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Question for the smart guys here. . .

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henry.bowman

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I'm not interested in whether you believe that cables make a difference. I've already decided that for myself, and found my perfect cable a couple years back.

Now that I have 501's though, I am not sure I have enough wire gauge to deliver all the power to my speakers.

If one has 84-85dB speakers with 501's (which can allegedly pass 1000 watts into 4 ohms), what gauge wire is the minimum to get all that power into the speakers?

Right now I have Audience's Au24 speaker cable, and I don't know the exact gauge, but I know the entire cable is 4mm in diameter total, including the outer covering.

Would another run of this increase the gauge enough to do the job? Or is it a non-issue?

Thanks!
 
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Henry,

It depends on the length. Simply purchase some 10 or 12 gage copper stranded wire and connect in your system. If this sounds better than what you have now you know you need a larger gage than you have..

Thanks,
Ron-C
 
ron-c said:
Henry,

It depends on the length. Simply purchase some 10 or 12 gage copper stranded wire and connect in your system. If this sounds better than what you have now you know you need a larger gage than you have..

Thanks,
Ron-C
Click to expand...

Thanks Ron. You're the man.

My cables are only 1M in length now with the monoblocks. I will try your suggestion.
 
darthm00by said:
someone posted this link a while back on speaker wire info.
http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm
hope that helps a bit :)
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Excellent. I just rebuilt a pair of my large 3-way DIY speakers (installed new crossovers). I bought some red and white, solid core, 18 gauge doorbell wire and used it inside the speakers. The cost: $.02/ft. The guy at Lowe's told me I might need to open a Lowe's credit card to pay for that wire. 40 feet for 80 cents. The speakers now sound wonderful.
 
10 gauge is .1019" diameter

12 gauge is .0808" diameter

Of course, stranded will be slightly larger than solid and can be a little tricky to measure.

powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm

Murray
 
Both studies are quite dated, precede the digital age (ubiquitous EMI, RFI) and are limited by the meaurement instrumentation of the time. There's more to a cable sound than gauge, resistance, inductance and capacitance. IME, the differences are more easily discerned with power cords rather than speaker cable though.
 
With all due respect...

Sndsrtaud said:
Both studies are quite dated, precede the digital age (ubiquitous EMI, RFI) and are limited by the meaurement instrumentation of the time. There's more to a cable sound than gauge, resistance, inductance and capacitance. IME, the differences are more easily discerned with power cords rather than speaker cable though.
Click to expand...

...James Randi will pay you a million dollars if you can prove you hear the difference between a stock McIntosh power cord and higher priced cords.

http://www.randi.org/jr/2006-04/042806boots.html#i5
 
Hepcat said:
...James Randi will pay you a million dollars if you can prove you hear the difference between a stock McIntosh power cord and higher priced cords.

http://www.randi.org/jr/2006-04/042806boots.html#i5
Click to expand...

I will take him up on that next time I'm in his neck of the woods. Hope he's got the $$$.

People say all amps sound the same too. 100 watts is 100 watts whether it's a McIntosh or NAD. Prove them wrong.

Those who poo-poo the power cord issue have never done a comparison. It's pretty discernable.

Try going to CES sometime and listen to some of the cable demos. or better yet try some in your own system.
 
Sndstraud,

Would you also believe that if you use a larger and better quality hose to fill your car's gas tank your engine would deliver better performance?
No disrespect intended, but this is the analogy that Peter Aczel at The Audio Critic uses to refute such ludicrous claims.
Don't be taken in by audio hucksters.

JRS
 
My Two Cents

I recently purchased a $5,000 pair of speaker cables to add to my Bose Lifestyle Speaker System. :scratch2:

My amplification is the top of the line Yorx CD,Tuner,Pre-amp and Amp combo. :music:

I am estactic over the difference. My extensive Disco and Gangster Rap cd's have never sounded better. :D
 
sumicron said:
Sndstraud,

Would you also believe that if you use a larger and better quality hose to fill your car's gas tank your engine would deliver better performance?
No disrespect intended, but this is the analogy that Peter Aczel at The Audio Critic uses to refute such ludicrous claims.
Don't be taken in by audio hucksters.

JRS
Click to expand...

Aczel, GMAB. He the laughing stock of the audio community. I was a charter subscriber to his rag when it first appeared back in the late 70s. He lost his mind a few years later. Besides his analogy is poor. Air is the best dielectric, therefore a thicker cable (of equal wire gauge) will spec better than a thinner cable where the conductors are in closer proximity--- the inductance, no wait, the Luddites don't believe in inductance. Lamp cord works fine for them. RMI, EFI, surges, spikes, digital artifact? Luddites don't believe in that either, and even if it did exist, 120 volts is 120 volts, right?

Of course, your arguement is now being made against owning McIntosh gear as opposed to less expensive NAD, Onkyo, Yamaha. Watts is watts! The THD and IM of NAD is as low as Mc. How about comparing the THD of a Mc tube amp against a NAD solid-state amp? Mc would lose.

Anyway, I used to think cabling didn't make any difference. When I became a reviewer for SoundStage! over 8 years ago, I had the opportunity to attend several CES and SP shows where I listened to cable demos as well as review cables in my own system as well as in conjunction with dozens of different components that I either reviewed or later carried when I had my shop. The differences were all too apparent t deny.

IMO, McIntosh's excellent design and build quality makes it less prone to power nasties, but cabling still makes a difference.

Try attending a CES or SP show, or join an audio society in your area. The experiences will be educational.
 
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Try the Speltz "Anti-Cables". I have them and the difference was not a small one. The cables are 12 ga (solid OFC) and should be able to handle 30 amps without a problem. If need be bi-wire for more current capacity.
 
An old friend of mine stopped by the other day, he is probably one of the biggest sceptics of HIFI I have ever met. He owns Rotel gear and Polk speakers and is very proud of his system, although he mentioned before that even the Rotel gear he bought is overpriced and does not sound any better than stuff you can buy at CircuitCity.

He eyeballs the 501's and says, "you don't really believe they sound that much better than gear that's 1/10 the price, do you?"

Hehe, so I fire up the 501's and he sits down to listen. Within a few seconds he starts looking around the room. I asked him, "what's wrong?". "Are you using surround speakers?", he asks me. It took him a few minutes of "investigating" my room to finally accept the fact that I am only using 2 speakers. I don't even have a surround sound system in my listening room.

After listening to a few songs, he says, "I never knew that speakers can throw sound like that!" The sound is coming from the corners of the room!" I have my speakers set up fairly well so the soundstage extends well past the speakers themselves and really does fill up the whole room. The depth of the soundstage is nice too with instruments usually well placed front to back, on well recorded CD's.

After he got over the soundstage, came the realization that instruments now sound more "real" as he put it, with a much more realistic size. Of course the clincher was a few tracks of classical with high dynamic peaks.

Thoroughly "confused" as his whole theory of all equipment sounds the same was thrown out the window, he asked if I can help him tune his system to sound better. I'll be going over his house this weekend to see if I can set up his speakers for him.

Moral of the story, there are, have been and always will be sceptics of everything. Until someone experiences it for themselves, it is rather fruitless to try to convince someone. Just like my other friend convinced me a long time ago with his very well set up system...
 
Sndsrtaud said:
IMO, McIntosh's excellent design and build quality makes it less prone to power nasties, but cabling still makes a difference.
Click to expand...

Here's the deal. I could hang a bed sheet behind the equipment and tell you that I would connect a cheapo power cord, a McIntosh stock power cord, and an expensive power cord and ask you to evaluate all three. Back and forth, maybe ten tries.

And you would hear dramatic differences. I'd hear dramatic differences too if I was on the other side of the sheet. But the truth is the power cord would never be changed at all.

It's expectations. We hear what we think we are going to hear.
 
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