Speaker cable vibration?


After trial and error, I discovered that a certain 'edginess' and lack of coherence I was hearing from my speakers was due in part to the physical vibration of the speaker cable and connectors. As music was playing, I felt the connectors where they connected to the binding posts, and they had significant vibration, in direct relation to what the drivers were doing. Also, to a lesser degree but in the same vein, the speaker cable itself was also vibrating.

I then tried damping the the cable and connectors with very DIY items from Home Depot -- pipe insulation and felt washers for sinks. The result was a much tighter, smoother more natural and direct sound.

I am in the middle just now of receiving different speakers after selling off the ones I was using. I have wondered if poor binding post insulation was the culprit, and will find out more definitively once I try the new speakers and see if vibrating binding posts are still an issue.

I bring this up, because:
1) The issue seems significant in its affect on the sound
2) I haven't read/heard much about this before (I would think any significant source of vibration would have been jumped on by the tweak companies by now)
3) Why haven't speaker cable companies addressed this
4) Curious to hear from others

The sound has been improved, but looks-wise, I've got speaker cable wrapped in pipe insulation. Not very WAF to say the least. I do know of one company -- Acoustic Revive -- that I think has some sort of insulation in their connectors. FYI my speaker cables are thick Synergistic Research with WBT 0645 banana connectors.
tholt

Showing 8 responses by tholt

Capt369 - spades vs bananas, is your comment directly related to the vibration issue or just in general? I am not debating your feedback, but would like to hear if spades have been said to ameliorate vibration over bananas
11-30-11: Highend4me
Go see a doctor seriously. Read your post again, obsessed with your equipment rather than just listening and enjoying music.
Highend4me (Answers | This Thread)

Posted to an audiophile forum in a site that sells nothing but audio equipment, your "obsessed with equipment" comment is curious, Mr "Highend4me". Further, I think it's you who need reread my post, in particular the part where I write "The issue seems significant in its affect on the sound," and tell me how that's not related to enjoying music. But thanks for the advice. I was hoping someone with real enlightenment would finally chime in.
I would like to add that the new speakers I use now do exhibit vibration from the binding posts and through the connectors and speaker cable. Have not experimented with any damping, but my experience tells me that binding post vibration, and by extension the speaker cable itself, is common?

Since vibration is generally considered 'bad' in any component, I'm curious why this hasn't been discussed/addressed more.

Maybe I do need to see a doctor
Damn! I originally posted this as legitimate food for thought, but I should have been wearing my Sarcasm-deflecting bathrobe in hindsight. I usually have to don it whenever I call my mortgage broker, but you guys caught me off guard. Alrighty then, I'll go back to my vibrations and try to make peace with them. Who knows, maybe we'll end up baking cookies together. Thanks for keeping it real.
Rok2id - to address your specific post, I wasn't referring to speaker cones vibrating (wait, those are SUPPOSED to vibrate???), but the binding posts and the cables connected to them. Never mind.