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Inventor of McIntosh Speakers Talks About Cable

post #1 of 28
1/6/07 at 8:05pm
Thread Starter 
Roger Russell, Director of Acoustic Research at McIntosh Laboratory, Inc. and the originator of McIntosh Loudspeakers talks about cables.

Is there any difference?

Read and find out what Stereo Review and Sound & Vision have to say.

http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm#introduction
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post #2 of 28
1/6/07 at 9:47pm
I hate demonstration displays at retail stores. They are all misleading.
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post #3 of 28
1/6/07 at 9:51pm
That's not unexpected. I don't know any prominent speaker designer (with the possible exception of Jon Marsh) who seriously believes in boutique cables. Note that I'm talking about the designers themselves (e.g. D'Appolito, Linkwitz, Barton, Murphy, Krutke, etc.) not marketing people from speaker companies who also sell cables.
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post #4 of 28
1/6/07 at 9:57pm
Thread Starter 

Same For Mains

Buy the best - Hospital Grade

Best available for really cheap prices. Why by any others?

Hospital grades have to meet higher standards than any other main. Just look for the green dot. Means it is hospital grade.

Here are 3 for $20 including shipping

http://cgi.ebay.com/3-STRYKER-Hospit...QQcmdZViewItem

...or $20 each new

http://www.datapro.net/products/9310.html

Hospital grade cables not only meet NEMA standards but also UL 60601-1 and CAN/CSA 60601-1 standards.

If you are not on US or CDN standard, no problems, hospital grades are made for every country and have to meet the same high standards, especially in the UK.
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post #5 of 28
1/6/07 at 11:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mlhm5 View Post
Buy the best - Hospital Grade

Best available for really cheap prices. Why by any others?

Hospital grades have to meet higher standards than any other main. Just look for the green dot. Means it is hospital grade.

Here are 3 for $20 including shipping

http://cgi.ebay.com/3-STRYKER-Hospit...QQcmdZViewItem

...or $20 each new

http://www.datapro.net/products/9310.html

Hospital grade cables not only meet NEMA standards but also UL 60601-1 and CAN/CSA 60601-1 standards.

If you are not on US or CDN standard, no problems, hospital grades are made for every country and have to meet the same high standards, especially in the UK.
You do see the irony of promoting your favourite mains wire after just agreeing with an article that said that mains wire makes no difference?

That said, if i was to upgrade my power cable then cheap hospital grade would be the way to go.. but I wont upgrade my power cable.

A good article. Nice to hear the words of a professional audio engineer, and also someone who can provide some insight to the business (eg that no one at mcintosh believed in cables, but they pretended that it could make a difference in order to make sales)
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post #6 of 28
1/7/07 at 12:33am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by hugz View Post
You do see the irony of promoting your favourite mains wire after just agreeing with an article that said that mains wire makes no difference?

That said, if i was to upgrade my power cable then cheap hospital grade would be the way to go.. but I wont upgrade my power cable.

A good article. Nice to hear the words of a professional audio engineer, and also someone who can provide some insight to the business (eg that no one at mcintosh believed in cables, but they pretended that it could make a difference in order to make sales)
Yeah, I was promoting ebay. $9 for three cables. Only the uninformed waste money on cables.
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post #7 of 28
1/7/07 at 12:46am
Quote:
Originally Posted by mlhm5 View Post
Yeah, I was promoting ebay. $9 for three cables. Only the uninformed waste money on cables.
Many cable specs refer to different impedances. Impedance makes a difference to the sound.
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post #8 of 28
1/7/07 at 2:05am
Thread Starter 

Lesson On Impedance

Quote:
Originally Posted by Herandu View Post
Many cable specs refer to different impedances. Impedance makes a difference to the sound.
In mains wiring there are two considerations, voltage drop and heat buildup. The smaller the wire is, the higher the resistance is.

When the resistance is higher, the wire heats up more, and there is more voltage drop in the wiring.

The former is why you need higher-temperature insulation and/or bigger wires for use in conduit; the latter is why you should use larger wire for long runs.

Neither effect is very significant over very short distances i.e. your wall socket to the amp.

Hospital grade power cords are the TOTL in meeting and exceeding governmental requirements throughout the world.

A typical 6', 15 amp cord would contain 14ga copper wire. A 100' of 14 ga copper wire would produce about 0.5 ohm of resistance at room temp which is truly insignificant.

Your house is wired with hundreds of feet of 12 gauge and 14 gauge wire.

Keeping this in mind, it is silly to use expensive mains.
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post #9 of 28
1/7/07 at 9:10am
Silly yet none the less effective

I however have found two good cheap power cords that I use...
Volex 17604 $4
Quail 0313.072 $7

One shielded for all my computer gear, one not for my audio rig, both 14awg.
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post #10 of 28
1/7/07 at 9:59am
no one cares that the mcintosh engineer says that power cables are worthless? even posting about cheap cables is silly in a thread about an audio engineer claiming that cables make no difference. cheap is more expensive than free
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post #11 of 28
1/7/07 at 3:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mlhm5 View Post
Yeah, I was promoting ebay. $9 for three cables. Only the uninformed waste money on cables.
Again, another thread where you go out of your way to insult people. Who are you, and what gives you the right?
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post #12 of 28
1/7/07 at 4:16pm
There's nothing wrong with being uninformed. As Mark Twain said, "Everyone is ignorant... just on different subjects." In fact, he's doing you a favor by informing you.

See ya
Steve
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post #13 of 28
1/7/07 at 4:43pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bigshot View Post
There's nothing wrong with being uninformed. As Mark Twain said, "Everyone is ignorant... just on different subjects." In fact, he's doing you a favor by informing you.
As usual, you miss the point, using my comment to advance one or your typical smart-aleck comments. My point was (to use your words and to elaborate) that if he was going to "inform" someone by making a categorical judgment that a choice many relatively intelligent people make is stupid, it would be useful to know what basis he has (i.e., what is his experience, education or background relating to the matter in question) that gives him the right to pronounce such a judgment. (He has no profile.)

At least we know what your background and experience is. And it gives your comments some credibility -- notwithstanding that you are dogmatic and like to be a smart-aleck just for the sake of being a smart-aleck.
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post #14 of 28
1/7/07 at 6:21pm
This article was a great read. Thanks.
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post #15 of 28
1/7/07 at 6:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by hugz View Post
no one cares that the mcintosh engineer says that power cables are worthless? even posting about cheap cables is silly in a thread about an audio engineer claiming that cables make no difference. cheap is more expensive than free
I don't think the author was (or would; he didn't make much mention of power cables) claiming that we should use free cables instead of cheap cables. Instead, he was saying that we should use suitable, cheap cables as opposed to exotic cables.

Buying a well made power cable that matches the awg of the wires behind the wall would be suitable.
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