Jump leads as speaker cable?

[agk]

Just a mad thought I've been having. Using four metre runs now I have been looking at thicker cable. I've used all sorts of random cable over the years but never this thick.

Any thoughts folk?

[walpurgis]

Thick, thin, solid, stranded, it doesn't seem there's definitive 'good sounding' type. I have tried heavy jump lead as speaker cable, it wasn't great.

One of the best sounding cable I've come across in years is some cheap skinny stranded Transparent Audio stuff the looks like two core power cord for an electric appliance, but it sounds superb.

I'm just in the process of terminating some Audioquest Type 6 Hyperlitz speaker cable that I picked up at a sensible price. Now that is stiff and bulky. It has eight solid cores. I'm looking forward to hearing what it can do, rumour has it this is something rather special for an inexpensive cable.

[Barry]

Just a mad thought I've been having. Using four metre runs now I have been looking at thicker cable. I've used all sorts of random cable over the years but never this thick.

Any thoughts folk?

I had similar thoughts some five years ago. Didn't persue the idea as most jump leads available in car accessory shops seem to use use poor quality copper: it is usually dull oxidised brown looking, rather than a nice shiny 'copper' colour.

[istari_knight]

Many are aluminium now I'd noticed.

[Barry]

At one time I thought about using welding cable, cable which routinely passes 200A. But again the quality of the copper appeared to be even poorer than that of car jump leads.

To provide a quick answer to the OP, I would use cable which has a low inductance and low resistance (and preferably low capacitance, but that conflicts with the preferred requirement of low inductance.. A general rule of thumb is to make sure the total loop resistance is no more than 5% of the nominal speaker impedance (say 6 Ohm, so the cable should add no more than 0.3 Ohm) with a total inductance of no more than 3uH; which can be provided by thick multistranded and twisted cable. You shouldn't go far wrong with 20A rated two-core cable.

Some amplifiers dispense with a Zobel network on the output. These amplifiers prefer speaker cable which has a low capacitance, otherwise the amplifiers can oscillate at supersonic frequencies.

[Jimbo]

I have some 1930's Western Electric telegraph cable, apparently very high quality copper shrouded / wrapped in cloth. Bit stiff and thick (oh err) but worked well in my system. Nice airy sound with good detail, just a bit difficult jamming it into speaker /amp terminals as its so thick. Not terminated just bare wire connection. Can't get plugs on the bugger:lol:

[walpurgis]

I'm just in the process of terminating some Audioquest Type 6 Hyperlitz speaker cable that I picked up at a sensible price. Now that is stiff and bulky. It has eight solid cores. I'm looking forward to hearing what it can do, rumour has it this is something rather special for an inexpensive cable.

Well I've just finished terminating these, so I might as well show them here:

http://i58.tinypic.com/20jr4gi.jpg

They're nice and chunky. Not had time listen to them yet.

[trio leo]

Thinking that solid cable might be better than braided speaker cable I once got some mains cable with solid twin & earth and used the positive as speaker cable, it was the worst I have EVER heard my system.
I have also found that cables with silver in them makes my system sound harsh/brittle.
I had my Chord Rumour speaker cables Cryo'd and did a direct comparison at the HiFi shop, it was a no-brainer and I'm happy with it.
However in the near future speaker cable is a field I will be experimenting in.

just my 2 penneth

Enjoy your music :)

Cheers Al