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i have had these for about a year in a biwire configuration to my Source Technolgies 610 towers and thought they were very good speaker cables. i just took all the spades off thinking that the tinned coating may be detracting from the neutrality of these cables and rewired them with just their bare ends to the binding posts. holy shmoly! you have to give it a try - the spaciousness, the imaging and the resolution have all noticeably improved. the bass is incredible and i am not kidding. the cymbals sound much like cymbals - there is sustain when you hear them crashing instead of a spitty imitation. i just played Wilco's Sunken Treasure and haven't had an enjoyable listening experience like that in quite a while. give it a try - if you don't like the bare ends - at least you have done the hard work of taking off the spades and the wires are ready for the superior termination of your choice. while i risk coming off as a schill - i'm being sincere - these are great cables (at least in my room) regardless of price and are being held back by the factory terminations. thanks paul.
Follow Ups:
I just have one run of anti-cables, to my center channel speaker, and I have been very dissatisfied with the quality of the sound. The biggest problem has been just a lack of clarity, manifested in an inability to understand the dialog in movies, and poor and pinched sounding treble, especially female vocalists in their upper register.After reading some of this and other threads, I just cut off the spades and exposed the bare copper wire, then reconnected them. All I can say is, WOW!!!!!!! Those spades must be terrible. Now the sound is so clear and natural. And all that nasal, pinched quality of female vocalists is gone! Dialog is now much clearer. I am pumped.
I think cable terminations often impact the sonics more than the wire between them....
By opening with "As I've stated in the past", it reads to me as though you're saying "Why is this getting so much discussion? I told you idiots all this long ago!"Just my perception of the tone of the subject line, do with it as you will, no animosity intended
I did not intend to come across like that....
According to the Anti-Cables web site, they use a cold weld (high pressure crimp) to attach the spade to the wire:"We use an industrial grade, lightly tinned, (to prevent oxidation) solid copper spade that is specified for Aircraft use. This means it is light weight, yet built for high performance and high reliability. Each Spade is "cold welded" (extreme high pressure crimp) to the copper wire."
Anti-Cables goes on to say that they will use whatever connectors you send to them.
Seems like the spades must not have ben properly attached, and/or they were not very good spade lugs!There should NOT be any tinning between a wire or conductor and a spade lug, this is one way to screw up the spade lug connection pretty badly.
Second, the wire should break before the crimp on the spade lug gives, for those spade connections that are crimped (the prefered method).
Some folks mistakenly crimp and then solder a spade lug, this is also a bad way to go, because if you really MUST solder instead of the prefered method of crimping, then the wire should be wrapped in a LOOSE spiral around the uncrimped but trimmed lug of the spade, so the solder can flow around the wire and the lug readily.
I think this is a matter of gestalt per a particular wire type's connection method rather than a poor connection via a connector in general (although I see nothing special about the anti-cable's spade which seems to be sub-par). I don't know the specifics about the anti-cable's termination method, but I believe it's only crimped, and without any soldering involved.I would agree that a premium spade would likely offer higher performance (well worth a try), but a bare wire connection for the anti-cable is well-recommended per anecdotal evidence if care is given, IMHO.
beatones mentioned a tinned coating, which might have been on the spade itself, if that was the case, and either the wire OR the spade had a tin plating or was "tinned" (which is actually a coating of solder), then this is exactly what I am talking about, a crimp on a spade lug should not have an intermediate layer of metal IF POSSIBLE. A gold plating is one of the more benign ones, but bare copper or brass would be better than tin/tinned.
Yep, it's a tinned spade (the copper wire is bare in this case).
I experienced the same back when I was using the anti-cable. IMO the spades he uses SERIOUSLY detracts from the potential of the cable. Then again I use NO terminations on my CHeLA cable as the bare wire seems to be what my system craves.I would recommend some Caig treatments (at least the Pro Gold) to the bare copper ends of your Anti-Cable for possibly even better results but certainly better protection from the elements.
*** Q:Why's the chicken cross the road?
***A: Fats Waller: They don't, they all stay on my side now...***
A bare wire connection approach is often done by single wire solid core silver speaker wire users even though silver is even more brittle than copper (while silver has a lesser issue of corrosion). If one wishes to go with a simplified "less is more" single magnet wire approach (less wire, less insulation), I would say a bare wire connection keeps more in line with a "less is more" concept (and I would go that route, too). A treatment with Pro Gold or such before connecting is a good thing, and it's also a good idea to anticipate a "snip and re-terminate" chore every now and then since the bare wire ends may become severely damaged over time (binding posts can be nasty critters to bare wire connections :-), while a single solid core copper wire's corrosion can be easily addressed with DeoxIT or such.
1. The mfr. made a mistake terminating your cables? OR
2. The mfr. is not very clever because it was so easy for you to detect the sonic benefits of bare wire (no) termination?
I don't think he is saying either. The cable can be ordered w or w/o spades. In his setup it worked better w/o spades. It's an inexpensive cable with an inexpensive spade. Would you put $350 worth or WBT silver spades or $175 for the copper (model680) on a cables set less than $100?
I would buy some solid copper wire and spray paint it with enamel.
I had similar spades inside my home-made amps and got a similar improvement when I replaced them with direct silver-on-copper spades from Audioquest (Michael Percy). I use Wako lead-free, silver-bearing solder, as I don't have faith in a simple crimp to create a permanent, low-noise connection.
"I don't have faith in a simple crimp to create a permanent, low-noise connection."all wires are crimped rather than soldered in aviation and mil. Much better reliability.
I'm not confident in the connections my simple hand-crimp pliers can make.
You need better crimpers then :) The best kinds bite down like you wouldn't imagine .... much better then soldering.
It is a low grade spade they use for sure. It doesn't suprise me. I am going to be moving my rig a little and planned to shorten my set and delete the spades. I like them over other cables I have. I just ordered some Chela from VH and I look forward to trying it as well. Have you tried anticable interconnects? If you like the speaker cable the interconnect will blow you away. I was and stil remain stunned at these. TAS had a little write up on Anticable (speaker) this month. Cheers!
would really love to hear your comparison of chelas to the anti-cables. i just may have to shell out for the interconnects too
Will do. I plan to try the Chela on both sides of my biamp one at a time to compare. Should have a post in a few weeks after I receive it and break it in well.
nt
I can't wait to get my Chela. I feel like a kid waiting for X-mas!
What connectors do you plan to terminate the CHeLA's with (or will you go with a bare wire connection)?
I plan to go bare w/some goo, either Caig pro Gold or Sil Clear. Eventualy I will go to my friend the WBT dealer and get 680 spades for it unless I retire an older set of my other cables that already have 680's because Chela kicks its but really badly. For starts I always go bare w/treatment. I hope I get them soon!
My CHeLA's are terminated with WBT spades (my external bi-wire configuration CHeLA's really needed WBT's massive AWG capability at the amplifier end), but for single run CHeLA's; here's a lower-cost option to toss in (as a possibility) than even a set of Furutech set screw type spades (which still might be too pricey for some folk's budget) that RadioWonder selected (see link below). I've also mentioned the AudioQuest CF spade or BFA banana as worthy of the CHeLA (based on my appreciation of AudioQuest CF BFA's that I use in a second system). Use of WBT crimp sleeves would also be a good thing to use with the set screw type AudioQuest CF's as well as the set screw type Furutech's (but not mandatory for either, IMHO). Just a tip as a lower-cost option to bring a single run DIY CHeLA project more within budget for some folk's wants/needs :-)
Anticables can be ordered without spades too for bare wire connection.
Well, if you take the spades off, then it becomes plain-old magnet wire so no one will pay so much for them..
I have a pair of these and was wondering if you also stripped off some of the red coating as well? Sounds like something I would also like to try. Thanks!
of course if you haven't ordered yet - get em without the spades. if you want to de-spade your current ones, there is about a 1/4 inch area of stripped enamel where the spades used to be - just enough to make contact to your binding posts.
Thanks! I will strip them soon! By the way, have you tried the anti-ic's? I was thinking about giving them a try also. Thanks again.
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