Speaker wire ......... Why

[Madmike2]

I am having a hard time justifying $$! for speaker wire when i am using a passive x-over. Why get good wire if it has to pass through that mess of caps and coils with silver solder and single thick strand leads. Does that not kill the benefits ?

I can see if i am all active (eventually ) and there is 'nothing' between the speakers and the wire that it would be beneficial.

Is it not like passing clean current through a bad stew ? Potatoes and carrots robbing you of some of it.

[Cal Weldon]

Mike,

I'm with you. I would rather spend money on the engine than some shiny wheels. Look after the guts of the system before throwing your coin at speaker leads. The amount of money spent on leads amazes me. I'm not saying certain leads don't make a difference, I'm saying that some people spend money on them when the real concerns are the drivers, XO and box. Once those are beyond improvement, then it's time for some fancy boutique wires. Until there is someone who can convince me that my 10 guage copper leads and 14 guage internal wiring are substandard, I will continue to promote their usage.

Cal

[DonoMan]

Why get good capacitors and inductors if the signal will still be running through capacitors and inductors?

Besides, wire is CHEAP. Unless you're thinking of getting "interconnects", which I would agree with you on...

[DougL]

I am having a hard time justifying $$! for speaker wire when i am using a passive x-over. Why get good wire if it has to pass through that mess of caps and coils with silver solder and single thick strand leads. Does that not kill the benefits ?

If you have speaker design software, why not model the wire?
My personal guess is that long runs could really interact with the crossover, depending on electrical characteristics of the wire.

Just my 2 cents.

Doug

[DSP_Geek]

I've mentioned this once or twice: RG-8 is close to ideal speaker cable. The stuff is morally equivalent to 12 gauge, the parallel capacitance isn't outrageous, and the series inductance is quite low compared to twin lead. You can find it for about fifty cents a foot.

Some folks think that shielding the hot lead of a speaker keeps RF junk out of the feedback loop and from getting rectified at the amplifier input. I haven't proven it one way or the other, but it can't hurt.

If you really want to be a fanatic, you can run two or four in parallel, hook up the cores together and the shields together, and make the zero spouse acceptance factor wire. Even at that you're talking fairly low capacitance - a 12 foot run of quad RG-8 is still only 1.5 nF, while the series inductance is something ridiculous like 220 nH.

In my experience I noted audible differences less with easy loads such as full range planars, and much more with complex loads like three-way loudspeakers with 3rd or 4th order passive crossovers.


Cheers,
Francois.

[carlosfm]

Originally posted by Madmike2
I am having a hard time justifying $$! for speaker wire when i am using a passive x-over. Why get good wire if it has to pass through that mess of caps and coils with silver solder and single thick strand leads. Does that not kill the benefits ?

No.
Some tend to think of a speaker wire quality in terms of resistance, while it's not the most important thing.
You must think about the amp and not only the speakers.
The amp would like to see very low inductance and capacitance on it's outputs.
As it's not possible to have these to parameters with very low values on a cable, it's always a compromise.
The speaker cable is the interface between the amp and the speaker, and sometimes it's not a question of price, it's just a question of the right cable for the right amp/speaker interface.
Avoid complex crossovers.
Avoid long speaker cables.
Your amp will thank you and it will reward you with a much clearer presentation.
A mess of coils and caps should be avoided if you can use first-order crossovers.
Everytime I go from a 2nd order to a 1st order crossover on a tweeter I hear improvements, harmonics of the instruments appear, natural decays, transparency, the breething of the singer.
I may be hanged up for this here, but there's the 'technically correct' way and there's the best sounding way of doing things.
I tend to start with the first and end up with the second.

[Madmike2]

But Carlos again i say There is no point if the passive is there 'period' the cable is broken up and the passive breaks the 'chain' . Its no longer one solid peice of BlahBlah$$ cable from amp lead to speaker lead. I am going off because i keep reading these reviews on cable and i want to get up and slap someone. Ya i got schooled changing from cheap RadioCrap Rca's to decent pro stuff, i heard that! But thats unbroken chain front to back with a nice chunky copper 1/4 inch jack to Copper jacketed RCA on copper wire. Speaker wire is nice silver/copper to -mess of wiring- to silver/copper to your amp and speakers. Impossible to tell me there is an improvement in sound. Electrically impossible.

Active crossovers and the leads from your Pass Labs amp connected directly to the leads on your Scan Speak drivers with no breaks and nothing in between. Then ya i could agree that your 18 guage 98 % oxygen free 50 strand wire is better the 12 guage 10 strand Home Hardware spool wire but NOT as good as 16 guage pure silver twisted pair from 'namebrand' company. Electrically that is valid.

This guy is comparing a store bought albiet expensive speaker and his 'reference' amp and saying the simbilance and timber off the sound was changed going from some speaker wire to another. IMPOSSIBLE. That speaker is a three and a half design with one terminal lead in so no bi-wiring by the picture. SO there is a passive system in there. People like me listen to idiots like that and then wonder why we just dropped 200 dollars on 6 feet of wire.

Where is my bean stalk Jack ? I asked you to by a cow and you brought me seeds. I better see a bean stalk in the morning.



Sigh. I gotta go and see if i can buy that Adcom now. I am so disappointed in reviewers. 50 year old guys saying they can hear 18k ....please. I am 39 and 15 k is a tickling in my ear.

[carlosfm]

Mike, a good passive crossover is now worse than an active crossover.
Adding more active stages to the replay chain is also not good.
So, what I mean is: cable inductance and capacitance can have a marked effect on the sound.
Just imagine (or better, try it) the effect a coil to ground and a cap to ground makes.
The speaker must not be though as an isolated device, it will be driven by an amp.
A well made speaker with well chosen drivers can have a very simple crossover.

[Salas]

I agree with Carlos. As I recall he uses EPOS vintage speakers and he had seen in practice what synergy means when trying to upgrade caps and cable.
Simple crossovers can be very immediate sounding when properly integrated but they are also very sensitive to component and cable choices. The cause is obvious when you understand that they overlap a lot, so component quality and minor spl deviations tend to be very audible when spread over octaves.
In general, loudspeaker voicing is as delicate as a wide octave musical instrument voicing. It takes passion, patience and a clear mind. Be open, dont go by the book.
For instance lately I am listening to a new design of mine (it uses PHL 1220 and Audax TW025A20) that has just 4 components in its serial crossover, no resistors. Well every .1uf or .05 mH change is very obvious. Even magnet wire type in the air coils is clearly audible. Capacitor quality audible? You can guess if there is plastic or oil in there with a blindfold! I thank the experience I have gained from full range designs, else I would never lock it.
But when things lock, well then its ultra-fi. I think that is why we are in this hobby and post messages amidst heatwave, if we were to stick on scope probe designs we would be better off buying mid-fi.

[Madmike2]

Interesting. Well i can experiment to my hearts content but i am going in with a closed mind. I missed that Adcom because it was not a 555 but a 535, i miss remembered the number. So i bought 20 feet of 30 plus strand cat 5e cable that i am going to unsheath and twist up and then heat shrink and terminate. Also 25 feet of canada wire premium 14 gauge high silver content cabling. I want to hear this for myself.

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