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 7 responses by wolf_garcia

Harbeth makes very expensive speakers that vibrate like crazy...part of their design.
My g/f went to Yale with Jodie Foster...and, trust me on this, it is possible to get Jodie to vibrate.
Binding posts sould not vibrate...tighten them! Do it now! I use spades at the amp and bananas at the speaker, so any differences are cancelled out...heh heh...I do have various sorbethane based items stuck under pretty much everything but the wire (including Silverline Preludes that have Vibrapods under them...try that...it works) and that actually makes sense to me (amps and other devices vibrating less is good), where wire vibration doesn't, at least in the cable I use that has each solid wire in its own little isolation tube. What about the wire vibrating INSIDE the speaker? That has to be a horrifying nightmare of wire torture and if you imagine yourself as a tiny witness to the goings on inside a speaker box...well...it's just VERY upsetting. Wait...I need a moment to weep quietly...there...all better...The Vibrapods under the speakers keep a lot (really a lot) of sound from going into the floor which can easily be tested with your toe. Or my toe.
Audiofeil is wrong because apparently Sonic_genius hears a difference, and he's not shy about it. The Anti Banana movement is alive and well, and causing grief among Vandersteen and vintage Creek users. Personally, I live an open and welcoming life where Spades and Bananas can coexist in peace.
"Respecting claims" led to Tice Clocks and Mpingo discs. I can "hear" the difference between logic and myth most of the time, and claiming to hear a difference between spades and bananas makes you a "connectist".
The solution to vibration is to leave your system off. It lasts longer, and you're not kept up at night worried about all that damn vibration. If only all that pesky music wasn't made up of vibration...what about the wires in my 400 watt bass amp? My guitar amps...it's just too much to think about. Jodie...Jodie...
I put sorbothane Vibrapods under my speakers...now MUCH less vibration goes into the floor from the main speakers so my cables seem to just lie there peacefully while moving the electrons along. They are massaged by the subwoofer a little, and I think they like that...who wouldn't?