This isn’t quite on the topic of the Decware interconnects, but it sort of follows the speaker cable options that came up in this thread. I’ll not belabor the point, the Gotham Audio 50150 GAC SPK COAX 2x2.5 speaker cable is a nice cable that is not too expensive. A single 12’ run from Amazon (link below) is $50. I am not sure where it can be found in bulk now. Instead of using it as a coax cable with the center conductor for the positive and the “shield” as the negative leg, I strip the center and wrap the outer conductors around the center then terminate with a decent connector. I learned this from the former Gotham Audio Rep. So a single 12’ run, as linked below, will yield a 6’ pair.
The question of sonics will be asked, so here goes an attempt….
I have a pair of Canary M350 mono 300B amps (which is why I am keenly interested in the Steve’s new 300B amp), a highly modified, by me, Electron Images tube preamp, a Blue Circle DAC and Tidal loudspeakers (at the moment in this config I haven’t replaced them with my single driver speakers - I need to finish them before doing a shoot out, but my single drivers were my preference in my previous room configuration- the Tidals had no chance:-)). I have tried cables from Argento Audio to home made scraps. Cables can be tricky and I trust what Steve recommends. Strangely, cables shouldn’t make a difference, yet they do. We can discuss the crazy physics behind it all, but at the end of the day the music speaking to us through our systems is what matters regardless what the test bench, or equations might say.
I had 4 different copper speaker cables on the Tidals. One was an unknown German brand I used to import. It was quite good and is a constant go to for a reasonable speaker cable. It is a 10’ pair for about $1200 retail. The other was a well known British professional brand, Atlas, approximately 10’ pair for around $2k, some Canare Star Quad speaker cable and finally the Gotham 50150 speaker cable.
The German cable was good, upfront and added a honey glaze to the sound. After a while it was too much of a good thing. The issues I was having was that the sound was fixed to the speakers more than I hoped, unless I was completely centered then the image was good, but still located between the speakers and anchored and dripping of honey glaze.
The Atlas cables eliminated the honey glaze, which was a great thing. However, they kept the sound bound to a foot to the left and right of the speaker cabinets. The center fill was not bad, when centered, but I found myself looking for the balance control to force the speakers to image better.
I cannot say anything negative about the sonics of the Canare cables, but just as they did nothing bad, they did not do anything amazing. They do their job and do it well.
Now the Gotham…I have been looking for my system to do what Steve described the HDTs with the Lii driver have done for him. I wanted a walk through soundstage, transparency but not at the expense of musicality. I am mostly there now. With the Gotham speaker cables (I’ll go into my other cables - that are unconventional as well if you want me to) I now seem to have transparency, detail, and the experience of feeling as if a person is actually playing instruments instead of the sounds of the instruments coming through the speakers. What I mean is that the human behind the physical catalyst that creates the note is there with the note. Notes are not just sounds, they come from a warm human body that affects the weight of a piano key being struck to the microphone picking up the effect of the human body on the acoustic environment in which the music was recorded. Now vocals not only have body, as so many audiophile publications like to proclaim, but they have all of the characteristics as if they person where there singing, body heat, warmth of the breath, the tightening of the muscles to belt out a note along with the movement of the person as they actually produce the notes. The actuality of the event as a human-made event captured in time and space comes through more than I recall having heard it before.
I have spent some considerable time tweaking the system and following my standard speaker setup method and so I am sure the speaker cables are only part of the equation, but this the most recent series of tests and changes while everything else stayed the same.
I have not heard a braided OCC cable, like GR Research or the cables shown above from eBay, or the cables from VH Audio. I have heard quite a few cables and the Gothams, if they match well with your system may be a wonderful addition for not very much money and effort, that some of you may enjoy.
Best Regards,
DRB
https://gothamcable.com/en/gothamcables/speakercables/50150coax2x25https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01H6PFEEI/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_Q2RNX2YBGVRDA8DAQ9C9