LM based chipamps, What speaker wire are people using?

[filholder]

I have read on a couple of occasions that the original gaincard uses very thin (24 gauge i think) speaker wire and was just interested what people ae using on theirs and what people thoughts in general about that sort of thing are.

I am currently using some revatively normal multi stranded off the shelf speaker cable, QED something or other. I have been thinking about using some cat 5e cable i have got but wondered what people think would be the right number of strands to use. ie how many cable runs to use. Going by 47 labs i would only use one twisted pair, any ideas?

Fil

[karma]

i have made and used cat 5e cable and i found it not to be the best.


this is what im using now and it sounds sweet.

cheers.


http://www.decorp.com/dewire.htm

[dsavitsk]

Originally posted by filholder
I have read on a couple of occasions that the original gaincard uses very thin (24 gauge i think) speaker wire

I am on the other end of this. I use bi-wired Kimber 8TC which means 32 strands of Kimber TCSS going to each speaker. I like the cable a lot, but I can't offer an objective opinion about it. I purchased it 12 years ago and have used it ever since. Anyhow, the point is that it works fine.

[analog_sa]

i would only use one twisted pair

You may like it, who knows? I certainly hate it. Cat5 is tonally lean and a single pair will make it intolerable to my ears. Especially with a GC.

I have had reasonably good sound with the opposite - midrange Transparent cable. It manages to balance the GC tonality into reasonably listenable sound.

The copper foil is also not bad and certainly much better than any CAT5 concoction.

[Nuuk]

I found a single twisted pair of Cat5 a bit lean for my liking so I use two twisted pairs and have not felt the need to try anytihng else.

Of course now the issue has been raised (again), I'll be tempted to try something else!

[analog_sa]

Nuuk

Have you tried copper foils from an Alphacore inductor?

[Nuuk]

Have you tried copper foils from an Alphacore inductor?

Noy yet, it's one of those jobs that is on the 'to do' list! Where can I get hold of an Alphacore inductor? Or are there any alternatives?

[filholder]

Nuuk when you say 2 twisted pair i image you mean 2 twisted pairs from one cat 5 cable, as opposed to 2 cat 5 cables?

Sorry to bring this up i am just interested what people are using and wanted to see what i should be playing with. Of course i guess that the type of speaker you are using must have a fair degree of effect on such things.

I might try some different cat5 arrangment this week end, got a 300meter roll of some good solid core cat5e of a skip a few weeks ago so i keen to try it in various configurations. It is also screened which is handy since i use my hifi around loads of other electronic stuff such as games consoles and tv etc.

I will have a play anyway, no harm in trying. Should also have a SMPS powered t-amp up and running this weeknd, gonna be fun!!

fil

[Nuuk]

Nuuk when you say 2 twisted pair i image you mean 2 twisted pairs from one cat 5 cable, as opposed to 2 cat 5 cables?

Yes Phil, I take that horrible stiff sleeving off and separate the four pairs of wires into two pairs, using a 'pair of pairs' ( ) for each speaker.

PS I don't notice any difference between using a pair for each conductor and one wire from each pair for a conductor. Hope you are not too hot to understand that!

[filholder]

Thanks Nuuk,

Ok i give that a try. No thankfully the office has aircon, though the cycle ride to work this morning got me very .

Off at a tagent sorry guys but do you think i should add some caps after my SMPS before the t-amp boards just interested. I measured the outputs last night from my router power supply and got 60mv of ac. I think it might be an idea to put a few caps before the t-amp power input to reduce this a bit, any ideas how much?

Fil