Speaker Cables and Mains Opinion

[mlhm5]

First, listening is a personal thing and so are speaker cables. Having said that, here is my 2 cents.

The DC resistance of a typical 8-ohm speaker system is about 7 ohms. This resistance is due to the wire in the woofer voice coil.

A typical 8-ohm four layer woofer voice coil contains about 120 feet of 28ga. plain old solid copper wire i.e. not silver plated or oxygen free or "magic", just plain old wire which is many times longer than a normal run of cable from the amplifier to the speaker.

All these hundreds of feet of plain old copper wire are in the exact same circuit as the speaker cables that go from the amp to the speaker.

If you keep the resistance of the wire down below 5% of the impedance of the speaker, there won't be any listening difference.

So, how do you know you are keeping it below 5%.

Well if you are using 12ga speaker wire, it produces about a 1/3 of an ohm of resistance for each 100 feet. If your speaker cables are 10 feet, then you are producing 1/10 of that or 0.03.

5% of 8 ohms is 0.4 ohms so you have over cabled by about an order of magnitude using plain old 12 ga. speaker wire.

What about mains. Well you have hundreds of feet of copper wire plus switches between your wall socket and the source of the power.

I suggest a hosptial grade power cord. You can buy them off ebay for $3 or $4 each. Just search for "hospital grade power cord".

[heiney9]

The impedence of a speaker varies based on the the frequency and amplitude of the signal being fed to it. So an 8 ohm speaker only measures 7 ohms when there is no load (signal) present.

Maybe I'm not understanding your thought process.

[mlhm5]

The impedence of a speaker varies based on the the frequency and amplitude of the signal being fed to it. So an 8 ohm speaker only measures 7 ohms when there is no load (signal) present.

Maybe I'm not understanding your thought process.

OK, "nominal impedance" is 8 ohms. 12 AWG copper wire has about 0.33 ohm of resistance for each 100 feet so higher resistance number would be even less of an issue if you wanted to keep the resistance of the cable at 1% of the impedance of the speaker.

My point is that using expensive speaker cable is unnecessary. 12 AWG is a order of magnitude or more than you need on a 20 foot run.

[heiney9]

OK, "nominal impedance" is 8 ohms. 12 AWG copper wire has about 0.33 ohm of resistance for each 100 feet so higher resistance number would be even less of an issue if you wanted to keep the resistance of the cable at 1% of the impedance of the speaker.

My point is that using expensive speaker cable is unnecessary. 12 AWG is a order of magnitude or more than you need on a 20 foot run.

I suppose this makes sense if you judge your listening experience soley based on measurements. Personally, I don't so it's just a difference in opinion. I go with what sounds right and not with what it measures. I've heard differences in IC's and speaker cable so I choose what I like by what my ears tell me. That's my prefered method. You may be absolutely correct in your mathematical analysis, but it doesn't mean anything to me until I hear it.

[Early B.]

There are a zillion other factors at play in the performance of a speaker cable.

[Vr3MxStyler2k3]

If everything in life was based on cold hard facts - life would be a very boring place...

Embrace that which you can explain, and accept those that you cant just the same.

[Dennis Gardner]

6'8" door frames work great for most of us, but 70% of the NBA will argue against the notion that it is the only door that should be made and this has little to do with the fact that they can afford taller doors.....

[mlhm5]

Maybe you can help me understand the difference between plain old 12 AWB OFMC wire and expensive cable.

There are hundreds of feet plain old copper wire in my Polk's woofers and the internal wiring of the speaker is probably just plain old 14-16 AWG copper wire, all of which is in the exact same circuit as the cable from the amp to the speaker.

Seems to me that standard 10 or 12 AWG (OFMC) would be absolutely fine for most applications except for maybe the extreme situations as long as they are terminated well.

[Vr3MxStyler2k3]

Who cares?

I like my cables. You like yours. Sounds pretty easy.

[Refefer]

There are hundreds of feet plain old copper wire in my Polk's woofers and the internal wiring of the speaker is probably just plain old 14-16 AWG copper wire, all of which is in the exact same circuit as the cable from the amp to the speaker.


A lot of it doesn't have to with that. A lot has to do with being well shielded, higher end terminations, and of course different conductors. In fact, a fair number of higher end cables are made using a silver core, instead of a copper core, to further lower the amount of resistance.

There's a heck of a lot that can go wrong from the time the signal leaves the amp and goes the speakers... why degrade the signal before it even arrives at the end?

[rskarvan]

The problem with Audiophiles is that they think they are above the law...

"The law of diminishing returns".

[vhabaygiurbm]

Interesting read...thanks