Speaker wire/cables opinion


I have some decent speaker cables in my system running from my McIntosh MC601 mono blocks, and audio space EL34 tube amps to my speakers. But I started to think, should I spend more for speaker cables when I don't really know the quality of the cables that goes from the speaker terminals to the speakers? For all I know they might be lamp cords connecting the speakers. I have never seen it anywhere, where the speaker manufacturer disclosure what type of wire they use. Can you imagine paying over $2K on speaker cable to find out they are connected to lamp cords that wire the speakers? I wish we could buy our own wires to connect the speakers internally (am I on to something here?). This would ensure consistency in the speaker chain. Probably that's why people and reviewers (not people=cats and pooches) say cables sound so differently. The internal speaker wires could be the "weak link". I am inspecting my speaker to see if I can get to the internal wires. What are your thoughts?
almandog

Showing 1 response by zd542

"I wish we could buy our own wires to connect the speakers internally (am I on to something here?). This would ensure consistency in the speaker chain. Probably that's why people and reviewers (not people=cats and pooches) say cables sound so differently. The internal speaker wires could be the "weak link". I am inspecting my speaker to see if I can get to the internal wires. What are your thoughts?"

First, its not too hard to find out what kind of wire a speaker manufacturer uses. I know my Vandersteen's use AQ. Second, the brand of internal wire used in the speaker has absolutely nothing to do what you should be using externally. Speakers are designed as an enclosed unit. For example, a designer may have needed to use a certain cable going from the xover to the tweeter in order to get best results. If you were to remove that cable and put something else in place, just because you have the same brand speaker cables, you could easily make it sound worse. Also, following that logic would mean that you would need to do the same thing with other components, like your amp. What if your amp uses Cardas internal speaker cables to the binding posts, and your speakers have Kimber? What do you buy then?

This same argument comes up all the time with power cords. The argument is why do you need expensive PC's if they didn't use them in the recording studio. The answer, of course, is the same as what we have here. Its a completely different application.