New speaker cables recommendations sought

For branded cables be aware that some high current solid state amp designs can go into an oscillation state when used with speaker cables having a very high capacitance, which can result in damage to the internal circuits

I have witnessed this with Ayre and Gryphon amps when using the TOTL Cardas cables, such as the Clear and Clear Beyond cables.

Both amps had to be repaired and were out of commission for a couple of months.

Unfortunately, Cardas no longer posts the metrics for their cables.

Fortunately their lower level cables do not have the extreme levels of capacitance as the Clear (@ 278 pf pf/ft) and Clear Beyond.

Having said all of that, there are some people that report no problems with high end Cardas cables on high current solid state designs, but that does not mean their amps are NOT oscillating, it just means the threshold has not been exceeded. They could also be using very short cables

The oscillations occur above the audible spectrum, so there is no audible warning as to when the threshold is about to be breached.

Maybe something to be considered - Steve

@teh_chucksta - I first heard of this very problem when I purchased my NAIM amp. Naim had this phenom documented on their web site

NAIM designed the low capacitance NACA5 cables (16.5 pf/meter) for their amps, just to avoid this issue with their amps, so your amp(s) would not have experienced this problem.

The total capacitance of a cable generally has to be very high i.e. probably in excess of 2000pf - but the actual value depends the design of the amp and the length of the cables.

In many high end systems the cables can be quite short (e.g. 4-5 ft) so they may never cause this problem.

Most cables are have "middle of the road" values of capacitance so they are not an issue, but with the increase of very complex geometries, higher capacitance values may become more common.

E.G. Another cable to be "wary of" is Kimber 12TC which has a capacitance of 494 pF / meter - but this may only present problems for longer cables exceeding 20-25ft long. But their BIFOCAL-XL has a parallel capacitance: 600 pF / meter. The specs for the Select Series have not been published.

Similarly, the Cardas Clear cables use large numbers insulated conductors which increases the capacitance to pretty high levels of 278 pf pf/ft (or approx 900pf/meter), which for a 10 ft cables is 2780pf

By comparison, my own DIY cables are very low at 30pf/meter, well under the high values of either Kimber or Cardas and many others and very well suited to most amps.

But again, I stress this MAY ONLY apply to "some" high current solid state designs when longer cables are used.

That’s a lot of "IF’s" - but IF you are not aware of this it can cost a lot of money in repairs simply because the speaker cables selected were not "the best match" for the amplifier.

Also, very few technicians are aware of this, so you could have the amp repaired - only to have it fail again when you connect it back into your system. Certainly the technician I spoke to, that repaired the amps for my friend was amazed when I told him about it.

Regards - Steve