Speaker cable quality

[Blutarsky]

I personally use Blue Jeans Cable. Speaker placement, and room treatments are more valuable.


B.

[hman]

My cousin earned his phd in audiology at MIT. He has been, for decades, the audiology department chair at a major UK university. He is one of the world's leading experts in the science of sound. There are only 4 or 5 people in the world that are able to review his published work. Several years ago, he told me that the human ear is incapable of discerning the difference between sound transmitted through 4 figure speaker wire and a clothes hanger. I'm sure he was exaggerating a bit, but I got his point.

What I got out of this was that "great wire" is probably no better than "good wire" as far as our ears can hear.

H

[Blutarsky]

Still, enormous full range speakers, with 500W mono blocs, wouldn't look right with skinny little cables.

If Audio had no subjective opinions, no one would read these forums, or the glossy magazines. The industry would wither.

Dave would become exhausted from making speakers to fill the void.

Blutarsky

[davef]

Wish no further...I have created the prototype Ascend cable riser. This custom tweak promises to reduce interference from cellular towers, eliminate static discharge from dust bunnies, and obliterate polar ice cap erosion from global warming. It's also guaranteed to make your sound better by 230%. You'll get more powerful woofing, midder mids, and crispy highs.

All of this can be had for the amazingly-low introductory price of $299 per riser. By a pack of 10 and save $250!



I'll let you run with my idea as long as I get 21.5% of the profits.

Love it, and I will even give you 25% of the profits!

Dave: Interesting! Would you describe those two cables as 'broken by design' though? Seems so, so no matter if they 'sounded' different (skewed the signal a certain way), they would be worst than the most basic copper cable...

Exactly, as far as I was concerned -- both cables were broken by design. A cable should not alter the original source signal in any way, and even the most basic speaker cable will not.

[DougMac]

I appreciate Dave's no nonsense viewpoint on audio items. Speaker cables is a contentious subject, everyone in this thread did a good job expressing their opinions dispassionately.

I used 14AWG plenum speaker cable from Monoprice. I went with 14 instead of 12 because it worked better with my banana plugs and it was easier to snake in conduit. No run is longer than 30', so I feel comfortable with the gauge. It's a 7.1 system with two cables to L/C/R to allow bi-wiring, if I so desire. I actually tried it and couldn't hear a difference. There's nearly 300' of speaker wire in the home theater.

[Dark Ranger]

I appreciate Dave's no nonsense viewpoint on audio items. Speaker cables is a contentious subject, everyone in this thread did a good job expressing their opinions dispassionately.

A big +1

I think this is a testament about the majority of Ascend owners. Based on my time here in the forums (even way before I officially signed up), I prefer the rational and level-headed approach to all things audio here compared to other message boards. Rather than be a most wretched hive of scum and villainy, the Ascend forum is a refreshing oasis.

Regarding speaker cable, I've come to believe that money is better spent in other areas, so I bought myself some quality cable and called it a day. I'm currently using the Ultralink 14-4 offered by Ascend for all four surrounds and center channel in my HT. It's wired to 11.2 AWG and all runs are 50 feet or less. I'm also using the Ultralink 14-4 (wired to 11.2) for the 170s in my bedroom system. My Sierra-1 mains in the HT use a different brand of cable because I wanted bananas pre-installed plus a longer length than the Ultralink MX-2 offered, otherwise I would have chosen the MX-2.

At the end of the day, I'd much rather spend my money on magic crystals, cable risers, and CD anti-vibration mats. Wait, that's not right. I'd rather spend my money on speakers, quality source material, and good food.

[billy p]

At the end of the day...I decided on the ultralink cables myself and called it a day...yeah...I tried my hand at DIY....that proved more costly and IMO they didn't look nearly as nice as the UL..... After all this tinkering it was a small price to pay for piece of mind...

[Brannigan]

I think quality is important but wouldn't go overboard. My headphone extension cable I got from best buy back in the day was literally incapable of transmitting sound properly. I had to twist the contact points to stop the crackling and certain frequencies would drop out. I upgraded to a nice mogami ext gold cable and it sounds absolutely flawless even with 10 extra feet between the amp and my phones. Most of the problem was from oxidation but I don't doubt the quality of the cable itself contributes. My home depot 12ga speaker wire was looking pretty shabby and green tinted after all these years so I got some belden 10ga from blue jeans cable for 96 cents a foot and splurged on a nice new toslink cable for about $15 (already paying shipping anyways why not). Between the 2 cables I "feel" like there was an improvement but it's subtle and could be a result of expectations or even the fact that my speakers are in a slightly different position because I had to turn them around to install the new cables. I'm still happy because the build quality is good and it's reassuring to know I have a solid connection with no bottlenecks. These speakers can handle 300 watts and I want the connection to be as close as possible to having the binding posts on the back of the speakers welded directly to the binding posts on the back of my amp so my babies get %100 of what the amp can give. But, I wouldn't go spending hundreds on this stuff. Just get something solid with a warranty and some kind of science behind it. I tell myself that the new toslink cable has 1.23% less jitter but it's probably bs. People pay way more for shrinks to make them feel better and they have to go every week. Cables last years!

[GirgleMirt]

I agree, there's quality products sold at a reasonable price, many already mentioned here, and then there's other products sold at an unreasonable prices with bogus performance claims boosting the price.

I use plain 14AWG stranded copper wire with cheap banana plugs... I'd bet you a grand no one could tell the difference with/without the banana plugs attached.

What I'd be curious to know right now, is how much oxidation/corrosion would affect the cable... From the Russel page:

All inexpensive wires are not the same, However. This wire at the right was sold as speaker wire several years ago by such places as Home Depot and Lowes. It sold for 33 cents/foot. It had transparent insulation and was 12-gauge. It was much less expensive than the brand names. It did not have any coding to identify one of the wires for proper phasing. I had some of this wire for about 6 months and noticed it was turning color. Now it has turned a very pronounced green on the surface of the copper wire, indicating a chemical interaction with the insulation and the copper. A new piece of wire is at the right for comparison. Although the wire may not corrode any further, it doesn't inspire confidence, particularly if the insulation comes close to the connecting terminals.

Perhaps the transparent insulation was an attempt to mimic the more expensive speaker wires. Without researching the chemical properties of the insulation or the need to code one of the wires, it was not well thought out for use as speaker wire. I have heard complaints by others about the same problems. The normal lighting wires and wire supplied with the receiver shown above do not have these problems. I still have some of the #16 lamp cord that was used at the shows back in the 1970’s and it still shows no sign of oxidation, corrosion or patina.

I doubt a little oxidation/corrosion would be audible... Thoughts? For it to be it would have to be on the part of the terminals and compromise the connection, but even then with a normal bit of pressure I doubt it would be significant as significant contact would still be achieved with the copper... And maybe the oxidation itself isn't that horrendous as a conductor and again how much can there be? (edit; not great..) Anyhow, to be safe (and original ease of plugging/unplugging) I put a bit of solder on the ends of my speaker wire...

And to be fair to quality wire, I was once in a bad spot and needed to buy wire and there was only this high end audiophile shop lol I bought their least expensive wire, and it was a pleasure to work with, easy to strip with some kind of paper between wire and insulator, was great!

[Asliang]

All wire is going to oxidize eventually so new wire u buy certainly might sound better but it's not due to "r&d" or space magic.