Sh Members help me with Speaker Wire

SH Members-i have had the same speaker wire for 20 years-some monster cable.my speakers are roughly 5 feet away from respective Marantz mono blocks.First-should the wire be only 5 feet long what if i want to move the speakers further apart.Second at this time i admittedly have lousy speakers and will be upgrading to Martin-Logans later in the year-what speaker wire do you recommend
thanks

Spotlightkid

 

SH-somewhere that after i get my new speakers i will say that i am happy i got the wire i did-i'm not talking $1000 wire.besides i think many people on the forum know what a good value is.My amps will crank out 180wpc into 4 ohms.

 

There's also the DIY approach which could get you excellent results (in many forms) for less (no mark-up or other extras). You also get the satisfaction of saying "Hey, I made this and it's great!".

Todd

 

I made this great Gomer speaker cables based on teflon CAT5 computer cable. I have 4 of them an do biwiring. The cables themselves are cheap and easy to make and they sound great. Going from single wire to bi-wire was again a great improvemen. They've costed me about $40 where the terminal pads were the most expensive.

 

You mentioned moving your speakers further apart, how far apart are they now?

 

about 10 feet apart at this time

 

I'm not sure, but I would think this may be a little too far apart. Others here may be able to give better advice on that but I thought 6'-8' apart was about the normal range (but not carved in stone). It would seem that 10' apart would be a bit much, but I understand speaker systems and listening habits certainly vary.

 

I'm guessing that Steve would be recommending Pure Silver Connection cables imported from Australia by tmh audio, the same people who distribute the WAVAC Audio Lab amps Steve uses. That would square with what's been published.

Regards,
Metralla

 

Spotlightkid,

Here's something you may find interesting about speaker placement. I know it worked for my listening space. Check out Room setup on the right hand column.

http://www.cardas.com/insights/index.html

Also, more often than not, speaker cable lengths range between 8ft. and 12ft. at least in the 50 or so set ups that I've seen. I use 8ft. personally.

 

I used the "Cardas method" for speaker placement in my listening room as well, with fantastic results. I experimented quite a bit with long- and short-wall placement options, and found the short-wall method Cardas offers worked best for me in my smallish (10 x 13) room, with Axiom M3Ti bookshelf speakers.

 

Reasonable speaker cable

I would look for second hand Nordost flatline, Goertz or Kimber 4TC or 8TC on ebay or audiogon. Those are all really good. Any of those will probably work, but if even if they didn't you can usually sell for what you paid. Also the cables used are often already broken in...

Also I should mention The Cable Company that advertises in Stereophile. They have a big database re compatibility, they'll loan cable to try out and they also handle used cable. You might give them a try.

 

thanks Mazart i will try cable company.

 

For value, the Alpha Core Goertz Veracity wire is hard to beat. it is a flat wire and the copper series is very reasonable. I use it on my Watt/puppies and also used it on my ML Prodigy's (which I highly recommend). My Speakers are set at 14 feet apart and my cable are 18' long. Unless you wish to spend major bucks, Alpha Core is hard to beat. I also agree with the earlier post that the Nordost flatline is really good and a high end cable bargain.

 

Dave,thanks for the tip on the Cardas room setup. Amazing improvement.Also tried Humorems suggestion and unplugged the microwave.A more subtle improvement.