Upgrading speakerscables...

[weijst]

Hi all,

Sure you've all experienced the same: You've just bought yourself a new component (i.e. speaker or amp) and are now curious if you're enjoying its full potential. So you go down (or up) the road and critically look at al the possible limiting factor(-s).

Well, the 705s and HTM7 I'm enjoying at the moment (driven by the rare combination 1068/1075 , linked with QED Qunex 2) are nearly a month old. I'm currently thinking about a new set of speakercables. The ones I'm using right now (copper, brandless, rather thick) are old enough and ready to be replaced. I've heard a lot of positive feedback on the QED's Silver Anniversary.

The thing I'd like to know is, will there really be a noticeable difference? Since by-wiring all channels with Silver anniversary cables won't exactly be inexpensive.

Will single wiring my speakers with these (high quality?) cables be a step up compared to the bi-wired setup with brandless, inexpensive, copper cables I'm using right now?

Finally, airlocks… I thought the silver would protect the cables from corrosion (silver being a precious metal…). Apart from being able to easily (dis-)connect the cables, what is their use?

Any feedback / experience would be appreciated. :T

Thank you!

ps: don't know if this is the right place for this thread. However it is essentially about cables for the B&W 700 series...

[Fife]

You can try just bi-wiring the front channels with QED Silver Anniversary. Seems that QED's are quite popular in Europe.

If you like them, then get more. Otherwise, you didnt loose too much by trying.
I guess thats the way to do it to try any cable.

[Lex]

We really strive to keep this area about speakers only, even if it's B & W speakers the cables are about. But I tell you what, we'll leave it open for a couple of posts, then consider the matter closed.

Thanks,
Lex

[aarsoe]

IMHO better cables, are better cables. So, yes, I believe single run with a HQ cable is better than cheap cable used as bi-wire.

On the silver issue your not correct. Silver is not a precius metal - it does interact with oxygen, but that forms silveroxide that is still a pretty good conductor, at least vastly better compared to cobberoxide that is a very poor conductor.
So you could say that the real advantage of silver (beside any sonic signatures) will be over time, where all cobber cables will deteriate..

[weijst]

We really strive to keep this area about speakers only, even if it's B & W speakers the cables are about. But I tell you what, we'll leave it open for a couple of posts, then consider the matter closed.

Thanks,
Lex

I understand, thank you...