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The truth about speaker wires

Last post 12-15-2006, 9:49 AM by James Lemoine II. 5 replies.
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  •  12-11-2006, 9:14 PM 3706

    The truth about speaker wires

    Hi everyone,

    This is my first post after receiving my awesome 633-T, the 534 dipoles, the 10inch woofer, the 634( still waiting to be shipped) center and the 422 rear speaker..i was estatic when they all arrived safe and sound.

    The first thing i pulled out was my old JBL HTIB speakers and found out that i can only throw them about 20 foot in the air before they came down crashing...

    Then i started to plug the 633-T in and it was as if god put an extra pair of ears on my head b/c now i can hear things i didnt hear before.

    Anyway needless to say i started looking at ways to improve (if at all possible) on the sound by investigating into some speaker wires. I read some forum posts here that the Monster XPHP is pretty darn good but i wanted to understand the guaging mesurements as well as the science behind speaker wires...I was all hyped up to click buy for my 100foot monster cable xphp wires then i came accross this site...

    http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm

     

    It is an extremely interesting read...I ended up buying the monster anyway...why? Because I can ..and I already convince the wife that its a must have item...I just thought i'd post it here so people that are more $$ sensitive may want to reconsider on forking out $$ for speaker wire...

    One more tip on how to handle the wife..." ITS EASIER TO ASK FOR FORGIVENESS THAN PERMISSION" ... works for me everytime...

    ciao.

    tristan.

    Aperion 6.1 system

    Harman Kardaon AV525

    Media Center 2005

    XBOX 360.

    1 unhappy wife.

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  •  12-12-2006, 9:33 AM 3707 in reply to 3706

    RE: The truth about speaker wires

    Ahhh... the endless debate about wiring.

    First, I think the article is only accurate when it talks about wire resistance... and even he claims it can make a difference in sound.

    What he does not talk about is a real world application. What does it look like behind your entertainment center?  Is it nice perfectly laid out cables? Power cables separated from speaker wires and interconnects? No loops or lines crossing over each other? Most of mine is all wadded together in a semi-coherant rats nest... from what I understand there can be a lot of radio and electromagnetic frequency disturbances... which can effect the signal running through cables. Some wire manufactures claim to address this, whether they do or not is another story... but that does not mean that fancy speaker wires a waste.

    The "listening tests" in that article are what kill me. Hooking up a couple of different types of wire and using a swtich box to jump between them to see if you can hear a difference is hardly a critical listening test. Anyone who sits and truely LISTENS to their music and become intimately familiar with nuances will be qualified for this sort of test. Any differences heard will be minor, it could be a tad bit more clarity in some background instrument, maybe a lower noise floor, or a little less harshness in a symbol. For an audiophile, those minor differences are very exciting and can change the song entirely. The average joe-blow would not be able to tell a difference.... an audiophile may not be able to hear a difference if they are not familiar with the song... but they are differences none the less.  Does that make a $20 per foot speaker wire worth it? Depends on how much you like your music.

    So, the article picks on Monster... which may be throwing fuel onto the "all wires are the same" crowd. I don't consider Monster to be audiophile grade, just really expensive, but "ok", wiring. Their in-store demonstrations, as described in the article, do not help matters any. 

    There is mention of a challenge of sorts in the article. Cash moeny for anyone to be able to get through a blind cable test.  They make it sound like an audio expert should be able to sit down in a "controlled" test and pick out which cables are which.  I don't know what the mean by controlled... but if it means the listener gets to pick the equipment, music, and get a month of listening with a "base" set of speaker wires... I'll bet I can pick which cables are better than others with only an hour of listening on each cable brand (without knowing the brands of course). In the end better may not be the most expensive, but the point is hearing the difference.

    Whew... that is my 2 cents.  

     

  •  12-12-2006, 12:57 PM 3708 in reply to 3706

    RE: The truth about speaker wires

    My personal belief is that in normal speaker run distances, you will never be able to hear a difference between cables of the same gauge.  Wire gauge could certainly make a difference if you were running 18 AWG wire for home audio distribution, IE 200' you surely would notice a degradation of bass definition.

    But, it would be fun to test the theory, but, you would need some type of comparator to allow instantaneous switching and level setting for each set of test wires.  A 2dB fluctuation in level would certainly skew your perception of what wire sounded better.

     

     

  •  12-15-2006, 6:56 AM 3709 in reply to 3706

    RE: The truth about speaker wires

    I agree it would be fun to test.  I'm not sure a device that does instantaneous switching would be needed. If the listener is "intimate" with the music, it would not matter if changing the cables took 15 minutes. The ability to swtich back and forth quickly would be benefical for those folks that are not familiar with the music... but I think the differences would be suttle enough to where those folks would not hear a difference anyway (assuming there is a difference).

    Even though I am a believer in high-end cables, I do not have high-end cables in my system and am happy with the sound. However, I plan on doing some upgrades in this department over time.

    -James

  •  12-15-2006, 8:39 AM 3710 in reply to 3706

    RE: The truth about speaker wires

    Hi Everyone,

    great comments. Well my calble arrived and i plugged it in...inserted my Diana Krall and turned on my favourite song. I current have the thin probably 18 or 24 guage cable and then i switched it over to the 12 guage cable i have and I really do think it makes a difference. The sounds appears clearer and the volume doesn't need to be as high to get the same output.

    I will use the SPL meter that came with teh speakers and test it between the two wires to see if its all psychological or there is a real difference and report back here for everyone.

     

    still waiting for my center speaker to arrive..sigh...

     

    tristan.

  •  12-15-2006, 9:49 AM 3711 in reply to 3706

    RE: The truth about speaker wires

    Tristan, the differences you hear are probably not psychological. The only thing we all agree on here is that wire gauge does make a difference. If you had 18-24 awg before, your 12 will sound different.

    Waiting for those new speakers is hard... hang in there!

    -James

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