speaker cable myths and facts

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Actually, this sort of exercise does throw one away from the nice comfort zone of Ohm's Law, etc, and for a second contemplate what really is happening in the little world of the electron: say you have a cable with high resistance at one end and low at the other, and you stick a battery between the 2 conductors, at the centre of the cable ... what is really happening down there that makes the electrons want to whiz to the 'right' end ...?
 
Again with cable burn in. Pure nonsense.
Hallooo ... we've just been taking triboelectric effects, different materials rubbing against each other, causing bad things to happen - though we may disagree on the extent of the behaviour. New cable put in place, under some stress because it most likely is curved to some degree, against its former 'set'. After some time the materials relax, 'take' to the new postion, and internal stresses ease.

There just, maybe, some little thing happening there ...
 
Hallooo ... we've just been taking triboelectric effects, different materials rubbing against each other, causing bad things to happen - though we may disagree on the extent of the behaviour. New cable put in place, under some stress because it most likely is curved to some degree, against its former 'set'. After some time the materials relax, 'take' to the new postion, and internal stresses ease.

Pure fantasy, but when you wave hands instead of doing experiments...

Pano, would you like me to send you some coaxial silver/PTFE, the same stuff that I used?
 
Interestingly enough, I have been doing experiments on issues like this for many years. Unfortunately, I haven't the strength of character of a true scientist, which would mean I would refuse to accept any result which couldn't be substantiated with some of that magical stuff ... 'data'!!

As a very poor consolation prize I grudgingly tolerate listening to a system which bizarrely enough fools me into thinking it's vaguely better at times ... 🙂
 
Actually, this sort of exercise does throw one away from the nice comfort zone of Ohm's Law, etc, and for a second contemplate what really is happening in the little world of the electron: say you have a cable with high resistance at one end and low at the other, and you stick a battery between the 2 conductors, at the centre of the cable ... what is really happening down there that makes the electrons want to whiz to the 'right' end ...?

There is no "right end". the current flow will divide itself based on the impedance of each path.
 
I would very much agree - this field stinks with 'agenda's, everyone is fixated on "something" being the magical way out - whether it's amplifier topology, speaker radiation patterns, or 'perfect' DBTs ...

IME, number one is the end result - does the "end product" - the sound filling the listening space - do a good job of convincing you that you're listening to musicians performing. If one concentrates on that as being the "big point" then one gravitates, fairly naturally IME, to viewing the exercise as a system optimisation procedure. And, sometimes quite remarkable results can be achieved for tiny cost, and only relatively smallish amounts of effort.
 
In my humble opinion, folks could save a load of time and cash and just buy a decent spec cable. I'm using some off the reel Van Damme twin core stuff and I swear it is as good a cable as most of us would ever need. You can get decent grub screw type banana plugs cheap online. There is no reason why anyone who can use a screwdriver should buy expensive cables, that money can buy far greater improvements elsewhere.
 
Wow. I think everyone must have far better hearing than I . When I mentioned adding simple R to my speaker wire resulted in far better sound, I only meant relative in terms of cable differences. Ime , I haven't been able to reliably distinguish between 2 purpose made audio cables. ( not true of "networked" wires). This is the first time I could clearly hear a difference for the better, and not ascribe it to late night listening , or hearing rebounding after 2 days away from job site. Have tried and even owned about 18 manufacturers sets of cable . I may be missing out but I'm pretty happy with living room made, 14 gauge enamelled solid copper twisted pairs, now with no connectors. And resistors on one end. For sure happy to spend the savings on Lps and dinners out. Cheers everyone!
 
Pity you are so far away or i'd send you some with plugs fitted, I used 5% silver solder, high end stuff you know 😀

I might be wrong, but I view any added piece, (even solder) as a barrier in the signal chain. Did recently try some very well made tellurium copper rhodium plated spades and bananas from ebay. Didn't audibly degrade sound but IMHO can't magically separate good from bad sound, so took them out. Conceptually, I like this better. With their carbon fibre case work, they sure are pretty though.
 
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