Tony Boone Posted June 30, 2003 Share Posted June 30, 2003 I've read that having a solid cable from amp to speaker may be better and provide better sound than one braided like standard speaker wire. I was in Walmart and notice some telephone cable that had 6 seperate shielded wires inside a single wrapped casing. Each of these 6 seperate wires was a solid strand of what felt like very stiff copper or some like composition. What do you guys think this wire would sound like if I took and used 3 of those 6 wires for the positive and the other 3 for the negative leads from amp to speaker. If solid wire is better than braided generally wouldn't these 3 each provide good conduction and at the same time good throughput as together I'd estimate they'd average out to about 13-14 guage. And it's inexpensive by the 100 foot roll on top of everything else. About $12 I think. Has anyone or is anyone here using this type of wire for speaker\amp connections? Thanks in advance for your thoughts, Tony B. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marksdad Posted June 30, 2003 Share Posted June 30, 2003 i think you misunderstood what you read. electron theory tells us that more strands create more surface area, enabling more ability to carry signal, the cable you speak of is very poor quality cable. copper is in the first place a soft drawn metal, or else it would not be able to be used in electrical installitions, if it were rigid it would not bend, or break, the cable you speak of if stiff rigid< musy have other metals as fillers to decrease cost, and less conductivity Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marksdad Posted June 30, 2003 Share Posted June 30, 2003 plus placing 3 of the conductors under 1 terminal is very clumsily accomplishing the same thing as having a stranded cable, except you would be indivdually wrapping each strand Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Boone Posted June 30, 2003 Author Share Posted June 30, 2003 Do you have any suggestions as to an inexpensive cable that can be used, even in multiple lines (2-3 lines per positive\negative pole), that may be better than the old 10 gauge monster cable I'm using at the moment? What about Cat5 network cable? Basically I'm looking for the best SOUND and MUSICALITY (just made that up) that I can get from my McIntosh amp and La Scala speakers. I'm not one to throw money at voodoo solutions such as this all silver platinum encased diamond studded Pooper Dooper Super speaker cable that costs more than the average Americans IQ in dollars per foot. Thanks, Tony B. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artto Posted June 30, 2003 Share Posted June 30, 2003 Tony.....look for the Indy Tour thread in the General topic area. Lots of us took a blind speaker wire test. Quite a few of us reported on the results. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Boone Posted June 30, 2003 Author Share Posted June 30, 2003 Thanks Arto! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foldedhorn Posted June 30, 2003 Share Posted June 30, 2003 see what cable Best Buy sells. Then, HEY, buy some of those "great" new speakers they sell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovemyhorns Posted June 30, 2003 Share Posted June 30, 2003 Try Kimber Kable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnA Posted June 30, 2003 Share Posted June 30, 2003 Braided CAT-5 makes good speaker cable. I used 6 runs. Three pair are twisted and the twisted pairs are braided. It's about equal to 11 ga. wire. I couldn't really hear any difference and failed the A-B-X test which was setup with braided CAT-5 as one of the wires. It measures well. If you use teflon insulated wire you get a low capacitance, low inductance, low resistance (11 ga.) cable that looks really trick. It seems like Klipsch had a graph of the stuff that was about 1 dB down at 200 kHz. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marksdad Posted July 1, 2003 Share Posted July 1, 2003 what is wrong with the monster cable you have now? personallly i think unless you are listening with some kind a meter helping you to monitor output, that a good set of cables 12 or larger, gets the job done really well, the important thing is that the copper is pure, or silver, as long as it has solid conductivity, they sell many bells and whistles concerning interconnects, and unless you go really cheap it is hard to hear the difference, i use 2 types of monster cable in my set up, z cable 4 dollars a foot, and a 10 guage monster cable.80 a foot, and i really cant hear any difference when placing different speaks on them, i cant afford the more expensive cables, but than i dont know that i need to? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuckears Posted July 1, 2003 Share Posted July 1, 2003 I have to second the Kimber Cable suggestion by lovemyhorns... I get a terrific blend of clarity and punch with my 4TC. I have read from and spoken to many Klipsch owners who are running Kimber with theirs, and are in agreement. The cable question is one of the stickier ones out here... for the most part, it is highly system-dependent. Different components are affected in different ways by cable changes. Interconnects seem to offer the biggest changes in this regard. Speaker cable changes are a bit more difficult (for me, at any rate) to nail down, but I do tell a difference, mainly in bass slam, 3-dimensionality of the soundstage, and an overall perception of "live-ness" to the sound. Many are unwilling to pay for the potential difference that can be gained through going with more expensive cables... I was willing to pay about 5% of my system cost during my recent upgrades; one thing is certain, there is a lot better stuff out there than Monster Cable. In my side-by-side comparisons, of both speaker cable and interconnects, Monster came out the muddiest and least clear of all the cables I tried (with the exception of the cheapo cables that are included with many low- to mid-fi components). I would recommend NOT trying to find a cheap, DIY solution for cables; you have some quality components... do them and your ears a favor, and connect them with quality cables. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbflash Posted July 1, 2003 Share Posted July 1, 2003 What don't you like about the sound you have now? Danny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pack Rat Posted July 1, 2003 Share Posted July 1, 2003 Tony, There is a guy that posts on Audio Asylum that has a website devoted to DIY cables and various other tweaks. I have personally used the speaker cable instructions with excellent results. The website address is www.geocities.com/jonrisch/index.htm Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Boone Posted July 2, 2003 Author Share Posted July 2, 2003 ---------------- On 6/30/2003 8:39:53 PM foldedhorn wrote: see what cable Best Buy sells. Then, HEY, buy some of those "great" new speakers they sell. ---------------- Could they be any greater than my La Scalas? Tony B. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BnB guy Posted July 2, 2003 Share Posted July 2, 2003 ive never tried this but what about just plain 12 ga romex????????? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marksdad Posted July 5, 2003 Share Posted July 5, 2003 12 romex, terrible choice, not the best grade of copper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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