I've been using a pair of Analysis Plus Silver Oval speaker cables ($599 per eight-foot pair) for many of my loudspeaker reviews -- in probably more than a dozen system configurations.

The most obvious difference with these speaker cables is the opening up of the top end. Some cables seemingly roll off the upper frequencies with my Blue Circle BC2 mono amps in use. The Silver Ovals don't. In fact, they allow my BC2 amps to open up and really sing. Highs are pristine and extended, and the bottom end is also very strong.

The difference isn't as obvious as the upper frequencies, but in comparison with other cables, it is still noticeable. Resolution is top-notch. This can perhaps be attributed to the high-frequency performance -- a more open top end can result in a perception of greater detail, but whatever the case, the result is the same, and I tend to slide the Analysis Plus cables into my system whenever I am reviewing a high-resolution minimonitor in order to hear all it can do.

Another phenomenon I noticed was perceived greater volume -- nothing drastic, but there consistently seemed to be more sound there. Was I imagining it? I believed this to be a byproduct of the high- and low-frequency characteristics, but a recent discussion with Roger Hebert of Wyetech Labs changed some of my thinking.

Wyetech Labs makes, among other products, the outstanding Topaz and Onyx single-ended-triode tube amplifiers that we've reviewed here at SoundStage!. SET amps, as most know, are generally low powered and sensitive to speaker load. Hebert uses Analysis Plus Oval 9 speaker cables in his system, and it was when he said to me that he noticed up to a 2dB increase in SPL levels with his amps that my ears perked up.

Being the engineer he is, Hebert went into detail about inductance, resistance and interactions between this and that. But his final words were the most important. Hebert feels that there are some key technical traits inherent in the design of Analysis Plus cables that make them exceedingly good matches with SET amplifiers and can allow such amps to play a little louder.

As I've long known, it's not necessarily the price of the cable that determines how well it works in a particular system but the system itself. And I've found that these reasonably priced Analysis Plus cables allow certain systems, like my own, to be all they can be.

Doug Blackburn Soundstage December 2001