2023 Editors’ Choice: Best Speaker Cables $1,000 – $2,000

Silver Apex projects one of the most open and natural voices NG has heard in a cable. It has a bold, ripe, textured midrange with plenty of inner detail. Neither romantically warm nor clinically cool, Silver Apex simply goes in the direction of the recording without commentary. Its sound is almost frictionless–a property that manifests itself as well-oiled speed, clarity, and fluency in reproducing cavernous acoustic spaces. A flagship-level cable that can stand its ground with the best of the best. NG, 301

A blend of the company’s previous Golden Reference design and its current Clear technology Cardas Clear Reflection held its own when stacked up against more expensive cables and, accordingly, gets high marks for delivering good performance at a reasonable price. Reviewer KM was charmed by Clear Reflection’s fluid, organized, detailed, and musically satisfying qualities. KM, 254

Harmonic Technology’s latest top-line cable offerings are highly communicative and musically insightful. Across the board Armour imparts a wide spectrum of tonal color, micro-shading, and dynamic contrast. There is not an element in its sonic resume that suggests hype or overreach. In more general terms its tonal character is essentially neutral with the barest hint of a lighter complexion, a characteristic that often occurs in the company of quick transient behavior. What impressed NG’s most of all was the HT Armour’s ability to elicit dynamic gradients from recordings. A statement product that ranks with some of the most elite cables available. NG, 255

Tapping technologies from flagship Crown Series, Classic Legend 380 was sonically and musically striking for its refined, natural balance, and capable of producing crisply defined images and soundstage boundaries. It’s a detail-focused cable, not pushy in terms of aggressiveness, but not wishy-washy or laid-back either. Low-frequency information was superbly presented, attaining a sonic trifecta of pitch definition, grip, and extension. Key was its excellent resolution of dynamic contrast, transient attack, and textural complexity. The tactile feel of customary Siltech finish remains the personification of quality. NG, 323

Signature has all the elan and character of a high-end traditionalist. Fluid, clean, confident, and texturally colorful, it portrayed music with a warmly relaxed approach. It evinced excellent balance across a wide range of criteria—namely micro-dynamics, harmonic sustain, and top-to-bottom extension. Treble character was particularly smooth and easy. Bass response was equally tuneful in pitch and dynamics. A cable that embodies authentic high-end audio values, dollar value, and performance. NG, 328

These are no fire hoses, snaking around your equipment, but unobtrusive and flexible wires whose terminations are beyond reproach. While these cables will not provide any extraneous fireworks or a vast soundstage, it is their very subtlety that eventually draws your attention. The Crimsons are as elegant sounding as they are svelte. They supply by high-end standards an economical route to superb sonics that is unobtrusive both in execution and fidelity. Seldom has JHb heard as grain-free a cable as the Clarus, which lives up to the Latin provenance of its name—clear and shining. JHb, 320

Furutech uses cryogenically treated, ultra-high-purity, OCC (Ohno Continuous Casting) single-crystal copper conductors in both its mid-priced Evolution and premium-priced Reference III audio cables. The top models offer better connectors, superior dielectric materials, and passive EMI-absorption filters made from GC-303 (an EMI-absorbent material developed by 3M Company). Furutech’s cables have great transparency and purity, plus an uncanny ability to block out noise. CM, 173

Tara’s Air Evolution opens wide the sonic window and conveys a rich, colorful tonality with clean textural shadings from the lowest bass to the uppermost treble. But the single most delightful impression is Air Evolution’s soundstaging—full-on, uncropped, widescreen audio that touches the full dimensions of an orchestral concert hall. It portrays music with the same authenticity and naturalism encountered in the live experience. NG, 295

Occupying the sweet spot of Nordost’s mid-priced Norse 2 line, the radically updated Frey 2 combines the high performance macro- and micro-dynamics that Nordost is famous for with richer mids and a brawnier, meatier bottom end that gives orchestral music more discernable ambience and weight. Of course, transient speed is on hand, but the Frey 2’s are also a bit more controlled in the midbass and able to land a tighter, dynamic punch than most of the competition. In a word, the Frey 2s deliver flat out more fidelity to the live event. NG, 265

Audience’s latest flagship wire offers midrange weight and sweetness, vivid dynamic contrasts, excellent transient speed, sensitivity to delicate volume gradations, and a brilliance that casts light into the deepest corners of the soundstage, restoring air and lift to harmonics. A particular strength for all Audience cables is an often hard-to-achieve blend of tactile presence and back-of-the-hall reverberation. The Au24 SX strikes a fluid and natural balance of ease, articulation, and immersiveness. Flexible and easy to handle, too. NG, 269