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Speaker wire Myths killed by Science


ClaudeJ1

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My dad set me straight on the subject about 50 years ago, he was a pretty smart guy on most subjects. But he wasn’t infallible  , he thought his Bozak’s sounded better than my Khorns 🤷‍♂️.hehe . It was something that we joked about from time to time🤓

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Yay finally something I can just reference instead of me personally trying to explain stability and reactive loads to people.

 

I glazed over the site and just wanted to add since I didn't see mention of it was that a lot of speaker cable manufacturers install RC networks in parallel with the speaker load into their cables and this can effect loading and hence alter the sound but it's not the $10,000 cable making the difference, it's $1 worth of resistors and capacitors.

 

I liked the Gordon Gow part where they would setup their McIntosh gear after the cable craze hit the market and snobby audiophiles would only focus on the zip cord used to hook the speakers up so they needed to swap out to fancy speaker wire in order for them to take the equipment seriously. Pandering to the hysteria was the path of least resistance and most profitable.

 

 

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1 hour ago, Tom05 said:

My dad set me straight on the subject about 50 years ago, he was a pretty smart guy on most subjects. But he wasn’t infallible  , he thought his Bozak’s sounded better than my Khorns 🤷‍♂️.hehe . It was something that we joked about from time to time🤓

When I was in PWK's office in Hope, Aug. 1985, I noticed a Black and White photo of he and Rudy Bozak wielding axes and pretending to chop each other, since they were competitors and met at a particular HiFi store at the time. After he told me the story, I told him I had heard Bozak Concert Grands at my Local Stereoland in my mid-teens, and was impressed by the sound (Even thought I owned Khorns about 6 years later). His response: "I never measured them, but I'm sure they had pretty low distortion based on the multiple drivers Rudy used in the speaker."

 

So in less than 1/2 dozen posts, none of them addressed the OP, and we are totally off topic. This has to be a new record!!!!

 

I wonder what Gauge wire Rudy Bozak recommended for his Concert Grands?

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Monster cable was originally marketed as thick "monster" sized cable when it first came out.  The thought being that really high powered amps which were still relatively new needed heavier cable. 

 

The Polk 'cobra' cable is interesting, looks like the same thing as Kimber.  Low inductance but high capacitance. 

 

The whole thing has really gotten out of hand. 

 

I like Mogami 11 Ga 3103 stage wire.  It is almost 1/2" thick with the jacket and nice and round.  It lays nice and flat and will follow a baseboard nicely so it is tidy.  Good reason?

 

EDIT:  I just googled the Mogami wire.  The nutjobs have gotten a hold of it and are selling it for quite a bit.  It was a little over $2 a foot about fifteen years ago in bulk.  Buy it in bulk and put on your own ends. 

 

 

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4 minutes ago, tigerwoodKhorns said:

Monster cable was originally marketed as thick "monster" sized cable when it first came out.  The thought being that really high powered amps which were still relatively new needed heavier cable. 

 

The Polk 'cobra' cable is interesting, looks like the same thing as Kimber.  Low inductance but high capacitance. 

 

The whole thing has really gotten out of hand. 

 

I like Mogami 11 Ga 3103 stage wire.  It is almost 1/2" thinck with the jacket and nice and round.  It lays nice and flat and will follow a baseboard nicely so it is tidy.  Good reason?

Good enough.

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39 minutes ago, ClaudeJ1 said:

So in less than 1/2 dozen posts, none of them addressed the OP, and we are totally off topic. This has to be a new record!!!!

 

I wonder what Gauge wire Rudy Bozak recommended for his Concert Grands?

 

More importantly, what gauge, length and wire does Claude recommend ?

 

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1 hour ago, Racer X said:

 

More importantly, what gauge, length and wire does Claude recommend ?

 

Depends on length and speaker impedance. 10-12 gauge for subs, 14-16 gauge for all the rest, with polarity marks on the insulation. Mostly, whatever is on sale at Parts Express and the cheapest.

 

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A5E656B4-2B17-4E95-8687-DC7C781FF143.thumb.jpeg.2ab522a214f42f2d962f004de124b4f9.jpegHey Claude , thanks for the interesting story. Here’s a pic of some spare Bozak parts , wanted to show you the skinny internal wiring  . My dad had the equivalent to the Concert Grands , in huge  home built cabinets. I wish I could hear them again today, they did sound really good, but my memory has faded on these . BTW Interesting article ,I love what he wrote under “Logical Conclusions ? “🤓

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I don’t think many people can hear much difference. I’ve noticed audible differences in interconnects, but was only a dimes worth of difference in cost. I mostly use second hand monster cable. If I find an incredible deal on something else I might try and hear a difference. Til then…. Meh. 

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The only speakers I have where the wire is the same are my overhead Atmos and my surrounds.  It’s 16 gauge flat wire from monoprice designed to go under carpet or baseboards.  My passive subs are some generic 12 gauge that I bought a while back, my mains are some old 12 gauge Monster Cable I had laying around and I don’t even know what my center speaker has.

I’m probably at the length limit for my surrounds and Atmos as far as length versus gauge goes but I don’t lose any sleep over it.

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