I don't believe cables make a difference, any input?

[thomas997]

Originally posted by Pan
Dave,

price does not have much to do with it and also it does not matter if the AWG is small in the speaker. The VC has very tiny winding but still a 1 meter length outside the speaker makes a difference. It´s not only about the thickness of conductor, it´s about geometry, stranded vs. solid core, dielectric and such things.

/Peter

I would argue and say its only as good as your weakest link.

So if you believe silver sounds better, make sure you match the silver cable up with a speaker voice coil wound with silver wire.

Voice coil wire must be at least a meter for a mid range, no?


(Personally think it makes a difference, but not noticable unless the LCR of the cable is way off).

[Dave Jones]

Originally posted by The_Hi_End
cables DO sound different.
I've heard a difference between different kinds of cables.

It was double blind test, right?

[Pan]

"I would argue and say its only as good as your weakest link."

This is not the way it works. You can have a weak link but still hear differences between other links with smaller errors than the "weakest" link.

A VC has thin wire (so little skin effect) and it is glued in place (so no microphonics) and is solid core (no strand jumping or diode effects). How significant this is I have no idea of, but I have a gut feeling that a VC is a better piece of conductor than a poor cable.

There´s a clear audible difference in cables with LCR that should not account for any abnormal behaviour in lengths as short as 1 meter. Also the differences that LCR would contribute with would be a very small change in Fr that can not explain the difference in resolution and noisefloor.

/Peter

[rcavictim]

Forget speaker cables. I've gone a quantum step beyond. See the speaker system in my avatar?! These speakers make coffee taste better! S'true. Take your everyday cup of morning coffee and listen to these speakers while you drink it and you will enjoy your coffee much more than ever before. Why? Well because they must make the cofee taste better. I'm gonna haveta use this fact in my product advertising.

Listening to a movie with them also makes the colors more lifelike and vibrant. S'true!

None of this would be possible though if I weren't using ultra hi-performance boutique speaker cables.

[peace brainerd]

I tried to read this thread to avoid redundancy but .. good lord!
I was hoping that the original question would ignite some discussion on the merits of really objective blind testing of ANY equipment - but especially of "tweaks" to the system. I've always marvelled at how the big money equipment reviews/reviewers seem to get away with working without (literally) blindfolds. It can't be argued that it would pose insurmountable difficulty. The answer is pretty obvious. About eighty percent of their opinion would be instantly debunked. Paid by the word, most of them would be out of jobs. Think about it. At the end of every review you read would come the denoument - and an honest one.... "oh my goodness, it is indeed a __________" Or "wow, am I genuinely humbled folks!" or even "see? I DO know what the hell I'm talking about"
That would be so refreshing. And so worthwhile to read.

[SY]

Bluebeard, you've put your finger right on it- Hifi writers are not in the business of reviewing equipment, nor doing research, nor doing rigorous testing nor revealing "truth." They are in the business of writing entertaining prose that sells magazines and advertising. Any intersection with reality is purely coincidental.

[rcavictim]

Forgot the picture. Without hi-performance cables like this you just don't get the very best sound to your speakers. S'true.

[rcavictim]

Demonstrating typical application of highest quality speaker cables.

[kilowattski]

Well, I thought I may as well throw my 2 cents in. I have a pair of Martin Logans that I bought about 2 years ago. At the time I had the money to buy two 4 foot lengths of MIT something or other speaker cables for about $500. When I moved the stereo system from the living room to the family room I hooked everything up and listened for about 2 weeks. Everything was hunky dory except I was having difficulty placing the logans in the right positions for the best soundstage and imaging. It seemed that they wanted to be further apart and further from the back wall. My family room is quite large so I had the room to do this without having the speakers too close to the side walls. Trouble was that my $500 speaker cables were not long enough. Well my wife would have beat the heck out of me if I spent another $500+ on speaker cables so on a whim I went down to my local electrical parts outlet and purchased 20 feet of 220v 50 amp 8 awg flexible ship to shore power cable for $100. This is not crapy, cheap stuff. It is Belden cable and is the same stuff one would use to get shore power to their yacht. I brought it home and put on some nice spade lugs and heat shrink tubing. I did it up real nice. Ok, ok so the cable was yellow. I can't have everything. Neverless, I was able to position the logans properly with the extra length and really could not tell the difference between cables other than the effect of properly positioning the speakers. I don't know what this proved exactly but I feel good quality cable, wether $100 or $500 or $5000 shouldn't sound too much different. At least it didn't to my ears.

[highbias]

I didn't think they did either till I bought some Nordost Red Dawn stuff. Its absolutely amazing!!

Mark