speaker cable selection

[struth]

i didnt it was £2 a metre for cable. Just put plugs on that I had lying about. dunno if you can buy it with plugs on or not.

[unfairlane]

Beware of thin cable, it can have significant resistance and therefore cause big changes to the sound due purely to this... as in "bell wire" or the single strand DNM stuff that used to be around (no idea if it still is). A friend once tried some of this wire and reported big differences but not sure if he liked it.... I came round with a multimeter and measured a loop resistance of over 1 Ohm! No wonder it sounded different!

True. Most audiophiles seems to have no idea of what speakercables is about. Your amplifiers low-current secondary side will try to "breath" through these thin stranded & often overpriced junk most people uses. Even very small values of resistance here is easily audible for a moore skilled listener. First of all thinner wires kills dynamics and by that the low-end information.

Fun begins around 9awg solid core copper, be aware that the copper will need about one hour of heavy massage to open up.

[southall-1998]

I use VDH CS122 for the garden room system.

S.

[danilo]

Resistance is the Main (often Only) significant attribute of a speaker /power delivery cable of reasonable length...
10 gauge is of large enough capacity to have inconsequential resistance .. for most gear.
Your 50w amp driving 86 db speakers did surprise though.
More efficient speakers could be an upgrade worth considering IMO.

[Longmanjon]

Resistance is the Main (often Only) significant attribute of a speaker /power delivery cable of reasonable length...
10 gauge is of large enough capacity to have inconsequential resistance .. for most gear.
Your 50w amp driving 86 db speakers did surprise though.
More efficient speakers could be an upgrade worth considering IMO.

well it is actually 85w per channel, and they are similar to naim amps where they understate the power. so far even at half volume it pushes out plenty of power so I think im ok, but I get your point. ive always have a soft spot for dynaudios.

[Slawts]

I use VdH CS122 for the bass and 4mm Pirelli twin and earth for the treble. That's with an XTC POW 175 watter and KEF Reference 3.2's.

I tried it the other way round and it sounded slightly rough.

[hifinutt]

i have been using chord oddy and then chord epic for years . its certainly not cold and flat in the many systems i have had . very involving and dynamic in fact . i have just upgraded it to supertwin and epic

[Barry]

As a rule of thumb, the speaker cable loop resistance ought to be no greater than 5% of the nominal speaker impedance, i.e. no more than 0.5Ohm. The loop resistance of the cable will add to the output impedance of the driving amplifier so reducing the damping factor (the ability of the amplifier to absorb the back emf of the speaker - to stop the 'tail wagging the dog').

However the impedance curve of most speakers is far from flat, and the output impedance of the power amplifier will interact with the speaker impedance to modify the response at the speaker terminals. If the amp + speaker cable has a total impedance of 0.1Ohm, the response will be modified with a ripple of 0.1dB (which won't be noticed), if the impedence increases to 0.5Ohm, the ripple is increased to 1dB (again, unlikely to be noticed), but if the impedance becomes 1Ohm, the ripple will be 2dB, which could well be noticed.

To avoid these problems it is necessary to use speaker cables having a loop resistance of less than 0.1Ohm and an inductance of no more than ~3uH, i.e. use thick, twisted multi-strand cable. Suitable and reasonably priced cables are: QED 79-strand (2.5mm² conductor cross section), and Van Damme 4mm² or 6mm².



In my system I use power 'monoblocks' located directly behind each speaker and connected to the speakers with cable < 1metre in length. The power amps themselves are connected back to the preamp using balanced-line interconnects (the preamp has a true balanced inputs and outputs, and the poweramps have balanced line inputs).

[Longmanjon]

thanks Barry, that is interesting and the technical information is very helpful to my question.
currently im using the fisual Hollywood which was suggested, and to me it is on a par with the TQ black and for the money is a bargain.
I did have some old linn k400 in the cupboard which I used when I demoed the Moon and they was surprisingly good, I think because it being a similar cable to the ones you have suggested with its large size.
I have also considered using the NVA LS6 as it also looks a good size cable and has got good reviews.

[icehockeyboy]

Had TQ Black.
Now use Cable Talk 3.1 at a fraction of the price.

Buggered if I can hear a difference.