New to this forum but, I was curious what the consensus is regarding the best speaker cables to use with the powered Tritons? I know this can be a hot topic for some however, I do find that different cables can make a big difference in the quality of sound from any speaker. I currently run Transparent but, I was curious about Nordost, Cardas, Wireworld or any others people have had great success with? Thank you...Dlany

Dlany,

I have tried Belden, Audioquest, Nordost, and AntiCables. Nordost sounded great but for $2,000?!?! There is a lot of other gear I would prefer to have over a set of speaker cables. To put it into perspective, I could have a SuperSub XXL for the same price as a pair of 2 meter Heimdall speaker cables.

I took a chance on AntiCables when they had a sale and I am absolutely pleased with their sound! They're not as good as the Heimdall, but I think I got a 6 foot pair of the level 3 speaker wires for about $130 on clearance. The new Level 3.1 is a little more and issupposed to sound a bit better, but this is an easy recommendation for me. Hands down the best bang for the buck speaker wires I have tried.

Cheers,

T Cobe

P.S. Welcome to the forum!

Welcome to the forum Dlany. I'm using Belden 5T00UP (purchased from blue jeans cables). As I'm sure you're aware, there is much debate in the audio community over the legitimacy or lack thereof of costly cables and snake oil. Personally I tend to lean heavily in the camp that states that "wire is wire" (in the case of speaker cables).

GDHAL,

I use the Belden 10 gauge 5T00UP for my center channel and have used it for my left/right mains as well. It is a good speaker wire. I did a fair amount of experimenting with the Belden and other wires. What I have found in my listening is that the differences are subtle but they are audible. I have found that I prefer the sound of fewer, thicker strands of wire. I also used to be of the mind that wire is wire, but hearing is believing, for me.

You could easily, and for low cost, experiment with this in your system. You can pick up a roll of 18-8 sprinkler wire at your local home improvement store and use that against your Belden and see if you can hear a difference. I would use one length of the 18-8 wire for the positive and another for the negative. Make sure the individual 18 gauge wires are solid core and not stranded. With your setup, I'd be surprised if you did not hear a difference.

To my ear, the Belden is a bit less transparent and seems to roll off a bit of the top end as compared to the Nordost Heimdall, AntiCables Level 3, and even the 18-8 sprinkler wire. The Belden has great low frequency response and is a solid choice for very low cost. If you cannot hear a difference between the Belden and costlier options, than you're golden!

A pair of terminated Belden 6' speaker wires from BlueJeans Cables with locking banana connectors is about $70. My AntiCables were about $60 more and to my ear, worth every penny. We are talking about 2 very reasonably priced cables in the grand scheme. Now that you have your setup fine tuned, it may be worth investigating. Your local GET dealer would probably even lend you a variety of cables to experiment with if you don't want to spend any money up front.

Cheers,

T Cobe

Good advice T Cobe. You and I have had one or two back-and-fourths regarding speaker cable here on the forum in months gone past.

To your point about subtle but audible differences, I have no doubt you are correct. One can debate, however, whether or not the subtle change is an "improvement" or merely a "difference". I'm not up for that debate at the moment, but if you found something that works to your liking, by all means continue with it.

With regard to the solid core or stranded, there is a lot of reading that can be found on audiogon concerning that specific point. There too, I felt the belden cable was somewhere in the middle of the road, ideal to my way of thinking. Meaning, I believe their cable strikes the right balance between number of strands and gauge. Skin effect and bend radius are two of many factors to consider when thinking of one large solid strand of cable.

I've even read up on the concept of "doubling" speaker wire (i.e. two wires in parallel). As I use bare ends of the wire, the binding posts on both the Tritons and my amp wouldn't accept an effective gauge that large, but there are manufacturers that design cables that way.

Anyway, to the OPs point of the thread, I think it would be fair to conclude there is no "best" when it comes to speaker cables. Depending on budget, time, desire and other factors that too could dictate what one would ultimately wind up with.

Perhaps at some point I'll get around to trying other cables, but I honestly do not have the time or patience right now to do any kind of "experimentation". My system sounds awesome (to my ears) already so any "tweaks" I'll defer to the future. For me, it's time to be content where audio/video is concerned.

GDHAL,

I agree on all counts! It's great fun for me and many to tweak and experiment, but in the end it's about enjoying what you have! "Best" is certainly a subjective term, as you stated. Shopping around and trying as many options within ones budget is sure to yield the best compromise.

Back to your original point, the Belden 5T00UP is a good wire and certainly worth checking out. There is a reason I use it on my center channel. The strands are quite thick and it is not the easiest wire to work with in terms of threading connections. I think I fought with my center channel connection on my new amp for 10 minutes yesterday: worth the effort!

Cheers,

T Cobe