones for the CD player. Since you have metal domes I'd go for something like DH Labs cones, which don't tend to ring in the very high frequencies.

Check this out:

Power conditioning and cryo treatment

Fourth, don't let anyone look down on your Onkyo. Get some contact cleaner and use it as is.

With psychic power and primal intensity,
jpainter236's avatar
jpainter236
115 posts
 
Agree with other........Signal Cable!!!! Frank is great!!!!!
stehno
1,453 posts
 
I second the Paul Spetlz Anti-cable ($60 for 6ft pair) and Anti-ic (about $60 for 1m RCA pair and $100 for 1m XLR pair).

Some of the best cables you may ever hear. The Anti-cables were slightly better than my highly rated $1800 (retail) bi-wired cables and the Anti-ics made my old $4700 (retail) ics sound bloated and veiled in comparison.

I'm not using the Anti-cables anymore but I keep a complete set of Anti-cables for backups. Which were just loaned out to one who is now ordering his own complete set.

Thus far, these are the second best cable I've heard, they require zero burn-in time and the ics easily outperformed some Signal silver sig ics I've tried.

-IMO
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