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New speaker cables

alanl

alanl

Active Member
Being a bear of little brain and after getting totally confused by all of the opinions offered on various forums, I finally found a website where the information made sense - at least to me.
NB Speaker Cables is a small operation in Adelaide (Australia)
https://www.nbspeakercables.com.au/pages/about-us

I sent them an inquiry containing details of my current setup wanting their suggestion about which cable series was the best option for my circumstances and budget. Amazingly, I actually received good advice by return email - virtually unheard of these days! Changing the standard banana plugs for gold plated fork terminals would be done at no extra cost

At around $A175 for one 7 m and one 11m I do not regard them as cheap but compared to many others they will be IF they do as promised.

Specs are:
  • Wire Manufactured in Australia
  • Cable Handmade in Australia
  • Comprising of 36 x 0.32mm conductors for a nominal area of 2.90mm (or approximately 13AWG)
  • Oxygen Free Copper (OFC) to AS1125 Standards
  • Insulated with RoHS Compliant PVC to AS3808 Standards
  • Electrical Resistance – 6.4 ohm/km @ 20c
  • Insulation thickness - 0.4mm
  • Additional sheath thickness - 0.7mm
  • All_Rounder_Main_110x110@2x.png
  • Here's hoping!
 
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I would suggest getting them the same length. If you ever decide to sell them equal lengths are easier to sell.
Looks like decent set of cables for the money. Good luck and I hope they work out for you.
 
In other words, 12 gauge Marine wiring with fancy ends. Most important part is a good connection between wire and post on the amp and speaker.....
 
What are you using now and do you feel something is missing from it? I am not a believer in speaker wires making much of a difference as long as recommended parameters are met, such as current rating/length. OFC, exotic insulators, exotic metals, etc are mostly snake oil in my opinion. I would suggest you also pick up some basic 16ga lamp cord from the hardware store and compare.
 
Thank you for your responses. I agree with the "snake oil" comment but because I have recently upgraded several parts of my audio systems and to date have been using only cheap "big box" speaker cable, also damaged it when moving some furniture, I thought it was worth a minor investment - not a lot in the overall scheme of things.
As for ."In other words, 12 gauge Marine wiring with fancy ends." does this poster have anything more positive to contribute to the debate?
 
alanl said:
Thank you for your responses. I agree with the "snake oil" comment but because I have recently upgraded several parts of my audio systems and to date have been using only cheap "big box" speaker cable, also damaged it when moving some furniture, I thought it was worth a minor investment - not a lot in the overall scheme of things.
As for ."In other words, 12 gauge Marine wiring with fancy ends." does this poster have anything more positive to contribute to the debate?
Click to expand...

Hey, it's your system, your money, do as you please.
I enjoy having some upscale cables in my system. Can't say they were a lot better but they weren't any worse than what I had.

I do agree with the previous poster who suggested getting equal length cables.
Anything else is just wrong. My brain tells me so.
Also easier to sell if you decide to make another cable change.
 
Mrv8q said:
I am impressed the wire is actually made in your home country. That would be a plus for me.
Click to expand...

Yes- thanks to several generations of dic#head politicians, we don't make much here any more but happily, these cables are exceptions.

Re cable selection, I think we might all agree that the results can be very subjective, but as said earlier, there were reasons to change and the overall cost was not too frightening. At 78 years old, My hearing has probably degraded a lot, though listening exclusively to classical music does require gear of a fairly high standard - in my case , all vintage

Re the lengths, I doubt I would sell them because I have another system in my office and could use them there. In any case, to achieve equal lengths, it would be simple to cut the longer one to 7m and re-swage one end fitting, though a buyer might want different types - like banana plugs anyway.
 
Speaker wires should be electrically transparent, simply transferring the signal from the amp to the speaker without changing anything. Since audio signals by definition are low frequency (under say 25kHz at most) and fairly low voltage (under 100 volts) unless you have some exotic speakers or have to run them hundreds of feet, ordinary copper wire works great.

The most important things are adequate current capacity, lack of capacitance, and lack of connection issues. That last point is often overlooked, gold plated connectors aside. Poor or limited area contact with the speaker posts on either end is going to have far more effect on the sound that the wire unless you are using something silly like 22 gauge wire to drive Magnepans at 400 watts or some thing.

My comment on marine grade wire is this: marine grade wire is usually 12V DC (boats use DC since they are all battery/alternator operated), sometimes 24V, so current capacity is a requirement so it's typically 12 or 16 gauge.. Comes in black and red pair wire with heavy insulation since many boats are in salt water, and it always gets into everything so corrosion resistance is important. Makes great speaker wire, and costs about $35/100ft in small quantities. You can crimp or solder whatever ends you need onto it, or just twist and tin it for that matter.

Those wires look a great deal like the 100 ft of marine grade wire I bought for myself recently, in spite of the fact that my 16 gauge "zip cord" wires have worked very well for the last 45 years -- same wires, third or fourth system. Fancy ends are useless if they are not installed properly, you must have very good contact between the wire and the end, and also between wire end, whatever it is, and the speaker posts.

I suspect a large part of "my new wires are so much better" is simply renewing the connections. I heard zero difference between the telephone wire I replaced and my new 12 gauge wire. I'm sure part of that is the deterioration in my hearing, recently learned that most of the high end is gone, I can barely hear 14 kHz anymore, used to hear up to 22kHz, but there probably is zero difference in output.
 
"I suspect a large part of "my new wires are so much better" is simply renewing the connections. I heard zero difference between the telephone wire I replaced and my new 12 gauge wire. I'm sure part of that is the deterioration in my hearing, recently learned that most of the high end is gone, I can barely hear 14 kHz anymore, used to hear up to 22kHz, but there probably is zero difference in output."

Very possible.
Every so often a thread is started (or bumped) about twisting or removing and reconnecting all cables in a system. Some pick a date (smoke alarm battery replacement day for example) annually.
Might help, shouldn't hurt. Unless damaged or re-inserted in wrong jacks, which most likely will not damage anything but lead to a "I lost a channel" type questions. Phono connections excepted.
 
goodolpg said:
"I suspect a large part of "my new wires are so much better" is simply renewing the connections. .
Click to expand...

The new wires have been received and installed. The result is largely subjective but the sound seems cleaner across the whole spectrum. You may well be right that it is the connectors that have made the difference. So far I have only played one CD and one vinyl recording - the latter is the Mahler 7th and I think I'm hearing more orchestral detail than previously. Who knows? It seems to have been worth the relatively minor investment
 
alanl said:
The new wires have been received and installed. The result is largely subjective but the sound seems cleaner across the whole spectrum. You may well be right that it is the connectors that have made the difference. So far I have only played one CD and one vinyl recording - the latter is the Mahler 7th and I think I'm hearing more orchestral detail than previously. Who knows? It seems to have been worth the relatively minor investment
Click to expand...

Hey, I'm glad you are happy.
What I meant was I think maybe SOMETIMES connections can be renewed/improved just by removing (or twisting RCA's or bananas) cable connections which may improve the perceived sound quality of a system or component. Cleaner connections MIGHT = better sound.
I don't have "golden ears". I've admitted it on AK before.
But I did do a comparison of three speaker cables I had on hand a couple years ago.
One seemed to have reduced the treble noticeably. One seemed to make the treble too bright. One pair seemed a good compromise.
If I can hear those things there must be some truth to cables can make a difference.
 
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