Amazing deal on speaker wire today!!!

[stevo137]

Almost a 60 foot reel of Radio Shack 18 gauge speaker wire for
$.25 cents!

I've been comparing to my Kimber Kable wires and it sounds just as
good to me! ;-)"

 

[whoaru99]

I've been comparing to my Kimber Kable wires and it sounds just as
good to me! ;-)"

View attachment 906580

I'm not surprised.

 

[62caddy]

Neither am I.

 

[Dr. Morbius]

Me neither. I'm betting it's because of your location in N.W. Indiana. The longitude and latitude line up in just such a way as to make ordinary speaker wire sound as good as the boutique stuff. Of course, it is Palm Sunday too so miracles are bound to happen.

 

[Eric Lloyd]

Good quality wire at a great deal. Cool. Not surprised at all that it works well for you.

I've gone round and round with speaker wire, speaker cable (shielded and non-shielded), both for hi fi and semi-professional stage use. As far as I have ever been able to tell wire is wire. There are entire threads devoted to this, and lots of people with fancy testing equipment disagree with me. I concentrate on good connections at the ends and don't worry about the rest.

 

[rifftrax]

Here's some half fancy-talk half physics fun about speaker cable:
http://www.audioquest.com/pdfs/aq_cable_theory.pdf

Just curious. Has anyone ever measured the speculated skin-effect related audible bandwidth distortion on a scope? Ever? Honest question.

I feel like it shouldn't be too hard to hook similar sized rca cables up a 2 channel scope and just have a peek right?

[edit] might have found something here... some actual measurements:
http://www.mitcables.com/pdf/wp101.pdf

 

[ConradH]

Cable company white papers leave me wanting. Where's the description of the test setup? The statements about frequencies where current can no longer be transmitted seem a bit far-fetched, though no, I haven't actually made the measurements.

 

[rifftrax]

Cable company white papers leave me wanting. Where's the description of the test setup? The statements about frequencies where current can no longer be transmitted seem a bit far-fetched, though no, I haven't actually made the measurements.

I feel the same way with the exception of Dan Lavry's stuff. Exceptional white papers replete with loads of theory and formulae. It's not cable tech per say but DACs and ADCs often come with a similar amount of voodoo attached.

 

[stevo137]

Seriously though, I am comparing both speakers with different wires at the same time and then I will be switching back and forth over the next few days.

It's something that I have never done and so my final opinion will settle this once and for all!

Ha Ha! Just kiddin' about my opinion!

My opinion will just be another opinion.

 

[loudnoises]

 

[stevo137]

So my initial comparisons show no difference.
I'm mainly listening to the highs and have compared using two different sets of speakers and two receivers switching left to right on the speakers and on the receivers using B&W DM6's and practically new Infinity Modulus with attenuators, EMIT k's at 100%.

So far I hear no difference between the 18 gauge Radio Shack wire and the Kimber Kable.

Please keep in mind that this is just my opinion and not scientific fact.

I am 54 years old and have not had my hearing checked.

I have mostly used Kimber interconnects, digital cable and speaker wires and they make very nice products.

Stil have a D-60 digital cable that I never use anymore but it is a really nice cable for home theater use.

So that's it for me, I don't hear any difference so not wasting any more time with this or reading "theories"

Sorry if instigated another speaker wire thread and fine with me if it disappears.....

 

[bhunter]

Cable company white papers leave me wanting. Where's the description of the test setup? The statements about frequencies where current can no longer be transmitted seem a bit far-fetched, though no, I haven't actually made the measurements.

That's because most offer much more marketing than engineering. Like most woo, they offer just enough loose science terms to sound credible. When one gets so enthralled with the vacuous claims, one misses the overiding relative importance of those nasty noisy physical connections.

 

[ConradH]

...those nasty noisy physical connections.

Interesting that you should mention that. This thread got me to measuring some wire tonight and in the process I noticed that one of my banana plugs had high resistance, about 0.06 ohms. It should have been 0.002 ohms like the other one. Some polishing and some DeOxit brought it down to where it should have been, but those physical connections will misbehave every time you turn your back.

 

[sqlsavior]

These guys actually have patents on their speaker wire:

http://goertz.ipower.com/contents/en-us/d16_MI_Speaker_Cables.html

 

[the_nines]

 

[Old Guy8]

I'll generalize a bit. Everyone loves popcorn. Can we agree.
I use 14 gage or larger plain speaker wire. Only times I've noticed differance is when ends get some corrosion. I have has some really old wire I threw away, that restripping or Deoxit could not eliminate distortion.

 

[FauxHall]

I agree on the BS marketing mumbo jumbo BUT I recently upgraded from some standard mass-market 12 gage vinyl stuff to Canares 11 gage, four conductor twisted quad and I'll be damned! (And I have been) but the Carnares stuff made a noticeable and appreciated upgrade. Granted, I have long runs - 10 meters. Surprisingly, the cost for the pair of cables was the same (roughly $200), even with shipping to the Middle East.

So, based on my personal one-off experience, I'm willing to admit that SOME well-designed and selected cable can sound better than SOME mass market stuff. Likewise, some commodity wire can oft times sound just as good, if not better, than the high priced products.

But is there any way to predict ahead of time? The basic metric would be cross-section - the bigger the better. Twisted construction of conductors has a sound basis for noise and interference rejection. There might be something to insulator material and conductor quality but I'm a bit more skeptical here.

Still the economics of source, amp, and speaker should predominate. In other words, put your money on speakers and electronics with cables a second order investment.

 

[jeremyjustic]

Do you guys ever get tired of bashing expensive wires? Dont think they make a difference, dont want to spend the money on them, dont buy them....it's that easy. The amount of time and energy put towards the cable debate on this forum is astonishing. Snake oil, diminishing returns, placebo, psychoacoustics blah blah blah, we get it, you dont think wires make any difference in sound. Do we really need a new thread everyday on the subject?

 

[toxcrusadr]

Slightly off topic but: if you were going to make a stranded speaker cable using lots of smaller insulated wires, is it better to twist them in pairs first, or lay them all together and twist the whole thing, or leave them untwisted? I'm thinking of the small diameter multi colored telephone wire. Or is it a bad idea to use a lot of plastic insulated wires due to capacitance?

 

[FauxHall]

Do you guys ever get tired of bashing expensive wires? Dont think they make a difference, dont want to spend the money on them, dont buy them....it's that easy. The amount of time and energy put towards the cable debate on this forum is astonishing. Snake oil, diminishing returns, placebo, psychoacoustics blah blah blah, we get it, you dont think wires make any difference in sound. Do we really need a new thread everyday on the subject?

The recounting of personal experiences with the details and the specifics is a useful exercise. The more details and the more specific the better.

You are not required to read them.