Hi guys, I wanted to add my thanks to Bill for hosting a very enjoyable meeting last week. Thanks also to Paul for the Fritz speaker demo as I found them to be attractive and seemingly well built bookshelf speakers with a rather big-for-their size sound.... an attribute many look for in a bookshelf. I'm also an advocate of dual pairs of binding posts for bi-wiring or bi-amping which this speaker did feature.
As for the speaker cable 'shoot-out' I was glad to catch most of it. Unfortunately at the very beginning I was yapping away in the other room for much of the first cable session though I did manage to grab an off-axis side spot for a few minutes. From this less than ideal position I did notice a "pleasant and musical" presentation from the system...I remember good detail without apparent etch with perhaps just a bit of a lightweight tonal balance. Again, considering I never got to the sweet spot I couldn't assess any image focus, soundstaging, etc. but as I said, it seemed to be doing well from my limited perspective.
Once I realized this cable swap was proceeding was when I managed to acquire an upgraded seating position (while cable swap personnel went to work) and from a much more front-view (though still off-centered perspective) I was ready for my next cable assessment.Unfortunately, my conclusion about cables #2, as have already been shared on this forum, was that at less than $100 these cables would be perfectly suited to any mass market PC Richard/Best Buy purchased system with no ties or aspirations to any resemblance to the high end. These "wires" transferred the signal to the speakers and in so doing, made a perfect case for anyone who has ever had any doubts before of whether differences in speaker cable is actually noticeable...In other words there are no "non-believers" to this fact of the audio world if they were present during that demonstration. Hey Bill, in all honesty it was a great idea, for all the reasons you stated: wouldn't it be cool if it did actually turn out to be even competitive with the other cables at such a low price? Well worth the try and I'm sure you may still be able to use them in some kind of bombastic overblown subwoofer-boosted surround-soundy setup someday where the rear speakers are thumping away and bass-heavy helicopter blades are flying over your head... perfect for that!
Meanwhile, back to the show. I finally managed to upgrade my listening position to 'pretty darn good' as i wiggled into just one spot away from "THE SPOT" (Let's be honest here guys... to my ears I don't care how room friendly your particular speakers are or room set up is, there will always only be one IDEAL spot to sit in if you really want to hear all of a systems attributes).Perhaps partially because they were the first pair I was able to listen to from a good perspective,( besides #2), it should come as no surprise that these were now the best sounding to me. I really would have loved to go back to the #1s (JPS) after finishing with the #3's, as that would have been a good comparison but maybe next time I'll spend more time in the music room right from the beginning, and less discussing audio fact/fiction/theory etc with the others around the food table. So #3 sounded good. I really wish I had actually taken notes of my listening impressions... I have to use an almost one-week-old memory right now and to be truly fair this should certainly be kept in mind. Note another disclosure, even though I have spent some time with Bill fairly recently enjoying his system I am still not especially familiar with all its characteristics [both yay and nay]. That said, I liked what I heard under all the less than ideal circumstances [of crowds and background conversations]... Bill's VS speakers are pretty widely spaced and therefore produce a nice wide stage ...they also produce a lively, detailed and energetic pace, that is, the "PRAT" is certainly evident here and these speaker cables seemed to keep these characteristics flowing. I sensed good image placement and more than a hint of depth trying to come through in what is a somewhat less than ideal placement of his rather large panel TV stationed directly between and only slightly behind the speaker plane. TV notwithstanding, it is a nicely accommodating room size for his equipment. When I mentioned before a somewhat 'lightweight' balance to the sound of cables #1 I am again going to add that comment to these #3 and to the same extent as the other ones... this is not as much a criticism as it is simply a reflection of my personal perception due to my own preferred sound and I'll explain it here.
I like the sound of tubes in a system because if I had to choose between absolute truth and just a touch of 'glow'... I find a little on the warm side is not only more natural to me, but simply more pleasant to my ear. Having said that, I have been living with tube equipment and the associated cabling which sides with the richer end of the scale. I admit it.
This brings me to the fourth and final speaker cable of the night's trials, the last-minute and unsuspected entry #4. These are my Harmonic Technology Pro 11's. They are actually my spare 'back-up' set of cables I keep available for just-in-case or 'just because' situations. My primary cables are actually Harmonic Tech's Pro 9 bi-wires which are essentially a bi-wired version of the 11's and have been a mainstay in my system for the better part of the last 10 years or so. Other cables swap in and out but I always seem to come back to these and this has been with at least 4 different speaker systems of disparate personalities (Audio Physic, Silverline, and 2 different models of Apogee full range ribbons: my previous Mini Grands and currently my Duetta Signatures) so the HT cables are a consistent linking "voice" portraying the sum of each system's parts. Suffice to say, I know them well.
For this final audition (#4) I managed to get the 2nd best seat in the room... not quite in THE sweetspot of the listening couch but perhaps in some ways almost as good, if not in some way better: on the floor directly in front of the couch. I'll take it, I said to myself, because I was intent on hearing how my contribution was going to fare against the rest. BTW: for the record, you can currently find HT Pro 11's at the Cable Co, for example, at a little over $400 for a 6' pair, and around $75 per additional foot after that (the pair I had on hand were 10' and therefore somewhere around the $700 price point). By now I'm sure, as we've discussed before, there is no doubt about how different speaker cables can be. When Bill keyed up that sample track for the 4th and final time, this time into my HT Pro 11's there was no mistaking in my ears that I was hearing my cables. I felt the difference between these and all 3 of the others was nothing short of startling. Instant and most noticeable effect was the tremendous amount of richness and warm meat-on-the-bones feeling of organic presence to the music. It had a naturalness to it I had not experienced before that evening... Soundstage width was essentially the same but the 3 dimensional palpability and presence of the performers was greatly enhanced... the venue took on a more laid-back perspective but only in regard to finally adding some honest depth to the stage... performers were now behind the tv, at least the centrally located ones, but I did not feel the urge to TRY and listen harder to hear into it, it all just seemed to take the proper natural 3D perspective of a more live event. Bass was full, midrange was wonderful, especially on voices, and the top end retained enough detail such that you never felt you were missing anything if you actually listened for it... I suspect there could be those who may argue the top didn't have all the detail they had heard before? but I'd be willing to say "live with it for awhile" before you truly make such a claim... Personally, I think the added richness was a fantastic complement to the previously assessed "highly resolving" characteristics of Bill's system... I could go on but I guess I've made my preference known, and again, with the aforementioned explanations.
Suffice to say I enjoyed the evening very much and am quite grateful again to Bill of course, Paul, Mel for helping set-up the cables and swaps, and especially to the dealers who lent the 2 samples for evaluation...it was truly "ear-opening" and a lot of fun. I hope we can do it again, perhaps with some more models or whatever sounds interesting, and next time: I'm bringing my little note-book.
Looking forward to the next meet at Mel's!
