Speaker Wire. It pains me to say this, but......

[Primalsea]

Is it me or are speaker cables getting ridiculously thick these days. Whats that all about?? It seems that we've done exotic materials and exotic constructions and the next thing to do is make them BIGGER to show they are better than whats been done before.

Its hard not to run out of some rooms at hifi shows thinking that you have a pair of giant pythons in there with you.

[greenhomeelectronics]

Interesting and timely thread as I have been experimenting with speaker cables recently. I am a bit of a sceptic but understand the technical reasons why a decent cable will work better than in inferior one. I guess a system only being as good as the weakest link comes in to it. In the past I have had favourable results from using cooker cable - it has the 3 essential components of low resistance, low inductance and low capacitance. Just recently I tried some Chinese cables out - these are monsters. They weigh near on 4 kilos for the 2.5 meter long jobbies, each conductor has just under 450 strands of oxygen free copper. Wife friendly they are not but initial experiments have persuaded me to stock them, they are in my opinion incredible value for money. More info will come in the next couple of weeks when I launch my new web site. Anyway I digress, speaker cables should be reasonably big, especially for long runs as keeping the conductors apart is the only way to get capacitance and inductance to a minimum. The conductors need to have a large cross sectional area to keep the resistance down - the latter becomes more important as the impedance of the load (speaker) decreases.
Dave.

[Cotlake]

Anyway I digress, speaker cables should be reasonably big, especially for long runs as keeping the conductors apart is the only way to get capacitance and inductance to a minimum. The conductors need to have a large cross sectional area to keep the resistance down - the latter becomes more important as the impedance of the load (speaker) decreases.
Dave.

Why?.....you're evidence and technical arguement is..........? Sweeping claims like this need proper explaination. You're the dealer, give us the facts.

[gary]

Anyway I digress, speaker cables should be reasonably big, especially for long runs as keeping the conductors apart is the only way to get capacitance and inductance to a minimum. The conductors need to have a large cross sectional area to keep the resistance down - the latter becomes more important as the impedance of the load (speaker) decreases.
Dave.

I am not sure I aggree with this Dave different core construction gives different reactive capacitance results as does using twisted cables. lots of factors to consider from an electronic standpoint but that does not always guarantee a good sound.

[lurcher]

as keeping the conductors apart is the only way to get capacitance and inductance to a minimum.

Won't spacing the conductors decrease the capacitance, but increase the inductance?

[greenhomeelectronics]

Hi folks, the point I was trying to make was that speaker cables can and do make a difference because of well known and proven electrical theory. Any cable has a finite amount of resistance, capacitance and inductance. In certain circumstances these characteristics will have an effect on the sound we hear. Sometimes that will be good, sometimes that will be bad, the same way 10 grands worth of speakers can sound awful if installed carelessly in the wrong environment. As a general rule of thumb the larger the cable the better the cable conducts which has to be a good thing.
Lurcher you are quite right, last time I post after a few beers :-)
Some say twisted cables are best as any induction should be cancelled out, a technique used in telephony since day 1. I am a bit sceptical about this in the audio world as I have yet to personally experience any difference between twisted and straight cables. I am going to be messing about a bit more though and that's one of the things I want to try.
Greg, I'll come back to this as and when time allows, busy setting up a new web site at the moment.
Dave.