My older brother is the kind of audiophile who thinks that the vintage of plastic used to ship speaker cables has a profound impact on their sound. OK, maybe not that bad, but he has spent more on cables before than I’ve spent on cars. Due to sibling rivalry, I refused to believe that anything better than the lamp cord at Home Depot made any difference. But about 2 years ago, I decided to give it a small upgrade and I was amazed at the difference when replacing my interconnects and speaker cables. But since I’m a lot cheaper than my brother, I went with a company called Pine Tree Audio because I’d read that their bang for the buck was quite good and my experience confirmed.I recently upgraded my amps to the Stellar M1200s and needed to upgrade to cables with full bi-wire capability and Jesse at Pine Tree also gave me a great deal on some new interconnects. Coincidentally I just watched a fantastic YouTube video that really says some interesting things about speaker cables - I’m not sure my brother would agree with this guy, but basically he says using “good” cables makes sense, but investing ridiculous amounts of money doesn’t really do anything audible. I don’t know enough about this, but I’m thinking my choice of Pine Tree is sure congruent with what he says.
Just ordered 10’ Shadow Ribbon speaker cables.
Could not resist at the prices offered…
Looking forward to hearing’ em.
Edit/Addenda (from the proprietor’s website):
“Our speaker cables are designed to have ultra low DC resistance, inductance, and capacitance.”
“Specifications”*
- True Parallel Geometry
- 26x28AWG copper wires
- 14AWG equivalent wire gauge
- Ultra-Low Resistance Design
- Sold as a set of 4 individual cables
“A true parallel geometry consisting of 26 conductors per cable, each 28AWG in size, attributes to how this level of performance is achieved. Through extensive electrical testing, listening evaluations, and performance adjustments, the Shadow Ribbon is ready to reveal details of your system that you may not have known were there.”
“The Shadow Ribbon cables are an excellent match for the most highly resolving systems using modern solid state amplifications. They are also as well as more traditionally voiced tube amplifier based systems. Our tests included mini monitor, bookshelf, floor standing, horn-loaded, open-baffle full range, and with subwoofer reinforcement. In all cases, they are top performers.”
“The Shadow Ribbons are sold as a set of 4 individual cables, two cables for each speaker. As with all Pine Tree Audio products, these are made in the USA in our shop by hand and fully tested before shipment.”
*Not much provided in terms of actual specifications so the proof of the pudding will be in the eating.
Post a review when you get them, please. I’m still using Audioquest Midnights that I bought, oh, 30 years ago. I keep hearing they’ve made great strides in interconnects and speaker cables but the price of some of them is just crazy!
Thanks for the recommendation. I like Blue Jeans Cable but opted for speaker cables from elsewhere because I didn’t like the industrial look. I ended up buying more cable for a lot more than I needed to spend - but they sure do look good!
I’ll try to report some of my impressions.
My expectation are relatively low. Not due to the price, proprietor or apparent design/specification of the cables; but due to the fact that cabling (in any form or for any function) has yielded incremental (as opposed to incredible) improvements to my system over the years as I have worked to “upgrade” various cable components in my system.
My latest quest is to find some “ribbon-based” loudspeaker cable at a reasonable price to see if they have any advantages over the traditional (Signal Cable Silver Resolution) and somewhat novel (Anti-Cables Level 2) cables I have most recently used in my system.
The Shadow Ribbon cables will be vying to displace the Anit-Cables.
Reading about the MG Audio (now defunct) and Nordost designs has left me intrigued.
More to come.
My longtime favorite speaker cables are Kimber 4TC / 4VS. 8TC / 8VS are good too but cost more.
I used Kimber PBJ for interconnects for decades until last year when I tried Iconoclast BAV RCA interconnects. They were an immediate improvement in dynamics and sound staging.
I want to try the Iconoclast speaker cables but can’t afford them yet.
Also on my list of speaker cables to try…
At what point does the ability to discern significant but diminishing differences become less a blessing and more a curse? I understand there’s serious secret sauce involved at times but it still gets me that cables and IC can be aspirational purchases.
Hey, let me know what you think. As I said before, I’m not sold on BIG differences caused by cables - as you said, it’s more subtle. But it’s noticeable. Don’t know whether it was the interconnects or the speaker cables because I just hooked them all up (i’m impatient), but the biggest thing I noticed immediately was a real opening up of piano sound. I have rarely experienced in playback the unique kind of bass that comes from a 9-ft. grand, but this really blew me away. I think piano is a fantastic all-around instrument to use for testing.
It’s a choice. I’m not happy about spending that kind of money on cables but I know they are solidly engineered and I understand why they cost as much as they do. They’re not easy to make.
Ultimately it comes down to this being my hobby. It’s fun! My nephew spent way more for a boat he used for a few years but eventually sold. To each their own.
Iconoclast speaker cables will likely be my last big cable splurge. But I have my eye on a pair of monoblock amps first. Gotta save up for those too.
It is a choice for sure. Like others have said, I just can’t justify spending component level prices for cables. I do my research and look for independent USA companies (like PS Audio). After trying a few I landed on Audio Envy. Their XLR cables worked best in my system. I like them so much I got off the merry-go-round and continued listening to the music, not the cables. Was also using their speaker cables until a friend parted with his vintage (USA made) Harmonic Technologies cables.
I, too would like to try the Iconclast line. But their interconnects are 10x the price of my AE cables. I’m not saying the Iconclast or maybe mythical creatures won’t sound better than my Audio Envy cables; I’m just saying I may never found out. We all have our own diminished return threshold.
But I gotta say I do read the forum posts with the super high priced cables and tweaks. Makes me grateful for where I’m at.
One nice thing about Iconoclast is they give you 30 days to try them and if you don’t like them you return them for a full refund. I tried out their BAV interconnects with this in mind and within seconds of listening I knew I would be replacing all of my interconnects. Which I did.
Personally, I think cables should be last on the list.
- Speakers
- Room treatments
- Preamp
- Amplifier
- Source / DAC / Phono preamp
- Cables
That said I still think they can be a worthy investment.
Of all the cables I’ve tried over the years, the reasonably priced Synergistic Research Foundation cables have offered the biggest bang for the buck. They exceeded my expectations for the money spent.
I’m a huge fan of Gabriel Gold interconnects. They replaced Wire World and KimberKable in my system and I never looked back… I’m so impressed with their performance that I will be selling the GG Infusion v2 rca’s that I have been loving the last few years and soon upgrade to their top of the line Halo rca’s…Color me impressed!
If anyone is interested in the GG Infusion v2 rca’s…I will have 3 pair for sale…PM me!
I guess it’s really no different than cars or motorcycle mods. Some are content with stock. Others want bolt on mods, while others aren’t content until motors are reworked to squeeze out every possible bit of performance.