Yes, and the question about cables is: how much impedence do they have? What about harmonics and shielding? Gold is better than silver than copper than aluminum...
This is the last place I will spend money on, though intelligent, questing minds can find a better sound with more expensive metallic pathways. Some have said that fiber optic cable would be best since there is no degradation of the signal. Regards |
This reminds me a an Absolute Sound shootout they had where one cable was named ''HD'' for the Home Depot extension cord. Sounded pretty good too (I tried some a few years ago.) Their 14 gauge I think. ( Halloween special)
If you Google HD speaker wire or Home depot speaker wire you should find some interesting messages on this.
Cheers |
Thanks about the HD Google. I'll see what I find. And yes
this extension cable is really as good on my SET New system I'm putting together.But it was a very time consuming project and well worth it from what I've heard so far. All cables are so system sensitive and this one just seems to work superb with my SET 84 C Zen integrated and my 95db effecient 2 way speakers. |
I did the HD ( home depot ) extension cable myself ( orange w/black stripe ) and found it to be decent but found it to be a little too round and warm for my taste..I would assume in the right system it would be fine..Eventually I found it lacked sparkle,air,detail etc..but it worked in a pinch..If you compare it to a good low cost sp.cable like Anti Cables to me there is no comparison..At least thats my take on it......But we all hear different... |
The air and detail on these orange extension cord really
came together when I hit the 4th run per speaker.It just took off from that point on and it took it IMO to a whole different level. It would be interesting to try some speaker cable in usedcable.com from their loan library to see what the latest speaker cable technology would sound in commparison. I did hear the large Kimber Focals on a dynamic system with a ribbon tweeter similar to mine and did not like it at all.
Happy Listening
Don C. |
I think the recipe 76doublebass has cooked up is a significant modification of the "standard" extension cord speaker cable. Five(!!!) runs of wire per cable and twice the number of conductors on the positive lead. This is some radical engineering. I don't think you can expect the same result from this design compared with other designs, even if they are using essentially the same raw materials. |
Just for haha's try putting double the amount of conductors on the negative lead and see how it sounds. |
This sounds like the DIY cable that 6moons has an article
about, the WLM, as they call it.
I tried the 6moons cable, and was shocked how good it sounded, much like what you describe.
here's the link:
//www.6moons.com/audioreviews/whitelightning/moonshine.html |
The WLM cable is the one I was referencing when I mentioned doubling the conductors on the negative lead. Over on AA there were some users who experimented with this and preferred the sound this way versus double the conductors on the positive lead. |
Clio09,
I will have to try that. |
Also, try a double run where you use 3 conductors per lead. |
Question: 76doublebass used 16 gauge wire in a run of five wires (x3 leads) per speaker. That is a lot of dialectric material. Is there an advantage to having more separate runs with more insulation, or would it be better to have three runs of 14 gauge wire, or two runs of 12 gauge wire, etc., reducing the amount of plastic in the system.
Finally, is there an elegant way to finish the ends of these? Sounds like you will have about 3/8" to 1/2" of wire going into whatever you are using for your termination. |
This is the minor problem I'm having with the end leads.I am using the Monster Cable Bananna Plug on the speaker side
and it is almost not large enough in diameter to accomadate.
I really need to twist very tightly the ends with needle nose plyers to get that end to work. I am using a 12 guage
Bannana Jack from Radio Shack and this seems to give me more room to work with on the terminating side of the amp
end. So I'll probably switch over to this one on the amp side later on.
To my ears on my 1.8 watt 84C ZEN SET Amp this cable just sounds absolutely incredible,But may sound very different on high bandwidth solid state.But I may do some comparisons thru the usedcable.com library to see how they stack up to regular commercial speaker cable.
I was thinking that possibly with my amp being rated at 1 to 8 ohm loads and my speakers having a 2 ohm rating that possibly the heavy gage is optimizing this combination
and interfacing and compimenting it to its fullest advantage. |
76doublebass:
To my ears on my 1.8 watt 84C ZEN SET Amp this cable just sounds absolutely incredible,But may sound very different on high bandwidth solid state. Given the very low output of this SET amp, SET's typically limited bandwidth, and the higher output impedance you typically get with tube amps, I'd say that lowering the speaker cable impedance to near zero would yield dramatic results. You did notice that the big jump in sound quality came when you added the fourth run of cable. On a more powerful system where the amp has a very low output impedance, you might hear less difference lowering cable resistance than--say-reducing skin effect or inductance. |
Thanks for the info Johnny. This makes sense to me as well.
I am curious what new commercial speaker cable would hold up to this flea SET Wattage amp. I may get some cables on loan at a later date,But in know rush for now.
I'm really enjoying the sound of the system so much more . |
