Exposing the Speaker Wire myth

[Fred Sanford]

Interesting résumé by the way.


Widget

Hey, thanks! What should I do next?

je

[Fred Sanford]

One more recent situation- some old Monster speaker cables that were probably fairly pricey in their day showed an odd symptom: only one conductor in each was deteriorating. Only the side with the brand-name lettering inked on was oxidizing...very strange. Once the conductors were exposed, one side was fine and the other was greenish-black and sticky like a coating of tar. Two ~20' lengths, most likely cut from a bulk reel in the mid/late '80s or so. It's actually a good thing the jacketing was clear, if they weren't and had terminations on the ends, it might never have been visible.

I sent the cables back to Monster (lifetime warranty!) and they were awfully puzzled...seems the cable was older than any model they had records for. No explanation for how/why it happened, but they've come up with some kind of current "equivalent" replacement, and they're shipping it out to me tomorrow.

You might find the pics interesting:

[Akira]

I inherited this cable from a 'Castle Winchester' system I bought 2 years ago. The system was sitting in a basement unused for 8 years and both sides were green. lol...I thought they were supposed to be like that...never used them.

P.S. WHILE WERE ON THE SUBJECT, IS THERE AN ADVANTAGE TO BI-WIRING?

[Allanvh5150]

I just took a look at some similar cable that I have here at it is the same lovely green colour. mm mm.

Bi wiring? Up to a point its ok if you have dinky cables but if you are using "normal" cables, i.e. something that is up to the job in the first place, all bi-wiring will do is double your cabling bill. Unless of course you have run two pairs of cable for future expansion as I have done. IMHO Bi wiring and Silver cables are better left to those people that can "hear" the difference.

[tom_h]

I was pretty skeptical about magic speaker wire but tried some and did hear a difference.

On wondering why, one thing came to mind. My (old) speakers were VERY inefficient (83 db) and magic wire has low overall impedance so the speaker can draw more current than with regular wires. I think the speaker load is part of the amplifier feedback circuit, so magic wire with lower inductance and capacitance may interact less with the driving end. But, I think the key idea is that inefficient speakers place a tough load on the electronics and need all the help they can get.

Since the magic wire experiment I replaced the audiophile speakers with LSR 6332s. What a difference. The much higher efficiency makes music sound very lifelike because it has better dynamic range. I used a longer run of cheapo speaker cable to get the JBLs to a place where they sounded best and these speakers seem to care less about magic wire than the audiphile ones.

As for me, I now care less about audiophile stuff. The new JBL speakers are fantastic. All my music is much more involving to listen to. I am not looking back.

[JBL 4645]

Oddly enough I’ve had some of that Tandy Realistic cable and that is cheap as biscuits and that also went green within a few years. I think I still have some in very short lengths in box. My camera doesn’t really capture too well so I’ll try and take a few picture once I dig it out of the box.

I use Gale cable and its also cheap as biscuits at around 80p per meter and that seems fine no colour degrading

Now as to how it performs really LOL. It works fine just fine I get good bass response and treble and I would gladly buy Gale again.

[4313B]

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[scott fitlin]

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Well, ok, BUT, only if my set has ONLY the PINK anodized aluminum clamps, OK?

[Mr. Widget]

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[Krunchy]

Just clamp them to the binding posts? You're too much, thats great !!!

[tom_h]

Biwiring is based on a sound electrical idea. By running seperate wires to each speaker crossover section you reduce noise coupling between the two sections and this gives a cleaner sound.

The main idea is that energy stored in the crossover comes back out at some later time and this creates a noise current. Biwiring puts each crossover leg in parallel with a very low amplifer output impedance and the noise current is effectively shorted out. Without biwiring a part of the noise current flows through the other crossover leg and creates a voltage across its circuit elements. This smears the sound.

Or something like that, the details are lost in the mists of time. My EE training happened many decades ago and I don't remember the whole story.

You don't need theory though, it is simple enough to try and the results are audible. It works. Wire is cheap.