22 AWG silver plated solid copper wire for speaker wire?

[G]

Hi all. It seems to me that many moons ago I read a post or two about using small gauge solid wire for speaker wires. I'm still listening to my Fostex FE206E BRs but I don't think I'm getting all of the high frequency response that they have to offer. I think I have a set of high capacitance speaker cables and I would like to rectify the situation by using some 22 AWG silver plated solid copper wire for the task. Thoughts?

[one1speed]

Being that noone has responded, I'll jump in. Go for it. Can't hurt to try it if you have it. Personally, I prefer a high-end copper wire, but I know that a lot of cables exist using what you are speaking of.

Give it a shot and let us know what your findings are. You can find solid copper easily and pretty cheaply, try both. Just be sure to let the wires run in a bit. As strange as it sounds, I've found it makes a difference.

[AndrewT]

keep the length shorter than 1m (3feet) and you should manage just fine. 600mm max might be even better.

[tinitus]

Flat silver foil

[Scottmoose]

Very thin wire can be a useful means of adding some series resistance should it be required. In some cases it may also appear to improve the midband / HF clarity, probably because it can't handle the current requirements for major transient swings in the LF, so they get compressed relative to the rest of the audible BW.

Hmm. I might be loosing the plot here, but a high-capacitance cable is unlikely to cause HF losses. Excessive inductance, certainly. As audioholics note, the major issues of capacative wire tend to be seen in two related effects, due to loss of the power amp gain and phase margin.
1/ In the frequency domain, very significant gain peaking can occur. And
2/ In the time domain, the step response may have a much higher overshoot, and exhibit excessive ringing (at about the unity gain frequency) due to loss of power amp phase margin.

Such wire need a zobel over them at least. Better yet, don't muck about with them -it's generally more trouble than it's worth trying to reduce L or C properties to vanishingly low levels.

[G]

Thank you all for the replies. I have changed my mind, again, and I have decided that I will try some of that Nordost flat speaker cable. I will let you know my impressions. Thanks again.

[planet10]

Just as a sanity check/reference, get a single piece of solid core CAT5 cable long enuff to reach the furthest speaker (even if you have to buy it, it costa almost nothing) ... strip out 2 of the pairs of twisted pairs. Try those (be careful not to nicj the wire when you strip it). Next separate the 2 wires in each pair and try that, Report back,

What kind of amp?

dave

[Scottmoose]

Originally posted by G
I have changed my mind, again, and I have decided that I will try some of that Nordost flat speaker cable.

Why?

[G]

Originally posted by planet10
Just as a sanity check/reference, get a single piece of solid core CAT5 cable long enough to reach the furthest speaker (even if you have to buy it, it cost almost nothing) ... strip out 2 of the pairs of twisted pairs. Try those (be careful not to nicj the wire when you strip it). Next separate the 2 wires in each pair and try that, Report back,

What kind of amp?

dave

Hi Dave. The speaker cable I was talking about is here:

https://www.thecableco.com/product.php?id=3932

As you can see it's not that expensive. I will give the cat 5 a try. Ironically that is what I was using before. I was just using more of it. Right now I'm using some cables made from some stranded silver military coax.

The amp is a SE EL34 that I built about 6 years ago.

[G]

Originally posted by Scottmoose


Why?

Low inductance and low capacitance.