Something doesn't seem right about this...

Williewonka ... is there an amp that "likes" high capacitance speaker cables.

Williwonka ... I have no idea if this is good, bad or neutral, but here's the specs on my Kimber cables:

DUT: 8PR 2.5m bare wire ends.

(Cp) parallel capacitance: 742.0 pF @ 20 kHz
(Ls) series inductance: 0.459 µH @ 20 kHz
(Rdc) dc loop resistance: 0.021 Ω
(Xt) total reactance: 0.057 Ω @ 20 kHz
Frequency response ± 0.5 dB: dc - 50 kHz

***************

I picked these cables up quite a few ago from a dealer. Is 742 pF @20kHz a lot, a little or just right? My amp is an ARC Ref 150 tube job that uses output trannies. I would appreciate your thoughts. For some reason, I think that capacitive loads are hard to drive, requiring current. I wonder how my rig would sound with different speaker cables??

Thanks

Bruce

Al and Williwonka, I mentioned here (to be posted) and/or elsewhere that I own the Kimber 8PR speaker cables. I checked the Kimber web site for the specs. Frankly ... I feel like I just had a Space Balls or Ben Hur "deja vu" experience. [Remember the Space Balls scene where Dark Helmet and crew were on the starship and increased speed to light speed, hyper speed and then they went plaid. Or Ben Hur, the boat started out at cruising speed, then increased to battle speed, and then ramming speed.]

Ok, here's my take-a-way from the Kimber site. First we start out with the cheapy "pure copper" version -- PR; then we move up to the line to the "ultra pure copper" version -- VR; then finally we go plaid, the "hyper pure copper" version -- TC. Now ... the capacitance and total reactance specs for each version (2.5 meters) are as follows: (PR) -- 742 pF/.057 ohms; (VS) -- 744 pF/.047 ohms; and TC -- 821 pF/.044 ohms.

Please help me here gents. The minute differences in these specs are about as meaningful to me as pondering how many angels can sit on a pinhead.

Bruce

Thanks Al. In a somewhat difference context, your comment about the possible impact of speaker cables on RFI reminds me about our earlier posts that we traded about the Spatial Computers Velocity Bridge (VB1). As it turns out, it was an extremely expensive RC circuit.

For reasons still unknown to me, inserting the VB1 in the amp/speaker circuit in parallel resulted in an unpleasant brightening of the acoustic presentation, almost to the point of being grainy and fatiguing. The VB1 was supposed to filter out ultra-high frequency RFI and thereby improve the sound, ... which as just stated, at least to my sorry-old ears, it did not.

Back to the cables. I surmise that as one climbs up the Kimber ladder, with the PR grade (made of copper) being the lowest rung and the TC grade (made of hyper, super-duper, ultra pure copper) being the highest rung, the price would correlatively increase. I haven't gone down "cable lane" yet, and have no present intention of doing so. That said, if I spent a heck of a lot more for speaker cables touted as being made of hyper, ultra, super duper pure copper that resulted in no cognizable improvement in sound, I could easily see myself going "plaid" ala Space Balls.

Thanks for the reality check.

Bruce

Rodman ..., checked out the Kimber Select cables, but I didn't see the specs. Did I blink or a specs listed elsewhere on the web site?

Thanks Willie .... as Al (Almarg) has mentioned in other contexts, technical specs and stats will take one only so far. Beyond some murky point, there are just so many variables in play, you gotta go with your ears. Seems like the same holds with cables, and pretty much equipment in general.

At the risk of starting a speaker skirmish, let me briefly segue to touchy subject. I've been reading reviews, member comments and bench test reports on various speakers.

One darling of the audiophile community is the Wilson Sasha WP. It's a Stereophile 2013 Class A Recommended component -- no surprise. What I find interesting is that based on just Stereophile's bench test report, I would not have automatically jumped to that conclusion. In contrast, the Sasha has a bumpy frequency response. Consequently I might have surmised that the Sasha's acoustic presentation is significantly colored. Yet I don't recall reading any comments to that effect.

So, seguing back to cables, I get that specs and stats alone will not tell the whole tale. Problem is there are not that many B&M stores around and even less dealers who are willing to allow home trials.

Happy New Year again.

Best

Bruce

Thanks Willie .... btw, I think I mentioned that my speaker cables are the Kimber 8PRs. At this point, my power cables are stock ARC, which I understand are "good" PCs.

As a point of interest, when Stereophile reviewed my amp in 2012, the reviewer whose name escapes me switched out the stock cables for a Sain brand PC, which is the cable ARC supposedly uses when testing gear. I think Sain cables are "plaid" priced.

Until I hit the lottery, my next tweak is to improve power delivery by installing dedicated AC circuits to my system. Will probably do the AC circuit upgrade when I freshen up my basement/listening room/man-cave in early 2014.

In the meantime, I'll keep an open eye for some speaker cable inspirations that may do better than just improve my system by a subtle difference.

Thanks again,

BIF

Thanks for the Silver Resolution PC site. I'll check it out. My reference to "plaid" is explained in my 12/27/13 post just above. I don't know how old you are, but you'd have to have seen the Mel Brooks side splitter, Space Balls to get it. If you haven't caught any of his flicks, check out Young Frankenstein and Space Balls. I guarantee the next time someone tells you to "walk this way," it will never be the same for you. :) :) :) This post earns 3 happy faces.