2. cables
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Solid copper or stranded copper for speaker cables? What is your choice and why?

I had old copper speaker cable made by Audioquest (don't know the model).  The cable contains only two solid copper wires, one is thicker than the other. As I recalled, Audioquest claimed back then that thicker wire primarily carries lower frequency signal and the thinner wire is responsible for the rest.  I actually have not seen this type of design nowadays, BUT when listening and comparing it with the stranded wire (either 12 or 10 gauge) cable, I found the dynamic range is greater, and the bass is tighter and has more weight.  What do you think?

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Showing 4 responses by mitch2

mitch2
3,695 posts
 

Of those I have tried, my favorites are made from multiple strands of individually insulated, relatively small gauge (i.e., 20-24 awg), solid core wires.

mitch2
3,695 posts
 

If you want the sonic benefits described by @elliottbnewcombjr (resulting from cables made from multiple strands of individually insulated, solid core wires) then you can either braid CAT wire or check out offerings by Harmonic Technology such as one of the variations of their Pro9 or Pro11 speaker cables (made from OCC). Either option should sound good.

mitch2
3,695 posts
 

@elliottbnewcombjr 

Back in the CAT5 days, the DIY SCs involved a lot of braiding, stripping, and bleeding fingers.  As you pointed out one method could be to simply use them as-is, but it seems another opportunity might be to twist four individual CAT8 cables and then connect them in a star-quad geometry for lower inductance. 
Using 22awg wire the individual CAT8 cables would result in a 13awg cable size per bundle, or 10awg if connected using star-quad geometry.  This source would be enough for a pair of almost 30-foot cables for only $140 or, a pair of 15-foot, bi-wire cables (two full runs per side), each cable at 10awg.

mitch2
3,695 posts
 

@elliottbnewcombjr 

My speakers are also low’ish efficiency that I drive with big power amps so my HT speaker cables are bi-wired Pro9’s with two full runs/side or 6awg to each speaker.

How did your friend’s cables sound?  I suspect pretty good.  I have long suspected the advantage of stuff like OCC copper for speaker cables is virtually non-existent so the copper in CAT8 should be plenty good.  The Monoprice CAT8 source uses polyethylene insulation, which is also good but maybe topped by a foamed insulation product like in the HT cables, although I doubt that benefit is clearly audible either.

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