Speaker cable upgrade

C

Chermerkin

New Member
I have just acquired a brand new stereo consisting of Klipsch Cornwall IV and Hegel H95. Big upgrade from previous Chorus II that could cut off your head at high volume. Intense bright sounding. Sound is still slightly lean but that part of the Klipsch signature sound. Now its smooth in the the top end and bass is super tight. And the sound just popping out of the speakers like I have never heard before. Speaker cable I use is some old cheap Audioquest slip 14/2. Is there anything to be gained from upgrading the cables?
 
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Chermerkin said:
I have just acquired a brand new stereo consisting of Klipsch Cornwall IV and Hegel H95. Big upgrade from previous Chorus II that could cut off your head at high volume. Intense bright sounding. Sound is still slightly lean but that part of the Klipsch signature sound. Now its smooth in the the top end and bass is super tight. And the sound just popping out of the speakers like I have never heard before. Speaker cable I use is some old cheap Audioquest slip 14/2. Is there anything to be gained from upgrading the cables?
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Congratulations on Cornwalls
Great speakers

You will get many different answers on this topic. Keep them short as possible for one.
 
What are you using for your rca cables? Source?. There can be gain in upgrading your cables, but I would check other places first like your speaker placement etc . Also Klipsch are known for being a bit bright so placement may help a lot.

just FYI I use Wireworld Eclipse 7 BiWire speaker cables


Audiofreak71
 
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Haha. Yes I understand that cables can be a hot topic. Im not looking for insane expensive cables in fancy wooden boxes. But if a reasonably priced cable can improve the sound somewhat Im open to it. The amp has built in DAC. Vinyl rig has some Tara Labs
 
I have only one admonition regarding speaker cables. Do not under any circumstances use CCA (Copper clad Aluminum) wire. It tends to be brittle and break.

You can't go wrong with 14/2 pure Copper wire. It's big enough to make you feel comfortable and inexpensive enough to not injure anyone's wallet.
 
I pulled out some old Monster Cables and Mega Cables from Radio Shack back in the day. I made a couple runs to my subwoofer and then to my speakers. Don't know if they made much of a difference but I used what I had laying around to give my speakers their best chance to shine.
 
One cable you might consider is the Zu Audio Mission MKI. They were the predecessor to my Synergistic Research cables, and a smallish fraction of the price. They seemed to be well made, and I bought two sets (for biwiring) from Zu’s ebay store for under $150.
 
I actually just took Kimber 8TCs out of my main system and replaced them with some home brew cables made out of 10ga OFC, because the Kimbers were affecting the bass response. @JoeESP9 is right, you'll get wildly different answers to your question, and some people will trot out the old Roger Russell article to support their opinions on why you don't need heavy gauge cable or fancy cable blah, blah, blah.
The bottom line is if you have the time and a little money to play with experiment with a few different cables and see if you can hear a difference in your system. If you can hear a difference play around until you find something you like. My only advice that is based on facts is to buy pre-owned cables if you're going for anything upmarket. I got the 8 foot Kimbers from Ebay for a hundred bucks, so taking them out of my system wasn't that painful.
Besides pre-owned cables are already 'burned in'!:rolleyes:
 
The bigger the pipe, the more juice deliverable. I'm using commercial-grade stranded 12 GA. In my living room system, pioneer A-7 integrated Amp to c-v vs-120's. Powered sub is fed by old Bell System 2 pr. individually-insulated phone wire at spkr. level, which is not power-dependent. Gets the job done. Have a cracked inner window as proof, closest to the sub.
 
Catmanboo said:
The bigger the pipe, the more juice deliverable. I'm using commercial-grade stranded 12 GA. In my living room system, pioneer A-7 integrated Amp to c-v vs-120's. Powered sub is fed by old Bell System 2 pr. individually-insulated phone wire at spkr. level, which is not power-dependent. Gets the job done. Have a cracked inner window as proof, closest to the sub.
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This is correct, and for the AC signal in your average home audio 20 / 18 AWG is more than big enough for the current, except if you have speaker runs longer than 10 feet.

With 12AWG you can have a football field of cable length and still won't have a drop off close to 5%. (8 Ohm)
 
I've used standard 14ga for years with good outcomes. Recently bought a spool of 14ga, pure copper (not clad aluminum) wire with nice 'soft' exterior when I needed to install a new set of speakers. Plenty of the wiring for sale on amazon were copper clad aluminum, so it required a little extra poking around there to find all-copper examples, which were a little more expensive but very nice to work with.

FWIW, and there are plenty of differing views on cables, I would never spend more than it might cost to get garden variety cables at the Blue Jeans retail level. I happen to be of the opinion that manufacturers and dealers are ripping hobbyists off with expensive cable.
 
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