Price Paid:  $65.00 from Ozenterprises.net -

Summary:
I've just added my second set of ER-11's, at a GREAT price thanks to Omer at Oz Enterprises. These are a 10' set with bananas, which I will be running with a Rotel RA-02 integrated and Soliloquy SAT-5's. I've used a 12' set with spades for several years with my Outlaw Audio home theater set-up.

Strengths:
What a great speaker cable! Competent sound, dynamic and transparent, without the "sticker shock" that comes with so many brands. If you survey the reviews and opinions, you will find that XLO is fine product and a great value. This cable is no exception!

Weaknesses:
If I keep on finding great deals on XLO cable, I'm going to have to put together a third system!!

Price Paid:  $67.00 from The Cable Co. (Fatwy

Summary:
Without a doubt, this (and XLO's Pro 600 & 1200) is the best "cheap" speaker cable on the market.

Similar Products Used:
Audio Research LitzLink; Harmonic Tech. Pro-9 Plus; Nordost SPM Reference; many others.

Summary:
I recently upgraded all of my electronics and speaker: moving from a Yamaha Receiver and Mirage OM-6 speakers, with Monster Cable connections and cables, to a B&K AVR 202, dual 4420M monoblocks (for the B&W N802s) and B&W HTM1 center channel and ASW4000 sub. The XLO's were the last component to arrive, so the existing Monster Cable fed the B&Ws.

The XLOs (the ER12, in double bi-wires to the N802s; and the ER11 bi-wire for the Center) dramatically (a strong word) improved my listening.

My listening level decreased from -30db to -40db (I called XLO about this, Skoff (the President) said that I was hearing the resolution difference of the XLO vs. the Monster Cable: I could play the music softer, and still hear the detail: he said that commonly people will play music loud enough to hear everything).

When I crank the system, and with the clarity of B&K, the XLOs and the N802s I do this more often, the sound is linearly smooth and clear.

I am not one to hear the difference in cables, but I bought these on the condition that I could return them (it's the money, not the XLO name that concerned me).

A word on Customer Service: B&W has unreasonable inter-connects: they defy common sense to meet British Electrical Code requirements. XLO worked directly with me to solve my problem: I was very impressed.

If you have a state-of-the-art system, listen to XLO in the process. You will not be disappointed.

Strengths:
Excellent Performance; neutral product Coloring (the Wife Factor); Excellent Customer Service

Weaknesses:
Difficulty in getting The Cable Company to sell it too me (evidently, they make more commission on other cables.

Similar Products Used:
Monster Cable, but this is not really a 'similar' product.

Summary:
I recently bought the Denon D-M10 mini system which comes with the mission 731i speakers. I'm very pleased with the sound of the system, but I wanted to see the effect of better speaker cables and interconnects compared to the factory ones. So I bought the Monster cable 400MkII interconnects for CD to Amp, and a 10' pair of 12 gauge Original Monster speaker cables. To my surprise, the sound wasn't as good as the one from the factory interconnects and speaker cables! There was loss of detail and it simply didn't sound as natural, there was something missing. (I should mention that I tried a variety of music from classical to rock to rap.) I then removed the Monster interconnect and put back the factory ones. The sound regained it's detail and dynamics and was quite pleasant, but after a while something bothered me. I noticed that the bass was quite pronounced and that when I played music a bit louder, the bass was muddy and overpowering. The Monster cable was better in imaging than the factory zip-cord, with nice highs but the overly strong and muddy low frequencies were not to my liking so I returned both Monster products. I decided that the factory interconnects were a good choice, but that I should find a better speaker cable. From the reviews on the web and on this site about XLO cables, I decided to give them a try. I wanted to try the er-14 ones but the dealer had the er-11 in stock and offered a 10' pair with factory pin terminations for 85$. I love these cables. They give detailed and airy highs without being bright, and good bass and midrange with detail and none of the muddiness of the Monster cable. Overall a very nice neutral/detailed sound which doesn't lack in any frequency range. I'm very pleased with my purchase.
Granted maybe one shouldn't compare a 35$ cable with a 85$ one, but as far as I'm concerned, I know that I couldn't live with the monster cables and it was worth every penny to pay more for something that satisfied me. So for 35$ + 30$ for the Monster speaker cables & interconnects, the sound was worse than with the factory cabling. For 20$ more (at 85$) I was much happier with the factory interconnects and the XLO er-11 speaker cables. I don't think you can go wrong with the er-11's because they are so neutral that they can't screw up the sound of your system. Anyway, that's my 2cents. Moral of the story: it's worth to try different things and listen for yourself.

Strengths:
neutrality, airy, detailed, good in all frequencies

Weaknesses:
maybe not as dynamic as more expensive cables

Summary:
I used two sets per speaker to bi-wire my B&W 804's and HTM2. Transparent, huge soundstage and zero colorization. The craftsmanship is outstanding. These deserve a listen if you are looking at Kimber or Audioquest products.
System:
Proceed AVP
Proceed AMP-3
Marantz 500 Amps (for surrounds)
Balanced Madrigal Gel interconnects
Sunfire MKII True Sub
Sony DVP-S7700
B&W 804, HTM2
M&K SS-150 Surrounds