glubby, your confusion continueth. Poor baby.
Speaker wire... Diy?
I am new to this, so please bare with me. I always thought 12 gauge speaker wire, bare on each end, was best. But there is Kimber, Nord, etc, that seem to be incrementally better! Can I buy the components and put together my own $17000 speaker wires? If so, where can they be purchased, and which are good enough to be used? Which terminations are best for sound? Which wire? Length? Guage?
Showing 46 responses by geoffkait
pindac On a side note ESL 57’s were not the speaker in use on the day of the comparisons. I am myself a owner of 57’s, and like the the suggestion of investigating how to remove the attached electronics and make them function as standalone off board contained devices. As for the stripping of the Grills and the Dust covers, and then putting the 57’s or any Quad ESL into daily use,it might just be worth offering a description of what this could mean for oneself, or another person or pet, if they were to make contact with a unprotected Quad Fully Charged Stator. >>>>>>I never had any issues with naked Quads, myself. Obviously care should be taken. It’s not for everyone. By the way, how much charge is on a Fully Charged Stator? |
Quad 57s can be rather pedestrian 🚶♂️sounding in certain respects unless they are placed on stands, the heavy rattle-trap metal grills are removed and the plastic dust covers are removed. Oh, and replace the power cords and remove the entire electronics package and put it on springs. Much more open, resolved, extended and dynamic with much better low end. |
I do not mean this as any kind of personal attack but these days I’m very disinclined to accept any cable comparison results. I say this because of a whole raft of reasons including, but not limited to, cables under test are not broken in sufficiently to draw valid conclusions, the test system may very well be insufficiently resolving for the task (or have errors), the mere removing of a cable disrupts the delicate electrical-mechanical interface of the connector which takes many hours to reestablish itself, there is no consideration of cryogenics, there is no consideration of cable directionality and - finally - I’m not sure i agree that CD is the proper format for cable evaluations given the rather generic sound quality, crappy SNR, resolution and poor dynamic range of the format, generally speaking. |
Trying to straighten out audiophiles is like trying to herd cats. That’s why these cable threads have been going on for forty years with pretty much the same results. I reckon if networks was the answer every cable manufacturer and his brother would be using networks. Audiophiles tend to have very strong preconceived notions of wires and cables. Even the OP has a few. |
The electrons are simply the charge carriers. And they are virtually not moving. They are not the music and they are not the signal. Oh, did I just give you the answer? Ps I’m going out on a limb here saying you probably don’t remember a single thing from your textbooks. You have one more guess. Better make it a good one. |
Does anyone have a theory why - all things being equal - cables with white jackets sound better than cables with jackets that are black or another color? Just curious. You can actually test this theory by wrapping your existing cable or power cord with white tape. Check it out. No, I’m not hot dogging you. 🌭 |
Don’t be a negative Nellie with silver. it depends on where in the system it's used, the purity.,gauge ,how long the break in period is, and whether it's been cryogenically treated. In fact two cryo treatments are preferred for silver. so, yes, sometimes silver is superior to coper, especially in transparency, dynamics, resolution. |
sleepwalker A lot of people misunderstand where the concept of cable directionality originated. It was with balanced cables in pro audio and broadcast applications. You see, the concept is all about preventing ground loops in shielding whilst maintaining effective protection from interference. A true shield can only be connected to one ground point else it be rendered ineffective by conducting current due to a ground loop. Cable directionality was always given as the direction of signal chain flow, from source to destination, with the source being the defacto ground for shield. >>>>I’m not terribly surprised people don’t know what “controlled for directionality” means. When I use the term I am referring to unshielded cables, you know, like Anti Cables, which are obviously unshielded, and many other cables. Shielded cables are also controlled for directionality in many cases. Follow? But you’re right, a lot of people misunderstand where the concept of directionality originated. 🤗 |
uberwaltz5,837 posts05-05-2019 11:07pmDave_b i May have missed it but what make of transparent cable are you using? >>>>>My vote for funniest question of the week. Of course the week is still young. |
dave_b GK has a bit of a point, of course many of the cables I’ve used are directional. But not any of the stranded ones, yes? |
I think you probably mean insulation, not shielding. But, you’re right, there are many variables involved, thus making it rather difficult to prove solid core vs stranded. Purity of metal, type of metal, type of dielectric material, break in, shielded vs non shielded, directionality, geometry, cryogenically treated or not, etc. It’s what I chose to believe. - Dr. Elizabeth. Shaw in Prometheus |
dave_b Anthropology, Biology, Chemistry and Life Sciences are my strong suit. Writing with an emphasis on grammar, rather than content, was never an obsession of mine. Recently, I’ve delved into Cosmology and Quantum Mechanics. Still looking for your breakthrough results to be published on the seminal work you’ve done regarding Entanglement and its application to remote audio diagnostics and restoration! >>>>>Why on Earth would I submit anything to a science community caught up in its own hubris and backwards thinking? Geez, the Chinese are way ahead of the US in quantum teleportation. Wake up and smell the coffee! ☕️ Keep dabbling, though, that seems to be your strong suit. |
dave_b Careful GK...there is also a lot of well educated imbeciles babbling in institutions. Just because there are a few still lurking about who haven’t been committed yet doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be 😉 It would have been correct to say, “there are also a lot of well educated imbeciles babbling in institutions.” |
Well, shut my mouth and call me corn pone, it finally happened! Someone didn’t like Goertz cables. It was bound to happen soon or later. Whatever it is, eventually somebody out there will report he didn’t like it. It could be speakers, it could be cables, it could be fuses. It could be the alien. But it’s going to happen. 😛 The expression I’ve got 40 years of experience is almost always a tip off. 🙄 |