Yet another thread about speaker cable:

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#21
I've thought of an acoustical problem that's possibly real - albeit small - in terms of speaker cabling and with low power interconnects. But it's kind of a question, because I'm not sure how true it really is:

Whenever there are 2 dissimilar metals connecting, a tiny voltage can be formed across the junction (I forgot what it's called but it's related to the Peltier Effect). The output from an amplifier would have to exceed some small threshold before any current flows, causing a small glitch at low output levels. (Someone please elaborate, I've forgotten all the theory!).

CM
 
#24
Hi,

Good morning, Denmark.
Errrrr....when I said I get out of bed before twelve, I meant 12 AM you know.:smash:

CM,

The effect you're thinking of is called the Seebeck effect, the converse is called the Peltier effect.

When an electrical circuit is made up of two different metals, a small current flows when the junctions of the two metals are not at the same temperature. On open-circuit, an emf of the order of micro volts per degree of temperature difference is observed.

At loudspeaker level I don't think this should be of any concern....I'm not THAT paranoid anyway.:cannotbe:

Cheers,😉
 
#29
Hi all

April number or not,
this thick outdoor extension cords are what we all
started to use instead of zip cord many,
many years ago before this ekspensive cable thing
really got going. Personally I was using 4-lead
extension cords with two and two leads connected together.

Ah, those were the days 😉

cheers :drink:
 
#31
Hi,

Though this is the April issue, is there any problem with acutally using those kinds of cable?
Click to expand...

As this is a twisted pair, I suppose the added capacitance my not be to every amps' liking.

Either way, there's not much to lose by trying other than the outlay for the cable and in the worst case a popped fuse in the amp.

Cheers,😉
 
#33
Hi,

What is the rule of thumb according to capacitance for speaker cables, what should the max. value be?
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I may be overlooking something but I don't think there's a rule for that carved in stone.

It's more to do with the stability of an amplifier when driving a capacitve load, I think.

Cheers,😉
 
#34
fdegrove said:
...It's more to do with the stability of an amplifier when driving a capacitve load, I think.

Cheers,😉
Click to expand...

That, and non-linear effects of the dielectric around the wires. It's said that capacitive soakage effects may generate sounds of various audible frequencies by inter-modulation distortion of ultra-sonic sounds. IMO: 1) the effect is likely to be so small that most of the people theorising about it don't have accurate enough equipment to measure it (including their ears!). 2) What's so non-linear about the cheap generic plastics used for cabling such as polypropylene? 3) Either way, it shows that amplifiers and recordings that reproduce sounds over 20kHz could actually be detrimental to sound quality.

CM
 
#37
Cal Weldon said:
I have seen very expensive cables on a full range drivers. .....
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FWIW, I originally had silver cables on some B&W 801 series three speakers. My wife and I could A/B the difference blind. The 801 Series III's were notoriously inefficient and required a "high current" amp.

When I changed to Scan-speak Solist kits from Madisound I could still tell a difference blind a/b and so could my wife - but the difference was not as obvious and was more subtle. These speakers are rated around 91DB if I remember correctly, and are a lot more efficient.

When I changed to the Fostex FE206E's I ran cat5 for the first several months and then switched to the silver. Unable to tell the differnce.

Not easy to A/B the Fostex or the Lowthers because they are solder connections_grin_

I have posted before that _speaker cables_ benefits are very system dependent (there were three different amps over this period) While I don't want to sell the silver speaker cables that I have, I wouldn't buy them again.

However, the one constant that has remained through the three different systems is the silver interconnects - it is easy to A/B whether or not they are in or out of the system.

You can build silver interconnects for about $60.00 for a three foot pair (plus RS jacks).

So they need not be prohibitively expensive.

Best source I know of is Frank Steele at Pure Silver Sound

http://www.puresilversound.com/prod04.htm

28 Gauge preinsulated wire at 2.50 a foot, 4 wires per interconnect - you are looking at 8 wires for two interconnects - $20 per foot = $60.00

Regards

Ken L
 
#39
Cal Weldon said:
Hi Ken,
Can you describe the difference with the silvers?
Is it equivalent to what a small tweak on an EQ might sound like?
Or something holy different.... Cal
Click to expand...

While this thread is about speaker cable, hopefully I won't be too far off topic if I respond to your question more in terms of interconnects because that difference is more recent in my memory -

With the silver interconnects in the system, it is like a veil has been lifted - there is more information there throughout the spectrum. This is more noticeable in the mids and highs. An increase in microdynamics and detail. Somewhat like going to high efficiency and horns - there's just more information that wasn't present previously.

I started a major renovation two years ago and throughout was moving the system around and from room to room. One of those times when I set it back up - it just wasn't right - the magic wasn't there - kept trying to figure out what was wrong, it was like there was a veil over the system - finally realized that I had moved a pair of the silver interconnects to a DVD player instead of between the amp and pre-amp. Put them back and the magic was back.

Silver interconnects still remain the most bang for the buck of anything I've done for my system - You really need two pair - one for between the source and the preamp and a pair between the pre and the power amp. If you're Bi-amping through an active crossover you need them between the crossover and the mid- high section but not as much on the subs - Right now I am short a pair because they are hardwired into the preamp that I have under construction so I'm running cheapies from the crossover to the sub amp and don't feel I'm missing anything.

If I were to do it today, I would use Radio Shack RCA plugs. They are the smallest _grin_ and the cheapest.

You can build a couple of pairs of silver interconnects for $120 and say $6.00 for Radio Shack plugs.

The average guy will spend say $20 to $25 a pair for Monster Cable interconnects at Circuit City or Best Buy. So you would be spending $70 or $80 bucks more - Your Mileage May Vary but with the three almost completely different systems I have had the silver interconnects have been a for real no-brainer.

I will point out that the systems I have been using them with have been what most people would consider high resolution - I would guess that the benefits would be somewhat less if the resolving power of the system was less.

Regards

Ken L
 
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