Speaker cable upgrade

[lukecon]

Need some help. Have Leema Xaviers,+QED Silver Ann.Bi Wiresl looking for ideas to replace cable bought previously for less bright speakers.Leema suggest512OFC for bass and312 OFC forHF £520 for 2 10 mtrs'!! Please any sensible options. Thanks Ian

[pinkmouse]

VanDamme OFC loudspeaker cable. About 80p a metre. I now use it for everything.

[DSP_Geek]

I've used runs of RG-8 with good results, and for the fanatics out there you can double or quad them with all shields in parallel and all cores in parallel. A quad run will get you 0.075 microhenries/foot (240 uH/meter), while the resistance will be on the order of milliohms/foot. I tried Jon Risch's setup, but it wasn't to my taste.

I haven't yet tried RG-58, but the numbers tell me it should behave much like RG-8 when quadded up; it's a bit thin for a single run since the core is typically 18 to 20 gauge.

Anyway, both RG-8 and RG-58 are pretty cheap (Parts Express has RG-58 at $14 for a 100 foot rool), so even if you don't like it you haven't exposed yourself a whole lot.


Cheers,
Francois.

[MethMan]

Need some help. Have Leema Xaviers,+QED Silver Ann.Bi Wiresl looking for ideas to replace cable bought previously for less bright speakers.Leema suggest512OFC for bass and312 OFC forHF £520 for 2 10 mtrs'!! Please any sensible options. Thanks Ian

£520 . Reminds me one ad I've recently read: IC cables XY for sale. Only for 600€ (new for 1500€). 4 months used and in perfect condition. I've found I need something better.

Will you read this?

[Scottmoose]

You don't mention your amp, which is critical. There's no voodoo about cables, it's just electrical properties and how they interact with your amp. Assuming its SS, then try magnet wire to the bass-drivers. No kidding. Ye Olde trick pulled by us full-range driver lovers. 24AWG, cost you £10 for 10m. Watch the bass performance go through the roof. Alternatively, 10m of Cat5, extract one of the twisted pairs and use that. Brings other limitations of course -depends how much juice those Leemas take to run them. I can't remember their efficiency off-hand -are those the floor-standers? If so, they should be efficient -they've no business not being, so you should be able to try the thin cable wih confidence. If they want more juice, then an alternative is to keep your QED, and add a small resistor in series in the hot lead[s]. If you feel you have to stick with 'hifi' (Ha!) wire, Van Den Hull could be a good option to the bass-end -their high-carbon stuff. It's high-resistance, so should lift the bottom end a bit.

Rule of thumb: thin wire = better in bass. Thick wire = better in treble. (massive over-simplification, but as a general guide it tends to hold true) Try toe-ing the speakers in a bit more too -that should take some of the sting out. Oh yes, and try blu-tak-ing them to something solid like a paving slab. Remove spikes, cover the base in sheets of the stuff, so there's no air cavity, and stick down firmly. An old trick, but a good one, and cuts down on cabinet vibrations too.

Best
Scott