How to select a good Speaker Cable

b4icu,

Glad to see are you are well and offering useful free advice.

You may recall I used your DIY 0 AWG cable (relatively flexible thin strand welder's cable) to connect Pass Lab 250.5 to Magnepan MGIIIa's.  Fantastic results.

I have changed the amp to a Devialet 120 Class D integrated.  It loves you cables.  My simplistic system consists of an Auralic Aries connected to the 120, driving the Maggies.  In addition, I use the pre-out/electronic crossover to connect a 12" Velodyne FSX.  The room is 35x25x14ft.  All electronics are power by a Yeti 1000 drawing less than 50 watts.

I noted that you referenced Class D amplification above.  Would you be so kind as to share your information as to why your designs work so well with Class D amps.  I am assuming that you have not already addressed this issue.  I have not read all of the posts on this thread.

Best Regards,

J

Dear b4icu,

Thank you very much for the generous investment of your valuable time.

I look forward to hearing if Devialet in Paris has any additional information.

I will experiment with doubling up the 0 AWG six foot lengths.  You haven't been wrong yet, so I expect interesting results. 

Best regards,

J

Dear Michael,

The Devialet site states the following:

What makes a Devialet unique and standing out from any competition is its patenting amplification section ADH (Class A / Class D Hybrid). What you get to hear is the purity of a class A together with the efficiency of a class D. This allows us to have the best of both world.

Secondly, there is a DAC which is an integral part of the amplifier's circuitry and makes it difficult not to use.

Those 2 stages together give us such incredible characteristics such as less than 0.001% THD and less than 0.001 Ohm of output impedance. This alone gives you a damping factor between 6000 and 10000 which is HUGE! That means that the Devialet really holds the speaker. This results in a very precise sound stage and extremely well defined basses.

I buy 0 AWG on eBay for less than $2 per foot ( 1/0 AWG Gauge Copper Wire Cable, Super Vu-Tron Type W 2000V Heavy Duty with a flexible rubber sheath welding cable).  I prefer the "Welding Cable" with a rubber insulation since it is more flexible.  The strands are of a higher gauge.  I have tried "Power Supply Wiring" 0 AWG made with lower gauge strands and vinyl sheath.  It is much more difficult to work with as it not as flexible.  I noticed no difference in sound. 

Are you confident that your calculations apply to Magnepan speakers?  My experience so far suggests they do.

Thanks for your patience and help.

All good wishes,

J

Micheal,

https://www.ebay.com/itm/WELDING-CABLE-1-0-BLACK-25-FT-BATTERY-LEADS-USA-NEW-Gauge-Copper-AWG-Solar/...

Hope this helps.  Price includes approximately $20 shipping within US.  The listing does state that they ship internationally.

I just ordered this cable for 2x 0 AWG experiment.

I did add a 12 AWG pair of cables to the existing 0 AWG cables.  The sound changed.  My interest in the experiment has increased.

Used Devialet 120’s are pretty reasonable after considering the package includes a preamp, amplifier, DAC and a two-way electronic crossover.

Best regards,

J

Dear Michael,

You are right, again.

0 AWG wire delivered yesterday.  Within two hours I had it installed in the system.  Each side is now driven by 2x0 AWG cable.  Best $67 tweak, yet.

Two steps closer to believing the performers are in the room.  New aural clues being processed by my tiny brain.  Resolution from 30hz to 16khz was improved.

In-room Pink Noise Real Time Analyzer graph unchanged.  Response curve is slightly jagged but flat.

I used a different type of cable for the second run (Welding cable linked above).  I was unable to source the cable used for the first batch of cables.  The new cable is more flexible and easier to work with.  It's OD is 9/16" and therefore the plastic hose clamps previous used did not work well.  Metal screw tightening hose clamps would work, but they are a bit cumbersome.  Consequently, I wrapped the cable ends with Gorilla tape to hold the walls of the insulation.  I then screwed a #12 1- 1/2" brass round head wood screw into the center of the cable strands to secure a #10 eyelet with a 3" 10 AWG tail crimped and soldered to it. Spades at one end and banana plugs at the other were installed to the eight tails for connection to the system. Exposed surfaces were wrapped with Gorilla tape pending the ordering and installation of heat shrink tubing.

The speaker cables are 5 feet long, not six. At the risk of being redundant, do your calculations suggest an additional one or two 0 AWG cables would further improve the performance of the system?  If you think further improvement can be achieved, I will be ordering another length of cable.

Again, thanks for the generosity of your time and talent.

All good wishes,

J

Michael,

Thanks for the information and suggestion.  I am first going to install another 0 AWG set of cables to see if this improves performance, before considering the acquisition of another amp.

I high pass the amp output from 35hz.  The Magnepan MGIIIa's are flat to 40hz and fall off from there.  Moreover, the bass Mylar panel is a large area with very little excursion.  Consequently, perhaps the control of this driver is not as challenging as a cone driver with a long excursion attempting to reproduce sub 35hz frequencies.  Is the optimum DF as critical with this system?

Frequencies below 45hz are fed via the pre-out to a Velodyne FSX-12 that is "Servo Controlled" to limit excursion.  The pre-out and powered outputs includes Devialet's SAM software designed to limit cone breakup.  The speaker cable in this unit is probably 14 inches long.  I can not find a DF spec for it's A-B amplifier. 

Does any of this additional information alter your opinion of the ideal cables for this system?

Notwithstanding the fact that DF is supposed to benefit frequencies below 85hz, my observation is that adding 2x0 AWG speaker cables greatly improved mid and high frequency resolution.  This may be the result of the attenuation of bass and mid-bass excess excursion (boom). 

Current bass control sounds tighter and realistic.  It's measured in-room response is flat.

Unless you advise otherwise, I am willing to invest another $67 to see if it can get any better.  Plus, I like tinkering.  I will let you know if the next experiment yields diminishing returns.

Cheers

J

Michael,

Sounds similar to my experience.

I await delivery of what will become the third 0 AWG cable driving my speakers.

I found a clever way to couple two cables and a tail for use with a banana plug, see: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07QZRKXSL/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The above linked battery cable coupler comes with a clear plastic snap-on cover for insulation on four sides. The remaining open sides can be protected with electrical tape. I use a 60 amp ring lug terminal connector, secured to the battery post bolt with the lug positioned in the slot on the coupler. This lug is crimped and solder to a 6 AWG 2" tail that connects to the banana plug.

My third 0 AWG cable will be connected to the amp via a tinned wire tail inserted in the screw clamp connection on the amp. The bananas connecting signal to two of the 0 AWG cables are connected to same screw clamp. The screw clamp has a female banana plug connection at the end of the clamp tightening knob. This arrangement allows me to use two short tails per tap to reduce resistance.

At the other end of the three cables (total of six per side) I attach a 4 AWG 2" tail with a 30 Amp ring lug for connection to a terminal board that connects to the crossover.

I will let you know if the third cable install improves the sound.

The fun continues.

Very truly yours,

J

Professor,

I have installed the third 0 AWG cable between a Devialet 120 and Magnepan MGIIIa’s. I was expecting an incremental increase is performance. The performance increase is dramatic.

Now, I am tempted to install a fourth per channel per side.

I have no idea why it works, and I don’t care why.

Maggie owners take note. I bought mine in 1988. They have been paired with many amps and cables. They have never sounded this good.

Best regards,

J