To REWIRE or LET BE: a speakers question

Thanks everyone! Advice well heeded & needed! On a more personal note, thank you all for responding so fast and making me *feel*, yet again, part of a community...

I'll post Gen Tech's answer to my question when I get it..
Cheers!

Greg, i saw your post over at AA. Sorry i can't help you with the Stereophile situation. For these specific speakers, i would NOT mess with them. Arnie was one of the very first people that i know of to "voice" speakers using specific wires / wire combo's. As such, you would alter the speakers in a way that would probably be a step backwards.

You might want to check and see if the wire is still in good shape or not. You can simply peel back a small section of the jacket near a connection point and see if the wire is discolored. If it is discolored, it might be time to change it. Wire does oxidize or corrode with age. In some cases, it can even become microphonic.

If you were to do something like this, i would METICULOUSLY document EVERYTHING. For example, i would number each wire, draw a schematic, note which end went where, etc... At least you could back-peddle and do it accurately if it was necessary.

As far back as the late 70's Arnie was using different gauge wires, some solid, some stranded, etc.. for various drivers and sections of the speakers. I know of NO other manufacturer at that time that did such. As such, i'm sure that he's only gone forward in design and research in his hope to make a better product. Sean
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I don't agree with the idea of "better wire" or "best wire" as used above. The best wire is the wire that sounds the best with these speakers. The only way you are going to find that wire system is to try a variety of wires. And this is a VERY expensive proposition if you are buying it by the foot and paying someone to do the work.

Since you have to view the system as a whole, how do you know that even if you find a wire that offers an improvement with your current setup, that the speakers would not sound better in their original configuration if you later update another component, say the power amp. I say stick with the speakers as they are and tweak the things that are easy to reverse or swap around.

I would contact the manufacturer rather than the dealer. Some speakers take into account the resistance of the wire and that is part of the circuit. By changing the wire you change the circuit design and could have disasterous results--or in some cases it could get much better--the point is it's unpredictable. A speaker like the Gen V most likely has taken this into account, so I would be very cautious. Certainly contact them, they can probably tell you if there are certain wires that are critical to the design, and others might benefit from using just the best possible wire available.

I posted this very question in regards to rewiring my amp a while back. I have since purchased a pair of Acoustic Energy ae2s with a Cardas rewire and found them to be wonderful. While I agree there is danger in doing what your are doing by undoing what the designer intended, there is another side of the coin in that unless your speakers are of a "cost no object" design, several factors, sound included went into parts choice. Cost, the best pricing, what was avaialable in the qantities needed are other factors, therefore, the "best" may not have been used. Im of the belief that if well known sonic type wire is used, ie Cardas, Kimber, XLO, you cant go wrong. You'll find these brands in the more expensive loudspeakers out there. Good luck.

I know someone who did it to his own speakers. He used to work in the industry. I think they were a basic two-way design, so it took not a lot of work. He said it was a night and day difference. The speakers became ultra transparent. I don't see how it could affect the timing or tuning so long as you used the same length and gauge wiring as before, just a better quality. I don't know if I could recommend it because I wouldn't do it to my own speakers, but I do believe if properly done it would sound better. Let us know what happens--and save your old wiring just in case.

I say leave them alone. On any high end speaker, you must assume that the designer spent considerable time choosing each component, including wires, to optimize the sound of the speaker as a whole. The only way you will know if changing the wiring will improve or degrade the sound is to try it. It will be an expensive experiment if it fails and you have to reverse it. Spend your money upgrading something else or go buy some recordings.