Good sound for not much money. Its sins are those of omission not commission.

Amen. First, do no harm.

Real science behind cabling, etc. NOT magic nonsense, with unexplainable nonsense, made up at the marketing managers meetings. and as mentioned previously, properly designed equipment can drive the connecting cables without any effects, AVA comes to mind, and look at the lengths cable effects come to play. thus the ad nonsense is just that, in pro enviorments, with long runs of wires, things start to be affected, not in home audio with 10 and under lengths. http://www.benchmarkmedia.com/caig/html/caig04.html

I've used Type 4 cable as a reference for almost 10 years. During that time, I have tried a bunch of other cables that are superior in various aspects of reproduction. But, in every instance, there were trade-offs. No other cable that I have can match the overall balance of attributes the Type 4 seems to possess.

The strength of Type 4 is in being smooth and resolving. You don't get the pitch definition of some cables, but you don't lose resolution in trying to achieve it. You don't get the authoritive bass of some cables, but you don't pay the price of dips in the mids or frequency extension. You don't get the timbral shadings of some cables, but you don't lose the bite of horns and the capture of accoustic environments.

All in all, cables work with amps and speakers differently and the room always plays a part in which cable will sound best. But, for the money, you could do a lot worse than having a run of Type 4 to use as a basis for evaluating which cables are worth spending serious money on.

The only cables I have tried that I have ended up keeping are Tara Labs Decade, Audioquest Argent and Audioquest Type 4. If I had to pick one to use for the rest of my life, it would be the Type 4...and it's by far the least expensive.

Properly designed componetns drive any otehr component, are not effected by wires, or wire parameters, some pre amps change their sound due to imporper abilty to drive the power amp, are effected by loading of some magic wire's capacitance, etc. This is not making anything any better, it is just showing the lousy design of the component that can't even deal with the load effects of extra capacitance or other paramter that anyone can call a special abilty of some piece of wire. Properly designed componetns are not effected by loading, have teh current to drive the other component, without audible changes. When you put two things together and some change is noticalble , it doesn't mean anything other than there is a problem ..hardly an improvment. But slick marketeers ahve managed to convince teh masses, that each audible DEFECT caused by poor design, is some kind of "audiophile" panecea!!! There is no sound in wire, only effects on poorly designed components. That's why pro equipment uses balanced ckts to eliminate problems. Low impedance things like guitar pickups are loaded down by cables, a pre amp and amp combo should not be affected if proeplry designed. Pono cartridges are effected, adding or subtracting loading is merely optimizing teh requirments of teh electrical ckt of teh cartridge. How one company can sell you a pice of wire for biug bucks, with no electrical spec, someone buys it, says, oh, it made my cartridge sound this or that way, so it's a great piece of wire...or a not great piece of wire. all you are doing is messing with teh loading of teh cartridge, you can do this with capacitors and resistors, for a lot less. Insane. I've tried several differet WIRES, never hear a change in my stuff..I must be DEAF, or just dumb. or maybe teh stuff is properly designed, and teh pre amp and amp is not effected by WIRES. Phono cartridges are a different thing, and that is not anything other than changing teh loading of the cartridge...How many volts ia AUGUST'S wire of the month gonna be? When it hits 120V...lets all use SPT line cords...so the insulation is rated for the use. How did Harry Olsen come up with all his acoutic SCIENCE so many years ago, that are STILL valid today so many decades later, with the WIRE he had availabe in his lab at the time? The AC outlets where non polarized, lotsa BAKELITE insulations in the test equipment( what sound is in BAKELITE?) Vacuum tube scopes!!! Maybe that did it, it's all based on TUBE sound, and TUBE visualizations!!!What kind of materials did he use to pad teh walls etc? some nice asbestos? Wool, cloth. Would he have had different findings if he used better wires?

DUP are you sure you're not related to Julian Hirsch. His mantra was "of all the receivers I've tested, this was one of them". He thought everything sounded the same.
There are lots of us who hear differences you either can't or don't. Some here have offered to demonstrate the differences in cables to you. I think it was Jeff. What's up with that Jeff? As for me I think I hear differences and so do most of my audio buddies. Being an engineer I know that there should not be differences. There is just to much experience that suggests otherwise. I hear from people who have no axe to grind and no inherent belief in different cables sounding different. When women who are non-techy say they hear differences we should attempt to find out why.
Can you guys imagine a cable that makes your significant other love your system no matter how loudly you're playing it.
When I was younger and knew everything I thought all wires sounded the same. Now that I'm older, I'm not sure what I know. Now I rule out nothing. Remember "The ears decide".
We know how you feel about wires. We don't agree with you. Please stop trying to force your mind set on us. If you consider us to be deluded, so be it. Our delusion is harmless. If you were really smart you'd make your own wire, sell it to people like us and get some real speakers to replace those Legacy's you have. Of course then you would need a decent amp maybe a SET! How about a 2A3 output tube. 2 or 3 watts should be enough for you.

Joe - DUP's setup is not conducive to changes (or perhaps even hearing changes) for a number of reasons. Some of his gear is hardwired, other pieces are positioned in a tightly spaced rack making swaps very difficult, and a few of the components are routed through other components. I suspect the subtle nuances that I detect and notice in my simpler system would be masked in DUP's. He enjoys his music, and that's the important thing. I just don't think his system, as presently configured, would deliver the delicacy, subtleties, and nuances that cause the frissons many of us crave.

Hi Jeff, I was just pulling DUP's chain a little. Considering the way he rags on any one who doesn't worship at the shrine of AVA and Legacy, it's only fair.

I am in envy of the great marketeers of wire and wire magic, how they have pulled it off for such great profits. Each one with their own blend of magic twists and turns and magic braids, yet they all claim superiority but do it all differently. One freezes and heats, others heats and freezes. Some use air, some us vacuum, some use Teflon some use some other magic voltages, 72V and climbing, started at 12V? When will it be optimized? 120V, plugged into teh wall with a step down transformer I think I just gave them next months magic wire blend. New critter names each 6 months, with new snake skin wrap..only to see previous wrap at the closeout stor list for 1/2 off, what a deal. Belden, Hosa, Cnnere, ProCo sound,few others make wire products that are used in real reality based enviorments...they get walked on, yanked on, have to keep working. Nuetrik, Switchcraft, make the connectors No magic blends, just good design based on reality.

Quote:
Belden, Hosa, Cnnere, ProCo sound,few others make wire products that are used in real reality based enviorments...they get walked on, yanked on, have to keep working. Nuetrik, Switchcraft, make the connectors No magic blends, just good design based on reality.

Funny that you should mention Hosa, since they are purveyers of cheap cables with molded ends that absolutely will not stand up to the types of abuse you've described.

I work in the live sound field, and the main reason why cork-sniffer wire has not taken hold in that industry is MONEY. Even a small sound system has hundreds of feet of wire, anything exotic there would add significantly to the cost of the system. Try to imagine what a Kimber KCAG prosound snake would cost with 56+ channels of balanced lines running 200 feet or more?

I have had the AQ "Argent" since 1996. I have tried several $10,000+ speaker wires in the interim (Nordost, Tara, Synergistic Research, Cardas, the latest AQ's, etc.) and none have offered any improvement. I can sit down, squint and worry, analyze and meditate, and hear some differences. But no improvements. The middle-of-the-line Synergistic Research sounded the closest to the Argent, tiny differences being the most difficult to discern, and for about the same cost. I guess that would be my second choice. But why bother? The money is better spent elsewhere.

I like the Argent really well and keep it around for future use. The problem that it presents in my situation is the authoritive bass, which is not a knock on the Argent by any means. It's just that in my current situation, I have my system running in my home office, which is relatively small and I can easily overwhelm the room with bass, which in turn muddies the mid band. I have no doubt that the Argent would prove to be much more to my liking in a larger room, which I will eventually end up doing when my crumb cruncher gets a little older.

The Tara Decade has such a unique sonic signature that I can't bring myself to sell it. It is by far the most different sounding cable that I have ever used.

If it had any benefits to improving the sound you can be sure a quality installation would use em'. and I'm sure could make a deal on prices, since can really think the stuff is actually selling for a price based on what it costs to make? What really is? The hype nonseense on the magic wire of the month is incredible. 72V at AQ last month, waiting for the next voltage level which of course is better sounding than last months's level.If I change my line cord, but don't change the AC power switch on the component, doesn't the magic get stuck in non magic switch contacts? What kind of wire is used at HOB Chicago? Seen an article about it's EXCELLENT sound based on EV flying speakers....what kind of amps, cables etc? In Junes system contractor magazine, i was there last month, it is certainly the better sounding of over 10 places I've frequented. Seen B.B. Kng with John Meyer..AND seen my friend MATT OREE WIN!! The BIG ONE www.mattoree.com The stage, the lighting the SOUND where great, no mud, no shrill, EV speakers, some 18inch woofers cus' the designer knows to move air, it takes lotsa area of driver, it does it sounding real good.

funny all the marketing for this wire...and i have yet to get my simple question answered.....WHAT IS THE CAPACITANCE FOR THIS WIRE PF/METER??????????