Overwhelmed! Please advise me on speaker cables

Cyrus	Posted on Monday, September 15, 2003 - 18:50 GMT Im not an audiophile but i do enjoy good sound. It seems speaker cables can range from really cheap to the price of a new car. What the hell is up with that?! Anyway, i have nad 752 with magnepan mmg. Cable suggestions for under $150 (hopefully way under)? Also, what is the best price/performance point for cables? thanks!
Max	Posted on Monday, September 15, 2003 - 19:48 GMT Hey, well first off stay away from like radio shck cables and stuff. I suggest going with monster cable which is a little pricey but its worth it and you get what you pay for. If you just need speaker cables for 2 mains I suggest you get the monster cable Z1's they are about 80$ for 2 cables already with pins connected. Or if you want to go cheaper try monster cable original. Either way monster cable is good stuff and you will notice that you can turn your amp up louder and feed more clean power to your speakers. Good luck, Max
Monster Ripoff	Posted on Monday, September 15, 2003 - 20:27 GMT Expensive cables are a waste....particularly Monster cables..You could get quality cables at a fraction of the cost of Monster...I will enjoy reading the responses to this question..
Max	Posted on Tuesday, September 16, 2003 - 00:35 GMT Hey, I am not going to disagree with that at all!! Thing is I only know of monster cables and I am clueless as to other good cables. Can you tell us some of them and where to buy these? Thanks, Max
Max	Posted on Tuesday, September 16, 2003 - 00:37 GMT Hey, Please use your real name too so I dont have to keep calling you monster ripoff because its stupid.
Cable Guy	Posted on Tuesday, September 16, 2003 - 00:59 GMT Here is an interesting page... http://2eyespy.tripod.com/myaudioandhometheaterhomepage/id3.html
Max	Posted on Tuesday, September 16, 2003 - 01:59 GMT Hey, Dude that guy has no idea what the hell he is talking about. I know for an absolute fact that certain speakers have a break-in period. Just ask ANY axiom owner or any body else who uses aluminum cones. I also know for a fact that better speaker cables make a difference. I actually did a home test to prove it to myself. I went out and bought some 14gauge RadioShack speaker wire for about 15 bucks for 30 yards. I also purchased some 14gauge monster cable for about 35 bucks for about the same amount. I cleanly connected the radio shack cable and listened closely, when I cranked the volume to -49 the amp shut down, there were no problems with anything, like frayed ends,etc.. Put on the monster cable and it sounded much smoother but the real proof was when I cranked it, I used the same cd and exact same part of the song as I did with the Radio shack stuff. I got it to -22 before shutting down!!If thats not proof I dont know what is....Max
Hawk	Posted on Tuesday, September 16, 2003 - 03:19 GMT Cyrus: You have my dream system--my congratulations on a great purchase. I had the MMGs on their 60 day trial before I decided on the NAD, but my wife could not live with the relatively large size of the MMGs (sigh!). I really don't like to get into these arguments over cable--I don't think they are very productive and many people take it far too seriously (both ways). Some people hear real improvement with expensive cables and some don't. I accept both evaluations. I would suggest any good quality speaker wire, either the Monster Cable XP (20' of 16 gauge wire for $15.00) or the AR Performance Series Speaker Wire (50' of 16 gauge wire for $19.99 at Best Buy) are both going to give you all you need. I use both right now and have been very satisfied with both products. They are an improvement over the stock speaker wire from Home Depot, et al., but further improvements, sonically, can be hard to hear as you spend more. You may wish to experiment with more expensive wire after you have lived with the more basic wire I recommend. If you hear an improvement, then go for it, but I wouldn't spend more immediately until you have a good baseline with which to judge. The Maggies are one of the few speakers that are so revealing that you may hear an improvement with more expensive cables. There is some benefit to Premium Speaker Wire if you go to the silver coated speaker wires as the silver prevents the corrosion that occurs over time (I have some older Monster Cables that must be a 12 gauge product with clear jackets and they look like something died in there--I have retired them). But you will pay a real premium for silver coated speaker wires and I question whether they are worth it. It is actually cheaper to replace your speaker wire every five years than buy the silver coated wire. Cheers!
Cyrus	Posted on Tuesday, September 16, 2003 - 06:05 GMT Thanks guys I went out and bought Monster Mseries CX2 for $75/pr. Then another $25 for 8 banana connectors. I think im gonna return these and take Hawks advise and save some dough. these mmgs are further compounding my confusion. it seems that banana and spade connectors will not work with them. manual says to use bare wire. am i stuck with using bare wire cable? if somebody can shed some light regarding this aspect of the mmgs it would be greatly appreciated.
Max	Posted on Tuesday, September 16, 2003 - 13:15 GMT Hey, I live in minnesota and maggies are made here arent they? I think in like white bear lake. I know a few people who have some they are super.
Hawk	Posted on Tuesday, September 16, 2003 - 15:21 GMT Cyrus: Hey, use bananas with the MMGs! My MMGs had banana only connectors. They plug right in and it makes it easier when you experiment with the tweeter placement (the manual says put the tweeters on the inside, but I found I liked the sound better with the tweeter ribbon on the outside--makes for a wider soundstage). Get some Monster Cable XP with a set of Monster banana connectors and it will work great!

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