Speaker cables

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Latteman
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Speaker cables

Unread post by Latteman »

As a diy fan (meddler) I often try to make IC, usb or speaker cables for a non Nva system I occasionally use. I have a couple of questions to ponder
1- why do you have to have the negative run the same cable as the positive run
2- what relays bass better- a thick copper cable or a thin silver alloy cable
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Daniel Quinn
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Re: Speaker cables

Unread post by Daniel Quinn »

I have nothing to offer but personal taste , I prefer thickish copper for speaker cable . Supra deos the business.

Building my own TT, Amps and speakers , I laugh at the attention I used to give interconnects .

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Lindsayt
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Re: Speaker cables

Unread post by Lindsayt »

My understanding is that

1. You don't. Use any cable you want for the +ve and -ve. The shotgun type arrangement that most cables come in seem to be for marketing / convenience / fewer separate cables as trip hazards. Richard used to say that having the cables equidistant along the whole length increased capacitance. I don't know how significant an effect this is for any given cable.
About 15 years ago, on a now defunct hi-fi forum, Rob (Audio Smile) did a thread where he had 3 interconnect cables and posted some blind recordings of each cable. The cable that was voted as (joint?) best was made from an old screw, paper-clips, chocolate bar wrapper etc.
Maybe it's time for someone to do something simlar with speaker cables? Should be good for a laugh.

2 Low capacitance cable would - according to surface logic - avoid cutting out bass due to capacitance. And then you don't want too high an impedance if you have a system that relies on electrical damping from the amplifier in order to get suitably damped woofers.

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Re: Speaker cables

Unread post by Geoff.R.G »

Latteman wrote: Fri May 26, 2023 7:21 pm As a diy fan (meddler) I often try to make IC, usb or speaker cables for a non Nva system I occasionally use. I have a couple of questions to ponder
1- why do you have to have the negative run the same cable as the positive run
2- what relays bass better- a thick copper cable or a thin silver alloy cable
Cheers
I am not sure 7:00 on a Saturday morning is the ideal time to try to answer this but I’ll have a go.
1, The terms “positive” and “negative” are misleading, the signal is alternating current, in some designs the “negative” terminal on the amplifier is at ground potential but this isn’t universal. Since the signal goes both ways in each leg of the cable, why wouldn’t you want them both to be the same?
The reason for identifying the terminals black and red is historical but differentiation is necessary to maintain the phase relationship between channels.

2. The more difficult question. Firstly consider this, a speaker is a current driven device so the cable connecting speaker and amplifier needs to be of sufficient thickness to keep resistance down. Too much resistance and you are losing energy that should be driving the speaker to heat. Thus a thin cable will have a higher resistance than a thicker one of the same material. Unfortunately your question doesn’t provide sufficient detail about the cables you are considering. Personally I’d go for a thick silver cable if money were no object.
Which of the two relays bass better? The one that does least to the signal.

It would be nice to say that a good thick copper cable is all you need but it isn’t that simple. You need two wires for each channel, two wires in proximity to each other represent a capacitor. Capacitance affects different frequencies in different ways so the capacitance of your speaker cable matters. It matters even more in minimalist designs like Richard’s because the amplifier is designed to include the speaker cable. One of the factors determining capacitance is surface area (actual the area over which two conductors interface) twisted twin cables being more capacitive.

To complicate matters you will note that I used resistance not impedance. The reason being that, for a single wire we can consider them to be the same thing, for losses that is good enough. When we bring in a second conductor in an alternating current system we have to consider impedance because there’s a reactive element, the capacitance of the cable run. Most amplifiers aren’t troubled by the impedance of speaker cables, NVA ones need more care.

I haven’t actually answered the question have I? That’s because there are too many variables and the questions too general coupled with a Saturday morning reluctance to get into the mathematics. So, in true subjectivist style I’ll end by saying “suck it and see”.

DaveyTed
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Re: Speaker cables

Unread post by DaveyTed »

For me one of the benefits of an NVA system is I no longer waste time, and ultimately money, considering or trying different speaker cables. More so now suitable cables are included with power amps.
These users thanked the author DaveyTed for the post (total 2):
slinger (Mon May 29, 2023 10:15 pm) • TheRealAleman (Tue May 30, 2023 3:22 pm)

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