The Transparent stuff is pretty killer in my experience, but it's so damned expensive I've gone without. I have had very good experience with middle of line Audioquest cables and yes, better cables, for me, usually improve soundstaging.

I admit that ive never heard any differences with cables, but I buy them because I figure that it cant hurt anything but the wallet, and at best, it MAY help something...

Ive heard great things about the anti cable products.

http://www.anticables.com

Traditional Kimber and Transparent house sound is, IMO, pretty much at the opposite extremes of the spectrum. Kimber is excellent value by virtually anyone's standards. Transparent is not afraid to charge for their technology. I don't doubt the Transparent had improved soundstaging in comparison to the lower priced Kimber but I would have expected a fairly noticeable change in the timbre of instruments and the apparent speed of the system to come along with the change. For quite some time Transparent owned the high end cable market with only a few viable competitors, a few of whom are no longer in business. That's not the story today and Transparent is just one of many that you should audition before making a purchase. Possibly find something a tad more neutral than a budget Kimber or a decade old Transparent.

I think the Kimber Hero is a very good sounding cable, much better than their silver stuff. I use a 1 metre pair between my NAD 4155 tuner and a Bryston preamp.

About 5 years ago, I decided to try the Van den Hul carbon fiber cable (The First Ultimate) to connect my Creek CD 53 to the preamp (1/2 meter pair). I was so pleased with it that, shortly thereafter, I bought a 3 meter pair of The Second (carbon fiber, metal shield) to connect the Bryston to my Paradigm Active 40's. They are the only cable I've used for the last 5 years (all cables are single ended).I am aware that they have a "sound", and it is one that is particularly agreeable to me, ie. smooth and a little warm, but nonetheless very revealing.

On another note, I wonder if it is possible to devise a test mechanism whereby a test tone is output from a signal generator, through a particular cable, and into an oscilloscope, that would show only the difference in frequency response - rather than all the various extrapolations we now use to explain the difference in cables.

Quote:

On another note, I wonder if it is possible to devise a test mechanism whereby a test tone is output from a signal generator, through a particular cable, and into an oscilloscope, that would show only the difference in frequency response - rather than all the various extrapolations we now use to explain the difference in cables.

http://www.libinst.com/Audio%20DiffMaker.htm

Very interesting stuff.

Thanks for the link!

Audio Advisor also has some attractive deals going on right now with their Black Mamba II cables, which are made for them specifically by AudioQuest, and are the same conductor construction of the Diamondback cables, but for considerably less money.

I constructed interconnects from raw cable on a reel and added the connectors. The cables are Teflon insulated, dual conductor (one signal and one ground), with a separate shield around both conductors. The shield is grounded at one end only (carries no current), so the direction of installation of the cable might make a difference in noise reduction. Never checked whether the direction matters. Only know that the sound is better with these than stock PVC interconnects. Advantages: it's much cheaper than other cables, easy to make, and it works well.

Speaker cable: I just use twisted pair 12 or 10 AWG wire. Be careful with exotic cables. Those might interact with the power amp and cause ultrasonic oscillation or damage the amp due to the unusual electrical load. Check with your amp manufacturer whether this is the case.

Hi Jimv,

"While I had experienced more clarity in the highs and lows with different cables I had never found a soundstage change."

As a suggestion Jimv, if you want to test a difference in soundstaging, comparing mine to the Realities is a good choice. In one experiment with various musical selections, the Realities were limited in depth to the back wall (speakers approx 4 feet in front of the back wall), while with mine, the soundstage went way behind the wall. Width also changed. This was especially true with the Stereophile CD3, track 10, auditorium soundstage. The FR was quite similar. A speaker manufacturer and another gent also came to the same conclusion.

Interesting test.