Nordost Freya 2
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I read that Magnepans love power and got the idea that ‘bigger might be better’, so I got 8AWG cables, 10ft each, as an experiment. They’re 100% OCC copper with a 400-something strands with a micro-coating of silver. I had already been using 10 gauge OCC copper, so I didn’t expect much, but they sounded noticeably better, and sound fine on all of my other speakers. I’ve read that some amplifiers expect a certain resistance load and that over-doing it with the cable-gauge can cause problems, but have no issues with a Nakamchi PA-5. Of course, these aren’t name-brand big-money cables, but I did pay attention to the quality of the metal. |
@jtcf Dave at Zenwave does indeed make some amazing cables. One of these days I need to try his speaker cables in my system. I am super impressed with his ic's and his pc's. |
I realize that there are Far better (and much more expensive) cables than I have made or use, but I must brag about the Cat5e cables made of 27 pairs braided together. There has been much commenting on these through the years bother positive and negative. The resistance is Extremely low and when I first plugged them in on my system I had left the volume at a comfortable level and just turned to power off. When the power was reapplied I noticed AT LEAST a 3db if not much more volume increase (not power but volume). When testing the Inductance when measured these roughly 10ga cables to have an inductance that is almost immeasurable on a quality device. The Capacitance is slightly above what is considered normal but not nearly as much as some of the most expensive braided cables currently on the market. Braiding has become a norm in our current world and though NOT 27 pares braided together there is precedence for the tech. I did replace e those after about 10 years of enjoyment and settled on Cardas 101s. These are a very well respected speaker wire and very inexpensive for the quality. There is a store somewhere in or around Chicago that sells Cardas 101 by the foot. If you are not trying to integrate $100k worth of stereo equipment I would strongly recommend these simple cables. Cardas has some of the BEST copper in the industry and these are designed on very basic and knowledgeable standards. |
Sadly, John, Vishay VAR can dissipate a maximum of 0.4W of heat. A speaker resistor is often rated at 10 W or more. So Vishay VAR could only work in a large and expensive array, and then you would still need another conductor. As for obtaining the required resistance, try a multimeter? Always at least three figures of accuracy. That’s 0.1%. Most OEM resistors are 5% at best. Yes, they use nichrome wire in toasters, and in space heaters. And in aerospace. So what? And didn't you ever wonder how a resistor works - by dissipating electrical energy as heat? |
@terry9 "The best resistors, like Vishay VAR, consist primarily of a metal resistive component which is laser trimmed to provide a channel with the specified resistance". I'd prefer that to jury-rigging some pieces of nichrome trying to get the correct resistance. I stand by my statement that there will be little or no improvement, and the loss of a 5 year warranty is a significant cost to pay for nothing. By the way, they use nichrome wire in toasters because of the way it heats up when current is applied. Maybe I can toast my english muffins over your speaker wire. |
Another vote for Audience AU24SX. Oh, and a shout out to @jl1ny – my second favorite were Virtual Dynamics David that I used many years ago! |
@gjrad i also own and love Kubala Sosna. They just gave me the least amount of problems especially if every cable was Kubala Sosna from speaker cables to interconnect to power cable. |
@jhnnrrs Well John, you’re not wholly wrong, I’ll give you that. Void the warrantee, true. The rest, not so much. You have heard of wire wound resistors, perhaps? That’s "hokey nichrome wire", or some variant thereof. Guess you’d better tell Mills about your discovery. Thank goodness someone is too smart to fall for such "pretty bogus advice." The best resistors, like Vishay VAR, consist primarily of a metal resistive component which is laser trimmed to provide a channel with the specified resistance. Any guesses as to which metal they use?
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@terry9 That's some pretty bogus advice there. Do you have a clue what you're talking about? If you want to replace a resistor, do it with a quality component, not some hokey nichrome wire. Either way, you're sure to 1) make no notable improvement and 2) void your warranty.. |
