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Tech Says Speaker Cable Size Doesn't Matter

Lukey

Lukey

Active Member
Banned
I emailed Dayton Audio to ask about the very thin speaker cable they include with a new set of Dayton B652 speakers I bought from them. A tech from Dayton replied and told me that at 7' lengths, I didn't need any better wire than that but I find that hard to believe. I tried the wire he sent, it sounded so - so. I used some 18 ga instead, which are heavier than the cable he sent, and that sounds a little better. Why did he tell me that? I've seen 7' long pairs of cables that sell for several hundred dollars, even thousands.

I'd like to get a better 7' cable than 18 ga without spending a lot of money. any suggestions? I have Cardas cables on my main stereo and they sound wonderful.
 
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Lukey said:
I emailed Dayton Audio to ask about the very thin speaker cable they include with a new set of Dayton B652 speakers I bought from them. A tech from Dayton replied and told me that at 7' lengths, I didn't need any better wire than that but I find that hard to believe. I tried the wire he sent, it sounded so - so. I used some 18 ga instead, which are heavier than the cable he sent, and that sounds a little better. Why did he tell me that? I've seen 7' long pairs of cables that sell for several hundred dollars, even thousands.

I'd like to get a better 7' cable than 18 ga without spending a lot of money. any suggestions? I have Cardas cables on my main stereo and they sound wonderful.
Click to expand...

Why did your tech tell you that?
He believes what he said.

Why did you find it hard to believe?
Because you don't believe what he said.
 
Lukey said:
Do you believe what he said or would you rather just mimic me?
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I'm not mimicking you. I'm boiling down what the situation is.

The situation that there's some that believe in some things that defy logic and there's others that tend not to.

I happen to believe that with the gauges and lengths indicated, there would not be a discernible difference.
 
OK thanks.

On my main system I have 11' Tara Phase II cables but the speakers are only 4' from the receiver. I swapped them for some 12 ga once, just to see what they'd sound like and the sound quality really seemed to go down a lot. The highs got harsh.
 
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Lukey said:
OK thanks.

On my main system I have 11' Cardas cables but the speakers are only 4' from the receiver. I swapped them for some 12 ga once, just to see what they'd sound like and the sound quality really seemed to go down a lot. The highs got harsh.
Click to expand...

I would describe Monster XP the same way, a little harsh. What's your budget. If you like Cardas, there's bound to be some out there lightly used.

I also tried Blue Jeans Cable and was impressed. Much smoother on the high end but pretty accurate overall and build quality was excellent.
 
The only way to be sure is to do a double blinded scientific experiment with a control group and experimental group.
 
Oh man, those 7' cables that cost thousands must sound really nice, huh? No, I don't think so. But 18 and smaller does sound tiny, get some cheap 14 or 12 and see if you notice a difference.
 
I have a pair of Monster Cable RCA interconnects that I don't use. The 2 pair I use are Cardas 300-B Micro that I got from Audio Advisor about 20 years ago. They sound wayyy better than the Monster Cable interconnects I have.

My main speaker cables are Tara Phase II and they were really worth the investment. I don't know but once I heard these I never wanted to go back to 12 ga. OFC. I probably paid about $200 for the 2 pair of interconnects and the 1 pair of 11' speaker cables. These days it may cost more like $300.
 
This week I got smoother highs when I hooked up the vintage 1988 Realistic CD 1600 CD player. My next best sounding player is probably my 20 year old JVC. I got the Realistic for $22 and I love it.
 
Jon_Logan said:
I happen to believe that with the gauges and lengths indicated, there would not be a discernible difference.
Click to expand...

You'd use 20 gauge (or smaller) to connect your speakers to your amp?
I think my headphone wires may be heavier that that :D
 
I looked around for some info on wire gauge. On WikiPedia they say that 18ga Copper has 6.385 mOhm/ft. That'd be 7(') * 2 (coming and going) feet of 18 ga. Copper. 14* 0.006385 = 0.08939 Ohms.

If you put that in series with a 4 Ohm load, the drop across the speaker is
0.19 dB and some loss of damping.

If you put that in series with an 8 ohm load, the drop across the speaker is
-0.097 dB and some loss of damping.

If you use 12ga Copper, it's 0.001588 Ohms/ft.. 0.022232 Ohms for a 7' length.
The voltage drop across a 4 ohm speaker is 0.048 dB, and a 0.024 db drop on an 8 Ohm speaker.

I don't know, it sounds like a lot of people feel they can easily detect that. I wouldn't bet my life on it.
 
If you don't want/need the fancy terminations, grab some of the Canare 4S11 from Blue Jeans or another source. If you like and want the nice terminations, I'd look for something on eBay or Audiogon.

I am a believer in using relatively high value, quality cables but with $40 speakers? I think I'd be hesitant to spend more than than $10 or so and shipping for most cables will be close to that...
 
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