Magwire Speaker Cable Review

Since the magwire apparently doesn’t improve with age, then I’m comfortable with my assessment of the cables, at least in my system.

I began with the Bruce Dunlap CD, my initial reaction was WOW! The first thing I noticed was the extension on the top end, which seemed a bit more open than the Poiemas. Next came the Romeo is Bleeding soundtrack, the bass was extended and very tight. Soundstage was wall-to-wall and moderately deep, considering the limitations of my setup and the size of my room.

I next played Tuck & Patti’s first album, the center image (Patti’s voice), though well defined, seemed a bit recessed and lacked the prominence of the left and right soundstage. Then I remembered that Dunbar’s guitar also seemed a bit softer as well. Also, Patti’s voice didn’t have the same fullness and richness in the lower registers, and Tuck’s guitar didn’t have that overly warm, almost muffled sound that many jazz guitarist like to project.

Moving onto the Chet (Baker) album from 1959 (the one redone by Doug Sax), the underlying tape hiss, was a lot more evident. Like a photo with a larger grain structure, but was only apparent on soft or open passages.

After about 2 hours of listening I began to experience a slight sensation in my left ear, which for me is the first sign of listener fatigue. Swapping back to the Poiemas my first reaction was one of warmth and relaxation, and that sensation in my ear began to subside. Patti’s voice regained its warmth, as did Tuck’s guitar. The tape hiss on the Chet album diminished to a level where it didn’t draw attention to itself, and Bruce’s guitar become more balanced with the rest of the soundstage.

Compared with the Poiemas, the magwire exhibits a slightly upward tilt toward the treble end of the spectrum, with maybe just a bit of tizziness at the upper extremes. If the Poiemas were a CJ preamp, then the magwires would be an ARC, a bit cooler and leaner with excellent bass and an almost spotlight effect in the upper frequencies.

With my preference toward the warmer end of the spectrum, I find the Poiemas to be a better fit for my system, although I know of systems where the opposite would be true.

All this doesn’t diminish the incredible value of the magwires. I’m astounded that I’m even comparing $20 worth of wire with a $1,000 set of speaker cables, that’s a 50:1 price ratio!! We shouldn’t even be speaking about these two cables in the same breath, let only in a lengthy review. If their performance was substandard, this review would not have exceeded a single paragraph (you don’t have go into great detail to describe crap, we all know what that sounds like).

My short experience with these cables have, at the same time, confirmed a long held belief, and completely changed my perception about component priorities and system apportionment. My long held belief being that I/Cs make a larger contribution to the overall sound than S/Cs. I know of no $20 interconnect that would compare favorably with a $1,000 or even a good $200 cable, which, for me, highlights the importance of I/C cables. As regards to system apportionment, I would now recommend to anyone putting a system together from scratch, to spend all of their cabling budget, save $20, toward their I/C cables. When $20 speaker cables can provide this level of performance, spending the balance on I/Cs will give you the biggest bang for the buck.

My short time with the magwires has also peaked my curiosity about investigating other varieties of magwire. For instance, I feel the graininess I mentioned could be a function of material impurities. If so, then how much better would a purer cable sound (if available)? Is there such as thing as silver magwire? With regards to the tizziness I mentioned, that may be a result of phase anomalies caused by the skin effect of using a 12 gage solid wire conductor. I would also be interested in finding out whether using a smaller gage would reduce that effect, and what a twisted pair would sound like.

Anyway you look at it; this opens the door for some interesting DYI experiments.

Doc

April 2005