Exotic and not so exotic speaker cable shoot out

I just ordered some QED 79 strand, which I believe qualifies, as much as any speaker cable in existence, as a well made no nonsense cable. I will compare it with my Vandenhul Revelation cables and my Grover Huffman SX cables to see just how much difference, improvement, etc. I can or cannot hear and we will have demonstrative example (cough) as to whether or not exotic cables make much of a difference. Certainly, the VDH and Grover cables offer much different construction than the QED, as well as each other, and all three represent vastly different price points for an 8' pair; 1800.00, 300.00, 32.00. I don't plan on selling any of them, so I should be somewhat less biased.

Anyone else here use the QED?

 

Sounds good. I look forward to your report.

 

+1

 

I'm using the QED purple stuff with the airlock bananas. Never thought on any need to "upgrade" - they give a solid, firm connection.

 

Looking forward.

 

Looking forward to the shoot-out!

 

Unfortunately, a little bit loose in your title for this thread, and lack of parameters for discussion.

This is a fun thing to do, and is something any audiophile in the making should try on some level. It would be nice if discussion about cables could actually happen here that would help a budding audiophile make good choices to put the finishing touches on a system.

If you find that one cable is audibly better than the other, it will only attract worn out objectivist arguments, requesting measurements, and strict DBT conditions, the same old "cables are snake oil", placebo effect, etc diatribe and brouhaha. Unless you like that sort of debate...

 

I've already stuffed myself with far too much popcorn around here, thankyouverymuch. *unsubscribing*

 

I ran QED79 for a number of years 85-88 with Celestion SL6 and a Metaxas A1 (100w class A) and was happy with the sound. I was at Uni in a country city and has taken time out from hifi.

When I finished and moved back to Brisbane, a dealer I knew well (Dave Nielan) suggested I try cable from a new company called Tara Labs - the Space and Time Phase II - with solid core Aussie copper wires.

This was a huge improvement over the QED79, and started my dislike for multi-stranded (non-Litz) speaker cable.

I predict the QED79 will be totally outclassed.

 

How much burn in time would you recommend for the 79 before sitting down for a good comparison?

 

This is true, but I will still be interested in what Kimo hears.

 

I had no clue about that back then. But fresh is not best, so give it some time before attempting the test, to be fair. Especially since the other 2 are "well done". Say 100 hours?

 

I believe their are differences in cable but the prices are not conducive to those differences. One cable might get you what you want as compared to another but paying $400 more per meter is not how it should be acheived. I know, I was a sucker at one time. My view now is to buy the middle of the road cable from any company I can afford. Company "A" has a 20 dollar a foot cable and a 300 a dollar foot cable. I find, and even this is rediculous, that the 80 dollar a foot cable will give you what you want. I made my own cable and ends and spent about 50 dollars for about 100ft of wire and they sounded wonderfull. Try it all!
Experiment and have fun, its not a joyless pursuit just a nutty one. Take care, John M.

 

It is amazing that a wire or any other component can change its character(timbre) over time and use but its true and it is something that has to be taken into account before making a final decision on anything, esp. wire...Take care, John M.

 

Me too. Sorry for the cycnical post Kimo.

 

I doubt that. QED79 is a budget cable that's been around for 30 years.

 

The Grover is around 300.00.

I have noticed that cable changes often sound to me like tube changes. For example, I will swap RCA black plate 12bh7s in my amp with Brimars. They don't sound the same, but I couldn't say which is better. Just about anyone could hear the difference, however.

 

No problem. I have been sucked into a few of those discussions, which you referenced. No more of that for me.

 

Do you mind sharing where you found the QED 79 cable? I did a quick search and everything I found was in the UK.

 

Ebay

http://cgi.ebay.com/QED-Classic-79-...CI&otn=3&po=LVI&ps=63&clkid=17399230886844615

 

The wire that has worked best for me is a military spec. wire, silver-coated copper, M22759/1189S 8 gauge, sourced from Decware High Fidelity. Took forever to open up but when it did, wow. Never heard anything like it in a system of mine.

I just bought four 8 foot pieces of wire and terminated them.

http://www.decware.com/newsite/speakercables.htm

 

I used that Phase II wire for a handful of years with an EICO HF-81 integrated amp. Was pretty good with that, but has been too bright for any other amp I've tried it with since.

 

I don't think QED 79 strand is a good choice to put up against modern specialist cables. Even 20 years ago I found moderate priced (under £10 per metre) cable that beat it by a large margin - I even found solid core UK mains cable an improvement. A more sensible idea would be to buy modest priced cable from one of the ebay/internet suppliers and compare with some expensive boutique designs.