Hello John.
 JA>         Speaker cables is a hotly contested and argued subject in ever
 JA> Audio forum I have read. There are two basic schools of thought.
 JA>         Tell us a little about your system. What brands are the most
 JA> popular there now. Where exactly in the old CCCP are you? We had a
 JA> gentleman from the suburban Moscow area a few months ago. He worked in
 JA> a bank and used the bank computer to access the Audio Echo. When he
 JA> changed jobs he lost access to the computer and we lost contact. Is a
 JA> broad variety of music CDs easily available in the stores there?
My system is not completed yet. Now I have Loudspeakers Mirage 290, VCR
Mitsubishi HS-M58 (Hi-Fi), and home-made valve amplifier, which can give
2x8 watts, when output tubes are connected as pentodes, and 2x3 watts as
triodes. Beside I've Diskman Panasonic 160, of course it is not have enough
quality. I've a plan to buy Dolby prologic processor(I don't know type yet)
and CD player IMHO it must be Marantz63SE.
   Different brands are popular among different classes of population.
For "new russians" ("new ukrainians" - because I'm living in west part of
former USSR, now it is an independent country Ukraine, BTW I'm living
in east part of it, town Lugansk (population 600 000)) most popular are
Sony and Panasonic. Most part of population prefere Akai, Funai, Samsung,
Gold Star and other even cheaper brands. Some more tecnically informed
peoples like NAD, Arcam, Cambridge Audio, Marants, Celestion etc.
   I don't know what is big choice of CD mean for You, but in my town
one store have a list of 750 CD's , mostly Chinese and Bulgarian make.
They are pretty cheap, but their quality is inferior to discs brought
from Sweden, Germany etc. Sure we have another store with CD quality much
higher, of course smaller choice, but their price is not affordable for
most part of listeners. I have one CD, which was mixed in USA, and prodused
IMHO in Russia. It sounds much better than this Chinese and Bulgarian stuff.
It is a pity, Ukraine does not produce CD's.
   And last, of course I'm using PC from my work. I'm communication egineer.
Returning to our topics, what is relation between gauges and square 
ilimiters
for cables? I can't interpret this phrase from Mirage 290 manual "Wire 10
feets long of 16 gauge have enough resistance to degrade your sound".
I have cable length of 6 meters (20 feets).
   BTW what is good choise for not expensive Dolby Prologic processor?
Gregory
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