Speaker cable

I must  confess I am not a member of the cable of the month club, never borrow cables to try or even research them a whole lot. Most of the cables I have got either came with systems or I bought them used, generally at a pretty good price.

 Some of the first arguments I had at JB in the early eighties were with the plastic pocket protector Kodak engineers that came in and eyeballed the huge roll of Monster cable sitting behind the front counter. At the time this was their only product, and we sold it by the foot for a dollar each. I tried to explain to them on their terms why it made a difference, and was met with laughter and cynicism every time. To simply say "it makes your speakers sound better" was not enough. Fast forward several years later- well, you know the rest of the story. Solid, stranded, flat, coaxial, ribbons, just about every conceivable configuration appears available today.

As I mentioned, I am not a cable disciple, but the ones I have or do use I like. Audioquest Crystal made a noticeable difference, some of the better Monster Powerline stuff is good as well.

 My absolute favorite still is the Sumiko Ocos in the bottom picture. Referred to as "idiosyncratic" by reviewers,this is one of very few constant impedance cables, meaning you can use unequal lengths from side to side and it won't affect the sound. Basically coaxial in design, a double run is best (what I do). A single run is a bit thin sounding, less dynamic. It has since been taken over by the Danish company Dynaudio.


 I have also played with a few others, they all sound different, and you can spend up to several thousand dollars on a pair of speaker cables. Some are good, some are hype, some are flat out snake oil! Many people take them quite seriously, and I don't scoff at them.

 Let me know which ones are good that you like, and I will keep an eye out for a pair at ten cents on the dollar.  

Welcome Tom!

Tom C. emailed me the other day with questions about a B&O MMC 20CL cartridge (one of my favorites). Google had brought him to this blog, and as it turns out he has a Yamaha CD player that I sold an acquaintance of his 30 years ago! He was kind enough to send pictures of the sale and my original business card which was still stapled to the receipt! Look at the price- $1200. for a Yamaha CD-1 back in 1983! This was one of their best, early adopters certainly paid the price! Wondering how much better a $200. machine sounds today! Not true of turntables, of course. A $1200. table back then would probably be equivalent to a $3000+ one today, and would still have enduring value.

  Anyway, thanks, Tom for reading and sending me these!

Happy New Year!

Thank you for your interest in my blog. The first year, 142 posts, over 18,000 hits and emails from people all over the world! Great to know there is still that kind of interest.

Still thinning

Sold a couple more pairs of speakers from the closet this week, dawned on me that I never really talked about either one. Both on Craigslist, a nice guy Tom from California bought my ADS 300s (here we go, Craigslist out of state again) and another nice guy Gary swapped me some stuff for my Rogers LS-2s. Gary is actually local, and has been playing with this stuff for years. He has McIntosh, Klipsch, and has made the transition back to strictly two channel.

Rogers LS2

 The LS2 was a more practical version of the LS3/5A BBC monitor, more efficient, played louder, and handled much more power. Both 4" two ways, this was more of a regular listening speaker as opposed to a near-field monitor. Plus it handled 100 watts  instead of 20! Rubber surrounds with polypropylene cones, these basically will last forever!

ADS L 300 minispeakers

 ADS or Analog Digital Systems  had an early affiliation with Braun, and between the two of them I give them credit for inventing the first high quality mini speaker. Diecast aluminum enclosures with high quality drivers, they were a bit of a revelation in their day. Often used with a subwoofer, although very few choices existed back when these were introduced.

 Available with or without brackets, the intent was for them also to be used in automotive applications.Probably the first audiophile quality speaker available for cars.

Their name was interesting because at the time digital as we know it didn't exist. There were no CD players or downloading of music. The digital referred more towards the designing tools, CAD/CAM and programs.

 Their logo was changed a few years later to A/D/S, as Aids awareness came to the forefront. They did not want to be associated with this terrible disease.

I sold these at JB, and probably had this pair close to 20 years before recently selling them to Tom in California.

Elite TZ-F 700 speakers

Found some updated pictures of these, much better views of what they really look like. Still liking them, months later.Wrote about these more in depth in my June entries.