Budget audiophile speaker cables

As coax happens to be the right cable (according to theory) for an unbalanced interconnect it is hardly surprising that it gives "clarity and enjoyment".
'Clean' dielectric I believe is one key.
The main caveat is that it has too high resistance.
Drivers, crossover coils and series capacitors have parasitic resistances that swamp cable resistance....why should 0.4 ohms loop resistance be 'too high' resistance ?.
The caveat is that 75 ohms terminating resistance is required.


Dan.
 
There are several speakers on the market that go < 3 Ohms in the bass and electrostatics can go < 1 Ohm at 20 kHz. 0.4 Ohms is not always swamped.
So what, do you have such speakers ?, I don't and most listeners do not.
Of course there are outliers, but most real world speakers run reasonably close to rated impedance, excepting bass resonance impedance hump.


Dan.
 
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Max Headroom said:
'Clean' dielectric I believe is one key.
No. For a short analogue interconnect driven from a low impedance the dielectric is almost entirely irrelevant. You would need a spectacularly bad source and a spectacularly bad dielectric to hear the difference - I guess such things could occur in some DIY or 'high end' equipment.

Drivers, crossover coils and series capacitors have parasitic resistances that swamp cable resistance....why should 0.4 ohms loop resistance be 'too high' resistance ?.
In most cases the speaker designer will have assumed a zero impedance source, and taken into account any other resistances within his speaker. 0.4ohm is not huge, but it does limit DF to 20 which is on the borderline of being audible.

The caveat is that 75 ohms terminating resistance is required.
Only if you have a problem with lots of RF leaking into a resonant cable, or a marginally stable power amp. In most cases people get away quite happily with no RF termination on speaker cables. A coaxial speaker cable is less likely to need a termination than a more conventional twin wire, because the coax has weaker coupling to RF fields - although it might be more likely to upset a fussy power amp with a poor or missing output Zobel network.
 
No. For a short analogue interconnect driven from a low impedance the dielectric is almost entirely irrelevant. You would need a spectacularly bad source and a spectacularly bad dielectric to hear the difference - I guess such things could occur in some DIY or 'high end' equipment.
There was an earlier post about red pigmented dielectric being audible...I concur from previous experiences and I am mostly talking about speaker cable application.

In most cases the speaker designer will have assumed a zero impedance source, and taken into account any other resistances within his speaker. 0.4ohm is not huge, but it does limit DF to 20 which is on the borderline of being audible.
The DC resistance of typical bass driver series inductor has already destroyed DF.

Only if you have a problem with lots of RF leaking into a resonant cable, or a marginally stable power amp. In most cases people get away quite happily with no RF termination on speaker cables.
We all have done this happily since forever.
I tried the coax because I have plenty and got it for free, and after a days listening added 75 ohms shunt at the speaker terminals, and a day later also at the amp terminals.
Each step was improvement in subjective SQ.

A coaxial speaker cable is less likely to need a termination than a more conventional twin wire, because the coax has weaker coupling to RF fields - although it might be more likely to upset a fussy power amp with a poor or missing output Zobel network.
Loudspeaker internal wiring typically has large loop areas.
Also, you mean series output inductor, not Zobel network.


I put this up as encouragement for experimenters to try something different, and far easier and cheaper and faster than braiding and other DIY designs.


Dan.
 
Max Headroom said:
The DC resistance of typical bass driver series inductor has already destroyed DF.
To repeat myself, the designer would have already taken this into account. You are then adding extra resistance which he did not take into account.

I tried the coax because I have plenty and got it for free, and after a days listening added 75 ohms shunt at the speaker terminals, and a day later also at the amp terminals.
There is no need to terminate both ends.

Each step was improvement in subjective SQ.
I cannot comment on what you think you hear.

Also, you mean series output inductor, not Zobel network.
No, I meant Zobel network. It is this which swamps any capacitive load imposed by an unterminated cable. An output inductor is another method for achieving a similar goal.

far easier and cheaper and faster than braiding
Yes, and possibly more successful than braiding - although perhaps not quite as pretty.
 
To repeat myself, the designer would have already taken this into account. You are then adding extra resistance which he did not take into account.
Most 'consumer' speakers are supplied with fig8 flex with less copper than the coax.

There is no need to terminate both ends.
In practice I find it is indeed beneficial.

I cannot comment on what you think you hear.
I know what I hear, even if you do not.

No, I meant Zobel network. It is this which swamps any capacitive load imposed by an unterminated cable. An output inductor is another method for achieving a similar goal.
Uh huh, so how does a shunt RC Zobel 'swamp cable capacitance' ?.

Yes, and possibly more successful than braiding - although perhaps not quite as pretty.
Who who cares about 'pretty'.....coax routes perfectly well and is inconspicuous, not so for so many so called 'audiophile' cables.


Dan.
 
Max Headroom said:
Most 'consumer' speakers are supplied with fig8 flex with less copper than the coax.
You can assume that such speakers make no attempt at faithful sound reproduction so are outside the scope of this discussion.

Uh huh, so how does a shunt RC Zobel 'swamp cable capacitance' ?.
By imposing a low resistance in parallel with the cable capacitance. This ensures that the phase of the load cannot stray too far from 'in phase' (i.e. resistive) at least in the frequency range of interest (typically 100kHz to a few MHz).
 
So eh, as this is still "budget audiophile".. I have to say I really am enjoying reading these discussions, but I still think my 42 year old ears won't be able to spot the difference between cables with and without certain pigment added ;-)

A funny side story - I was on holiday with my kids, my brother and his kids, and my parents in France 2 years ago, and at one point my brother commented on the really loud noise the crickets were making. (It really was deafening)
To which my parents replied "what noise?"...


To them it was perfectly quiet there :)

Age really is a very important factor - do find out the age of the people you're discussing audio with :)
 
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The only things in a cable that can affect sound are resistance, inductance and capacitance.
Resistance will reduce the sound level depending on just how much resistance and length of cable there is.
Inductance will reduce top end.
Capacitance will reduce top end.

I just use 13 amp stranded mains cable which is good at all three and have had no problems in 40 years.

Thank you for that Nigel, I think I will have a crack at using mains cable on my next build.

On my last build, I used automobile stranded loom wire, because like me, it was cheap. Made a pair of 4 strand braids - 2 pos - 2 neg, and together with fit for purpose banana plugs, ended up with two 10ft lengths for £20 total. That's £1 per ft. I have nothing to compare it to, but it seemed to work very well as speaker cable.

tapestryofsound