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Bought some 14/2 “speaker wire” from Home Depot

So I decided to amuse myself and on a recent trip to the Home Depot I bought some 14 gauge speaker wire. 25 ft for under $11.
I have what I think is a good system and my current speaker wires are analysis plus mesh oval 9 terminated in spades. My system is noted in my profile.
I substituted in the 14/2 I picked up- each leg is about 9.5 ft. Tinned bare wire at each end. I did use 4% silver solder.
Quite listenable, though perhaps not as extended at the high end. If someone told me I had to use the Home Depot wire I’d get along just fine. Leads me to one of 4 possible conclusions- 1- my hearing stinks; 2- my fancy Analysis Plus cables aren’t anything special; 3- my system isn’t resolving enough to make a difference; 4- given sufficient gauge, cable is cable. Of course, it’s also possible that my system is so good, any wire will allow that to shine through 
Your thoughts, comments, etc appreciated 

thanks
128x128zavato

Showing 2 responses by b4icu

b4icu's avatar
b4icu
553 posts
 
Well, you are guessing! 
Tire pressure at your car wheels are calculated and given (on the drivers door side, as STD.)
Your speaker cables should be the same. It's not that complicated...
Tell me the Amp's DF and length required, I'll calculate it for you.

Anything thicker, won't hurt, but also won't sound any better.
Anything thinner - should be rectified. The sooner, the better.
It is nothing about 4% silver (sounds so exotic, worth nothing: Silver conducts only 5% better than copper, but costs 130 times more! 4% of 5% is 4/100 x 5/100 =  0.002...)
The Home Depot is as good as Radio Shack or eBay.

It's about VFM or price. 


b4icu's avatar
b4icu
553 posts
 
Mr. felixa

Skin effect in audio, is about misunderstanding of the fenomena. The  Skin effect, is mostly about two criteria that do not apply to speaker cables:
1. High power at high (audio high) Fr. with full power BW. 
In Audio, the last two octaves are mainly harmonies. They are 20 dB or less of the average SPL. Most thicker cables, that can handle power as high as 20A @ 8 ohms = 3,200W need to handle way less (32W!) and the -20 dB is 100 times less, so it's about 0.32W of 0.2A
If you check on the AWG table: 
https://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm
A #12 AWG wire has a BW of  4150 Hz @ 9.3A or 107 KHz @  0.361A
Actually, the skin effect fenomena DO NOT exists in audio FR. and cables. It is an Audio daler/dealer BS to have an outstanding product over snake oil advantage. Bringing it up again and again' doesn't make it true.

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