Charles Turner Posted March 28, 2001 Share Posted March 28, 2001 I'm new to your site. I have a pair of Cornwall I's from the mid 70s and Adcom separates...amp is GFA 555. Although I've not used the system for 5 years the Cornwalls still sound wonderful...horns are an acquired taste. Question...I've always used plain copper 12 gauge monster speaker wire. The run between the amp and Cornwalls is about 8 feet. Are any of the new high end speaker wires worth the money? If so, have any of you found any that are? thanks...charles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougdrake Posted March 29, 2001 Share Posted March 29, 2001 What's that creaking noise I hear?? Is it the lid of Pandora's box opening?? You've hit, Charles, on probably the most controversial topic on this board (along with interconnect cables). If you do a search on speaker wire, you'll see several threads debating the topic. Bottom line -- buy some mid & real expensive stuff from somewhere that will let you return it, and listen for yourself. FWIW, Paul Klipsch has pretty much used zip cord with his personal speakers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy Bey Posted March 29, 2001 Share Posted March 29, 2001 I gotta chime in here. Find a dealer who sells Belden CAT5 cable, buy the stuff with teflon insulation, and use that for speaker wire. To do the "full monty" you need to strip the outer sheath off and separate all the individual pairs, leaving the twisting aspect intact. Then braid three pairs into one, another three pairs, and another three, and then braid those three braids into one, for a total of nine pairs of wire. Strip back about four inches on both sides and carefully strip the whites and colored wires, bundling the whites together as one large conductor and the colored together as the other. Repeat on other side of cable. CHECK FOR SHORTS OR MISTAKES with an ohmmeter. Repeat for second speaker cable. There, I've said it. IMO, you won't find better speaker cable out there at any price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Garrison Posted March 29, 2001 Share Posted March 29, 2001 Charles Please check out the "The Cable Company" website at: http://www.fatwyre.com/index.html They offer in home trials at no risk, offer used and closeout specials, have a huge database of customer reactions to different cables in different systems, and are generally speaking a nice bunch of people who really want you to be happy with whatever you might wind up buying from them. No risk way to determine whether different cables make any difference to you, in your system. Ray ------------------ Music is art Audio is engineering Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stormin Posted March 29, 2001 Share Posted March 29, 2001 One Word CARDAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WMcD Posted March 30, 2001 Share Posted March 30, 2001 I think that what you've got now is more than enough. More better bigger is not gonna hurt, though. As I've said before, anyone who braids CAT-5 gets my respect. On the other hand, I cring when a boat load of money is spent on cable and the cash goes to suppliers which I consider hucksters. Do spend the money on better speakers, more CD's. That's what I think. Gil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Pidass Posted March 31, 2001 Share Posted March 31, 2001 I have been listening to vintage Cornwalls since 1981 and always with "lamp cord" speaker wire. I'm a long time happy customer. Well it's not really that bad as it's fairly thick wire but certainly no Monster Cables or the like. Having said that I DO believe that hearing is believing. I won't "dis" the speaker wire enthusuests before trying it myself. I may find an audible obvious difference. Maybe I personally and respectfully will believe it when I hear it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T2K Posted April 1, 2001 Share Posted April 1, 2001 Stu, I'm going out on a limb here with this comment.Five or six years ago I replaced the interconnects and speaker wire on my KG 5.5 speakers.I bought several pairs of Monster Interlink 400 MKII 1/2 meter pairs @ $29.95 a pair and about 40' of Audioquest Type 6 speaker wire @ $2.75 a foot.The difference was as apparent to me as the sack on your head. Keith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guy Landau Posted April 1, 2001 Share Posted April 1, 2001 I've tried driving my Khorns with several expensive speaker cables i.e Van Den Hull revelation,Goertz AG1 as well as some sane ones i.e Sumiko OCOS,Audioquest midnight. Got the best result with the Sumiko OCOS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Pidass Posted April 1, 2001 Share Posted April 1, 2001 TalkToKeith: That being true you should replace the lamp cord used in your crossovers with Monster Type Cables. I'm not saying there's no difference. I'm simply skeptical that a short run of 12 or 14 guage wire will be that much improved using expensive cables. I for one won't be paying good money on the "chance" the improvement, if any, will be worthwhile. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy Bey Posted April 2, 2001 Share Posted April 2, 2001 yeah I had the same thoughts back a year ago or so. Had fat 12 gauge lamp cord for twenty years(!) or more and didn't see any reason to change. Then I heard the difference between the standard interconnects that come with pretty much everything and a "cheap" pair of Wireworld Atlantis interconnects ($50). Crimeny! Rather than pop big bucks for speaker cable, I went the cat5 route for about $70 and about 24 hours of my time and 1/8" of my finger's skin, and feel, within reason, that I now have cables that I would need to spend ten times as much to better. And I've compared them to Goertz MI-2's and think very highly of the cat5's to this day, and probably will have them until I get independently wealthy and don't mind blowing $10,000 on speaker cables. Are they worth it? Only you can decide. Do you want to ignore a possible improvement for $70? I didn't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kepard Posted April 3, 2001 Share Posted April 3, 2001 I would fully agree with those posts before hand... As long as you have A) the proper gauge for the amount of wattage you're attempting to throw at the speakers, as well as a proper design, exhibiting as much noise rejection as possible, you'll be fine... I have built many data type cables (using "Cat-5", Level 6, and Level 7), as well as some hand-stranded designs of my own, and have found the results to be very similar... All very good... Matching and surpassing the results from Kimber 8TC, and the like... In my opinion, there's a fine line, between improving the overall sound quality with cable, and jewelry... The expensive cable is great, but put your money in your speakers and source unit, all else will follow suit. =) ------------------ -Klifton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoagie Posted April 4, 2001 Share Posted April 4, 2001 I was skepticlal on speaker wire myself, till my dealer let me "test" a couple different types. I have my RF-3's biwired with monster cable, Center Biwired as well, and high end monster to surrounds RS3, Monster cable to my "test" ksw10 with Y adapter. Wouldn't have it any other way!! ------------------ RF3, RS3, RC3 and KSW12 Sony DB840 Sony DVD Sony VCR Sony CD Sony dual cassette Sony TV Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boomer9911 Posted May 10, 2001 Share Posted May 10, 2001 Double post as well, excuse. This message has been edited by boomer9911 on 05-10-2001 at 11:30 PM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boomer9911 Posted May 10, 2001 Share Posted May 10, 2001 It comes down to you as the primary listener on what you like. I actually used Original Monster MC20/20 to power a pair of Khorns(93)but have switched to the Monster Reference series Z2 biwired and also for my C7 centre (Hersey's when the cash flows again, dry spring). My La Scalas are going to run off that original MC20/20 cable from 93(also a pair of KG.1's at 1 time) and it doesn't seem much different, only when I go 2 channel on the Khorns...OH BABY!! It was a toss up between Audioquest and Monster, and as having used Monsters product for almost 10 years now, why change, great stuff. Why spend 2000-10K on wire??? If I had 30+K speakers maybe. Khorns(93) Monster Reference Z2 biwired. LaScala(01) 1993 Monster MC20/20 Original cable C7(Hersey's to replace in 02)Monster Reference centre channel biwired. Adcom AC-515 Enhancer Marantz SR18EX Receiver 2-Marantz MA700 mono block amps(Khorns) Marantz DV3100 DVD Marantz VM5100 S-VHS Marantz DR4160 3 Disk carousel with single tray CDR. Marantz CD4050 casette Toshiba 50HX70 HDTV DVDO iscan line doubler(nice toy!) This message has been edited by boomer9911 on 05-12-2001 at 01:10 AM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djk Posted May 10, 2001 Share Posted May 10, 2001 >>amp is GFA 555<< For a huge improvement in the sound of the bass and midrange add a 22µF 100V cap in parallel with each of the 15,000/100 blue beer can sized filter caps.The cheap $1 each electrolitics will give 90% of the improvement that you would hear from $50 each film types.If you like what it does and want the last 10% then spend $200 for the film caps.If you don't like it you are out $4.Try this before fooling with wire.Warning: If you like inarticulate, mushy bass and cloudy midrange do not do this to your GFA555. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stormin Posted May 10, 2001 Share Posted May 10, 2001 djk Does that neat little trick work for the adcom GFA 555mk II as well? 90% improvement wow for $4, how can a person not want to hear more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunnysal Posted May 10, 2001 Share Posted May 10, 2001 double post sorry! This message has been edited by sunnysal on 05-10-2001 at 10:09 PM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunnysal Posted May 10, 2001 Share Posted May 10, 2001 randy the nexttime we exchange audio goodies I am going to ask you to knit me some cables instead of sending tubes!!! anything you looking for lately (besides the sub?)? charles: I too have tried higher end cables and heard the difference...I can heartily recommend audioquest type 4 cables as an upgrade from thick zip cord or monster cable zip cord...I also bought some cardas cable recently and wow!...regards, tony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djk Posted May 11, 2001 Share Posted May 11, 2001 >>Does that neat little trick work for the adcom GFA 555mk II as well? << Sure.The GFA585 limited edition already has them though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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