Bass response, smooth extended highs, natural sound

none

Excellent cables in every respect, huge soundstage, particularly laterally. I don't understand some people's beef that MIT's top end are rolled off - quite the contrary on my system, they are smooth and extended nicely. Insruments, both acoustic and electric sound natural, not forced or tilted up in the midrange area. With these cables the soundstage and detail do not become compressed as it did with my system wired with all Kimber and Tara when played at high volume levels. I use these between a Classe CA200 and 12 year old Polk SRS speaks.

Similar Products Used:

Kimber 8TC, Tara Ref Gen II

holographic, images, handling of extreme HF, superb resolution

expensive list price

I have used various MIT products for about 2 years now and have the following review to contribute. This review is for the MIT 750 CVTerminator II speaker cables (single-wire) which falls in between the 750 Plus series and the 750 Shotgun series.

Whichever 750 series you buy, it is quite safe to say you will get superior performance than the previous generation T2 home theater series.

With the Plus series, you get improvement with bass authority, much better defined soundstage and image, and better control of HF extremes.

With the CVTerminator II, the extreme low resolution comes thru, imperfections on recordings that was not obvious before is now audible, the subtleties such as saliva or aftertone from strings makes the listening experience more lifelike and definitely much more involving. A large expansive soundstage and pinpoint images are also benefits. However, the amazing handling of vocal sibilance and HF extremes is why I like these cables so much. These cables also work very favorably with rooms that have bare walls and reflective objects such as leather furnitures and glass coffee tables (which is probably what most people have).

I have never used the Shotgun series in my home but have listened to them quite often at the dealer. They sound simply awesome and out of this world, but then again, the dealer's sound room is acoustically treated. Therefore, I can't draw a direct reference in terms of performance between it and the CVTerminator. I will say that the Shotgun series sound as close to life as anything I've heard at the shows I've been to.

If you can get the CVTerminator cables used or on clearance, I'd strongly recommend giving them a try. I would not spend extra on bi-wires but would definitely replace the stock speaker terminal jumpers with some quality short cables.

I should also mentioned that certain speaker brands do not work well with MIT cables, so some efforts may be necessary in ensuring compatibility. (For example, the Paradigm Reference 100 sounded horrible and wrong with these MIT cables but sounded decent with Nordost and Kimber silver). One might think that cables choice is a matter of taste but sometimes it's more than that.

In 1996 I auditioned several speaker cables to serve as an adequate match for my system. I tried Vampire SL3, Tara Labs Reference Gen II and MIT MH750 Bi-wire, along with some modest Vampire, Tara Labs and Audio Quest. There are several more speaker cables out there, but I could not get my hands on them. Recently I tried some Analysis Plus Oval 9 double run (bi-wire) since it is all the buzz on the Internet. Here is what I found:

The MIT MH750 bi-wire bested them all and is also the most expensive ($1100 for 12 feet including 3 foot custom tails). The Vampire was very smooth and sweet with excellent bass. However it has a lot of mid/upper bass warmth and bloom. It has fairly good extension on the top end but sacrifices some air and transparency for smoothness. It imaged reasonably, but not great.

The Tara Labs had excellent detail and imaging and pretty decent bass extension, but in my system it was rather noisy. When compared with other cables it had a lot of background white noise. I did not notice this until switching with other cables. Also it is VERY stiff and hard to maneuver, which I found objectionable.

I bought the MIT MH750 because it had low bass extension and control as good as the Vampire (possible even better), but was more balanced in the mid/upper bass. It imaged wonderfully with a wide and deep soundstage and good delineation between the instruments. I was quieter than any other cable and revealed more detail than anything else I tried, yet without being analytical. It retained a smoothness and refinement that the others could not match.

I also conducted some blind listening tests with a couple friends who are not audiophiles. After a few hours of listening, the sound they thought was clearly better came from the MIT.

The Analysis Plus is supposed to be the giant killer at a rather reasonable $399 for 12 feet ($299 for 8 feet). But most good speakers I have owned or auditioned sound best when bi-wired (not single-wire and a terminal bridge or tail). With Analysis Plus you must use a double run joined only at the amp termination. That means you are up to $750 for a 12-foot bi-wire. No longer such an incredible deal, but still a good value if it compares well to others in the $800-1200 range.

When I first pulled it out of the box, the bass was bloated and overpowering--probably welcome for those with mini-monitors, but poor for full range speakers. The speakers were smooth and imaged well but the highs had little extension, detail or delicacy. I heard one or two reviews say it takes a while to burn in, so I stopped listening. I out the CD on repeat and played it at moderately loud levels for 130+ hours, staying out of the house as much as possible for that week. I noticed around 50 hours that the sound started to take on detail and sound like sweet music, but left them alone for another 80 hours. In the end, they sounded smooth and fairly detailed. Excellent imaging. The bass was deep and authoritative and still a little hot in the mid/upper bass, but was much better balanced and controlled.

But I had been living with the MIT MH750 for 4 years on this music, so I know the sound. Something seemed missing. It didn’t seem to have as much air. The highs were extended, but you didn’t have as much sense of the room in which the music was recorded. On some music where the room was obviously reverberant it came across in the percussion but not so much on the voice or piano. I took the trouble to switch back to the MIT and wow. There was so much more detail. The bass was so much more natural. The piano sounded more like live piano sounds when played in a “live” room. Now the room sounded the same on the voice, piano and percussion. There was little better control on the upright bass and you heard more of the wood in the sound, but it was just as extended as the Analysis Plus. Overall the music was more engaging, because it had the smoothness and even some sweetness but had a lot more detail and sense of the recording space.

I wanted to prefer the Analysis Plus because it was less expensive, did not have the big ugly MIT junction box, and the cable was not so fat. (I wanted to string it under the carpet in front of a doorway.) The sound was very good and is a good value if you run single wire. Since it must be double-run, perhaps Oval 12 would be a good inexpensive solution with similar performance. However, the MIT clearly excelled in my system and brought out so much more of the music. If I had not heard the MIT, I would not have known what I was missing and would have probably loved the Analysis Plus (once burned in). But I’ll stick with the MIT MH750 Bi-wire, junction box and all.

System:
Von Schweikert Research VR4s
Classe Audio 70 amp & 30 preamp
Theta Basic Transport
Muse Model 2 DAC

Similar Products Used:

Vampire SL3 (bi-wire), Tara Labs Reference Gen II double run, Analysis Plus Oval 9 double run, Black Orchid