Isn't mains cable cheaper than Cat 5? No need to braid, so saves a lot of time too. Any cable which gives you "very deep bass" is fiddling with the signal, perhaps because of too high resistance, so best avoided if sound reproduction is your aim. Anyway, it is impossible to beat the performance of any competent speaker cable so if braided cat 5 is good enough (which I am not sure about, having never tried it - why would I do anything as daft as that?) then by definition it will be hard to beat - except on price. Ordinary cable will also be hard to beat (if sound reproduction is the aim).
Cat 5 is designed for a specific job: high frequency low crosstalk communication at relatively low power and defined impedance. No reason at all that it should be good for low frequency crosstalk-irrelevant high power impedance-irrelevant applications like driving speakers.
Cat 5 is designed for a specific job: high frequency low crosstalk communication at relatively low power and defined impedance. No reason at all that it should be good for low frequency crosstalk-irrelevant high power impedance-irrelevant applications like driving speakers.
No need to braid Cat3, Cat5 or Cat6 cables. Just parallel as many Cat cables (unshielded) as needed to get to the desired cross-section area. Then connect all the solid colored conductors to one terminal and all the striped conductors to the other. Cover the entire group with a sleeving or something.
The only reason for silver plated cable and teflon was for high temperature use and for use where some resistance to fire was a requirement for mission safety, gives you a bit longer before the insulation burns out and everthing shorts out...
That wire to wire stuff for transmitting electrical signals has been studied in depth since Oliver Heaviside...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegrapher's_equations
Today we transfer gigabit signals down wires so the understanding of signal propagation down wires is extensive today, audio signals are effectively DC by today's standards and do'nt hold no mysteries so maybe you should start gaining some "knowing" then you'll be able to think about what you are doing.
Andrew T did some capacitance measurements of various CAT 5 combination, they can be quite high capacitance with many strands.
Instead of wondering about magical cables, looking at the best way to drive a variable motor from a driving circuit would yield more results... though here mono blocks or separate amp per speaker with short cable runs may be the best option....
Actually if the cable has a pathologically high resistance (as in some Ohms rather than milliohms) then you are pushing things into a current mode regime and in that case you just might increase bass output. You are probably knocking other things out of kilter doing that and a simple resistor is a better way of achieving this.
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resistance is a linear effect. A change in resistance does not change the frequency response.
Most metal resistors have distortions down below -150dB ref max signal.
That makes distortions due to metal resistors as inaudible.
Changing from silver to copper will change the resistance, just as changing from 12awg silver to 14awg silver.
Look up the cable tables and find the resistance of 12awg copper and compare to 14awg silver.
Which is better? How did you assess "better"?
I remember reporting comparison measurements of capacitance for medium length two wire twisted CAT5 and 4 wire star quad (using 4 strands of CAT5 wires).
The star quad had about double the capacitance.
The two wire twisted pair had low capacitance.
That makes the star quad only a bit higher than low capacitance.
I would not refer to 100pF/m to 120pF/m as high capacitance.
'Knowing' without thinking is even more stupid. Wire is wire, for audio purposes. People using Cat 5 for anything other than wiring a network are being silly.Ola said:
That is what I was hinting at. High resistance means boomy bass; some may like this and think it is more realistic. It isn't, but if hi-fi is not the aim who cares?billshurv said:
Weeeell well well, if that isn't a subject that has been beaten to death.
...and now, here's why I bi-wire...
Step 1 : Measure harmonic distortion of current drawn by your loudspeakers when reproducing bass. Notice the THD on the current is rather... well, not that small. No, I can't be bothered to dig up the measurement at the moment. Why not measure your own speakers? It's educational. Just stick a 0.22R resistor in series with your speaker, play 30 Hz, measure THD on the resistor.
Step 2 : Multiply distorted current by cable resistance.
Step 3 : When your woofer draws a distorted current, your midrange driver is reproducing a little bit of this distortion too, due to cable resistance. It isn't a lot. In fact, it is quite small when using normal cables. For super-thin cable users... well, it's kinda your problem.
Did I do ABX? Nope. Or any other kind of measurements? Nope. Don't ask. I had some leftover 4-conductor cable (for powering three phase motors) lying around collecting dust... bi-wiring with a single cable and without making a mess!
It probably sounds a lot better, I'm sure. Yeah, now that I'm sure, I know it does
...and now, here's why I bi-wire...
Step 1 : Measure harmonic distortion of current drawn by your loudspeakers when reproducing bass. Notice the THD on the current is rather... well, not that small. No, I can't be bothered to dig up the measurement at the moment. Why not measure your own speakers? It's educational. Just stick a 0.22R resistor in series with your speaker, play 30 Hz, measure THD on the resistor.
Step 2 : Multiply distorted current by cable resistance.
Step 3 : When your woofer draws a distorted current, your midrange driver is reproducing a little bit of this distortion too, due to cable resistance. It isn't a lot. In fact, it is quite small when using normal cables. For super-thin cable users... well, it's kinda your problem.
Did I do ABX? Nope. Or any other kind of measurements? Nope. Don't ask. I had some leftover 4-conductor cable (for powering three phase motors) lying around collecting dust... bi-wiring with a single cable and without making a mess!
It probably sounds a lot better, I'm sure. Yeah, now that I'm sure, I know it does
A fine question, after all high tension power cables are generally Al for weight and cost saving. But Al has its own issues. For a start you likely have never seen Al, only the oxide as its mighty reactive. Secondly soldering it is a gigantic pain. Thirdly its not that keen on flexing a lot and you do get brittle fractures. Copper is nicely ductile.
But it's used in speakers (voice coils, ribbon speakers) a lot as its light and has good thermal properties.
Well you are sufficiently arrogant, mybe even a bit over the edge. And you are wrong too.
Most audiophiles has never really tried out the limits in this topic on moore or less) reference equipment. Legends says that this or that kind of wiring should be "sufficient" meaning it will not overheat and burn off.
The most tragic side is that even most audio-designers seems to overlook at least two basic tasks here;
1: When it comes to wiring; what might be sufficient on the primary side will be a restriction on the secondary side.
2: Music is all about dynamics. Dynamic headroom is a keyword. (sounds easy)
If we limitate the current-flow in a system we might still not burn off or even heat up the speaker-wires, but the system will sound "thinner". A lot thinner. A frequency-test will show exactly the same result.
To make this story short; even the smallest amount of serial resistanse will reduce a systems dynamic capacity. This will be most audible in the lower range since this is where the power is needed. (ever noticed that your amp`s meters "follows" the bass-rythm?)
The thinner wiring will make your amp perform like if it was weaker, smaller and not capable to run your speakers. And you might never get it because you have never tried to run real sufficient** wires.
Speakerwires should be kept as short as possible, (max 3 meters) not stranded/twisted or any other "configuration" but thick and solid*, **fun begins at 9awg. Solid core copper, + and - separated.
* speakerwires must be seen as an extension of the power-amps secondary circuit, as well as the speakers internals. How many designers seems to have grasped this?
Btw; if there is any kind of multistrand-wiring in your equipment ( like ac-intake to powerswitch) you might do some easy upgrading.
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