A Perennial Debate For Which I Seek Help


Wire, Terminations, Dielectric, Solder, in summary, the linkages in our systems, the terminals in the path. Doubting your cabling can only lead to paranoia, and thus, fearing the snub of fellow audiophiles, you shun the Tuesday night shootouts, the gatherings that once made Tuesdays better than Fridays. Please, don't shun the shootout, I know of no gathering more intoxicating. They remind us we are alive and human, no mere beast in search of flesh and sustinance alone.

My Situation - I recently had a pair of speakers upgraded with new caps, chokes, posts, wire, etc... Not until I went to install the reworked crossovers, however, did I realize how cheap the connection was at the drivers. The woofer has a small terminal board mounted on the basket where the lead wires attach to two stamped rivets. The rivets and brackets are both loose. These clips are followed by a 3" wire to the woofer, some sort of tin-coated cotton or wiring of similar texture and tensility.

As for the tweeter, one of the even smaller pins used for the lead wires snapped off. I could try to solder it back on, yet more fundamentally, with all the money spent on speaker cables, IC's, perhaps hundreds on binding posts alone, aren't these shoddy driver terminations, hidden inside the cabinet, an egregiously weak link in the chain, or am I missing something specific about this particular connection? Any insight is truly appreciated.
nycwine1

Showing 3 responses by stringreen

I talked to Richard Vandrsteen about this wire issue. He uses specific wire for specific applications. A particular wire to connect the crossover to the tweeter as an example has different properties than the wire from the crossover to the midrange, because of the different frequencies handled, and the different power requirements, etc. On another thought, I built my power cables. I first used the best quality plugs and cables I could get from a professional electrical supply house...they sounded very good. I then changed the plugs to audio grade plugs from a high end audio vendor...a very great upgrade. I then put the plugs on bulk wire from the same hi end vendor. The results were that the plugs made the biggest difference, but that the changeout of the wire produced a much less but still significant improvement.
Douglas-Schroeder Your point on Anti-Cable does not hold true in my system. I have chosen anti-Cables after an intensive search for the best cable for my system...money was not a consideration. I experimented with Cardas, Wireworld, Purist, Audioquest, Kimber, and others...all with their top end silver, etc. offerings. None sounded as good as the Anti-Calbles, though Audioquest SKY was very good indeed. They ranked second behind Anti-Cables with Cardas being the very worst. My dealer then told me of a supercable made by Audioquest...many times the cost of Sky. I tried that cable as well...my wife thought I broke something in the system after swapping out an Anti-Cable interconnect with the super Audioquest.
Douglas_Schroeder....I am a trained violinist and have played and recorded with the best orchestras of the world. I hear real music in real time almost every day. I can tell you when I sit on stage the sound is very much different than when I sit in the "seats". I want my system to reproduce music as I hear it from the seats. There are many times when if I close my eyes, my system tricks me into believing I'm at the hall. I have been making a living as a musician and teacher for about 40 years. I am confident of my musical perception.