I've moddified several pair of speakers simply by matching component values with upgraded polypropylenes and using mostly Kimber VS wire as it's decent, not too expensive and can be broken apart from the braid to fit into small solder holes. |
The manufacturer of my speakers wants to try out an outboard crossover on my satellites using premium parts (sort of using my speakers as a test bed for future improvements; it's easier to access the outboard crossover), and as part of the drill I'm seriously considering doing the same thing with the internal wiring of my satellites, which is good but clearly could be better. I suppose if you use wiring to match your current speaker cables, then change those cables, you'll suffer audiophilia nervosa, but it still could make some sense. Only thing I wonder about is if a speaker manufacturer is using his ears as much as measurements when designing, you might wind up with a different sounding speaker as a result of this exercise. But what the heck, wire's wire, right?:>) |
I have to only assume, that it would improve the speakers sound, I have done it on some Tannoy speakers, that had super cheap wire with some audioquest type 4 and I found out that it improved the sound. Also doing the same to a pair of NHT super ones, it helped out also. I would be replacing wire that is basicly cheap stuff like monster cable, with Audioqeust CV4 for the speaker and Kimber 4tc or 8Tc for the amp.
The larger gauge audioquest wire is huge ( like my Caldera ), and would be hard to put in the amp, but some kimeber 8tc, has a large gauge but smaller package, also so does 4tc.
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I have done this on my Spica's and on my JBL L-166's, and yes, it does help a little bit.. a little smoother, a little less hash-y. I would NOT recommend replacing wire in an amp unless the amp's designer is consulted or it's a mod others have done repeatedly with successful improvement. Also I just finished working with some silver solder and some large 10 gauge mult-strand solid core copper wire and I had to use a 100 watt iron and it really had to heat up the wire before that silver solder would melt! good luck. |
Xiekitchen, what kind of silver solder ? Some of it won't melt or bond for ANYTHING. I use an 800* tip and some silver based solders still won't "grab" very well on some metals.
I have re-wired amps, preamps, speakers, etc... Sometimes, the results are subtle, sometimes they are staggering. One thing is for certain. You should document EVERYTHING ( which wire goes where, what direction, etc... ) before even attempting to remove anything. This will allow you to go back to where you first started on the whole thing or replace just one part. Keep in mind that all of the wiring and connections will take a bit of use to fully settle in, so don't go off the deep end right away if you're not thrilled. Sean
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The idea is OK, but the length of the wire inside the amplifier and speaker is generally much shorter than that of the speaker cables, and so I would expect that it is less critical to have such high quality wire inside the amp and speakers. It should make a difference, but I would expect the difference to be much less marked than upgrading the speaker cable itself. These reasons have always put me off doing any such mods. |
Sean, i recently re-wired a pair of mono-blocks. In the process, i was able to re-route the wiring for a MUCH shorter and cleaner path. As i've said before, if some of the EE's designing audio gear were doing RF gear, we'd still be using tin cans and string. Some of the stuff that they do just doesn't make sense, especially when talking about NON "mass-produced" hand built stuff.
Putting all of the various "snippets" together end to end, i was able to take out almost 4 foot of wire out of each amp. This probably gave me at least another 100 wpc due to the reduction of series resistance*. Sean
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* PS.... I'm just joking. You get the point though : )
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You'd get less skin effect too, Sean. |
Well inside my amps, they use the insulated spade connectors, and all I would have to do is remake some new jumbers and presto, it would be done. |
Soldering is not heating and applying the stuff , there has to be a cleaning process and proper priming if needed to be succesfull |
I have replaced the internal wires (Monster) of my Snell
J/4's speakers with Kimber 4TC (using only three strands-approximately 15-16ga.) and the resulting sound was much better to my ears. I used KimberKable 4 TC from my int. amp
to my speakers. It is amazing how so many variables affect
sound quality! In my experience, bare wire connections pro-
vide the best sound. Be sure to document all work just in case...and allow time to settle in. |
Sol322, i have a pretty good idea of how to solder and would venture to say that i've performed well in excess of 100,000 solder joints in the last few years. Even with all of the past experience that i have and trying to "clean and prep" the surface, i could not get silver bearing solder to bond some joints on two mating surfaces. I even went so far as to grind the surface clean and "rough it up" so that the solder could fill in the crevices, applied rosin, used a small propane torch to pre-heat the surface, etc... with no luck. I also watched as two others that are skilled electronics professionals tried to make the same connection with no luck. Maybe it was funky solder, i don't know. Either way, all three of us gave up. Sean
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Sean obviously you are very experienced soldering. My comment was aimed to the broad base of readers that read the forums for them not to get the idea of just put together heat and presto you got it, skill, practice and knowledge are required all of which you have
Cheers |
I have found by using the same cable design inside my system components as well as the cables that feed them has made my system effortless and of one signature.No more hodge podge.All the same.The new copper based solder I ran across seems to have helped as well. No lead.-- Tom |
Tom, what brand of solder is that ? I know that Cardas has a copper element to it, but it is surely not a high enough level to call it copper based. Care to share your "secret" with us ? Sean
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The solder is named after its composition designer.Riehl Copper Solder.I used Brents hook up wire as well.Its a solid core with his micro-bearing shield around the insulator.This cable is naturally detailed and every so dynamic.1-877-668-4332. These products are from artists who think outside the box. Enjoy, Tom |
