Jump to content

Cable advice


Cleese74

Recommended Posts

  • Moderators
25 minutes ago, kevinmi said:

I toss my cables right into the pot of food I'm cooking. Gives my music that "home cooked" vibe.

You just need to be very careful doing that, a friend did that with some Mexican dish he was cooking and now everything he plays to has a slight mariachi sound. 

  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, JohnA said:

 

No.  Not at all like wheels and tires.  Speaker wire has no air pressure, don't spin and have NONE of the components a wheel and tire set have.  You made a nonsense statement right out of Jabberwocky!

 Hi John, Please don't be so disrespectful, as it doesn't serve the forum in a positive way.

 

Cheers, Greg

Edited by Kreg
I thought it would be better to be more clear.
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Use good copper, or silver plated copper. If you can afford it, use pure silver. Why do we use copper? Because is it the best conductor, except for silver. Silver is more conductive. That is the only concession I will make to the fancy wire guys. Other wise, use thick multi strand, twist your positive and negative, if they are stuck together side by side, pull them apart and twist them up. Keep it short as possible, keep it away from other wires. Terminate or don't. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/15/2019 at 6:40 PM, Cleese74 said:

Hi!

Finally I recieved my tube amp Triode Lab 2A3 EVO (http://www.triodelab.com/2a3-integrate), and now it's time to find the perfect cable for my Forte III. What do you think? Is there any owner with 2A3 tubes amp?

 

Thanks guys!

 

Tell you what:  to hook up my Forte IIIs I went to Home Depot and bought a 50' spool of stranded copper "speaker wire" (essentially #14 zip cord) and a ten-pack of banana plugs.  The plugs have holes through them at the rear for piggy-back connections.  During a thread not terribly long ago about bi-wiring I fetched another pack of plugs and bi-wired experimentally, doubling up on the plugs at the amp output.  I did not notice anything earth-shatteringly different, if at all.  Out of shear sheer laziness I have not bothered to reinstall the jumpers.  It sounds great either way.

 

I recommend you start with something similar (bi-wire or not) and see what you think.  It might've been $20 or so all-in with just the one pack of plugs, so it won't break the bank.  You may well be entirely satisfied too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, dtel said:

You just need to be very careful doing that, a friend did that with some Mexican dish he was cooking and now everything he plays to has a slight mariachi sound. 

I boiled a set in Carolina Reapers one day when making hot sauce and it kept burning my speakers up.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Moderators

Just normal oxygen free #14wire, no long runs.......just another opinion......

 

Connectors/terminal ends I don't bother with, it's not like I am going to change out things often, bare wires are a single connection, nothing in between.

 

I know wire type can probably make a difference in sound, but to me there re so many other variables in reproducing music I am not really concerned with better wires. I say this because source alone can range dramatically, not even counting electronics and speakers.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, dtel said:

Just normal oxygen free #14wire, no long runs.......just another opinion......

 

Connectors/terminal ends I don't bother with, it's not like I am going to change out things often, bare wires are a single connection, nothing in between.

 

I know wire type can probably make a difference in sound, but to me there re so many other variables in reproducing music I am not really concerned with better wires. I say this because source alone can range dramatically, not even counting electronics and speakers.  

Amen brother. There are so many things of greater import to fiddle with. One of my favorites are people with bad music files trying to make electrical or new super duper equipment correct the problem. I know what I have in my shop and see the looks on the faces of first time listeners and it all went through that lovely zip cord. Speaker wire is the last thing I worry about other than guage although the connections at the ends do matter. If I can I use fork end crimp connectors on typical Klipsch inputs and they wont come loose until I make it so. Most of those screw in end banana plugs work loose for no evident reason and if you don't catch it will give you problems.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/20/2019 at 5:29 PM, wuzzzer said:

 

Yes, but has copper changed since cars came with 78 series tires?  Copper is copper.  It's been around for a little longer than you and I.

 

 

 

Well, nobody seemed to know about oxygen free copper, much less Ohno process copper, so copper is not just copper.

 

Has rubber changed that much?  Sure, but the point I was making was that the small tires and wires used in the Sixties may have been good enough back then, but the bigger sizes available today work better.  That’s all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 7 months later...
12 hours ago, Jeffrey D. Medwin said:

  

 

Pure copper wire will only play the all important midrange.  If you want to hear all that was recorded, you must have some silver in the wire mix.  Silver does the highs properly, unlike pure copper wire.  It is more conductive, as Victor points out.  Now a days, there is little financial excuse NOT to do wire well. We have reasonably priced surplus Mil Spec wire, m22769/11.  It is silver plated multi strand copper, that offers the best sonics I know of, in an affordable way.  My first post in this thread, outlined that precisely.

 

I disagree with Victor.  I hate the sound of speaker polarities that are twisted or even touching each other.  Its a degrade in the highs !!!  I never let my speaker leads touch each other, and it sounds better that way to me on music playback.   More open sounding. 

 

I often use pure copper spade lugs, sourced from an eBay seller who handles a wide variety of sizes, at reasonable costs. 

 

Terminals.thumb.JPG.8510eefffe2a5dcb2ad1e4e8f229a0b9.JPG

 

 Sourcing the silver plated Mil Spec wire is best done on line at  APEX JUNIOR, in Torrance CA, Steve Slater is the Owner, and a really good surplus electronics reseller.  Again, my current all around favorite combo, is m22759/11 as a trio of 12+12+14 AWG, 9.52 feet long.  Very revealing.  YMMV. 

 

Jeff Medwin

 

 

“Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” - let your ears be the judge

 

Curios – how much “non copper” metal(s) were in the cables used in most (if not all) original recordings we try to accurately reproduce? Just sayin

 

 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Jeffrey D. Medwin said:

 

You will need to research that and learn. 

 

My first audio mentor, a recording engineer, used precious metals in his microphone wiring in the 1970's.   Gold as I recall.

 

 

 

What was used inside a microphone is not in question – we are talking about speaker wire.

 

The cable used to connect the mic to other equipment was not using gold.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/22/2019 at 2:10 AM, dtel said:

Just normal oxygen free #14wire, no long runs.......just another opinion......

 

I know wire type can probably make a difference in sound, but to me there re so many other variables in reproducing music I am not really concerned with better wires. I say this because source alone can range dramatically, not even counting electronics and speakers.  

I agree with much of this.  Sometimes this is more matching for synergy than absolute sound quality regardless of brand.  There are sometimes big differences in cable sound, regardless of what some believe.  I like my Basis speaker cables and Siltech silver interconnects.  However, silver can have a bright, thin sound although it  can be a little more pure than copper.  I would suggest consulting with The Cable Company, have never gone wrong following their advice.

 

I would use standard gauges (12 ga.), not 10 which is often too big to fit into connectors or speaker terminals, and I would NOT shorten unduly, since you may not know future length needs.  Mostly, try to get a handle on synergy before buying or installing.  I tend to prefer equal lengths between the two sides to make life a little easier.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/12/2020 at 7:32 AM, Alexander said:

 

 

“Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” - let your ears be the judge

 

Curios – how much “non copper” metal(s) were in the cables used in most (if not all) original recordings we try to accurately reproduce? Just sayin

 

 

 

There is a world of difference between producing sound and RE-producing sound. We try to get the best resolution out of even older recordings, though even the best systems only get so close. For example, a photograph can be taken of an object with little detail or much detail, but regardless of the detail of the subject, the photograph will never completely capture it. And yet, we still strive to develop a higher resolution photograph. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/15/2019 at 6:56 PM, wuzzzer said:

Speaker wire?  Paul Klipsch used lamp cord.  If you don't want to use that, any 12 to 18 AWG wire that's 100% OFC. 

 

RCA interconnect?  Get something shielded. 

great advice -------second that -

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Yes, the OTL amps have a slightly high output impedance (10 ohms) which does lean out the sound.  I got much better sound balance when I changed out all the silver cable in my  K-horns.  (For too long, I had a mix of silver and copper  cable in the varied leads from the crossover.)  The Basis cable is pricey, but worth it to me.

 

I didn't like the lumpy bass heaviness of one pair of P-P amps I tried.  Balancing out all these things isn't always easy on K-horns.  -- Larry

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...