Spikes, wire, interconnects

[MJC]

In the Studio L thread aht3 mentioned his 890's sound improved when he added spikes. So after procrastinating on added spikes to my L212s for 4 years I got around to doing so.
As aht3 summerized, the speakers became more open, with more clarity and better imaging. Guess I should add spikes to the sub1500/PT800 stacks as well.

I had already started comparing speaker wire, having replaced the RCA digital wire with Monster XP a week ago. The Monster XP, from the get go, proved to be much less than desired. It made the highs really harsh.
So much for their time correct windings.

So I decided to try Blue Jeans Cable wire, Belden 12Ga. Also ordered a pair of their interconnects, as I borrowed a pair off the surround channels in the LR.
The BJC Twelve White (made by Belden) got rid of the harshness in the highs and proved to be better than the RCA digital wire as well.
I bought enough of the speaker wire to do the front 3 PT800s in the HT.

BJ interconnects seem to be better than the Monster Z100i that I had been using on the stereo setup for a couple of weeks. And the BJ was less than 1/3 the price.

[Mr. Widget]

My friends who care about this stuff generally consider Monster Cable to be the worst wire available... I think they are including the many fine products by Radio Shack in that survey, but even if they are not... I think I'd look for another benchmark.


Widget

[MJC]

I've never been too impressed by most of what Monster sells. And the XP was the first Monster speaker wire I've bought.
The Z100i interconnects I thought were good, but a bit pricey. Now having the BJ interconnects connecting the Citation gear will make me re-think that.
Radio shack has some good stuff. I like their gold plated banana plugs, they make a good connection.

[spwal]

monster sigma is awesome. i was lucky to have an inhome demo of the peaker wire and the ICs. very nice, but $$$

was curious about the BJ stuff. I have www.anticables.com not bad at all.

i am very happy with my setup at the moment. thanks for all the help in making it happen folks.