What speaker cable do you use in your Fostex (or other) fullrange?

[soongsc]

Speaker cables and interconnects make a difference when the electrical characteristics are different, in such case cables of different design concepts show more differences.

Power cords seems to have less impact on equipment other than power amps unless the power supply is really not well designed. For power amps, I have only tested once, and it did make significant difference even though the power amp had a high power regulator in there.

 

[AuroraB]

In my experience power-cords make little difference, and expensive ones usually make even less. But then, I live in the UK, not the US, and have a particularly RFI-free environment.

. There's no voodoo with cables -only electrical properties, so they don't need to be expensive.

Cables can indeed sound different, but it depends on the system context and what you need them to do.

Finally - some words of wisdom...( sigh)
I fully accept the potensial influence of bad power wiring, but I think most of the effect comes from wire cross section and connector resistance. Maybe the most often unregulated power supplies in power amps are more susceptible to these effects.

On the PVC / teflon hysteria- if you calculate the impedances - or resolve the impedance components - the potencial effect on audio frequencies becomes virtually non-existent..... but again- the often higher load impedance of some power amps might- just might react to the capacitance and inductance of some cables by slightly altering the frequency response - hence the effect of some of the mumbo-jumbo cables with their integrated low pass filter boxes.. and of course- a bad connector will always be a bad connector

There is always light at the end of the tunnel. But usually it's a flame-thrower.
[/B]

I have always thought that was an on-coming train..!!??

 

[Tweeker]

Teflon or PVC in any system. Teflon has a marginal edge in measured tests of dilectric loss, but a run would need to be far longer than the average home will ever need for this to become even slightly significant. And then you'd need to factor in and account for increased RF pickup, boosted capacitance, resitance & inductance etc too.

Its a quible, but teflon insulation will have the lowest capacitance of any solid dielectric for a given cable design, as its the lowest K solid material available. The comments regarding microphonics are worth note.

 

[coredump]

Just to post an answer to the original question: I personally favor solid core speaker cable, such as the excellent DNM cable. With this, I hear a clear difference compared to multi-stranded types (better midrange clarity, better treble resolution).

If on a budget (or just for experiments), I prefer RG174 (just use the inner conductor/insulator, remove the rest).
If used that way, it has a quite some resemblance to the 47Labs OTA cable...

Best regards,

Oliver

 

[soongsc]

Just to post an answer to the original question: I personally favor solid core speaker cable, such as the excellent DNM cable. With this, I hear a clear difference compared to multi-stranded types (better midrange clarity, better treble resolution).

These look a lot like 300Ohm attena cables, I wonder what the difference would be. Theoretically you want the magnetic fields to either be very small by separating them very far, or making them overlap almost totally by getting them very close together so that the magnetic fields cancel each other. I would think this configuration would be good for interconnects.

 

[Scottmoose]

Ah, 47 Labs, the compnay that charges circa $2500 (and go up from there) for a couple of power op-amps in a pretty case. I'm sure their products sound good, but the phrase 'over-priced' does appear to circulate in my mind whenever I hear their name mentioned.

I've used some 300Ohm widely spaced stranded twin-core antenna down-cable myself. Very cheap, but for the love of heaven don't even think about using it for a run much longer than, say, 8 feet or you'll get chronic RFI unless you live in a VERY clean area and the wire is routed properly. Bet it sounds identical to the DNM wire too. Just be careful when stripping the ends -I used a lighter to melt away the insulation (bad idea), and about 6" of the blasted thing went up -I still have the scars from the burns on my hand.

As I say, connector resistance isn't an issue in the UK (have you seen the size of our standard plugs & sockets?), so we probably get less benefit than our north American cousins, but rewiring can be good for safety if the house is knocking on a bit, and a boost in wire cross-section, and perhaps slightly better routing, and removing all those no-longer used spurs can help a bit.

 

[Tweeker]

Any comments on RG-8 types? Its available fairly cheap around here.

 

[Guijs]

AS for shielding in interconnects, in my opinion it's not a "must have" thing. Companies like Nordost make unshielded interconnects. I've build one with Eichmann Bullet Plugs and 18awg solid copper and it's very good. Other DIYers build unshielded cables too.

 

[Scottmoose]

I prefer not to think of Nordost. I put them ahead of even 47 Labs in the rip-off-merchant league. They charge UK£2500+ for a 1m interconnect, which has very little in the way of materials in it. They must be laughing all the way to the bank at the mugs who cheerfully pay that price. Lunacy.

As for the shielding, I take the point that you, and many others have constructed unshielded interconnects, and indeed they can work (hard to see how they wouldn't, but you know what I mean!). However, the point I am making is this: try taking them into an RFI-rich environment and see how far you get. The problem, in my view, is that a great deal of RFI is not predictable. Careful routing of cables away from your equipments' power-supplies, making sure the fridge etc etc etc don't churn it out is helpful, but there's nothing you can do about external problems, which by their very nature are unpredictable. Hence the shielding, which removes 99.999% of all these possibilities and worries, and my belief that unshielded cables are sub-optimum, not in sound quality (interconnects should all sound more or less identical) but in general usability.

 

[Guijs]

Scott,


I've got some copper braided shield to make a test here. I'll let you know.


Does anyone here knows (or can recommend a link) the best way to build a copper foil speaker cable?


I have Goertz 12awg coper foil, and 0,10mm pure teflon here.

 

[Scottmoose]

It'll help if you get RF pickup, and reduce the noise floor a bit in many areas. If there's no difference, so much the better, but you won't be loosing out on anything for doing it; one thing's for sure -shielding a lead won't make it sound worse. A ferrite clamp around any lead in an area of severe RF problems is also a useful an inexpensive tweak. (particularly around speaker cable believe it or not).
Best
Scott