Helix site smells of Chinese knock off stuff...weird vibe 🤔
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?
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Have you tried them? obviously not@williewonka It's entirely possible that the Helix cable could make someone prefer their sound. I just can't imagine what the system sounds like sans 5mH in the -ve lead. Some eat MickieD's. No accounting for taste. |
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. |
Just as an example I have found silver to be bright and exaggerate the highs and lose some of the lower end. Solid core copper was too bass heavy and muddied. Tinned copper strands worked fine. However that’s my system to my ears. A lot is going to depend on your system and if you feel that right now it is already bright and needs taming or is it dull and needs life? Only your ears will know in the end. |
OP I whole heartedly encourage you to try making your own cables after you have decided which direction to pursue. It will certainly cost a lot less and be educational in the extreme. But yes a lot of choices to narrow down first and as per usual ask 10 audiophools and you will get 11 different answers... Good luck ! |
WowWee! So DIY cables, people either love them or hate them. Seems like there is absolutely no in between. I myself am a do-it-yourselfer, actually a guitar maker. I'm completely confident that I could put together speaker wire as well as any industry leader. I'm just completely unaware of the materials and theories behind it. Helix cables sound like a good idea. Silver, correct terminals, silver solder, this is all new to me. But I still cannot see paying anywhere near 10 grand for speaker wire... |
Over the years I’ve had commercial speaker cables to $15K and several DIY recipes. My favorite is a DIY of stacked, soft-annealed .999 silver foils and solid silver spades. Termination is solderless with compression fittings and all internal mating surfaces treated with Total Contact graphene paste. The cable is shielded with grounded, tinned-copper braid. It entails numerous twists of teflon and pulls through silk and is tedious to build. There is around 1.5 lbs. of silver in it, totaling around $1K at commodity prices. A build with large gauge precious metals is likely prohibitive for a commercial cable at less than $15K MSRP. BTW, distributor and dealer margins on commercial cables are the highest in audio. |
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. |
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. Fast forward to unbalanced cabling used in consumer audio, we find fake shielding is the status quo. The cable aftermarket came up with the absurd notion that the signal-bearing shield could be used as the ground anchor point for another superfluous shield. Utter nonsense I say. Take a good quality Belden 1696 shielded twisted pair cable and use the twisted pair for the signal bearing conductors, and the shield, grounded at one end only (often the preamp chassis), as the true shield without compromising the signal bearing conductors. |
Not to worry geoff, just follow the yellow bouncing ball, such a beautiful song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyyRi3l7E_k |
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 |