A New Believer

Al: I am not sure I wholly agree with the concept that the speaker cables have an insignificant effect.

The simple fact that people hear a difference by changing the cables WITHOUT changing the speaker suggest that the cables must have a pretty dramatic effect in the coupling/performance of the amp and the speaker. Maybe the point you made was that the speaker is more complex than the wires but the bottom line is that the cables change the sound. Which really is the bottom line.

Shadorne:Interesting but the rise and fall time of the signal is relevant and therefore the impact of the impedance is also relevant even at "audio" frequencies. I suppose, by analogy you believe that there is no problem with CD sound because the 44.1 Khz meets the Nyquist criterean, and we cannot hear beyond 20 khz anyway, and that jitter and the steep Digital filter do not have effects on CD sound....

FYI the cables I suggested are, I believe, $80 an 8 foot pair more expensive than zip cord but I assure you better sounding and vastly cheaper than the hype out there.

Let's face it. You are loading the output of the amplifier with TWO complex loads. The speaker and the speaker cables. I cannot fathom how you can compare cables without knowing how the amplifier reacts to these two in series. That is why agreements are very hard to come by and you are doing well if you can find a happy combination.

I am a firm believer that simple cables such as the "Anti Cables" with no dielectric insulation have a better chance of getting this match.

All cables have inductance resistance and capacitance and they are a complex load by any stretch of the imagination.

No hyperbole-just scientific facts. The wires I suggested are plain copper wire without any fancy wrappings. Look before you speak is something you should add to your hyperbole!

Al: Thanks for the balanced comment. That is what I said in my original post. And that is why I recommended the Anti-cables. They are simple in construction and more likely to be a better match to the driving amplifier.

Shadorne: The point I was making is this. There is NOTHING that is absolutely understood in our hobby. The example I gave you was the one that supported "CD reproduction was perfect" It turns out that as envisioned it is not. Just because one cannot measure it or do not have an explanation of why a certain thing goes against the "Mainline Thinking" does not mean it does not occur. While I agree that all the other items you list are very important and should be optimized the bottom line is this.I also agree with you that there is a LOT of snake oil out there and if you are not technically savvy can get burned.

You have a CHAIN and every link in the chain right up to your ears modifies the sound. In my opinion the simpler these interfaces are the less likely that you will have a large interaction between them. So I would refrain in general with "grossly inaccurate" unless you have a very good grasp of the interactions of even a few feet of wire that has capacitance, inductance and resistance and a feedback amplifier with a speaker load.

Al: There is a fly in the ointment though. Speaker loads are very far from being predictable speaker to speaker. The low output impedance of an amplifier will help but as I said in the first post you have the cable and the speaker in series. Feedback amplifiers can measure well under continuous drive but can fare badly in transient conditions.

Regards,

J

Thanks Al I agree with all the comments

Regards,
J

Al: Sorry about that I guess I should have read that more carefully.I also am guilty of not reading your earlier post.

I DO agree with all you have said before.

Your point also about poor correlation abetween performance and price is exactly what I suggested when I volunteered the Anti Cables as an example.

I should stop shooting myself in the foot!

Regards,
Jake