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Some speaker cables produce lower/higher volume?

I recently auditioned two speaker cables: Audio Art SC5, and Clear Day single silver cable. The Clear Day required a higher volume level on my pre-amp than the Audio Art. Are some speaker cables, LIKE SPEAKERS, rated at higher or lower efficiency which determines volume levels??
sunnyjim
ozzy's avatar
ozzy
7,222 posts
 
I tried the Clear Day cables. They sound great but are made out of some very small gauge wire.
Gauge does matter.
bpwalsh
1,197 posts
 
No, but odd order harmonic distortion is perceived by the ear as a loudness cue. The amounts of distortion at higher orders may be very small but you will readily hear it. "Turn that down" can often mean turn down the distortion.
mingles
791 posts
 
You should use an SPL meter to measure the difference. Please report back.
jp1208
502 posts
 
Did you pull out the db meter?
chrisr's avatar
chrisr
542 posts
 
yes, due to what counts the most: gauge. A good experiment is comparing canare 4s11 against canare 4s6 for example... same wire, different gauge.
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