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Have magnepan mg12s. Need speaker cable recommendations. How about entry level cardas, etc? Amp is rogue audio cronus. ger.
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Goertz is the best stuff I have found...period. It works wonders with planar speakers in particular giving a much deeper soundstage with better image precision and the bass fundament is deeper AND better controlled than other speaker cables I have auditioned (that would be a lot).
Now, I use only Goertz ribbon cables, silver for interconnects and copper for speaker cables, although I would love to try the silver speaker cables as well.
I'd have to agree. I use a 2" wide ribbon made of various thicknesses of ordinary magnet wire adding up to 12ga.
To this date, nothing has bettered its ability to allow great bass (I hardly use the subwoofer), delightfully crystal clear highs (just shy of true ribbons) and soundstage with 3D imaging that is to die for.
I pinch myself every now and then that this comes from a pair of 13 year-old, original-model MMGs. Sure, bi-amping them at line level helps, and so does the frame reinforcement. However, if the cables did not allow things through, the upstream effort would be less worth it.
I tried the "anti cables" and they were OK for a while, then I tried some AQ cables and they were much fuller and deeper sounding to my ears. There's a lot of good recommendations here....but I would audition some AQ if you can get your hands on them. I found a good deal on some used AQ Mt Blanc, they are wonderful!! Good Luck.
I use 10 foot runs of harmonic tech pro-9, I believe it is called. Part of reason for ownership of those cables is a cat I used to have that loved to chew on cables. Go for it with those. jacketed very nicely.
Organic, wholesome, defined and full in the bass, mid and upper mids can glow and sparkle they are so nice. Musical. Not an analytic type cable.
/ optimally proportioned triangles are our friends
The best 2 options short of spending a few $k are:
1. Magnepan's special order speaker hookup wire for the 12's. These are only available in 6" tuned polarity pairs. One places the power amp smack between the front-to-front 12's and there is usually good space left for the listener's head on a thin recliner. Order the blue type for this normal orientation. For listening to the pole piece, ask for the purple style.
2. Car battery jumper cables, terminated with banana ear plugs available from Chiquita Audio Specialties. Guaranteed never to be too bright.
Hi. J
Can you give me a link to "Chiquita Audio Specialties". :-)
Take care.....old guy
You know, OG42, at one time I thought that you had the 12s...I almost sent you this wire recipe. It turned out that you have MMGs, after all. The banana ear plugs are not good for MMGs.
So, I am sending you the "toothpaste cable tweak" that works so well with my MMGs. Dawnrazor is going to kill me for prostituting his magwire formula once again!
Anyway, the original tweak avoided the new whitening stuff that they now add, which keeps messing speaker balance. Sure, I am now getting superb imaging & soundstage results with "Crest 3D White". But what good is it if I have to turn my seat towards my neighbor's side! It is now almost impossible to get good'ol basic toothpaste.
Take care! (oh, I am still writing the descriptions for the other stuff.)
Hi. J
I appreciate your wanting to share the "toothpaste tweak", but I thought that was Dawnrazor's "Double secret proprietary tweak". You might be in hot water if you share!!!
"Crest 3D White"...LOL
OG42, sorry but the toothpaste tricks are (really) a traditional thing of mine. My friends still kid me about it since my college days.
It all started with the first magnetic cartrige I was able to afford for my turntable. It was an Empire. The sucker had lousy tracking at any reasonable weight. Then I read somewhere that Empire hardly used damping for the stylus shaft. I had nothing else at hand, so I figured that toothpaste could do the trick for a test. It sure did!
After that, I used it as temporary damping in a number of other electronic things.
Word got out the day that one of my friends was in my room listening to Carmina Burana. He joked that the recording was so clear that he could actually "smell fresh mint" from the singers' breath. I was dumb enough to tell about the toothpaste.
Years later, my friends made sure to tell my soon-to-be wife! Since then, when something needs fixing she always asks me if I tried the toothpaste.
The moral of that story is surely ... friends may be friends but you never ever share that sort of personal info with them! :-))
I learned that 40 years ago when I was foolish enough to send a letter (yes, waaay before email! :-)) ) to a school-mate of mine who had announced he was engaged. I admonished him for doing something that stupid, saying his amorata was surely only after his money. Several years later, when I myself was married, my wife and I stayed for a weekend with this school-friend ... who proceeded to bring out this letter! :-(( It was a "difficult" weekend! :-))
Regards,
Andy
They do tend to have a lurking life of their own, don't they? There are a couple of those out there that I wrote in my youth. I've always, amusingly, feared that they will pop up at their right "worst moment".
Luckily, all they could prove is that I was once young and foolish. Since then, I can claim, I have improved 50% plus, since I am no longer the former. LOL
.
Go to Menards and buy some 14 gauge speaker cable. It's cheap and sounds just as good as premium cable.
Mag wire can be found on the Internet.
Edits: 09/23/12
Magnet wire works for me, using 16 gauge, twisted, 4'-5' long each. The OP should first check his local electronics supplier or motor rewind shop, they usually carry the larger gauge stuff. And if he can, try to use it without any extra termination, just bare wires.
The rigidity of the wire is actually a plus. Placed on minimum elevators, it can be bent to clear everything between amp and speakers. I use cotton balls to rest my wire on ceramic elevators, held down by rubber bands.
Most any wire cutter will work. The only 'tricky' part is twisting wire. I used a drill for this. Don't worry about them shorting-out after twisting. That 'enamel' is tough and will not short. Then you need to strip the ends of the enamel for termination. I used a sharp knife and scraped lightly.
[LOL, we're just messing around. If Neo needs to find about cutters at this stage, I am still trying to learn how to tie shoe laces. BTW, we have to get you some cap values for the other project thing.]
Back on topic, of course that with 12's things are different than with other Maggies. When cutting wire for them, ordinary cutters may cut by crushing the wire. A thin edgy end is then left along the diameter of the wire. This will cause glaring highs and kill imaging attributes...with this model ONLY.
To avoid this with the 12s, sharp shears are better. More so with when using the ideal 6ga wires for these Maggies. A fast "snip" action usually works fine after the first dozen pair of shears.
Pointing the shears to a true magnetic north and touching the left ear while cutting is said to work best.
.
It's not hard to find - you can buy 3 spools of mag wire at Radio Shack for $7.99. Inflexibility problems are the same as with Anti-Cables though.
Edits: 09/23/12
I would probably recommend the Speltz Anti-Cables too. I've had good experiences with them & 1.6s. But you need to be aware that they are not flexible (& don't lay flat) like traditional cables & for that reason can be a nuisance in some settings. If they are not to your liking I'd recommend some mid-range cables from AudioQuest (which you can often get for a good price on Audiogon or eBay) which would work perfectly well until you start to get familiar with your system's sound. At that point you may get the tweak bug & start changing different elements of the system - or you may not. Either way I don't think it's worth spending big money on cabling until you've really got to know you setup & it's sound.
Easy fix. For your needs I would suggest you stick with Speltz AntiCables and leave it be at that. I have used these with my 1.6s and compared to the much more expensive Kimber 8TC (Ann. version) with expensive WBT and Furutech connectors I found the difference not to be worth going beyond the AntiCables.
Tellurium Q Blue
Entry level but very good
I use them with my 3.6
Alan
I have silver cables throughout, but the price of silver is very high.
I've read that gold refined to 9 decimal place purity with a carbon nano-tube latice to be just the ticket. But you have to use at least 15 feet @ 10 gauge to make it work. Shotgun is even better!For those of you who have not caught on, this poster gives every reason to believe that they are after something other than an answer to an innocent question. Never responds after littering the forum with endless vapid inquiries. Never bothers to thank anyone who takes the time to answer.
Of course we can choose to stop being taken in.
Tom Waits, Cooler than you for thirty years.
Edits: 09/23/12
Opus 104
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