Magwire Speaker cables

MAG WIRES
“Almost Perfect”

At the June meeting, Foodman lent me the Mag Wires that Roozer had made for him. The next day, I inserted them into my system, taking out the double shotgun run of Audioquest Midnight II speaker cables that have been my speaker cable of choice for many years. I listened to three CD recordings over and over again, because I had just been listening to these on my standard system and thus I knew their sound well. These three recordings were Brahms Piano Trio No 1, Op. 8 by the Beaux Arts Trio on Philips, recently remastered recordings by Yes of "The Yes Album" and "Fragile."

Let me cut to the chase (what the heck does that phrase literally mean, anyway?): these speaker cables look like coat hangers, but they are giant killers. Of course you need to add “in the context of my system.” And I think I know why Roozer loves them so much, but I’ll save that to the end of this little review.

At the price of 50 or 60 bucks for five or six feet, these are amazing. Here’s what they do very, very well. They are very articulate and clear, without sounding etched. There is no emphasis in the treble (one of my pet peeves, it drives me crazy). Soundstage width is also excellent with instruments displaying a very good lateral spread. These cables are nicely revealing, and I do mean nicely. That is, they allow details to come through without rubbing your nose “in the snow.” What I mean by that last remark is that some cables give you detail but they also sound cold and sterile; these don’t. One of the best things about these cables, that I enjoyed, is that they work really well in the lower decibel range. Sotto voce, they reveal lots of detail. Decay trails, as instruments die away into the silence, are very evident.

Bass extension is quite good, in fact the extension at both ends of the frequency spectrum is excellent. At the treble end, the Mag Wires are not cold, not etched, not clinical. They do not sound too crisp or electronic. Also, they do not shove air and ambience in your face. (How many cables have I listened to that teleported me to the studio where the recording was made, but someone had turned the heat off and I froze to death. Hated ‘em.) Do they stray over to the other side to sound warm—no.

Because they reveal detail without emphasizing it, they do a good job of disentangling recordings and laying open the details. Finally, they do seem to have really good rhythmic drive; they never lose the beat. These are pretty exciting speaker cables, at least more exciting than my AQ Midnights.

Are they perfect, no of course not, what is? I said “almost perfect” remember.? Here are the flaws. Probably the most notable “less-than-positive” trait was a slight thinning of high upper midrange and low treble notes. The Mag Wires do tend to emphasize the attacks of these notes at the expense of the body of the note and the instrument, particularly when the volume rises. On classical piano recordings, this robs the right hand of some body and fullness to the sound. This emphasis on the attacks of the notes in the upper midrange and low treble range also translates into an emphasis on the front of the instruments. I heard the strings of the cello, but not much of the wood resonance of the cello body behind those strings. Acoustic instruments thus tend to just barely lack the right weight. ( I think this is what Foodman meant when he referred to the Mag Wires as slightly “shouty.”)

Because there is a slight emphasis on the attacks and on the fronts of acoustic instruments, and because there is a lot of detail revealed, the Mag Wires push the soundstage a little forward. There is thus not as much depth to the wide soundstage, as I feel there should be. And because instruments are pushed a tiny bit forward and the fronts are more present than the bodies, instruments seem a little enlarged.

I can see why Roozer really loves these Mag Wires, and sold his Virtual Dynamics Nite II cables after trying these. They do a great deal right and not much wrong. And what do they do wrong is confined to a very narrow range and only when the volume gets louder. They are great from the middle midrange down, and from the middle treble range up. I wonder if his Maggy speakers might have a slight valley in the upper mid/lower treble? These Mag Wires would exactly complement that balance.

Unfortunately, my Martin Logans already have a slight emphasis in the lower treble. So the Mag Wires are not complementing in the right place in my system. Shall I buy them, I am tempted--they do so much well--and they cost so little.

Hoodman

June 2005