Have any of you done any experimenting with interconnects and speaker cables with your McIntosh gear? Any impressions? For my part I am using all Transparent Super (with, among other things, Mc 501s amps, C46 pre, and B&W 802D). It seems to me to be highly detailed and a bit thin in the low bass, but I am fiddling with speaker placement, spikes, room treatments, and so on to adddress this. I just might not know what I am missing, though, with other wires.

I have demo'd Nordost (Red Dawn speaker cables and SPM interconnects) and found them to add a wee bit more detail, but the 802D is not in need of any more detail.

Dealers have been recommending what they carry (knock me over with a feather!) Anyone care to share relevant adventures from their quest for optimal wire?

douge- there is a rich and honorable heritage here on AK of carefully considering all the variables involved in cables and wire. i think if you do a search you will come up with some highly informative results....

You could duplicate the cable that is used on the output of the MC501s, that is from the autoformer to the speaker terminals and used from the speaker terminals of your 802D speakers to their crossovers. This would be 10 or 12 gage twin lead copper wire.
I guess the B&W and McIntosh engineers missed the memo on the exotic wires...

thanks,
Ron-C

douge- there is a rich and honorable heritage here on AK of carefully considering all the variables involved in cables and wire. i think if you do a search you will come up with some highly informative results....
Where's the tongue-in-cheek smilie? :D

Murray

wouldn't that ruin the effect? :D

shrinky, you and I have different definititions of "informative".

You could duplicate the cable that is used on the output of the MC501s, that is from the autoformer to the speaker terminals and used from the speaker terminals of your 802D speakers to their crossovers. This would be 10 or 12 gage twin lead copper wire.
I guess the B&W and McIntosh engineers missed the memo on the exotic wires...

thanks,
Ron-C
Good one. When I asked my brother the electrical engineer about wiring my HT he said "wire is wire". I am surmising that the greatest difference is in the quality of the connectors. I am still researching this via exhaustive AK searches however.
George

I am not saying cables do not have an effect on sound. If you have a quality simple cable, say Canare 14/4 and then compare the upscale cable you may be surprised if the exotic cable is not an improvement and will be able to judge when it has a different sound which you may prefer.

Thanks,
Ron-C

The great cable debate. If wire is wire then a watt must be a watt. Why are blue meters more expensive? Are we charged by the pound or watts?
Anyway it is always fun to read the threads about cables. Here is a link for everyone-

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/interconnects/interconnects.html

Expensive wire is GREAT! I wished I had enough money to have all exotic upscale cables in my system.

Expensive cables look nice. They usually have colourful jackets on them, with nice directional arrows and descriptive writing about how pure the copper/silver/gold is. They'll also usually have very expensive names, which sound cool. They'll usually be big and strong looking. Features like these are just not found in cheap cables. And looks is very important, to anything equipment you spend money on, not just in audio. If people have a nice car or house, and there is bad paint, or if it's a ugly colour, people will usually spend money to get it fixed. The new paint job, other than looking nice won't do a lot.Cables on an audio system is the same (to me anyway).

The Blue Meters are watt meters and since no one makes them but McIntosh they are the least expensive. Puunda hit the nail on the head. Looks are key to the wire biz.
Yes, a watt is always a watt by the way. Size of the waveform is not always waveform fidelity though.

Thanks,
Ron-C

Beg to differ here, but once a system gets tuned in, just about any change you make will impact the sound for the better or worse.

That being said, I agree somewhat with the posts about the mega expensive cables ($3000.00 interconnects, $8000.00 speaker cable).

DougE. You already have good ICs and speaker cable. I'd recommend trying a power line conditioner (PLC) before looking for new cabling. PLCs make a huge improvement in the sound and are probably the best bang for the buck.

I've found that the LAT International interconnects and speaker wire to synergize very nicely with Mc gear and it is reasonably priced. As a reviewer and former part-time audio shop owner, I've had plenty of cabling to play with through the years and it does make a difference.

FWIW, I don't know of any other reviewers using McIntosh electronics exclusively. That's too bad as the synergy of the Mc gear embarasses most of what is out there.

Many reviewers do use McIntosh gear that they have bought after the review. Many also also use Quad speakers as a reality check. Reviewers need to think of the next review since that is their job. Finding the perfect stereo and trying to convince everyone to use the same gear is not their job.
Everyone seems to have a favorite cable and will argue it is the best. If one cable was really better than the rest wouldn't we all agree?

Thanks,
Ron-c

As for vintage McIntosh (MC240 / MC30, etc.) they were "voiced" using plain, copper wire because that's what they had at the time.

For speaker cable, I have found that bi-wiring my MC240 with copper for low & mid/high and silver for mid/high works best. I get the bottom end and I don't miss the upper detail.

Still experimenting with interconnects to match my existing system.

I will bet $10,000 to $1 that NOBODY can tell in a blind test, 100 out of 100 times, when their favorite cable is hooked up versus any other cable I pick.

If there is a difference, shouldn't you be able to tell every single time?

That said, I do believe you should enjoy playing around with the cables you most enjoy. Who says it has to make sense?

And finally, if P.T. Barnum was alive today, he would be selling audio cables.

I think some seem to feel that many are looking for that "best" cable and there is no
such thing, it's what's best for you and your system be it expensive or cheap.

Some may find an inexpensive cable works best for them because of the synergy it
may have with there gear and what they want out of there system. In my system
at the moment the intro XLO green interconnects with outdoor lighting thick strand
copper wire (for my speaker cable) from lowes/home depot 12ga works great for me.

There's a new forum here at AK just for speaker/cable that has a trial program also,
so if your skeptical or just want see what things do, venture over there.
(Thinking out loud) Is the forum.

I had let this stay as it was specific to an application very common, McIntosh
and B&W.
But as often the case, it is no longer on topic and I am moving it. :)

Carl

There is a thin line between love and hate and so is the cable game. The depth of your pocket is a major factor in how far one is willing to spend money on the theory is the emperor wearing new clothes or not. You never hear the manufacturs talk about the great wire they use in there equipment. Why Not? :scratch2: Not unless they manufactor or put their name on wire. :thmbsp: