Why Do Cables Matter?


To me, all you need is low L, C, and R. I run Mogami W3104 bi-wire from my McIntosh MAC7200 to my Martin Logan Theos. We all know that a chain is only as strong as its' weakest link - so I am honestly confused by all this cable discussion. 

What kind of wiring goes from the transistor or tube to the amplifier speaker binding post inside the amplifier? It is usually plain old 16 ga or 14 ga copper. Then we are supposed to install 5 - 10' or so of wallet-emptying, pipe-sized pure CU or AG with "special configurations" to the speaker terminals?

What kind of wiring is inside the speaker from the terminals to the crossover, and from the crossover to the drivers? Usually plain old 16 ga or 14 ga copper.

So you have "weak links" inside the amplifier, and inside the speaker, so why bother with mega expensive cabling between the two? It doesn't make logical sense to me. It makes more sense to match the quality of your speaker wires with the existing wires in the signal path [inside the amplifier and inside the speaker].

 

 

kinarow1

Showing 6 responses by jl35

My bias is to prefer Mogami because it's so inexpensive, but unfortunately other cables sound much better...when I had Dali MS5 speakers I bought a set of their speaker cables that were identical to the internal wiring but did not prefer them...and who spends big money on cables that are not returnable ???

 

I certainly have tried cables that made my system sound worse...but I just returned them, no reason to try to convince myself that I liked them - some were more expensive, some less...

if you don't like them return them, nothing complicated here...try something else or not...

why should someone not evaluate nose bleed cables for an ultra nosebleed system ??

yes, probably many speakers would sound better if they used better internal wire... some speaker companies like Dali does that on their higher end speakers...and offer that cable to their customers only...

most of us are too old to clearly see our cables from the listening chair...a friend connected my cables, so I never actually touched them...