Morrow SP3 Review (Speaker Cable)

[Lambda]

As mentioned above, the impedances at the two ends of the cable is not the same as an amp and speaker. So I created a new test:

Thanks for this test!

 

[Louie]

You believe wrong. Nothing in music is discontinuous and has high bandwidth like their test signal. I too can show difference if I tried to test speaker wire for RF signals. That doesn't mean anything for audio.

They are testing with audio and not RF signals. It seems what they are dong is equivalent to square ware tests for quick check for response uniformity. I agree an instrument does not generate a discontinuous signal. However, when multiple cymbals or strings are struck repeatedly, is not the attack introducing sharp transition on to or terminating a decaying oscillation? Maybe any post transition ringing are blurring lower level resonance signals and making it less clear ?

 

[NTK]

The article covers how I believe audio cables should be tested/measured. It is focussed on transitional response verses steady sinewave.
https://www.stereophile.com/content/what-difference-wire-makes

Please see posts:
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...er-wire-measurements.14263/page-4#post-448836
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...er-wire-measurements.14263/page-4#post-449386

 

[TimF]

All those years it was all in my head, my imagination. With a little advertising I fell into believing. Even now I cannot clear my mind of the belief of that poisonous misinformation. Do you see the potency of misinformation? This might give you insight into how casting spells on someone, and putting a curse on someone, poisons their beliefs. Rationality and accurate observation are practically impossible. We (men) are so programmed into performance and achieving better performance.

 

[itsikhefez]

The key takeaway for me is that these cables don't perform WORSE because of some gimmick they may be pushing.
I personally don't use them (and would never purchase them) but given their price, I think it is far from a broken panther (since it does what its supposed to) or snake-oil/rip off.

Anyone with a decent system would want to use decent cable that is of the correct length, easy to route and has solid connections, which are important as the termination can introduce distortion, as demonstrated by Benchmark with SpeakOn vs. traditional banana plugs on the AHB2.

I personally either DIY or buy from BJC. A pair of 8ft 12AWG Belden wires terminated with Banana Plugs costs $85, so not dirt cheap either.

 

[pma]

The test as was described and posted makes absolutely no sense with regards how to test a speaker cable.

 

[Harmonie]

Thank you, Mr. Amirm. I respect Mr. Amirm.

AP alone is not sufficient to determine passive electronic components measurements.
It cannot be concluded that there is no measurement difference.
Because it may be below the AP measurement limit.
Need to add it or use a measuring instrument such as Danbridge (Radiometer).

However, it is concluded that the difference could not be measured with AP this time.

Another means is needed to conclude the ear difference.

You are soo right.
I mean, what's the meaning to buy a 25.000$$$ AP, when all you need are just ... your ears ???
No, really just your ears are all you need!


Additionally with you ears you can describe with so many floral terms which are the beauty in every language, while with an AP, all you can do is what, give a precise graduation.
With above you can prove that a passive component like a fuse and any other bare wire will make an obvious difference, justifying a multi $ market with the addition of just a little bit of marketing behind and let so many other fools empty their pockets for their beliefs.

Me?
I'm just too happy I got here and let others spend their $$$ on snake oil and other esoteric ideas.

 

[Frgirard]

The test as was described and posted makes absolutely no sense with regards how to test a speaker cable.

You right. The temperature must be near 0°K or - 459 °F.

 

[Deleted member 12642]

Wut? Perhaps this guy has an explanation...

You can tell from the recording that the room he is in sounds like total ass.



edit- Oh shit nevermind, he's obviously being green screened into that room. Was hard to tell at first with all the compression on the video.

 

[stunta]

This is actually not bad, in relative terms, at this price in the "audiophile" industry. Many others sell them at thousands of dollars with network boxes and such. The claims of lower distortion (I believe this is what earned this cable a headless panther) and your usual "wider soundstage", "improved imaging" etc. are traditional marketing-speak that ends up on all these cables.

I must admit, these "high-end" cables do look nice. I would be willing to pay a bit of premium for the looks, if they were exposed in a living room setting for instance.

 

[Bruce Morgen]

The key takeaway for me is that these cables don't perform WORSE because of some gimmick they may be pushing.
I personally don't use them (and would never purchase them) but given their price, I think it is far from a broken panther (since it does what its supposed to) or snake-oil/rip off.

Surely they're "supposed to" provide audibly better performance than Amir's old zip cord. The measurements demonstrate that they're clearly incapable of any such thing.

 

[Herbert]

I am glad that Amir did not show the generic cable. Amir, I advise to glue a golden sticker on it (ScienceCable or something),
show the measurements and declare, it sounds so good because the copper could rearrange over time, undisturbed by electrons.
Charge 1500$ for it.

 

[HoweSound]

I satisfied my desire for magic speaker cables by torturing my fingers instead of my wallet. Following a recipe on some forgotten web-site, I made a set of speaker wires by dissecting lengths of cat-5 cable and braiding 27 or so wire pairs together. I covered the fat braids in a nice sheath and terminated everything neatly with shrink tube and spade connectors. Total outlay, prob.$15 and some blisters. No idea how they would measure, but they look nicer than lamp cord and after more than a decade of use they are definitely broken-in. I should probably reverse them about now to re-invigorate the weary electrons.

 

[the_brunx]

If snake oil cables (ironically, most look like actual exotic snakes) really made the claimed difference over a standard generic cable. Why isn’t apple, Sony and all the big companies (who would have more to lose than to gain from such false claims). Why are they not the leaders in that field?. It’s always some homemade despiCABLE company no one aside from audiophiles knows of. With usually a guy claiming claims which would win him a nobel prize if true and make Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla and all the other electrical inventors and geniuses feel like complete fools for missing it.
No. they don’t make an audible difference unless something is totally wrong (broken). You don’t really need measurements to logically see something seems off. These measurements are just a nail in the coffin.
but its good to see measurements, because a measurement picture kills a thousand snake oil lying words.

 

[Erici]

The test as was described and posted makes absolutely no sense with regards how to test a speaker cable.

Sorry, but you cannot get away with that statement without telling us what would be the correct test! Please!

 

[MrPeabody]

The test as was described and posted makes absolutely no sense with regards how to test a speaker cable.

Absolutely. To measure a speaker cable properly, you lay it out straight in a long room or hallway and then run a calibrated tape measure alongside the speaker cable. To take the reading, you look at the static, imprinted display on the tape measure, and read the numbers at the point coinciding with the end of the speaker cable.

Okay, seriously, it seemed to me that what Amir did made a ton of sense, and a bunch of other people thought the same. You clearly think differently, having posted a comment just to say so, but you did not say anything about why you didn't think sense. Why do you think it didn't make sense, and what do you think he should have done?

 

[GWolfman]

@amirm I was told years ago that basic lamp cord from the hardware store performed the same as (any) speaker cable. I bought some (maybe 16-18AWG?) and have noticed no difference. This would be an interesting test, especially considering these were never intended for audio use/spectrum.

 

[Bruce Morgen]

Some wisdom from a while back, presented in authentically clunky 1990s HTML.

"Speaker Wire A History"

 

[Chrispy]

@amirm I was told years ago that basic lamp cord from the hardware store performed the same as (any) speaker cable. I bought some (maybe 16-18AWG?) and have noticed no difference. This would be an interesting test, especially considering these were never intended for audio use/spectrum.

That's what amirm used....zip cord/lamp cord. Many do. Audiophiles can be very silly thinking its audio specific.

 

[don'ttrustauthority]

I have never complained that music is more complex. Simply point out that I would not expect a capacitor and resistor and w'e combination of parts to behave the same way with a simple tone vs. a complex musical signal. And I dont' see why we should assume that an amplifier that can produce a simple test tone with less distortion than a different amplifier would have a consistent result with more complex music.

I can tell for a fact that different speaker wire sounds different. I hooked up a ten gauge and a sixteen gauge, about ten feet of each, to a subwoofer. The increased bass response in the ten gauge was easy to hear.