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Speaker wire upgrade helped me.


kaila

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But then again, I had an extension for each of the rears and one of the rears needed over 35ft!! The v.2-400's really kicked @ss before but now (especially the rears) are much cleaner and balanced. It has really brought them out, and I find myself turning down the surround more often now. Midrange flaws are not any more noticealbe, and only occasionally at that- tweak the eq. There must have been quite a bit of resistance through all the wire length. Well worth doing, especially if you have any sort of extension.

Here is what I used: 100ft 16 gauge wire & four gold solderless 1/8" mono mini plugs (Radio Shack part #274-868). The plugs really aren't meant to be used with 16 gauge wire, but if you trim about half of the bare leads they will fit around the screws securely. I also threw out the clear plastic tube (used as an insulator) and used electrical tape so there is more room for the plug cover. The absolute maximum this should cost would be around $30.

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WOW thats really cool, on a scale through 1-10 rate how much of a sound improvement this upgrade gave you? I have the 4.1's and i also upgraded the wires but i used 85ft of monster wire's XP 16gauge and the same plugs as you. I didn't hear any difference i wasted my money, so i wanna know how to did it!

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I would have to say that on a scale of 1-10, the different wire pulled it up a full point. Now that my ears are a little more discriminating, I'd give my system a full nine out of ten now.

I have the v.2-400's and I admit, the fronts improvements are not very apparent as far as I can tell. The rears are an entirely different story though. The extension wire that I had used were 1/8" plugged that I added to the ends of the rear wires. As I realize now, they were total crap.

Based on your experience, if I didn't used extensions, I doubt that it would be worthwile.

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There are 2 weak links in the Pros. One being the lame zip cord used for wire. As most of you know I replaced mine with Kimber Kable PR4. Pins on the Sub end and Spades on the Speaker end. The second weak link is the speaker connectors. The spring connectors on the sub are bad enough, but the 1/8" plugs on the speakers just plain out suck. I replaced mine with binding posts. (Radio Hack part # 274-662A)

I also replaced the interior wiring with the same Kimber.

This move my Pros from an 8 to an 11. While they are not the best speakers I have ever heard, they are the BEST speakers I have heard for under $500. c>

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Hofy's Duct Tape Mounting System Support

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ProMedia Tech Support

promediatech@klipsch.com

888-554-5665c>

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i had the v2-400, but the lack of and colored mids disappointed me very much.

i upgrade the wiring, and wow! much clearer! the colored/brightened mids are mostly gone, but because of this, the lack of them became even more apparent. a lot more than i noticed before frown.gif

sold the v2-400 and got the promedia 4.1's... what a difference. the mids are more pronounced, but overall the speakers still sound a bit dark. when listening to music, it just sounded lacking. and for some reason, the 4.1 sub seemed boomier than the v2-400 sub. nothing that the bass knob couldn't fix, but the lows were still inaccurate and muddy.

replaced the sat's with quintet sats, and i was amazed by the clarity of the highs. but the mids were lacking - muddy and a dark spot in the low-mids. still sounded horrible for music.

for sale go the quintets, for sale go the 4.1's!

purchased a speaker/subwoofer combo by Acoustic Energy (audiophile company). what do i think of them? let's just say this: everytime i listen to these speakers, a tear of joy runs down my cheek frown.gifbiggrin.gif

the promedia's are great speakers for movies and games. unfortunately, they aren't the greatest for music listening. and music listening is all i use them for, so these speakers weren't for me i guess.

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I replaced the wires in my 2.1's too and I think it sounds a lot better. I used the same mono plugs from radio shack and it pissed me off cause my fat monster cable wouldn't fit in the plugs!!!! So I got stuck using regular crappy 16 gauge wire. boo hoo. Well, although it's not monster cable (which I love immensely), it's still better. I suppose I do have very picky ears, so I really hated the stock wire. That wire was just pitiful. How can it let an real current through when you have the pro's cranked??? Well, I'm going to keep trying with my monster cable, but it's still a great improvement with the 16 gauge wire.

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I've done the same with my 2.1s. See this post:

http://www.klipsch.com/ubb/Forum22/HTML/000110.html

The question is: What the hell is wrong with Klipsch? Are there just idiots running the show or what? Why the hell do ya take some of the best speakers availble and have the customers connect them with utterly INFERIORc> speaker wire? Stupid, stupid, stupid.

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My guess is............Klipsch engineers design, and accountants scrutinize the production costs. As long as they ("efficiency experts") don't compromise the build quality and internals of the speakers, I can deal with the inferior wire.

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OutPatient.. there is nothing wrong with Klipsch.. The speakers are fine.. yes a few mods help the quality.. but what would the price be if they did these changes? The speaker wire does its job.. you hear wonderful music..right? then the wires work. There is always room for improvement in everything..

I think Klipsch know what they are doing and I highly doubt there are no Idiots working there.. so zip it.

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I doubt you heard static and crackling all the time.. anyway.. it would not be due to the wires. The only static I get is when rotating the jacks on the back of the sats <4.1> which I don't do all the time while listening to music. I don't see how static/crackling could come out all the time.. oh well.. Im glad your wire mod did work. My sets works well enough and I dont have the time nor the money to change the wires at the mement.

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Hahaha, an improvement of 8 to 11!

I'm telling you guys speaker cables make absolutely minimal difference (if any) to the sound quality.

Its the placebo effect... you put in better cables so you expect better sound. But if a blind test was conducted you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

Even 24 gauge cables have a maximum resistance of 0.09ohms/m although its usually smaller.

In the worst case scenario, say you have an 10 metre cable, the resistance is the entire length of cable is 0.9 ohms compared to 6-8 ohms of most speakers. Any idiot can plug this into a voltage divider equation and tell you that the power dissipated by the cable is NOTHING compared to the speaker.

Plus, how do you explain "better midrange" or "better bass"? Again you can't, its the placebo effect again! The cable impedence characteristics have practically no effect at audio frequencies.

Finally do you really expect cheap plastic multimedia speakers to benefit at all by upgrading the cables. Geez a little optimistic aren't we?

In other words, if you're paying more than 30cents/foot for speaker cable for your Pros you're wasting your time and money.

So I put it to you guys, do you REALLY hear a difference or is it all in your head?

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You might be correct concerning smaller speakers, but you take a couple large, high quality home audio speakers...hook one up with some Monster Cable and the other up with an ultra thin AM antenna wire (or something like that)...and you're gonna tell me there's no difference in the way to two will sound. You are completely out of your mind.

In fact, you shouldn't even be listening to music, you're not qualified.

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Well OuTpaTienT, I'm guessing you're one of the people using expensive cables? A bit on the defensive side aren't we?

I didn't say anything about using thin AM antenna cable. All you need to use is reasonably low resistance copper cable (say 19 gauge) which shouldn't cost more than 50c/foot.

Monster cable, along with the majority of "audiophile" cable companies, rips off customers who don't know better. Go ahead and spend $30 on a piece of 50cent piece of copper thread if you want.

I bet that YOU wouldn't be able to tell the difference between AM antenna cable and Monster cable.

Read the page totalkaos linked to. It clearly shows that the placebo effect in action.

And BTW, I enjoy music, but not through cheap computer speakers. My bedroom setup is worth $2700 while the living room setup was bought for over $6000. I KNOW what real hifi is.

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quote:

Originally posted by SomeGuy15:

I didn't say anything about using thin AM antenna cable. All you need to use is reasonably low resistance copper cable (say 19 gauge) which shouldn't cost more than 50c/foot.


that's the problem, the promedia's didn't come with low resistance copper wire. when i had my promedia's, i upgraded them to 16-gauge wire($9 for 50ft). both me and my roommate could tell there was a difference.

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The metal of the wire is only PART of the whole picture.

Signal traveling on cable is influenced by two major factors, internal and external. Major fundamental internal factors are those of electrostatic/electromagnetic field interplay and electron migration. Major external factors are: RF noise from broadcast transmitters, wireless phones, lighting, computers, etc. Acoustic influences such as those from loudspeakers, and static influences from decorative cable jackets and flooring material such as carpets must all be addressed in order to decrease noise and increase the power transfer characteristics of the cable.

c>

------------------

Hofy's Duct Tape Mounting System Support

hofmonstr@rocketmail.com

c>

I am NOT

ProMedia Tech Support

promediatech@klipsch.com

888-554-5665c>

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Oh yeah, to really improve the sound of your Pros, replace the weakest link. The crappy 1/8" jacks. c>

------------------

Hofy's Duct Tape Mounting System Support

hofmonstr@rocketmail.com

c>

I am NOT

ProMedia Tech Support

promediatech@klipsch.com

888-554-5665c>

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