Morrow SP3 Review (Speaker Cable)

[Francis Vaughan]

Can I assume from this review that individual strands vs conventional shielding have no effect and it's another snake-oil marketing gimmick?

Absolutely. The origins of multiple insulated conductors comes from Litz wire, where the strands are insulated. But Litz requires a special stranding, where each conductor spends an equal proportion of its length at each depth. This minimises skin effect, and is in common use in RF systems. Simple insulated stranding is not Litz, and will not reduce skin effect. The rest of the explanation is a mishmash of a lot of other woo pedalled over the years. There simply are no such effects.
Skin effect gets trotted out every now and again, and it is real, but not at any audio frequency. The calculations are not hard.

 

[ROOSKIE]

I'm the member that sent the cable in for testing. I was shopping around for an 8' pair of bi-wire cables and felt for the money these were an ok deal. BTW, I use bi-wire because I lost the terminal jumpers years ago during a move and they are impossible to find now. Anyway, What I was interested in was this concept of individual strands vs conventional shielding. These SP3 cables have 192 runs per channel (13AGW). As you pay more the runs go up to 2034 (8AWG) "Anniversary Speaker Cable Pair" at $7000.00. There SP1 has 64 runs. Can I assume from this review that individual strands vs conventional shielding have no effect and it's another snake-oil marketing gimmick?

Yes. Snake oil.

 

[Andysu]

Cable was already in use by the member so broken in.

So it wasn't a virgin cable it was broken in. lol just some more snake cable huh.

 

[Hayabusa]

View attachment 126411

@amirm I would like to see distortion differences in this setup.. Was this also measured?

 

[m8o]

@amirm I once read a convincing online article showing comparisons of imperfect group delays of interconnects; I doubt I could find it again tho. Now, with those kinds of cables being shielded and having a capacitance per foot spec often provided, an imperfect group delay seems more likely than this sort of unshielded higher gauge cable. But that said, is there a way to add that to the test suite of all cable tests? (a purely electronic version of the group delay sweep you make with headphone tests)

P.s. same idea for phase. Did I miss it and that is measured? Similarly tho I'd expect phase shifts with RCA interconnects before something like this, and unlikely to be large if anything until above the audible band. But as long as you're showing definitive objective proof of no measurable difference, isn't that any easy measurement to make and include?

 

[DHT 845]

Wow, these are "bargain"
2019 Best Speaker Cable | Award Winning | High Resolution | Morrow - Morrow Audio

"unique cable technology SSI" =solid core small gauge individually insulated wires.
As I understand correctly that is simply litz wire, like used in transformers. Can be bought on ebay in various AWG for a fraction of price.

 

[taffyb0y]

@amirm, would it be possible to use/test these (or any other) speaker cables whilst performing a speaker test on the Klippel Near-field Scanner?
If so, a comparison of frequency responses of the same speaker could then be made between these and the known (usual) cables.
Ideally using an excellent speaker, this would surely be conclusive proof to see if one can actually "hear" the difference between cables...

 

[voodooless]

Can I assume from this review that individual strands vs conventional shielding have no effect and it's another snake-oil marketing gimmick?

See it from the positive side: Your cable performs at least as good as $€ 100.000 cable. They do look decently made and presentable, so no worries there.

 

[HighImpactAV]

Thanks for testing speaker cables. BTW, when would speaker cable start to reduce the signal level? I imagine when it's very long and very thin, but do we know what length and what gauge?
And then it would likely reduce the level only, right? Shouldn't mess with FR?

WireCalc (it is part of AmpliCalc) shows show the exact losses of the speaker cable based on length and load. It also shows damping factor. I like the "Low Bid" option under Performance at the bottom.

 

[D700]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Morrow SP3 premium speaker cable.

Amirm, thank you for a great, well reasoned review. Great point about these manufacturers missing opportunity to tout clear functional benefits and aesthetics. They should take advantage to create new measurements that do matter in the real world:
1) Grip power of the banana plug as a proxy for not coming loose (just measure how much force it takes to remove from standard jack)
2) Flexibility, (I'm sure there's some standard specification for that) without strands breaking
3) Abrasion resistance of the jackets/cover materials
4) Break resistance
5) How well does it "lay"...does it lay flat over a reasonable run? (stiff cables get problematic pulling devices out to make changes or clean)

Same for power cords...I can't tell you how many times my stupid power plugs have been halfway out or dislodged completely because there wasn't enough grip or the cord was too stiff. I'd gladly pay more for cables that solve these issues.

I'm sure there are other things to talk about.

 

[nagster]

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.

 

[Omar Cumming]

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.

 

[jfree77]

I'm the member that sent the cable in for testing. I was shopping around for a flexable 8' pair of bi-wire cables and felt for the money these were an ok deal. BTW, I use bi-wire because I lost the terminal jumpers years ago during a move and they are impossible to find now. Anyway, What I was interested in was this concept of individual strands vs conventional shielding. These SP3 cables have 192 runs per channel (13AGW). As you pay more the runs go up to 2034 (8AWG) "Anniversary Speaker Cable Pair" at $7000.00. There SP1 has 64 runs. Can I assume from this review that individual strands vs conventional shielding have no effect and it's another snake-oil marketing gimmick?

Yeah, that's a fair assumption. God bless you for wasting money to bring us all joy!

 

[Simer]

I've been reading your tests for years now and made some choices on my equipment based on your testing saving money on the way. To me you are Houdini of HiFi....cheers.

 

[VintageFlanker]

Because it may be below the AP measurement limit.
...
Another means is needed to conclude the ear difference.

Haem. Are you suggesting that differences would be too minor to be measurable by the AP... But yet, some human may hear it anyway?

That is big.

 

[Carmac]

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.

it was just measured and proven! No difference in carrying signals down to below human hearing thresholds. There’s no theory that even hopes to explain why cables would ‘sound different’ within audio frequencies. I blame the school systems, essentially no one actually understands how electrons move through conductors.

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.

so you imply you know something modern science doesn’t know! That’s so impressive. As a small test, can you tell us the speed of the electrons in the cable while under test signal?

 

[MrPeabody]

Very good work there, Amir. I don't know whether you've made a video of this or intend to, but I hope that you will!

 

[MrPeabody]

... Problem was imagined and solution was put in place. With no verification of the problem, it is impossible to see if anything is fixed.

Very well said. Snake oil peddlers put the onus on their detractors to prove that the problem that they claim to be fixing isn't a real problem. This is how it is even with the claims of better audible performance with ultra-expensive capacitors and so on. This isn't how it should be. The onus should be on them to first prove that the problem that they pretend to have solved is real, i.e., that it is audibly significant. Every time anyone does any debunking, it should be strongly emphasized that the peddler has not proved that the problem is even real in the first place.

 

[spanayotov]

I have a business idea. I could offer a break-in service for cables and other audio equipment.

 

[MrPeabody]

Your testing seems inappropriate, @amirm. I'm sure you forgot to burn in for at least 400 hours, as the manufacturer recommends:

You will find great enjoyment and improvements right out of the box. Our cables however take around 400 hours to fully break in. You can speed this process up with our optional break-in service.

Also, if someone may enlighten me on this:

The SP3 speaker cables can handle up to 150 watts continuous/ 300 watts peak.

Wut? Perhaps this guy has an explanation...

I think I'm on the wrong side of this fence, from a personal finance perspective. I need to set up a dedicated service for breaking in cables and anything else that anyone wants to have professionally broken in. I will supply a signed certificate, certifying that the device has been broken in according to the accepted guidelines for the type of device. If anyone is dissatisfied and wants to claim that I didn't actually do anything other than send it back to them along with the certificate, let them prove it.