Speaker Hook-up Wire

[Grainger49]

I know who Bevis and Butthead are, I don't know which is which, so I can't give a knowledgeable opinion.  Does Eric's avatar help?  Greg's is still a mystery to me.  I know it is a crow, nothing more.   Does that sound close enough to "nevermore"?)

[4krow]

"Shut UP Beavis" Uh,,heh-heh-heh

[richardl]

I can recommend Cardas(difficult to work with but, sounds great) and Kimber 4TC  as two very good choices.  They sound great and are very clear.  Others often are just too bright.   Pick your poison! 

[earwaxxer]

I have to admit, I'm a bit intimidated by wire! It think because its an intangible. Its a bit like religion, or quantum mechanics.

I read a fair amount of reviews about 'high end' wire, and I'm usually a bit overwhelmed. It appears that there is some very 'worthwhile' super expensive stuff out there. I would probably never part with that kind of cash for wire, but there are many who do. I, of course, like any red-blooded audiophile want a piece of the action. I think I have accumulated enough 'data' in my head to have a general idea about what brands tend to have a very high reputation for 'value' and 'quality'. I still dont trust myself enough to part with the 'real' cash that is required to get into the rarefied air of ultra high end cabling. My town (Tucson) doesnt have the dealer support for loaners. Probably just as well..

Maybe when I'm retired, and if I have any hearing left, I will go off the deep end and play around with various alloys and test for sound quality. Just like the guys from Metrum Audio. They tested DAC chips ad nausium until they found one that sounded good.

[Grainger49]

Eric,

Don't wait for retirement the pay sucks.

[Paully]

Well, I already picked two cups, the 16 gauge cotton insulated wire and the 13 gauge stranded wire (Madisound if memory serves, getting old when you are struggling to remember what you just bought).  So that stuff is bought, here, and ready for use.  The plan, at the moment, is to use the 13 gauge PVC jacket in the speakers and the cotton in the crossovers and then maybe swap out some wire in the amp.  But I may use the cotton in the speakers as well if it looks like I have enough.  I don't know, guess we'll see what I do when I get there.

[earwaxxer]

Granger - you got a point there!

[corndog71]

I use a 16AWG solid core copper wire with polyethylene insulation which I get from Danny Richie of GR Research.  It's cheap, easy to strip, bend, shape and as far as I can tell sounds good.

Looks like this:

(https://forum.bottlehead.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi576.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fss207%2Fcorndog642%2Fx-ls%2520upgrades%2FIMG_2157.jpg&hash=a14f434361e427fc26000a0c91de6c2a639945a2)

[howardnair]

http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm#introduction
i am not trying to start a row-i use somewhat expensive hookup wire but regular speaker wire-from radio shack-
for me the jury is still out on wire-but roger russell is/was one of the forces behind mcintosh-he has humor and pragmatism
http://www.roger-russell.com/truth/truth.htm
another fun read
love and kisses--howie

[4krow]

Eric, I suggest barbed wire for your rig

[John Roman]

The question remains, are you brothers?
John

[Doc B.]

Some funny stuff in that article. But then Russell seems to become the guy he makes fun of. How come when guys say "all amplifiers sound the same" they never mention the speakers used or the room treatment? Then he says, "well I can hear differences but it's entirely the digital filter that sounds different, not my amp". So one piece of audio gear can sound different from model to model but not another.

I'm pretty sure I could come up with a speaker and room so incoherent that every amp would sound identical through it. Can't hear the difference between an amp with a damping factor of 10 and one with a damping factor of 1000? Really? Then why have we tuned the Q of our speakers for a low damping factor amp and not only heard but measured an extra half octave of bass extension with a low damping factor amp connected to it? PJ can show you the math behind it.

There are no doubt a lot of things that we fool ourselves into hearing, and I may have started some of the fantasies myself. But some of this stuff is pretty straightforward if you understand the physics behind it and what to listen for.

[4krow]

There you go man, we do fool ourselves into believing, regardless of facts(that either matter or not).  What sounds right to us, sounds right JUST to us sometimes. There is no shame in that. Working here,the local college, I often get into discussions with the students about what sounds good to them. Yah, I can't believe what I am hearing sometimes, but then remember what I thought was so great at that time in my life.
 I believe wire, caps and all the rest have an effect, but cannot eclipse the room we listen in or the ears we have to work with.

[Grainger49]

   .  .  .   I'm pretty sure I could come up with a speaker and room so incoherent that every amp would sound identical through it.  .  .  .   

That would be Julian Hirsch's lab.

[earwaxxer]

Hey Greg (bro) I can dig where your coming from, but I think there is (are) reasons for why we think (feel) that we like sound 'A' over sound 'B'. I do believe they can be isolated and bottled. Nobody likes pain when they listen (harshness, hard dynamics), and nobody likes mud (distortion, jitter, blurring of notes, etc.). Digital has much of the above if not done right. Analog tends to not have as much of those unless the amplification path is not right. Both conditions are common in audio playback. I believe that good sound to Joe Blow is good sound to Joe Goldenear. The big question is: how to get it, and how much does it cost.

With the huge generalities aside, there are a huge number of variables in the path from 'A' to 'B'. Ok so where am I going with this...Oh, ok, so we have the audiophile axiom 'everything makes a difference'. I didnt coin that phrase. I do believe it though. Now for example, if barbed wire sounds 'good' then it sounds good. I'm not sure it does. I dont know if anyone has ever listened to it. It seems that it would not sound good, but you dont know. Until someone tries it.

Thats were crazy people (like you and I - lets be honest), come in. Look I'm from upstate NY. Right there I have the credentials for being an audio 'eccentric'. Thats the kind of person(s) that wonder what CAN be. Anyway, let know what you know about the barbed wire thing...

Yours - Eric