Actually, the opposite is true. The main feature of a speaker cable is resistance. As valve amps typically have higher output impedance than SS amps, they are slightly more likely to swamp the cable resistance. As the crossover and speaker resistance will be higher still we are still talking about a tiny change in a small effect.TimBoz said:
So any effect is smaller than you think, and in the opposite direction.
Some expensive cables make the sound different by being worse than ordinary cable: very high capacitance or high RF pickup (both of which can disturb an amplifier). If you have paid a lot of money you will naturally assume that any change is an improvement. Your friends will probably agree. The myth propagates.
It may be that the pre - power link was never intended to drive any cable capacitance. It may be that it was poorly designed. It may be that you imagined the difference. Who knows? However, any output which cannot drive a couple of metres of normal interconnect cable is clearly lacking. As I often say, cable sensitivity is a clear sign of poor design in the electronics.
Hi,
I bought my big spool of teflon/silver wire at a surplus store. Electronics surplus stores know what the stuff is, so you'll pay. Places that mostly sell machine tools or other industrial stuff usually sell teflon wire for $5 or $10 per roll. All teflon wire is at least plated with silver and some is pure silver because the process to put the teflon on will burn up exposed copper from the high temperatures. We put a sample in a mass spectrometer, and sure enough, it's pure silver.
As far as tube amps being more sensitive to load variations, that's usually a sign that the amp could use a little more attention to compensation and layout. The market for SS won't tolerate flaky products, but mom and pop tube houses can brush off problems blaming cables, speakers, auras, etc. Not that that stuff doesn't sound great when you get a combo that works, but there are tube amps that perform perfectly no matter what you hook up to them.
Cheers,
Marshall
I bought my big spool of teflon/silver wire at a surplus store. Electronics surplus stores know what the stuff is, so you'll pay. Places that mostly sell machine tools or other industrial stuff usually sell teflon wire for $5 or $10 per roll. All teflon wire is at least plated with silver and some is pure silver because the process to put the teflon on will burn up exposed copper from the high temperatures. We put a sample in a mass spectrometer, and sure enough, it's pure silver.
As far as tube amps being more sensitive to load variations, that's usually a sign that the amp could use a little more attention to compensation and layout. The market for SS won't tolerate flaky products, but mom and pop tube houses can brush off problems blaming cables, speakers, auras, etc. Not that that stuff doesn't sound great when you get a combo that works, but there are tube amps that perform perfectly no matter what you hook up to them.
Cheers,
Marshall
I really like the sound of the speaker cables I built for my stereo which consists of 8 strand braided alternate signal and gnd RG-11 center copper conductor and foamed polyethylene insulation. I formed the lead ends directly out to make speaker terminals, using silver solder to hold the assembly together, then sanded the facing edges flat.
With this stuff, the very thick insulation is solidly bonded to the solid copper center conductor (don't use copperweld) so there won't be a problem with surface oxidation if all the lead end bare copper is tinned, and the result sounds like a high bandwidth but solid core cable. The DCR is respectably low also with only 0.028 ohms per ten feet (includes both directions) if using RG-6 which is more practical than RG-11 which has a 14 AWG center conductor. Of course, maybe somebody knows of a source of similar cables without the shields, but they should be as high quality construction as the coaxes and my experience is that they have not been, especially as far as letting air seep into the cables and having much thinner insulations (resulting in more capacitance).
Except for getting the external insulation and shield off, they're not that hard to make, and don't cost too much, either.
With this stuff, the very thick insulation is solidly bonded to the solid copper center conductor (don't use copperweld) so there won't be a problem with surface oxidation if all the lead end bare copper is tinned, and the result sounds like a high bandwidth but solid core cable. The DCR is respectably low also with only 0.028 ohms per ten feet (includes both directions) if using RG-6 which is more practical than RG-11 which has a 14 AWG center conductor. Of course, maybe somebody knows of a source of similar cables without the shields, but they should be as high quality construction as the coaxes and my experience is that they have not been, especially as far as letting air seep into the cables and having much thinner insulations (resulting in more capacitance).
Except for getting the external insulation and shield off, they're not that hard to make, and don't cost too much, either.
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Btw, the sound of these speaker cables, to my ears, captured most of the best of Kimber Cables and an old Australian cable which was basically two strands of 12 AWG solid core copper twisted together and held by cable ties - the wide band, sonically neutral characteristic of the Kimber Cable along with no perceptible (to my ears) multi-conductor/inter strand rectification grunge and tizz at the low dynamic end like the Aussie cables. The main coloration I heard was that I thought the RG-11 version was a little bit 'soft' at the high end which I feel is probably the beginning of surface mode conduction coming into play, something that probably would mostly go away when going to a slightly smaller construction such as with an RG-6.
Btw, for my 8 - channel HT system, I'm using something quite close to the Aussie cable - fire alarm cable which is a twisted pair of 12AWG solid conductors (red/black insulation) in a uniquely colored *red* outer insulator and made with polyethylene insulation over each conductor. Sounds surprisingly good - makes my 12 AWG multistrand speaker cables sound threadbare and compressed by comparison - and this is a HQ digital format! I figure, for digital, a bit of 'softness' couldn't hurt the general SQ much - in fact, should make it 'better'.
Btw, for my 8 - channel HT system, I'm using something quite close to the Aussie cable - fire alarm cable which is a twisted pair of 12AWG solid conductors (red/black insulation) in a uniquely colored *red* outer insulator and made with polyethylene insulation over each conductor. Sounds surprisingly good - makes my 12 AWG multistrand speaker cables sound threadbare and compressed by comparison - and this is a HQ digital format! I figure, for digital, a bit of 'softness' couldn't hurt the general SQ much - in fact, should make it 'better'.
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This may open your ears a bit:
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/ever...-interconnects-how-about-potato-even-mud.html
There you will find samples recorded thru interconnects made of copper, potato, banana and mud. You can compare these to the original file. These materials are vastly different, you should be ale to hear that.
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