I need help with acoustics and speaker wire


I moved from the West side of Cleveland to Prescott,AZ at 5,400feet. 3 years ago.I have not changed my 2 channel system at all but my acoustics have!! The system which I feel is quite hi end consists of Mark Levinson amp & pre amp and Acarian Systems Alon 4 speakers.This system had a smooth warm and mellow sound with an abundant of tight bass It now has a harsh sounding metallically sound with an overabundance of treble with lots of listeners fatigue!

My old room was a 37' long X 27'wide great room with an open floor plan (open to kitchen & dining room) that was fully carpeted in the 37'X27' room dimension  with a 10'cathedral ceiling. The speakers played into the room depth. My present room is 20'wide X 22' deep and has a hard wood floor & a 10 cathedral ceiling. The speakers are playing across the 20' room width.

I plan to fully carpet the room and move the speakers so they play into the room depth. I hope this will correct most of the sound harshness. Now my problem with the speaker wires. My speaker wire is Mark Levinson HF-2.5c (660 strands of .07mm copper wire twin lead) which I cannot find anymore and the speakers are TRI WIRED! The change of speaker location requires "a "very large amount" of  additional wire and the option of placing the Levinson equipment between the speakers to vastly reduce the amount of wire needed is out of consideration.

I do not subscribe to all of the hype & voodoo magic associated with high end wire making large imagined sound improvements and am not willing to pay the outrageous sums of money required to redo my system with it. The question is this is there a wire that I can add that would be compatible with what I now have at a reasonable price or should I discard the wire I now have and wire my system with Monster cable so all of the wire is the same or some other reasonably priced wire?

Most of you don't have this problem as your speakers are not tri wired and you place your amps between your speakers and your wire runs are under 10' per side so the cost is not an issue. Suggestions please!!??

marklevinson

I also don't believe in elevating the cables off the floor (more hype) and plan to put them under the carpet that I will have installed next month. I feel that some people IMAGINE the improved sound they think they are getting with some cables as many double blind tests have proved this over the years.

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You are 80. :-) Cantankerous too. That's fine, me too. I'm 67. But unlike you I can hear really well. Things will be fine until you run over the speaker cabling a couple of times with 600lb dolly wheels. Most systems set up like yours are fine (for you) just the way they are. I'd doubt you would hear any difference, why act like you can.

I'm just a retired heavy equipment mechanic. What would I know about sound. It's only the way I made my living (all over the world) for 49 years..

I'm sure you could rig SOOW or SJOOW cable. Pick the correct conductor number and do just DIY. That is the least expensive and the toughest cabling. I have 35+ year old SOOW buried (10/4/g) for speaker cable. They are 50-75 feet long. You null test them, they are still pretty serious cables. I've rolled speakers over the 6" slab for years plug in and away we go.

Pick a 6 conductor cable a single run per side. 3 pairs of wire # 10 or 12.

I don't think anyone has ever suggested I upgrade the cables, because the speakers sound like crap.. Not yet anyways..

Most BBQs, audiophile SQ isn't the issue, weather the chicken and potato salad is ready to eat IS.. :-)

When discussing Blue Jean speaker cables, bear in mind that Blue Jeans makes speaker cables using either Canare 4S11 or Belden 5000 wire. I have used both and found one to be much better in my system than the other.

I liked the Canare but am using a different brand at this time but would use it again with no problem, not so the Belden..

 

I've never experienced speaker cables making a big improvement in sound quality, but I have heard them make things sound worse. Blue Jeans speaker cables did that. I'm a fan of BJC. They're a local company and I use their cables for a couple of my subwoofers, but I don't recommend their speaker cables. 

Focusing on your room should make a much more noticeable improvement than cables. 

Well, the OP was pointless, making a statement, rather than asking for some kind of opinion and advice. It was inevitably coming to a “conclusion” I was expecting.

 

Good decision regardless. If you never heard any difference from cables during your first 80 years of existence, chances are you never will.

 

Merry Christmas, good health, and long life to you

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I have come to the conclusion that high priced cables are not for me as I just dont believe all of the hype! I have decided to go with custom made cables from Blue Jeans Cable which will end up costing me around $400 as I will need around 150 feet considering tri wiring. The wire is actually actually a Belden product. Besides I am 80 years old and don't hear as well as I did even when I was 60.I also have a notch hearing loss around 2,500 in the human speech region so it's hard for me to pick up a conversation in a noisy room. This was caused by a very loud Corvette and drag boat I've owned over the years.

I also don't believe in elevating the cables off the floor (more hype) and plan to put them under the carpet that I will have installed next month. I feel that some people IMAGINE the improved sound they think they are getting with some cables as many double blind tests have proved this over the years.

I appreciate all of your comments on this very controversial subject!!!

After the cable how about getting them off the floor with disposable cups for all I care and decoupling those fancy speakers, too. :-) Wahoo There is another 100 bucks that will make a huge difference..

Regards

I must apologize, all I have is HooDoo or as you call it Voodoo.

Treat the room as much as you can stand, and choose some great cable. Tri or quad wiring is nothing special. It's just usually when people do things like that, they are looking for HIGH quality reproduction.

If you want to limit 50% of the sound because of no room treatment and then another 10% by using crap cables, go right ahead. I THOUGHT you were asking for help, not a certain kind of help..

You can BUY wonderful cables custom made for your (fancy TRI WIRED setup) for well under 500.00 and it will blow your mind if you can hear, pretty good. 

How long are the cable runs? 25, 50 feet and coiled the extra behind the cabinets and dropped them on the floor.. or through the floor?

Monster Cable? You are right you do need help. I can lead you to water, NOW!!

 

I wonder why it's not made anymore? Stranded tech has pretty much been abandoned.

The long wall or maybe try putting your speakers on the diagonal if you can manage it.

Carpet and putting your loudspeakers on the long wall are all you need. Try that first before you do anything drastic.