Speaker Cables DO Make A Difference…BUT!
By Steve Huff
My video about exotic cables vs cheapies.
I get asked to review cables maybe 5-6 times per year. I usually turn them down because they are most often of the lower tier or mid tier variety. Not that this is a bad thing as affordable and quality is a good thing but often times these lower cost cables all sound similar to me. $39 vs $300 cables? Pretty similar usually.
I have heard quite a few cables over the years and I mean speaker, interconnects, and even digital cables. The ones I have heard in my space have had a price range between $39 and $17,000. Crazy price range for cables, right? Almost sounds like this part of the hobby could be a scam. But, it is not. Not really.
A few years ago I had a complete loom of somewhat costly Cardas Clear Reflection cables courtesy of my friends over at Dedicated Audio in AZ. They are now a sponsors of this website and the head honcho over there, Dan, is a great, honest and super guy. One of my fave HiFi dealers (and they also allow online ordering). That set of Cardas was very nice and brought a smooth refined sound to the system. They had some warmth and depth to them and they were pretty heavy and hefty cables. Over time I noticed that they were a touch too warm in my system at the time (I had a warm amp and speakers).
I eventually switched to a cheap $39 set of speaker cables and while they were not as good as those Cardas in build or sound, they were maybe 80% there. I lost some fine details, some sparkle up top and some refinement.
I kept those $39 cables in for a year, and did a short stint with the cables sold by Kinki Studios called “Earth”, which were much better than the price suggests. These Earth cables allowed more treble energy to shine through vs the $39 specials, as well as more details. Even so, I went back tp the $39 specials as they were light, easy to move and place and made it easy for me to connect when changing out gear, as I often do for reviews. I decided to stop worrying about cables for a while and went with what 95% of us would go with. Cheap but great quality. Not magical but really good, especially for $39.
Recently I was thinking back to when I owned a set of Nordost Valhalla speaker cables, along with Valhalla interconnects. When I owned them many years ago I was blown away by what they did in my system at the time. At that time I was having some finance issues so after a year or two sold them and ever since I have had many thoughts about getting another set. They were, without question, the most impressive cables I ever heard.
I even tried out some Valhalla 2 cables and proffered the OG’s. Call me crazy but there was something magical about those original V1 cables. This is system dependent and today I may prefer the V2 but no way I can afford them.
Fast forward to a little while ago here in 2024. I found some OG mint condition Valhalla cables for sale online, advertised as a 4M set for $3k. This seemed cheap as when I see 4M sets for sale they are usually between $5600-$7000, used. These cables were discontinued in 2012 and replaced by the much more expensive V2 versions. I jumped at the chance and bought them. A week later they arrived, wooden box and all. Only there was a problem. They were 3M and not 4M. Nine feet instead of twelve, as I was told.
I was going to send them back immediately without hooking them up but I had to at least try them, to refresh my memory of the OG Valhalla. Would I still think they were so magical, so amazing and the best I have heard?
Well, from the first track played I knew these could never go back. I had to keep them and even though I was told 4M and received 3M, the price was still fair for this set so I told myself there is no way I can send them back. There was, at the time, a 4M set for sale online for $6700. That showed me I paid a fair price.
Going back to the cables, just the speaker cables….WOW.
The sound vs the $39 cables was stunning. So much more energy, impact, instrument separation, details, layers, depth and the soundstage? Whoa! How on earth can a cable do this? Never ever have I heard a cable like this and while I know the V2 and even ODIN V2 exist, most mere mortals can not afford them, including me. The $3k I paid for these cables brought forth a “component level” upgrade, even besting what a $5k DAC could do. I mean, these brought a larger improvement to my system than a new high end $5k DAC did. If any cable could convince me that it was indeed a “component” that is important, very much so, it is this one and these are now legendary in some audiophile circles.
The timbre of the instruments was so right. The vocals were in the room like never before. Going back to the $39 cables, even my wife couldn’t believe what SHE was hearing! The sound shrunk, became closed in and while it was musical, very satisfying and full bodied the Nordost was so much better at delivering the music, it was indeed NIGHT AND DAY.
So yes, cables in the high end realm 100% do make a difference and it is not subtle, in the right system of course and this is the “BUT”.
BUT!! The rest of your system has to be up to the level to deliver the finest signal for the cables to deliver to your speakers. I would not buy a used set of these for a $1k amp, a $1500 set of speakers or even a $2k amp. While these do improve the sound even on lower end gear I feel they do the most when you hook them up to gear that is worthy of the cable itself. Synergy.
My current reference system retails for around $20k. These cables are right at home here and can scale up to much more exotic systems. if I had a $100k system I would still have these in place as they can scale up to any system.
My advice? If you have a system in the $10k and up range and are using cheap cables, those cables could be the bottleneck in your system and you are choking it so to speak. A great system does really deserve great cable.
Anyway, enough blabbing here. I talk about all of this in my video above and hope you enjoy it!
UPDATE: I acquired an old set of Nordost TYR interconnects to replace my Red Dawn and BAM, another nice improvement. I then found a set of Valhalla IC’s at a nice price so will be selling the TYR. I have done cables swaps for my wife and three friends and all of them said the same, like night and day vs the $30 cables. These have brought a new enjoyment for me with the system. Such a huge increase in performance, energy, scale, information and sweetness. The bass is incredible with the Valhalla cables as well. Spatial qualities are off the charts. Again, I would not seek these out for a $5k or even $10k system but if you have $20k and up in a well synergized system and are using cheap cables, these WILL make a drastic change. These will NOT make a bad system sound good so I suggest having everything sounding great BEFORE jumping to cables like these.
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