Should I upgrade my speaker cables?


I got 4 Classe 25s that are bridged and pumping out 4000 watts to my Bower 802D3s , im bi amping and running 1000 to the highs and 1000 to the lows of each speaker, got 2 sets of Nordost Heimdell 2 speaker cables, which have 18 lines of 22 awg solid core copper. I feel that might be to thin to be running 1000 watts and considering selling the Heimdell 2s and upgrading to something with thicker gauges, am I fine with the Heimdells or should I upgrade now that I’m running 1000 watt’s per cable? What is recommended? My budget is $5k-$8k per set, I need 2 sets

mariobeniteziv

Showing 1 response by williewonka

@mariobeniteziv...

First - 1000 watts is the max output of your amp, so unless you are using it to drive speakers in a very large hall I doubt very much that you are coming anywhere close to using 1000 watts of power

Second, Classe amps are a high current Solid State design and as such, speaker cables having a high capacitance can drive amps of this design to a point of oscilation which can seriously damage the amp i.e. damage the internal circuitry

High end Cardas cables have a very high capacitance, so this is one brand of cable I would steer well away from - they are great for tube amps though.

An aquaintance had this same problem with his Ayre amp and later his Gryphon amp and TOTL Cardas speaker cables - very costly - switching to lower capacitance cables resolved the issue

I am of the opinion that the cables you have are perfectly adequate for your setup.

If its the quality of sound you are concerned with, try Hijiri cables for a more refined presentation

As a comparison - a 1700 watt hairdrier normally has a significantly smaller power lead, so the efffective gauge of the Nodost cables is more than capable of handling the power at play here.

Regards - Steve