Re-wiring your speakers

[realysm42]

Is this something anyone's dared to try?

If you have, was it for maintenance or upgrade purposes?

What did you use, how did it work for you?

[synsei]

Watching this too as I am considering rewiring and updating the crossovers on the DM2's sometime before Christmas

[DSJR]

My Spendors from 1974 were wired with some very fine tinned copper bell wire as was normal for speakers and connecting cables back then. Around 14 strands I think but flexible for dressing to the drivers and terminals on the back panel.



I was unsure whether to keep these speakers original or not, but temptation gave way to curiosity. I bought some 50 strand instrument cables from Maplin which I remember Epos using similar in the ES11 and 14 -



These crossovers are obviously not the later type which were physically slimmer and snuggled up beside the tweeters, having wires of around half the length to each driver, so I felt a fraction of an ohm difference wouldn't make a huge difference. it didn't, although I "imagined" the sound slightly beefier and clearer

[The Grand Wazoo]

Nice trick with the marker pen arrow on the bass driver, Dave!

[Audiocom AV]

Is this something anyone's dared to try?

If you have, was it for maintenance or upgrade purposes?

What did you use, how did it work for you?

Hi Martin

I have upgraded several pairs of loudspeakers.

A very good internal wire to use is the Townshend Litz wire available direct from Townshend Audio.

Bybee purifiers is a great upgrade for loudspeakers, soldering at the crossover output or for best results at the loudspeaker transducers.

Best,
Mark

[YNWaN]

Is this something anyone's dared to try?

If you have, was it for maintenance or upgrade purposes?

What did you use, how did it work for you?

1. yes
2. upgrade
3. I used my chosen speaker cable which is really just a thick multi-strand copper

I specifically chose to use the same cable as I intended to wire the amp to speakers with. I ensured that all connections were (well) soldered.

[YNWaN]

Bybee purifiers is a great upgrade for loudspeakers,

Are they! I'm afraid I don't share your optimism/belief.

[Audiocom AV]

Are they! I'm afraid I don't share your optimism/belief.

Postive think helps, but has little effect on how the Bybee work.

Have you ever tried them?

[realysm42]

Cheers for the info chaps, keep it coming!

Mark(s), was it worth the effort?

You reckon you could use posh speaker cable, like Tellurium Q?

[Mr Kipling]

Hi Martin,

It's not quite the "death defying" feat you make it sound.

At the start of the '80s when the great Multi-strand v Solid-Core Cable War raged, I took up the mantle with Jimmy Hughes coming out in favour of solid-core - if only for the lack of high frequency hash. I experimented with the wire in my MK II Castle Richmonds and making interconnects.

Originally the wire was the type Dave R. mentioned with push-on connectors. This was replaced with 0.6 (I think) silver-plated kynar single strand twisted to the tweeters and some thicker silver-plated solid-core which I had on a role which had no insulation and which I covered with spiral-wrap.

Any difference? Well, as I said, the main difference I noted was the lack of hf hash. In another thread someone mentions litz cable sounding smoothe (too smoothe?) It was suggested the lack of hash with solid-core was due to the lack of contact with adjacent strands and so-called diodic contact.

As far as I can remember, other improvements centred around a cleaner, clearer bit more focused sound. I then split the crossovers and used the QED 79 strand for the bass and some enamel covered single strand to the tweeters. This had a bit of a strange effect. Again, there was the smoothing effect at the top-end, but also there was the sense of timing of things slowing down, which then seemed to aid focus. I remember thinking the effect seemed a bit unusual.

That's what I found with what I had.

Kind Regards,
Stephen