Is it worth re-wiring my speakers ? Rogers LS55

[monitoraudio]

I have recently replaced a tweeter in my Rogers LS55 (Floorstanders)

When I had the speakers apart, I noticed two things, firstly the cabinet construction was very poor, in fact very very poor and secondly the cable used internally appeared to be very cheap and thin !

I was thinking of re-wiring the speakers, with either QED XT Evolution or Van Damme Blue 2.5mm, the speakers are currently bi-wired using Van Damme Blue 4.0mm

Will it be worth my while or should I just stick with how it is was manufactured ?

[Coconuts 500]

It won't make a difference. The entire speaker wire thing is a scam.

[monitoraudio]

Can you expand on why its a scam ?

[AllenB]

There are differences in speaker wire, but not the kinds of difference that can make a speaker sound good or bad. It's possible to go to extremes with wire to create a difference but the important thing inside the speaker is the integrity of the wiring.

I would suggest cleaning (de-oxidising) your connections. Bad connectors can make an audible difference.

[planet10]

Speaker wire can make a difference... it is system dependent. There is a lot of speaker wire that is snake oil and companies that talk a good line so it is almost impossible for mear mortals to sift thru ir all.

Thin is not necessarily a bad thing. I use 24g solid copper wire for the insides of my speakers (2 strands pulled from a CAT5 cable). And for my speaker cables. I'd be very surprised if they sounded the same as the 12g cables guys make out of extension cords. In my system the skinny wie worksbetter.

dave

[picowallspeaker]

Indeed , if you look at the size of the wire wrapped around the voice coil , it's very thin ( static ) but it can withstand many amperes (dynamic ) .

There are some discussions about the two jumpers for biwiring : also those are to be substituted -for real !! From this point ...also the binding posts ,which are cheap metal;
Also the crossover , should be located outside , for many reasons . First is resonances
( mechanical ) that interfere with the electrical---elettro-magnetic ; also the coil in the lowpass should be put near the amplifier ,not the speaker ; at this point ( 2 ! ), wires should have the less resistance as possible ..

[system7]

I expect coconuts 500 will agree with me, but exotic cables just have huge inductance, often by widely spacing the conductors, which makes tonal differences to the high end. But inductance is bad overall. Resistance of regular cables is negligable anyway.

Simple 42 X 0.2mm stuff will do fine:
Heavy Duty Loudspeaker Cable : Speaker Cable : Maplin Electronics

Hard soldering the cables is much better than clip-on connectors. I like these audio grade polypropylene capacitors to replace non-polar electrolytics in the tweeter crossover too:
Audio-Grade Polypropylene Axial Capacitors : Polypropylene : Maplin Electronics

You can have fun with a Zobel network on the tweeter to correct impedance, if you can find out the inductance and resistance somewhere. Sounds very smooth, you use something like 7W or 10W wirewound along with a capacitor:
Impedance Equalization (L-Pad) Circuit Designer / Calculator

I guess cabinet bracing is cheap entertainment too.

Rogers_LS55.jpg

[system7]

Ah, yes. Cheap ALCAP blue non-polars fitted on what looks like 2nd order filters! They could be replaced for sure, especially since this is an 15-y-o speaker.

The photo shows a Rogers LS55 crossover after polyesters are fitted, though I'd prefer the polyproylenes. Can't be very big values. Probably around 4uF.

[dublin78]

Why don't you build some lovely new wooden cabinets for them? Well braced, and to the same dimensions as existing. Possibly upgrade the capacitors as well. You obviously like the sound of these, so these suggestions would only improve them (not change the character). This may be difficult if you don't have access to reasonable woodworking gear. DIY cabs can be beautiful. This was my first effort:



Upgrading the internal wiring can't hurt. It may help you sleep better.