What speaker cable do you use?

[Kirium]

I use QED Silver Anniversary for my fronts and Silver Micro for surrounds...

 

[ssportclay]

I use Radio Shack 12 gauge.This stuff seems of very high quality.Don't sweat the big stuff when it comes to speaker cables.Use good quality wire and keep your runs only as long as necessary.The most expensive wires in an audio system should be the ones in your tonearm and turntable.The further down the line you go,the less critical cables become.

 

[Kirium]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ssportclay The most expensive wires in an audio system should be the ones in your tonearm and turntable.The further down the line you go,the less critical cables become.

I disagree. What's the point in having expensive cable at your source and absolute crap right before your speakers??? You'd end up with a similar result as if you'd put crap cable next to your source.

A cables is just as important as any other, regardless of where it is in the chain...

Like the old adage goes, your system is only as strong as its weakest link.

 

[ssportclay]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kirium I disagree. What's the point in having expensive cable at your source and absolute crap right before your speakers??? You'd end up with a similar result as if you'd put crap cable next to your source. A cables is just as important as any other, regardless of where it is in the chain... Like the old adage goes, your system is only as strong as its weakest link.

You are incorrect.If the extreamly tiny signal generated by the phono cartridge suffers a small voltage drop across a tonearm wire,the results are very audible.By the time the signal gets to the speaker cable it is amped up and thumping pretty hard.A similar voltage drop here is far less critical.I am not suggesting to use crap for speaker cables.The Radio Shack 12 gauge that I am using is very good wire.If you want to spend hundres of dollars on speaker cable on your system,hey knock your lights out.My point is that the money used could probably spent more wisely elseware.

 

[JaZZ]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ssportclay You are incorrect. If the extreamly tiny signal generated by the phono cartridge suffers a small voltage drop across a tonearm wire, the results are very audible. By the time the signal gets to the speaker cable it is amped up and thumping pretty hard. A similar voltage drop here is far less critical. I am not suggesting to use crap for speaker cables. The Radio Shack 12 gauge that I am using is very good wire. If you want to spend hundres of dollars on speaker cable on your system, hey knock your lights out. My point is that the money used could probably spent more wisely elseware.

No cable, cheap or expensive, should cause a «voltage drop». So as far as we don't know what causes sonic differences in cables, it isn't justified to consider low-level signals more sensitive to cable differences (or vice versa). I can't speak for tonearm wires myself, but my HD-650 cables have even greater impact than my interconnects -- I guess simply because of the greater length. Also I wouldn't want to renounce my homemade speaker cables -- they make quite a difference to any no-name cables, virtually as much as an amplifier upgrade (or at least half as much) and thus absolutely justify the expense.

 

[recstar24]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ssportclay You are incorrect.If the extreamly tiny signal generated by the phono cartridge suffers a small voltage drop across a tonearm wire,the results are very audible.By the time the signal gets to the speaker cable it is amped up and thumping pretty hard.A similar voltage drop here is far less critical.I am not suggesting to use crap for speaker cables.The Radio Shack 12 gauge that I am using is very good wire.If you want to spend hundres of dollars on speaker cable on your system,hey knock your lights out.My point is that the money used could probably spent more wisely elseware.

It could be argued from the other standpoint that speaker cables have a much bigger influence on the sound than interconnects, considering that the speaker cables are required to carry a signal of much higher voltage and current output than interconnects which only carry a low-level signal. It could be argued that since the speaker cables carry much higher voltages and current levels that degraded performance in terms of impedance mismatch or unnaturally high capacitance would have a greater effect there than the low-level signal carrying interconnects between source and preamp. Of course, I'm not actually arguing with you, just mentioning the possibility of argument

 

[bigshot]

The quality of the cord doesn't mean nearly as much as the length of the run. But unless your living room is as big as a football field, even that won't be a problem to you.

Save money on wire and get better speakers instead.

See ya
Steve

 

[ssportclay]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JaZZ No cable, cheap or expensive, should cause a «voltage drop». So as far as we don't know what causes sonic differences in cables, it isn't justified to consider low-level signals more sensitive to cable differences (or vice versa). I can't speak for tonearm wires myself, but my HD-650 cables have even greater impact than my interconnects -- I guess simply because of the greater length. Also I wouldn't want to renounce my homemade speaker cables -- they make quite a difference to any no-name cables, virtually as much as an amplifier upgrade (or at least half as much) and thus absolutely justify the expense.

All conductors have resistance even at absolute zero and all resistors will cause a voltage drop.Headphone cables are more critical than speaker cables.

 

[JaZZ]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ssportclay All conductors have resistance even at absolute zero and all resistors will cause a voltage drop.

Yes, but considering cable resistances below 1 ohm and load impedances between 100 (for MCs) and 50,000 ohm (for MMs as well as line-level signals) it's negligible, and anyway: who cares about 0.1% voltage drop as long as it's frequency neutral!

Quote:

Headphone cables are more critical than speaker cables.

According to your own theory it should be the other way around in view of headphone impedances between 32 and 600 ohm and speaker impedances between 4 and 8 ohm...

 

[badtz]

In Systm.....

http://revision3.com/systm/avcabling/


they recommend using Monster speaker wires because of their tight near-90 degree angle twisting ....

it's towards the end of the video.

true? are they good? [normally i wouldn't buy anything monster, but in this case, maybe they ARE good?]

 

[allenf]

Monster, 40 metres/bi-wired => 10 metre run per speaker.

 

[BlindTiger]

Whatever's deeply discounted at HCM or AudioAdvisor or the local Hifi store.

 

[joelongwood]

16 gauge Ratshack speakerwire..........what can I tell you? I'm not a believer.

 

[mmmmcheese]

I use this


http://www.av123.com/products_produc...s&product=24.1

 

[helix]

2 each of 15 extention cord cable in 16 awg for a buck, goes nice with my b&o beovox s45's i picked up at a pawn shop for 75 bucks and the broken discrete sony amp i got for 20 bucks that needed new output transistors and bigger psu caps.

the sound SWEET