Sophia II's running on Pass Labs XA-25 (the best sound I've had) Can Anyone recommend speaker cables?

jahatl513

Well-Known Member
Jan 1, 2019
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Atlanta, Ga
I'm running my Sophia II's on Pass Labs XA25 amp. I've run them on Conrad Johnson Premier 350, ART 150 SA, and Premier 12's and Pass is providing the very best sound. I was using Acoustic Zen cables with the CJ and it sounded excellent. The CJ did not like Transparent Audio- The Wave Ultra's, but Pass prefers them. I am wondering if anyone has any suggestions for gaining more depth since the Pass provides all of the detail. The Sophia's have responded very well to the used pair of THE WAVE ULTRA's and I'm happy to keep them.
 

thedudeabides

Well-Known Member
Jan 16, 2011
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There's no correct recommendation. You need to audition different wire to see what works for you.
 

spiritofmusic

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Jun 13, 2013
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I'm totally smitten w Sablon Audio Panatella spkr cables. Well worth investigating.
 

Folsom

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Oct 25, 2015
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I like stuff too cheap to probably be interesting. But I can tell you I've heard Analysis Plus have more bass than other cables, and they sound good. If speaker cables sound highly unique I just assume there is something wrong with them, ie designed to sound weird.
 

Nemal1

Well-Known Member
Dec 9, 2018
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Have a look at the artisan silver cables website. Alastair sells direct, no dealer or advertising markup, makes really excellent cables and is a pleasure to deal with.
I am using his cables on my Sasha 2’s and arc amps and now my amps are getting to be run in (120hrs) they are sounding as I would expect.
 

Bobvin

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Jun 7, 2014
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Try “the cable company” loaner program to audition a number of cables. Many folks have commented in the past the titanium dome tweeter in the Sophias can be “hot” while the rest of the sonic presentation is very good with excellent PRaT, so I would, personally, avoid silver cables and stick with copper. YMMV.
 

DaveC

Industry Expert
Nov 16, 2014
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Acoustic Zen, Analysis Plus are both UPOCC copper cables made by the same company, as are the Harmonic Tech cables I offer, and Wireworld, DH Labs, and many, many more... they are all variations on a the same theme and IMO it takes a lot to do better, and they may get to be too expensive vs the speakers. You may be best off just sticking with the AZ cables.

To make an improvement there are some copper cables that are better, most of them by "burning in" the cable with a Tesla coil. A24 and Jorma do this, and it results in better clarity and less warmth, but they charge a lot, these cables have massive markups. Kubala Sosna and Tara also make higher end copper cables that you might like better vs AZ.

UPOCC silver is better still, but too revealing for most and often this is "solved" by using heavy gauges which get very expensive. For example Wireworld and Siltech offer 17g IC cables, which is more like speaker cable gauges, and kind of ridiculous for the signal leg of an IC cable going into high impedance termination. In any case UPOCC silver is excellent but too "thin" for many, and good implementations tend to be very expensive.

I use a UPOCC silver/gold alloy, the gold adds some warmth without reducing resolution as much as copper does, and I now offer 2 levels, one which I feel is most accurate (D4 and the new S4 SC) and one that is adding some additional warmth (D5 and the new S5 SC, which is also my current SMSG). I'd be happy to let you demo my OCC silver/gold alloy speaker cables, just shoot me a PM. They are still very expensive but I don't need to use excessive gauge to get the tone right, so not as expensive as most UPOCC silver options, and better tone. :)
 

C.A.P

Well-Known Member
Apr 23, 2010
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I run Transparent ULTRA with my Sophia and haven't found anything in the same league for value. I think they have synergy as they are wired with transparent inside. I did try somesilver DH Labs that were not bad but thin in the bass. Its all system synergy as the Focal tweeter can be a tad friendly if your not careful. The best thing I did for my Sophia was give it gobs of clean current and power and it changed everything .
 
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GSOphile

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Sep 3, 2017
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Acoustic Zen, Analysis Plus are both UPOCC copper cables made by the same company, as are the Harmonic Tech cables I offer, and Wireworld, DH Labs, and many, many more... they are all variations on a the same theme and IMO it takes a lot to do better, and they may get to be too expensive vs the speakers. You may be best off just sticking with the AZ cables.

To make an improvement there are some copper cables that are better, most of them by "burning in" the cable with a Tesla coil. A24 and Jorma do this, and it results in better clarity and less warmth, but they charge a lot, these cables have massive markups. Kubala Sosna and Tara also make higher end copper cables that you might like better vs AZ.

UPOCC silver is better still, but too revealing for most and often this is "solved" by using heavy gauges which get very expensive. For example Wireworld and Siltech offer 17g IC cables, which is more like speaker cable gauges, and kind of ridiculous for the signal leg of an IC cable going into high impedance termination. In any case UPOCC silver is excellent but too "thin" for many, and good implementations tend to be very expensive.

I use a UPOCC silver/gold alloy, the gold adds some warmth without reducing resolution as much as copper does, and I now offer 2 levels, one which I feel is most accurate (D4 and the new S4 SC) and one that is adding some additional warmth (D5 and the new S5 SC, which is also my current SMSG). I'd be happy to let you demo my OCC silver/gold alloy speaker cables, just shoot me a PM. They are still very expensive but I don't need to use excessive gauge to get the tone right, so not as expensive as most UPOCC silver options, and better tone. :)
Dave, when will your new cables be on your website?
 

DaveC

Industry Expert
Nov 16, 2014
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Dave, when will your new cables be on your website?

I'm not sure... I need to find someone to help with the site, it needs a moderate redo... The major changes are XLR and Speaker Cables that align with the D4 and D5 RCA cables better. So the XLRs are now available in D4 and D5, and the speaker cable in S4 and S5.

I'll also have a page on cable jackets and plan on offering some different options.

One of the things I need done is a decent price hike so when I do get it done prices will be higher. Seems like everything gets more expensive!
 
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medwardo

Well-Known Member
Nov 21, 2016
9
4
68
Seattle area
I'm running my Sophia II's on Pass Labs XA25 amp. I've run them on Conrad Johnson Premier 350, ART 150 SA, and Premier 12's and Pass is providing the very best sound. I was using Acoustic Zen cables with the CJ and it sounded excellent. The CJ did not like Transparent Audio- The Wave Ultra's, but Pass prefers them. I am wondering if anyone has any suggestions for gaining more depth since the Pass provides all of the detail. The Sophia's have responded very well to the used pair of THE WAVE ULTRA's and I'm happy to keep them.

I use transparent reference speaker cable from xa25 to Sophia IIIs...not the latest version of the wire, probably 4 years old. Love the soundstage, detail, and tone, but have not auditioned other speaker cables w my system to compare. Have thought about auditioning either the ref xl or the Shunyata Sigmas, but I know how that will end. ;)
 

alfa100

Well-Known Member
Aug 29, 2014
262
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258
South Africa
I tried a few notable brands. Nothing comes close to Transparent Audio for my Pass Labs- Wilson combo. Power cable interconnect and speaker cable all TA Reference with MM2
 

jahatl513

Well-Known Member
Jan 1, 2019
27
4
85
58
Atlanta, Ga
Hello, since starting the thread, I did upgrade to TAudio Super Wave and love it. Power cable for XA25 and SIT3 and Merging+NADAC is High Fidelity - Reveal cable; also use TARA Labs RSC Air power on a few other components. Thanks,
 

Elberoth

Member Sponsor
Dec 15, 2012
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Poland
I used to have the Sophia II a few years back. The best cable synergy I found at the time (I had ARC Ref 110 amp) was with Kubala Sosna Emotion SC someone already mentioned here.
 

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