Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
I purchased one of these to tame my B&W CC6 S2 center channel and it worked nicely! I had been running a pair of Rhapsody S cables on my fronts for some time and the difference over my old monster cables was amazing. The CC6 is rather grouchy and if not set up correctly can sound a bit boomy. Not so when using the Octave cable! The mids were smoother and the vocals were really transformed. Highly recommended!

Strengths:
Super smooth and accurate. Great for a center channel

Weaknesses:
Price may scare some.

Similar Products Used:
Monster

Price Paid:  $10.00 from Bay Area Audio

Summary:
I have a Yamaha Receiver drivng a pair of Paradigm Reference Studio 100 speakers. I've been using the monster cable ever since I bought the speakers about 6 months ago. I even used two sets and bi-wired them. This made little difference. For some reason, stereo imaging was never perfect, and not nearly as good as on my Magnepan MMGs. I carefully put connectors on the Straight Wire Octave II cable in a bi-wire configuration, and when I first connected them to the Paradigms, wow what a difference! The bass was not affected much, but the mids are better defined, and highs no longer sound slightly rolled off as they did on the Monster cable. Stereo imaging was greatly improved - Dave Matthews' vocals, Paul Desmond's Sax w/Dave Brubeck, even Tori Amos' vocals came out front where they should be, closer to the MMGs and headphones. Prior to this upgrade, I never really believed that the speaker cable made much of a difference... but it was just what I needed to enhance my music listening experience just a bit! A few more bits about this cable, it was fairly easy to work with. I wish the conductors had more strands, but it seems to be good quality copper. The conductor insulators are tough but flexible. I would recommend this cable if you are looking for an upgrade from run of the mill 14-guage zip cord or Monster cable.

Strengths:
good stereo imaging, crisp highs

Weaknesses:
none so far

Similar Products Used:
Monster XP-HP

Price Paid:  $400.00 from AudioVisual LifeStyles

Summary:
Initially had 8' runs of Quartet running from Rotel 971 intergrated to B&W DM302 speakers. Sound was great, but...
yearning for bass led me to purchase Rotel 985 integrated and B&W 603 S2 speakers.

Bought 8' pair of Sextet's to complement the Quartet's. With Quartet's on LO/MID and Sextet's on HI post(s), the sound was great, BUT... since I was running Serenade innerconnects I thought about adding them as speaker cable.
Demoed a 10' pair for two weeks and they did sound nice and smoooooooth, but a little expen$ive for the improvement over previous configuration. Decided to BI-amp (RA-981) for maximum slammacity!!! added (4) 10' lengths of OCTAVE II
and have been satisfied ever since. THE END

Great Cable for the money, helps smooth bright sources without obscuring details.

Strengths:
Good cable for bright amplification/source components???
Decent bass, Price i$ right

Weaknesses:
none for price

Similar Products Used:
Straightwire Serenade, Sextet and Quartet

Summary:
I was using MIT terminator 2 bi-wire speaker cable prior to this product. I'm using the Octave II with Magneplanars 1.6QR's. Associated equipment, Conrad-Johnson PF2 and MF2100 amp. Linn LP12 Valhalla. This cable sounds more like "live" music than the MIT cable did with this system. It has excellent detail, is very smooth and has very good bass. It also has a very effortless nature to it. The sounds just seem to float between the speakers. I recommend looking for good speaker cable give these a try. I'm saving the best for last, the price, around $200.00 for an 8 foot pair.

Strengths:
Transparent, good bass, smoothness

Weaknesses:
Don't know yet