Alpha Core Goertz

Amazing how all those years of good service can be negated by one bad employee. I sure don't blame anyone for not doing business with a company that doesn't seem to value you as a customer. I'd probably have taken my business elsewhere under the described circumstances.

I've had AC speaker cables for several years. I don't use terminations, I just shape the end of the wide flat cable so that it fits on my binding posts. Neve had any shorting problems but I was carful connecting them non the less. A direct connection is superior to using added terminators such as spades.

As to Zobels and amps, I'd be more inclined to rid myself of amps that need a zobel to function with these cables than to get rid of the cables. Most techincally knowledgeable people agree that, for speaker cable, low inductance cable such as the ACs are best. Amps that can't handle low inductance speaker cable are suspect to me. My Krells don't have any problems with the AC stuff and I haven't added any zobels.

Unsound, it is a normal design practice to put a network at the output of an amplifier. In effect, it accomplishes the same thing as adding a zobel, i.e. keeping the amp stable into reactive loads. There are designers who feel that this network effects the sound of the amp in ways they find undesirable. Some designers leave them out for this reason.

The question for the owner of one of these amps is, do I find speaker cables that the amp can drive or do I bandaid the design with a zobel, effectively putting back what the designer avoided in the first place.

My solution is to use an amp that doesn't need help in this area. Were I to choose an amp like the one you describe, I'd also choose cables that the amp was compatible with.

YMMV

unsound, by "feedback from the speakers" would you be referring to back emf?

Do you have any technical background, by the way? I'm wondering if you actually know what a zobel does.

Let me restate that the reason amp designers put networks at the output of their amps is to prevent the amp going into oscillation with reactive loads. Many designers feel that the sound of the amp is more open without the network but, of course, this makes them more suscepible to oscilation from very reactive speakers or, perhaps, low inductance cables.

I fear I am belaboring the point but I keep getting the impression that I'm not getting that point across. Perhaps you are thinking of a zobel as a "tweak" rather than a bandaid. When speaker designers build the passive crossover networks for their speakers they can incorporate elements into the design that would effectively be a built in zobel. I would have to assume that if the speaker designer did not use this technique it would be because it was felt that it changed the voicing of the speaker in undesirable ways.

So if your amp doesn't have it and your speakers don't have it, it's likely because the designers didn't want it. So, wouldn't it be better to contact Threshold, in your case, tell them what speakers you are trying to drive and ask them to recommend a cable that would work most effectively in that configuration? And/or, you could talk to the speaker manufacturer. System synergy and component compatibility might be improved, i.e. it could sound better.

Then again, maybe you're satisfied with what you currently have. I am just trying to clarify my reasoning.