How are your speakers connected to your amplifier?

[RetroHacker]

While surfing the 'net I have come across several different types of speaker cables, and information about said cables - some of which can cost hundreds of dollars. Just thought I'd see what other AK'ers had to say about that.

[Tonedeaf]

I started with Monster cable. But then I found pretty much the same stuff rebranded at Home Depot for about 30% cheaper.

[OvenMaster]

Tonedeaf, are you talking about that clear 12 gauge speaker cable on the spool?? I used that too but after 2 years it turned GREEN beneath the insulation, and after 6 years, I chucked it and got 12 gauge outdoor landscaping wire. Yesterday, as a matter of fact... how timely! (I was way too lazy to move all the furniture to replace it before now.) Since it's not as obviously porous as the old stuff, I think I should be safe here. Immediate improvement in treble, even playing CD's of MP3-to-.wav conversions!

Not bad for 37 cents a foot. :thmbsp:

Tom

[Celt]

My speakers are high effiency and I use short 6' runs, so I've found that 16 gauge Rat Shack works okey-dokey for moi.

[botrytis]

The wire, I am currently using, was bought with our speakers. British wire with british speakers - using Naim NACA 5 wire. Not the most expensive at all, but at around 8-gauge and very stiff, it really is nice wire.

Dave

[Army]

I use 14 gauge wire from Home Depot.

Its as big as I can get crammed into the terminals :yes:

Don't see a need to go with huge wires, if you look at most crossovers and internal wiring. They don't use anything near that heavy. Least not from what I've seen on most of the vintage speakers, I have :)

my .02 cents

Regards
Army

[Thatch_Ear]

I made my own out of 50+ year old Western Electric wire in a Litz braid. I didn't pay more than $300 for them but I wouldn't make any for sale for less than that and voted that way.

[WhiteSE]

I bought mine used, for less than 100 bucks, but I think they would cost 2x at least that new...

They are from Grover Huffman,,He sells some cables thru Steve Hoffman's web site, and Hoffman, who is a DCC remaster guru has the cables in his studio....I like em, and they didnt kill the bank/

[AudioGeek]

On my JBL 4412's I'm using 8' of XLO Ultra 6. Sounds great, looks great and didn't cost a bank.

Less filling too. :D

[devoid]

I don't care what it looks like. I use Belden 8477 12 AWG wire from my job. Works like wire should.

[darthm00by]

i'm using some Liberty Cable 14AWG that i had made at the local stereo shop.

[Andyman]

I used Monster Cable because it came attached to a set of speakers I picked up somewhere along the way and it was hyped to be "better" than the length of 14 gauge wire that I had been using previously. All my interconnects too have been obtained with items I bought and replaced the standard patch cords. One set was made by cutting down a longer cable and adding gold ends, but none of this stuff was bought new.

[kcollins4]

I'm with Ovenmaster. 12 gauge landscape light cable. Works great and relatively cheap. :thmbsp:

[Wireworm5]

I find it difficult to hook 12 gauge wire up to speaker terminals. So I use 14 gauge with banana plugs. And if I feel energetic I even soder the wire to the plugs.

[tx1488]

I use 16 gauge wire that is sold by the foot at my local hardware store, 'cause I think over-priced copper is just plain old... :bs:

[rgrjit8]

I use 14 gauge wire from Home Depot.

Its as big as I can get crammed into the terminals :yes:

Don't see a need to go with huge wires, if you look at most crossovers and internal wiring. They don't use anything near that heavy. Least not from what I've seen on most of the vintage speakers, I have :)

my .02 cents

Regards
Army

I'm with you Army.
Because most of us are into vintage stuff, the gear simply can't accommodate those huge wires.
Cramming all those wires into little holes is just begging for trouble. They splay out and can short your amp.
I don't plan on inviting any damned self-rigteous golden ear into my home anyway! :D

[Haoleb]

Some AudioQuest Type 4, terminated by audioadvisor so i dont have the fancy box or sheathing over it but its also cheaper that way :) Ive used other stuff in the past like the regular mega cable etc but im sticking with the AQ now. No need to upgrade. All i really wanted was a quality cable that isint going to corrode on me and looks good. Hey it sounds good too wouldnt ya know.

[ginovino]

I'm with you Army.
Because most of us are into vintage stuff, the gear simply can't accommodate those huge wires.
Cramming all those wires into little holes is just begging for trouble. They splay out and can short your amp.
I don't plan on inviting any damned self-rigteous golden ear into my home anyway! :D

Just a note... On my high end system I use 8ft bi-wire pairs of Kimber 8TC with WBT spade lugs on both ends. Expensive, yes, but ooooohhhh the soundstage!

I read a review in Absolute sound about a year ago where Home Depot(hd-14) 50ft, yellow and black stripe exterior power extension cord was used as part of the high end cable review. The result was the Home depot cable rated quite high relative to many of the mega $ cables. (Kimber not one). I went out and bought me 50ft spool ($30) and wired it up both in Bi-wire and single wire. Ultimately, single proved to sound the best on my gear.
For the speaker side, I used very large spade lugs, but changed to gold plated bananas, on the other side to get into the "Spring binding clamps" on my vintage receivers, I went to Rat Shack and got "pin" connectors which worked fine to get in those little spring binding holes. Of course I soldered all of the connections and made sure, there were no cold solder joints.

I can recommend the Home Depot stuff emphatically!!! For vintage gear it works quite nicely. Especially the big boys such as I have. Kill the lamp cord and the cat-5e crapola... The HD stuff is as close to "audio level" cable as you can get without setting foot in a "salon/showroom" as parking would be tough for many Ak'rs flatbed Fords. :naughty:

[tentoze]

I've harnessed the forces of the cosmos, and have dedicated plasma fields from the Udderio-modified terminals of my Yorx all-in-one classic to purpose-built transducers of secret design.

...as you can get without setting foot in a "salon/showroom" as parking would be tough for many Ak'rs flatbed Fords.

And for the record, this was a snarky-ass comment devoid of any fact that insults AK members.

[AudioGeek]

All's I can say is the less expensive XLO stuff, from Ultra on down, is pretty darned good sounding cable - depending on your set-up, of course. Well-built and terminated too. You can get pins, spades, bananas, whatever.

:beatnik:

[rgrjit8]

"but changed to gold plated bananas, on the other side to get into the "Spring binding clamps" on my vintage receivers, I went to Rat Shack and got "pin" connectors which worked fine to get in those little spring binding holes."

OOooooh yeah, that sounds high-end. I'd better fire up the flatbed to go see a city slickers' system.
Now think about this a minute, you're taking a rigid round connector and sticking it into a spring clip. You have only two very small contact points on the circumference of the pin as it is "bitten down" upon by the flat "jaws" of the spring clip.
A bundle of bare wires would flatten itself and conform to the shape of the spring clip's jaws, providing a much greater surface area contact to pass an electrical signal.

I really don't see the advatage of massive wire if you have the signal littered with these bottlenecks.
It's all or none.

P.S. Aside from antenna connections and stray pieces of random gear cluttering my closets and garage, I don't even own any gear with spring clip connectors. Preach to me some more about high end.

[fropiler]

I've harnessed the forces of the cosmos, and have dedicated plasma fields from the Udderio-modified terminals of my Yorx all-in-one classic to purpose-built transducers of secret design.


Well then, It's time to re-visit our amp of choice!

http://www.classicrockinhorse.com/belchfire_datasheet.pdf

Goes out to 20khz and never comes back. Gotta love it.

[Trawlerman]

I've always used QED cable on my systems. First off QUDOS Bi-Wire ($9/m) and then SILVER 12 ($30/m) and more recently GENESIS SILVER SPIRAL ($60/m).

The Qudos is a nice cable for entry level systems but really isn't anything special. It's just a good quality cable for general use.

The Silver 12 is a really nice 12 conductor silver plated flatline cable (ala Nordost). I've had this for for the past 7 years or so and it's pretty impressive. It's used between my Rotel SS amps and the Spendor SP3/1s that I have. It provides a very neutral balance and doesn't impart it's own sound like some cables. A great buy.

However, when I got my tube amps and the ProAc Response 1SC's I wanted the best around and plumped for the Genesis Silver Spiral. I have 10m of this stuff in all and at £30 UKP ($60) per metre it gets expensive. I have it terminated with some fancy WBT spade connectors that were £80 UKP in total. So it's like $800 almost but boy is it worth it.

Silver cables don't suit every system. You have to be extremely careful to make sure that all of your components match sonically otherwise it can be a nightmare with excessively bright treble. When it is all right though the sound is jawdropping. I though I had a really good sound with the Silver 12 cable but changing to the Genesis stuff was a revelation. The bass tightened up and seems to be deeper, whilst a congestion in the mid-range that I didn't even realise was there is now cleared and the treble just shimmers and has so much extension it's unreal.

The only down side to using Silver cable is that it will show any faults in the source material and shortcomings in your amps, sources and speakers. Choose it with care.

I use Silver throughout with my main interconnects being Nordost Red Dawns. I wouldn't change it for all the world (well, perhaps only to higher end Nordosts) but you do need to exercise some caution with it. I guess that's where having a good relationship with your local bricks & mortar dealer comes in handy - you can always demo stuff before pulling the trigger.

[shrinkboy]

do you guys realize how easily this could turn into a cable thread?

[theodoric]

Different rigs get different stuff.

The mastering rig (actively biamped) gets 4 6' runs of AQ Black (prototype, never produced).

The music rig gets a biwire set of Cardas Hexlink.

And the HT rig gets Romex 10-2.

[Urizen]

My main system: DH Labs Silver Sonic Q-10 internal bi-wire.

All others: DH Labs Silver Sonic T-14.

DH Labs (http://www.silversonic.com/docs/index.html)

[ginovino]

"but changed to gold plated bananas, on the other side to get into the "Spring binding clamps" on my vintage receivers, I went to Rat Shack and got "pin" connectors which worked fine to get in those little spring binding holes."

OOooooh yeah, that sounds high-end. I'd better fire up the flatbed to go see a city slickers' system.
Now think about this a minute, you're taking a rigid round connector and sticking it into a spring clip. You have only two very small contact points on the circumference of the pin as it is "bitten down" upon by the flat "jaws" of the spring clip.
A bundle of bare wires would flatten itself and conform to the shape of the spring clip's jaws, providing a much greater surface area contact to pass an electrical signal.

I really don't see the advatage of massive wire if you have the signal littered with these bottlenecks.
It's all or none.

P.S. Aside from antenna connections and stray pieces of random gear cluttering my closets and garage, I don't even own any gear with spring clip connectors. Preach to me some more about high end.

Your point is well taken. The units that have spring clips albeit aligned and modded (all 6 of them)are "garage units or playroom units" where I don't give rats butt about bundles of flattened down wire, limited surface area of pins or stressed spring clips. If they break and I hope they do, it will give me the impetus to replace all of the poorly designed spring clips with "real screw down binding posts". Then I may even be able to use my Newest cable additions - Kimber BiFocal with these receivers.

You appearantly missed the essence of my comments. For those on a limited budget or unfamiliar with the difference a cable may make in their systems, you could get some of the flavor of "high end" cables for next to nothing by buying some of these Home Depot 14 gauge. If your flavor is a receiver and it has spring clips then heres a method to use heavier cables.

If like yourself, your flavor is a combination of California upfront mids, Binghamton Dental office, Eclectic separator and a solid Good Old American midrangeTuber, then your cable options may be limited.
Nevertheless, Thanks for the repartee :thmbsp: .

[Billfort]

Easy guys, this will NOT turn into another damn cable thread.

[tentoze]

Easy guys, this will NOT turn into another damn cable thread.


:angel: :lurk:

[Cleve]

Flatbeds? :lmao: I dunno why it's funny, but it is.

[rgrjit8]

You appearantly missed the essence of my comments. For those on a limited budget or unfamiliar with the difference a cable may make in their systems, you could get some of the flavor of "high end" cables for next to nothing by buying some of these Home Depot 14 gauge. If your flavor is a receiver and it has spring clips then heres a method to use heavier cables.

If lilke yourself, your flavor is a combination of California upfront mids, Binghamton Dental office, Eclectic separator and a solid Good Old American midrangeTuber, then your cable options may be limited.
Nevertheless, Thanks for the repartee :thmbsp: .

Oh, I didn't miss the essence of your post. It was good information for any aspiring Emperor. What I couldn't ignore however, was that you quoted my post for a little passive-aggressive jab.
I know you New Yawkers think that anyone west of the Hudson is a hick, but one thing this ole country boy can tell you is that you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. -No matter how many fancy cables it's trussed up with.
Enjoy your rice! :lmao:

[Billfort]

Last warning rgrit8, drop this personal attack shit NOW.

[WhiteSE]

Someone up above mentioned that using silver cables may be a negative as because of its treble emphasis, may be too bright for some systems and reveal flaws in upstream components..

I have a question...I have some supertweeters connected, and even if you just let your tweeters play, almost nothing comes out. Shouldnt an emphasis in the upper midrange freq. be the culprit of brightness?

I just think that everyone blames the tweeters when I think in reality is emphasized mids, upper mids...

[Lefty]

Cables, cables? I don't got to show you no stinkin' cables.... :D

Lefty

[vintage-yungin]

i went with the last choice i didnt know you neede wires to make it work!!i will definatly use that old lamp in the garage. just kidding i use monster cable and it runs from my amp to a niles speaker selector then to the speaks. mmmmmm and it sounds awesome!!!

Shawn.

[fatherfire]

On my big rig I have Tarra Labes Reference I picked up used. The othe Hi Rez sistem has Kimber's brown and black cheapy stuff. But the real suprise is the HD 14 Gage Ex. Cord on my Mission 633 on the Theater it is very open and harmonic. Did you let the HD stuff burn in? It takes a long time.

[ginovino]

On my big rig I have Tarra Labes Reference I picked up used. The othe Hi Rez sistem has Kimber's brown and black cheapy stuff. But the real suprise is the HD 14 Gage Ex. Cord on my Mission 633 on the Theater it is very open and harmonic. Did you let the HD stuff burn in? It takes a long time.

Frankly, buring-in was never a consideration. The HD-14's are used with my 3rd tier system comprised of only TOTL receivers(see signiture below) and Rogers Ls3/5a& velodyne sub. IMHO, the HD-14 outperforms "monster" anything and lower level Tara and Audioquest's. Hope that helps!

IMHO, Simply a cheap way to see if cables make a difference in YOUR system.

Many folks unfortunately are reticent to try anything different, less their preconceived beliefs and prejudices are shot full of holes big enough to drive a bus through. Surprise ! Some of the folks are even members of this forum! :lmao:

My main sytem is strickly Kimber Hero & BiFocal or 8TC(doubled up).

[wineslob]

I use "anti-cables" that are custom, but came in under 100 bucks! Oh one thing I would like to know, only because I see peeps here state it, how do cables "make" your system too hot on the top-end??? They are passive. Think about that. Oh, unless its the capacitance of the cables people use? Think about that one too. Thats why I went to the anti-cables. Not trying to flame anyone, but when I see companys stating the cap. of their cables, I wonder what their cable is "doing" to the signal.

[shrinkboy]

i am a psychologist, have been for 28 years. i make my living being able to understand the invisible workings and meshings of the psychic gears and motors in people's heads. but i can't, i just can't get how it is that we can get so crazy worked up over wire. WIRE! i mean, it's just amazing to me....

it's WIRE, folks. wire.

[piece-it pete]

I made my own out of 50+ year old Western Electric wire in a Litz braid. I didn't pay more than $300 for them but I wouldn't make any for sale for less than that and voted that way.

TE,

I'm with you here. I use the cat5 braided teflon wire (10 ga eq.), I braided and terminated it myself, it was a hell of a lot of work, I voted the same way.

Replacing 12ga ofc spiraled kinda garish-looking car audio wire, the cat5 had a noticable improvement in midrange.

Pete

[titanstats]

What ever makes it sound good for you is OK, I guess -- much like everything else in this somewhat crazy passion.

I'm using some monster cable, but I got it at the thrift store for almost free -- just because I felt I had to. :-) It sounds no different from the bulk cable that I was using before, not a bit. But it makes me feel a lttle bit better -- like I'm doing all I can.

Like shrinkboy said, it's wire. Hard to spend $$$$$ on an amp, and only $ on cable; it's a salesman's dream! But when you get down to the physics of it all...

[shelby1420]

Just switched to an older pair of Monster cables set up to bi wire, like em alot!!

[MikE]

There wasn't a category that really fit so I picked "lamp cord, power cable... ". I use a single strand of 24awg (5n) 99.999% pure silver wire with 20awg teflon. There are no connectors, just bare wire. They're marked for directionality and one lead has a small "red" indicator on both ends. I don't use a typical jumper cable instead the wire is continuous between the bottom and top posts of my speaker terminals. The four 10' sections [plus teflon] cost me $64. This replaced the Silverline Audio "audiophile" [copper] cables that were included [n/c] with my Silverline Sonatinas. I believe the 10' set retail for $300.00.

I much prefer the simple DIY 24 solid silver wire over the Silverlines in my system. Interestingly I was using the matching Silverline interconnects at the time. The Sonatinas are wired internally with the same wire used in their cables. I typically prefer silver wire / cables in my SET-based system and found the 24awg silver wire to be more neutral with less electronic artifacts than the copper cabling. I can't say the silver wire was "warmer" but displayed a smoother charatcter which gives the impression of a warmer tonality. The copper cable [or this particular cable] was more colored whereas the silver wire was more transparent, like a lense that revealed the individual partnering components it connected. They also revealed ambient cues better than the copper cables - due to the lower noise floor - with the listener able to follow room decay much more easily into the soundstage. I've been using the 24awg silver wire for 4 years.

MikE

[Kegger]

I use the stuff from Home depot and such that is in the outdoor lighting area!

It's extremely heavy duty stuff with larger copper strands and beefy insulation
plus it just works and sounds great to me, not to mention very inexpensive!

[Donkey!]

You mean I have to use wire? No wonder it doesn't work... :twak:

[Grainger49]

Hey! My Zip Cord is Bi-Wired!

[ozmoid]

Tonedeaf, are you talking about that clear 12 gauge speaker cable on the spool?? I used that too but after 2 years it turned GREEN beneath the insulation, and after 6 years, I chucked it and got 12 gauge outdoor landscaping wire. Yesterday, as a matter of fact... how timely! (I was way too lazy to move all the furniture to replace it before now.) Since it's not as obviously porous as the old stuff, I think I should be safe here. Immediate improvement in treble, even playing CD's of MP3-to-.wav conversions!

Not bad for 37 cents a foot. :thmbsp:

Tom
Landscape wire here too, just in 16 GA instead of 12. Brings the price down appreciably - around .17 per foot.

[cannext]

cat 5 and some stuff I found sliverplated solidcore pfte insulated flatcable.

[JoeESP9]

Lately I've been using some full bore CAT-5. That is with 72 strands per cable. It sounded kind of wiry and spikey at first. After about 100 hours it smoothed out and sounds quite good. :smoke:

[Glen B]

Acoustic Zen Satori. 10 gauge zero-crystal copper.

[msdr4d]

I use either 18 or 16 gauge cable, although at one time I bought some of that fancy Audioquest pure copper stuff to go with my new HT rig. I swapped out my 18 gauge with that fancy cable on one of my vintage rigs, and the difference? I'm still listening...

Go to the hardware store and buy some 16 gauge lamp cord - splended stuff, and the money you save on cable can be spent on more equipment! :banana:

[Dusty Chalk]

I like Acoustic Research as a nice entry level speaker wire. Spool for US$15.

[birddog]

Monster Cable, sold as "Automotive Stereo" Cable. 12 gauge, each strand is wound inside a clear jacket, one strand is clear, the other blue. Kinda neat looking, but no noticable diff from anything else I have run of the same gauge. Just made them the other day, soldered up connectors to match them up to my PA system, see if they sound better after a few gigs. If I like 'em, I'll make up a set to try on the house system. Running 12 gauge regular Monster cable on the home rig now.