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Which speaker cable are you using?


tiggs

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Actually, for my primary system I am still running some "Impedance balanced" (whatever in hell that means!) quad 10guage (each conductor!) OFHC copper speaker cables per driver9.gif, as it was sourced to me in 1981 or 82 to try. Quadstar on Martian steroids! And its great - and ultimate overkill! But I certainly didn't overpay as Monster provided it at cost when they were initially testing it!

For my other systems I use Superior SK10 10 guage OFHC from Parts Express and also Mogami Neglex dating back to Nelson Pass' intial tests back in 1980.

But if I need any additional, or if friends bug me, they get sent the Superior 10 guage, as there is still plenty on the spools!

But I am always on the lookout for some insanely expensive nonsense just so I can read up on the marketing department physics that is so much more innovative then the physics that I learned in school! 9.gif

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Skip the Monster anything. They are a nasty company. Go to Home depot or the local electronics store and buy zip cord speaker wire, select the gauge that you feel you need. I have 10 ga O2 free cable that cost $35 for 50 feet. I thought I might as well try it for the price when I re-did my speaker wires but honestly, I can't hear the difference between this wire and 25 year old 14 ga zip cord.

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Guest Anonymous

Afternoon-

My HT is using 14 awg Monster THX inwall, and my 2 ch system is using 14 awg quad Canare. I highly highly reccomend Canare, it will cost you about $2.50 a foot terminated and shrink wrapped, but its well worth the money.

I have found the performance of the Canare to be unmatched in this price point. I can tell you that I have heard better sounding speaker wire, but it was also a lower guage which is the only reason. Don't buy into "chyro-treated" wiring, its all mental (the human mind will see what it wants to see and hear what it wants to hear, what is meant is that the basics of pys will show that the human mind will actually cut out sound it finds to be of annoyance, ie when you hear live music and its just aweful you want to turn it down, but when it sounds great and you like it, the volume doesn't bother you despite the fact that the amount of dB is the exact same!)

Another interesting point too, since on the subject there is also a good deal of evidence that shows that things will sound better when the lights are dimmed. The reason for this is that when your eyes are no longer your main source of perception all of your other senses will "increase" their sensitivity. Therefore you will notice more detail when listening to music (as you may have seen many audio places will dim lights when you listen to their speakers). Furthermore wearing earplugs will cause your ears to "turn up" their sensitivity and you may have noticed that as soon as you take them out everything is suddenly louder. Think of it as your pupils adjusting to light, your ears are adjusting to the change in the dampening factor.

Lastly, I can say this after much research. It all came back to the basic principles of physics. The lower the guage = the better the sound (a good qaulity based 100% copper wire with a good shielding). When examing a periodic table of the metals you can find the impedence and the inductance of those metals, which also includes the indivdual ion's properties of the two. As you will see the impedence and the inductance (both important to the sound) do not change in pure copper. The differnce in the ions is incredibly neglible. I use this basic principle to help prove the point that as long as you are buying good pure copper and a solid insulator at a low gauge there will be no difference between brand A and B despite the cost difference. Now I justify people claiming their difference in buying $1000 cables by replacing something that is either a higher gauge (or a smaller diameter (gauge is inversly proptional to the diameter)) or something that has been completly oxidized. The amount of oxidation that occurs on the ends of your wire will cause a change in the impedence and the inductance which will have a change in your sound. These principles all stem from nothing more than basic re-dox reactions and the periodic table. Which all lead into the basis of Ohms Law, which is probably the most basic Law of electronic physics. This law will also help to prove that as long as gauge is held constant and assuming no pink/white noise interference the two wires brand A and B will sound the exact same. This all leads into the perforamance of wire.

I would like to also take a completly nuetral standpoint from here. I do not want to argue the quality of brand A and B with anyone. If you believe that expensive wire isa huge difference that is your opinion and there is nothing wrong with that. The important thing is that you enjoy your system and if you notice a difference and enjoy it thats all that mattes! Brand A or B choose your poisen, because what I say and believe does not change the sound of your system.

Best,

George

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On 4/24/2005 7:18:51 PM smuttynose wrote:

I thought this was rather illuminating reading.

"It all sounds the same provided the resistance is low enough."

-Roger Russell

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I especially liked this quote regarding their findings between test with Monster Cable and your run of the mil Hardware store speaker wire....

"Only that 16-gauge lamp cord and Monster cable are indistinguishable from each other with music and seem to be superior to the 24 gauge wire commonly sold or given away as 'speaker cable.' Remember, however, that it was a measurable characteristic--higher resistance per foot--that made 24 gauge sound different from the other cables. If the cable runs were only 6 instead of 30 feet, the overall cable resistances would have been lower and our tests would probably have found no audible differences between the three cables."

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On 4/25/2005 8:14:08 AM dragonfyr wrote:

It sure would be nice to hear more discussions regarding the actual performance of a product and not the reductio ad nauseum overly simplistic reference to a company name.

The overly simplistic stereotypes don't do the companies nor the reviewers justice.

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If this comment was directed at my post, this is the reason I said what I did. I won't buy Monster anything due to the bad business practices of said company. The practice of suing ANYONE who has Monster in their name regardless of the business they are in, for example suing Disney for the use of the name Monster in the movie Monsters INC. for trademark infringement is WAY over the top. I will not support such companies REGARDLESS of the quality or lack of quality in their products.

If your post was about something else, I apologize.

Wayne

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