[]|[ GorE]

SO i got tired of reading all the speaker cable reviews and DIY speaker recipes and told my dad about them . He being an Electrical Engineer told me tto get a 12awg and forget about everything else.

since i had bought 12 awg wires and my speakers being biwirable;i thought "why not using another pair of 12 gauge ?" .

I now have one 12 awg running from the tweeter and another from the mid-woofer.I guess that totals up to 6 gauge

__________________________________________________ ______________
Results :
Old 24 gauge wire : Lack of Bass control.Slightly thin sounding highs.

New 6 gauge : The midbass has come to LIFE !! The thin highs are also poof !
__________________________________________________ ______________
Price:
15 US Dollars for 16 meters.
__________________________________________________ ______________
Brand:
Monster Cable made in Germany.

Me HAPPY !

 

[taylor]

Well, it works slightly differently. 12ga wire has a diameter of 2.38mm, for an area of 4.45 square mm or 8.9 square mm for two pieces. 6ga wire has a diameter of 5.64mm for an area of about 25 square mm. Two 12ga wires is about 9ga. Sorry to bust your bubble, but 9ga effective is still single digits. While referring to my chart, did you know that a single 12ga wire can support 200 pounds?

 

[ilikemonkeys]

what length can support 200 lbs?

 

[NiceCans]

why not try welding cables . . . . I think they are four gauge

 

[]|[ GorE]

I would but my dad would call me crazy.

Now since my speaker only has BIG spring clip terminals,should i solder the wire ends with some tin-lead solder to keep them from oxidising ?

 

[donunus]

its not just in the gauge. i tried some 4 gauge orion power cables for the car battery as speaker cables and they sucked. no dynamics. slow sounding. I believe that as long as you go for thick enough cables for your power rating, thats fine. If you have a 15 watt tube amp for example, I would spend more on a high quality 22 gauge silver cable than an ordinary 12 gauge copper cable. If you have a 200 watter then the 22 gauge will be restricting and its fine quality will only be heard at low levels

 

[Oliver :)]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ]|[ GorE I would but my dad would call me crazy. Now since my speaker only has BIG spring clip terminals,should i solder the wire ends with some tin-lead solder to keep them from oxidising ?

Not if it can be avoided.

 

[SunByrne]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ]|[ GorE SO i got tired of reading all the speaker cable reviews and DIY speaker recipes and told my dad about them . He being an Electrical Engineer told me tto get a 12awg and forget about everything else.

Smart guy, your dad.

 

[]|[ GorE]

I hope that wasnt a snide remark for my daddy.

 

[Sinbios]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ]|[ GorE I hope that wasnt a snide remark for my daddy.

No, he's calling snake oil fanatics crazy.

 

[SunByrne]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sinbios No, he's calling snake oil fanatics crazy.

Something like that. I was in no way attempting to make fun of your dad--I meant it as I wrote it.

 

[Wodgy]

The one quantitative advantage of using thicker speaker cables is that it helps to preserve the damping factor of your amp over long cable runs.

As an example, a typical speaker amp may have an output impedance of 0.1 ohms, giving a damping factor of 80.

If you run 20 feet of generic 17-gauge speaker wire (I'll use Canare 4S6 as an example), the cables end up having a resistance of 0.456 ohms. Hence, the damping factor of your amp+cables is now only 8/(0.1+0.456) = 14.4. That's somewhat of a waste of what your amp can do.

In contrast, if you run 20 feet of 11-gauge wire (e.g. Canare 4S11), the resistance is only 0.104 ohms, yielding a damping factor of 39.2. That's a lot better.

It doesn't make a lot of sense to buy a powerful, sophisticated amp like a Bryston, with a very high damping factor (e.g. over 200) and use it with thin, long speaker cables. That's just throwing performance away. But for most people, with average cable length runs, 12 gauge wire should be fine.

 

[crazyfrenchman27]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SunByrne Smart guy, your dad.

I think your dad is smart, too.

People who aren't willing to submit themselves to real comparisons aren't interested in saving you money. They're interested in spending your money.

-Matt

 

[kartik]

I remember discussing cable thickness with Larry at Headphile (in his pre-Headphile) days and he mentioned that there is such a thing as time-error which increases with cable thickness. Like all conduits, depending on the quantum of current it needs to carry, an ideal cable should be large enough to carry the entire current without disortion yet not too large. For most people equipping a home audio system and not Wembley stadium (or Shea) 22G silver cable is probably good enough.

 

[Jon L]

Quote:

Originally Posted by donunus its not just in the gauge. i tried some 4 gauge orion power cables for the car battery as speaker cables and they sucked. no dynamics. slow sounding. I believe that as long as you go for thick enough cables for your power rating, thats fine. If you have a 15 watt tube amp for example, I would spend more on a high quality 22 gauge silver cable than an ordinary 12 gauge copper cable. If you have a 200 watter then the 22 gauge will be restricting and its fine quality will only be heard at low levels

Yup, I've used 4 awg welding cable to experiment. These things make horrible speaker cables, as they sound dead, dead, dead.

I even tried it for subwoofer applications, which some audio mag recommended. You know what, even for subwoofer, this wire makes dead-sounding bass.