Build Quality, Transparency, Purchase Experience

None

What else can be said about these cables? They rock! I'm not going to go into any details about how these cables 'sound'. I just wanted a secure connection, high enough thickness, and something that would last a long time. BetterCables definitley excel in these areas. Brad is a great guy to deal with, and his prices are rock bottom for what you get. I'll defnitely buy from him again. You can't go wrong with buying these cables, period.

Similar Products Used:

Monster 12Ga zip cord

Overall performance
Quality of Service and Support

None

I purchased several cables from Brad Marcus at BetterCables.com approximately 6 months ago on the strength the reviews on this site. Specifically, I purchased bi-wired banana-clip speaker cables for my front and center speakers, a digital coaxial, and an S-video cable. The cables support my Onkyo TX-DS787 and Klipsch Reference series system. The difference in sound quality between the BetterCables and the mid-level Monster cables that I was using was striking. The cables improved the quality of the bass and produced a "warmer" sound from the Klipsch horns. As my system has matured, I have continued to be impressed by the sound quality of all the components.

Equally important to me was the level of personal attention and customer support I received from Brad. I had to exchange cables as I chose the wrong lengths initially. The exchange process was smooth and went off w/o a hitch. Brad was receptive to the questions I asked about my system during my initial set-up, and provided invaluable feedback. He responded to all of my e-mail inquiries promptly, and called me on at least two occasions to discuss my order. I think you would be hard-pressed to find a better individual to work with in the realm of e-business, regardless of the industry. I heartily recommend his cables and his business to anyone looking to purchase cables.

Similar Products Used:

Monster

Build quality, Vendor Guarantee, Peformance Quality

Website purchase only (Is this a weakness?) Burn in time ( all other cables require this also) Doesn't perform as well as some cables costing 12 times more.

I decided to try these cables after favorable reviews on this site, and elsewhere on the web. After consulting with Brad Marcus of Bettercables (his reputation is very well deserved), I ordered a set of their premium cables. Let me first say that at that time I had extensively "in store" auditioned various cable. I had decided to try an "in home" audition of "Transparent Audio Super" BI-cables, until I stumbled across Bettercables. At 3K the Transparent Audio Super was a much more significant investment, and I decided to try the bettercables in my system first. I wish I could say that they blew me away, they did not. However they did impress me with their performance. In fact, they did all Brad Marcus claimed they would.

Bettercables premium cables are well built, custom cut and terminated cables. They performed well in my system. After a burn in time of about 100 hours, I began to listen critically. My system sounds better using Transparent Audio Super, and it should . It is 12 times the cost however, it is not 12 times the performance. The Bettercables is a much better price/ performance value. After 3 months use, the spade lug came loose from it's solder connection to the cable (my fault). Brad Marcus took the old cable back without question, and replaced it with a new cable. All I paid was for the return shipping of the old cable. I will be keeping the bettercables in my system.

My System:

B&W N805 Left & Right
B&W HTM1 Center
M&K SS150THX Surrounds
M&K 125 MK II Sub woofer
Pioneer Elite DV-09 DVD Player
Proceed HPA3 L/R/C Amplifier
Marantz MA 500 Surrounds amplifiers
Proceed AVP Surround processor
Sony KV 36XBR/400
Transparent Audio Super Interconnects
Bettercables Premium speakercable & subwoofer cable

Similar Products Used:

Generic Bulk Wire, Monster, Tributaries 12 AWG

Ultimate in Performance to Cost ratio hands down! They have the look of $2000 Magnan cables.

Not top of the line. But the price makes up for it a million fold.

I am more of a home theater fanatic than an audiophile. I choose the DVD over the CD. I just purchased the Round Table DVD player from Camelot Tech (was damn hard to find) to replace my Pioneer DV434. I use a B&K AVR-307 receiver with Definitive Technology BP2000TL speakers. At first I had Kimber 4TCs, then MIT MH-750s, then I tried the 8TCs from Kimber. All three sounded good, but nothing really satisfied me 100%. I'm not saying the BetterCables did either, but they sure sounded better than the three I tried. The 8TC's cost me $300 on Ebay. The BetterCables cost $165 for 3 meter pair with connectors. I guess the Kimbers are designed more for music than movies, not sure about the MITs. The BetterCables sound great with movies (the speech out of the center channel is very loud and clear) and music, and are very hard to beat with a budget of under $400. For the price vs. quality, you can't do much better than these.

Similar Products Used:

Kimber 4TC, 8TC, MIT MH-750

Sound great, look great, what more can I say?

None I can find.

I got these about a month ago but couldn't use them until today when I got my Magnepan MMGs. The magnepan speakers sounded great but I know these cables definitly were great once I heard how good the speakers sounded. The cables construction was very good, I got them with the vampire wire banana plugs which are very nice banana plugs to go with the cable. I had never had a set of cables like this before so I was quite amused how wide it was at first. After about 2-3 hours of listenen to music on my new speakers and these cables I am very happy with everything. I would reccomend these cables to anyone with a stereo! They sound great, the prices are unbeatable, BetterCables are really better. I give these a 5 for value because the price is unbeatable, and a 5 for overall rating because they sound great, and they deserve it!

Similar Products Used:

Monster Cables (not sure what ones, kind of old ones).

Construction

Good build quality. Cables are a bit stiff - but should have expected that given the equivalent wire gauge size. The spades were slightly too small to fit my speaker posts, had to file them a bit. The monster cable ends were pressed on - these are soldered & construction is better (course the Monster cables are only $80).

Just spent an hour or two listening to the new cables. Compared to the Monster cables, they sound "black". Very quiet, good detail - very little "extra" coloration. The music seems to "scale" better - sounds the same with more volume & the bass is firm. The voices/instrumentals sound great.

Similar Products Used:

Monster Cable Z Series

Good sheilding and contruction, very revealing. Customer service.

I had to recalibrate a lot of speaker settings after they were installed. Since they are custom, don't expect them to arrive the next day!

I almost felt sick after I installed these. I've had such good experience with Brad's cables and wanted it to continue with these. But initially, they sounded terrible.

I have to give you some background, though. My system:
Pioneer Elite VSX 26TX
Pioneer DVF727 DVD/CD
Altec Lansing AH2100 THX surrounds
B&W 602 S2 fronts
B&W LCR6 6 center
PSB Stratus Subsonic 7 sub

I have them connected from my reciever to a pair B&W 602 S2 and a B&W LCR6 S2 using banana ends and biwired. My old cables were not biwired, so I expected a big difference. Well, I got one, but not what I wanted at first. They just sounded really muddy and lacking. The high frequencies were still great but low-mid and low's were just short of terrible. Things were a lot crisper and the channel separation (stereo) was awesome, but that was it. Lows were being "fumbled" all over the place.

Now the good part. Since I really wanted to believe in these cables (I know, that's not a good way to evaluate something....), I started turning things off and trying different settings. After playing with speaker settings and positioning, I found that my subwoofer was the problem (at least the setting). With my old cables, setting the sub crossover around 95Hz blended in find, but with these, I had to lower the crossover to between 70 and 80 (I'm still tweaking for the best overall position).

Apparently, the combination of bi-wiring and the BC's increased the "good" range of the fronts. I haven't tried to figure out which one made the most diffence, but I can't really say I care right now. I'm too happy with the results. (Maybe in a few months when I catch another upgrade bug ::)

If anyone ever doubts that biwiring/cables don't make a diffence, i can tell you that they do.

Bettercables have done it again for my system. I don't know how these cables would do with that super-duper stuff (Wilson, Krell, Levinson), but with my gear, they do just fine, especially for the price.

Oh, that price was for a pair of 3 meter runs and 1 2 meter run, biwired, with vampire wire bananas.

Hope this helps!!!

Similar Products Used:

Monster XP (My monster's were not biwired, so I can't blame them too much for sounding inferior to the BC's)

great sound, very reasonably priced, well constructed

Sounded great when I first hooked them up, and they keep getting bettet. Was concerned at first because I am using these with electrostatic speakers [Soundlab Dynastats] and
all the dealers I called were recommending their top of the line speaker cable, saying the electostats needed fast cables. It seemed that I was going to have to spend $500 - $800 for a 15ftx2 length of cable.After reading the favorable reviews here and at audioasylum.com [I believe in doing my research before buying], and being amazed at the price Brad is asking for these cables, I decided to give them a try. These cables are a keeper. Have also bought a set of his interconnects for my CEC transport and was very pleased with their performance. Highly recommended, great service [Brad kept me advised on the status of my order without having to inquire], great workmanship and best of all an honest price . Let's face it, I find it tough to justify to myself paying $800 for 2 lengths of 15ft of cable. Cable is not that expansive and even though a lot of work goes into making a set of cables, the prices most companies charge is artificially high.
Well worth the wait since these cables are custom manufactured.

Similar Products Used:

monster cable [original ], kimble cable 4 [borrowed from a friend]

Solid Construction.

I'm now a believer in the fact that cables make a difference. I figured I'd try them out and return them if I didn't feel the cost was justified. Main things I noticed: Much improved (read less harsh) uppers and tighter bass. I found that I actually had to increase treble which gave music a greater sense of "air" rather than a sense of cringe when played loud. Voices from the center no longer "crackled" when played loud and the voice was thin or whinny. Imageing also improved (or at least instruments shifted) from the old Monter cables. There was a greater sense of depth to the soundstage.

Equipment used:
Denon AVR-3600
Denon DCM CD Player
PSB Stratus Goldi (L/R) Stratus C6 Center

Similar Products Used:

Monster XP Speaker Cable with gold plated banana plugs (twist on)

Build, quality craftsmanship, good looking cables

None

I had upgraged my system and was unhappy with the performance. I tried every form of speaker adjustment and two different combinations of AV receivers and DVD players. Still no improvement. So, based upon reviews here i went ahead and ordered the cables from Brad. One pair of 5m, 1 pair 2m, 1-5m subwoofer cable. (I am still running Monster to my surrounds) but only until the new ones arrive from Brad.

I was not prepared for what I heard after the installation.

The difference in the sound of my system is nothing short of amazing !!!! The sound before was boxed in and muddy. Now its open and the speakers just disappear. The soundstage is huge!!! I hear things now that I could never hear before. I was running all Monster. There is no contest as far as I am concerned.

Dollar for dollar these cables are the best upgrade to my system I could have made. They are still burning in and the sound improvement is apparent each day.

My neighbors hate my equipment:

Def Tech BP 2002 TL (Fronts)
Def Tech BP 2006 TL (Rears)
Def Tech C/L/R 3000 (Center)
Def Tech BPXV/P (Rear effects)
Def Tech PF1500 TL (Sub)
Denon AV-5800
Toshiba SD-9200
Denon DCM-5000

Similar Products Used:

Original Monster, Regular 16 awg