Do speaker cables make any difference?

[spikeyfaz]

I've owned my Super-T for a couple of months now and I've recently swapped from some home-made speaker cables (based around co-ax wire) to some QED multistrand cables. The difference in sound between these two types of cables is almost too small to measure.

Does this mean that these amps are not so dependent on the quality of speaker cable or is there a specific cable I should be using.

[Gorilla]

Depends how far you insert your brain into the feedback loop...

Mr. Dunlavy has often gathered audio critics in his Colorado Springs lab for a demonstration...

"What we do is kind of dirty and stinky," he said. "We say we are starting with a 12 AWG zip cord, and we position a technician behind each speaker to change the cables out." The technicians hold up fancy-looking cables before they disappear behind the speakers. The critics debate the sound characteristics of each wire. "They describe huge changes and they say, 'Oh my God, John, tell me you can hear that difference,'" Mr. Dunlavy said. The trick is the technicians never actually change the cables, he said, adding, "It's the placebo effect."

[bob123]

Speaker cable has never made a difference its HIFI **.

[SY]

Here's an experiment to try. Hook up your speakers with your normal cable. Now insert a 2 ohm series resistor to simulate the use of thin wire. Hear a difference? I'll bet you do.

Try the same thing but throw a 10nF capacitor across the amp output to simulate a high capacitance cable. Hear a difference? Very often you can actually cause an amp to break into full oscillation doing that, which I assure you is audible.

OK, care to modify your assertion?

[janneman]

Originally posted by SY
Here's an experiment to try. Hook up your speakers with your normal cable. Now insert a 2 ohm series resistor to simulate the use of thin wire. Hear a difference? I'll bet you do.

Try the same thing but throw a 10nF capacitor across the amp output to simulate a high capacitance cable. Hear a difference? Very often you can actually cause an amp to break into full oscillation doing that, which I assure you is audible.

OK, care to modify your assertion?

Why SY, you're not swapping speaker cables, you're replacing speaker cables with passive network. Not fair!

Jan Didden

[SY]

A speaker cable IS a passive network.

I'm just suggesting a cheap way to simulate the effect of some of the fancy cable swaps that actually do produce audible differences.

[planet10]

Amp, speakers & how they are connected are a system. Wire does make a difference.

dave

[janneman]

Originally posted by SY
A speaker cable IS a passive network.

I'm just suggesting a cheap way to simulate the effect of some of the fancy cable swaps that actually do produce audible differences.

OK, I concede your point. But anybody using 2 ohms resistive cables or 10nF capacitive cables is not in the HiFi business but in the effects business. Going to such extremes you can prove anything. I can prove that the platter weight of a CD player makes a difference by putting a 3-pound brick on it. Sure you hear the difference. So?

Jan Didden

[SY]

I wouldn't argue that point- as much as I think that cable voodoo is, well, voodoo, there are engineering and audible differences between some cables used with some speakers and some amplifiers. The statement "it never makes a difference" is just not correct. Even hard-core rationalists like you and me can understand this.

[janneman]

Originally posted by SY
[snip]Even hard-core rationalists like you and me can understand this.

Stop twisting my arm, OK, OK, I agree.

jan Didden