Morrow SP3 Review (Speaker Cable)

[MarcR]

Thanks @SIY and @Speedskater. I guess I'm glad now that I bought new OFC wire for my new much better speakers.

I'm skeptical that I really need 10 gauge wire for runs to the back of my room, but whatever.

 

[BluesDaddy]

Conclusions
Company states that these cables reduce distortion. Distortion is a measurable thing so why do they not show it? Most likely this is an assumption and not anything ever measured. Problem was imagined and solution was put in place. With no verification of the problem, it is impossible to see if anything is fixed. Our measurements show that losses in these cables is incredibly small and no different than a generic, near garbage cable that I build to compare. No matter how hard we try, sound waves going in, are the sound waves coming out of the speaker wire.

Glad to see this validated. I have "generic, near garbage" 12 gauge cable for my LR speakers that I KNOW I've had as long as I've been married, minus a couple months maybe, and that's 37 years today. It's stranded cable in a clear insulation. About all I've done is re-terminated with Monoprice banana plugs at either end (they match at least) and some Y cable "pants" at the speaker end of the cable to "spruce" them up a bit (which was a bitch getting on the cables). Just never seemed to have an issue with them. I started to make a double run of 14 gauge Monoprice in wall cable for my mains when I got them almost three years ago but it was such a PITA and stopped myself. I don't really ever think about them other than every now and then "damn, those are old".

 

[Aperiodic]

This is a 'no-win' situation.It doesn't matter how many times- or ways- you 'prove' that cables don't matter, you won't persuade anyone who has convinced themself otherwise. As the saying goes. "It's easier to fool people than to convince them they have been fooled'. At this point, people want the magic beans.Tweaks are the backbone of the high end audio market now. One well known writer caught a tweak vendor changing levels at a show when swapping cables. That's flat out fraud. Another hustle' is to put two files differing by 1dB or so on a server. The demo person never lets the audience control the setup or play their own materials. That's how you make sure the 'demos' always produce the desired result. It's a shame the audio market has descended to this level.

 

[BluesDaddy]

This is a 'no-win' situation.It doesn't matter how many times- or ways- you 'prove' that cables don't matter, you won't persuade anyone who has convinced themself otherwise. As the saying goes. "It's easier to fool people than to convince them they have been fooled'. At this point, people want the magic beans.Tweaks are the backbone of the high end audio market now. One well known writer caught a tweak vendor changing levels at a show when swapping cables. That's flat out fraud. Another hustle' is to put two files differing by 1dB or so on a server. The demo person never lets the audience control the setup or play their own materials. That's how you make sure the 'demos' always produce the desired result. It's a shame the audio market has descended to this level.

As is apparent from the new members who apparently have joined in order to comment on this thread. Nothing seems to offend audiophools MORE than demonstrating that expensive cables don't do anything more than the cheap stuff. Even saying all SS amps sound the same (insert usual disclaimers here) doesn't get them as riled. I mean, big, beautiful, shiny, expensive cables have GOT to perform better and allow more "music" to flow through then the skinny little throw aways you use to get with equipment or lamp cord from the hardware store.

 

[Aperiodic]

As is apparent from the new members who apparently have joined in order to comment on this thread. Nothing seems to offend audiophools MORE than demonstrating that expensive cables don't do anything more than the cheap stuff. Even saying all SS amps sound the same (insert usual disclaimers here) doesn't get them as riled. I mean, big, beautiful, shiny, expensive cables have GOT to perform better and allow more "music" to flow through then the skinny little throw aways you use to get with equipment or lamp cord from the hardware store.

My favorites are the people using garden-hose-sized speaker cables to connect 1.5W flea-power amps to hi efficiency speakers.

Even AC outlets and fues are now sold in costly 'audiophile'versions. It's aall a big d***-measuring contest,

Spend your system money where it counts: The transducers, the room and to a lesser extent the DAC.

 

[Chrispy]

My favorites are the people using garden-hose-sized speaker cables to connect 1.5W flea-power amps to hi efficiency speakers.

Even AC outlets and fues are now sold in costly 'audiophile'versions. It's aall a small d***-measuring contest,

Spend your system money where it counts: The transducers, the room and to a lesser extent the DAC.

FTFY

 

[Aperiodic]

FTFY

?

 

[Chrispy]

?

Stands for "fixed that for you" Changed the size....

 

[Inner Space]

I have "generic, near garbage" 12 gauge cable for my LR speakers that I KNOW I've had as long as I've been married, minus a couple months maybe, and that's 37 years today.

Happy anniversary, and congratulations to you and Mrs. Daddy.

 

[BluesDaddy]

Happy anniversary, and congratulations to you and Mrs. Daddy.

Thank you, sir!

 

[thefsb]

Headless, not piggy bank? The standards are evolving.

Strange, innit? I read the review and concluded that the Morrow SP3 cable is perfectly transparent and performs exactly according to expectation. So in what sense is it broken?

 

[richard12511]

FTFY

What did you change?

 

[BluesDaddy]

Strange, innit? I read the review and concluded that the Morrow SP3 cable is perfectly transparent and performs exactly according to expectation. So in what sense is it broken?

Yep, works just as well as any other speaker wire - just horribly overpriced for the job (even if "cheap" by "high end" standards). Sort of like paying $1000 for a shovel when you can get one for $20.

 

[Chrispy]

What did you change?

The size of the appendages being compared.

 

[thefsb]

Yep, works just as well as any other speaker wire - just horribly overpriced for the job (even if "cheap" by "high end" standards). Sort of like paying $1000 for a shovel when you can get one for $20.

As Amir mentioned in the review, it's custom made and as such the price isn't outrageous. If you need a custom interconnect with connectors, want a nice job, and can't do it yourself then it's going to cost more than $20.

 

[oal]

This review reminds me of the testing of 12 AWG speaker wire.
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/when-12-gauge-wire-is-not-12-gauge.3/
If I use wire with high impedance for speakers with low impedance, will it affect the frequency response?

 

[BluesDaddy]

As Amir mentioned in the review, it's custom made and as such the price isn't outrageous. If you need a custom interconnect with connectors, want a nice job, and can't do it yourself then it's going to cost more than $20.

The $20 was an example of a shovel cost, not cable. And I suppose it depends on what you might call "nice", but there is LOTS of room between $20 and $150. I don't recall if Amir ever mentioned total length, but a quick perusal of Amazon shows several cables of OFC terminated with banana plugs at under $50 for a 6' pair. For $50, I could buy high quality banana plugs and some 14 gauge wire from Monoprice (or Amazon) and construct multiple pairs that would be "nice". Don't recall how much wire "pants" are, but not a whole lot, could squeeze in to that $50. Now, if you're set on adding TechFlex over it, that would be more, but not so much.

 

[welsh]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Morrow SP3 premium speaker cable. It was kindly sent to me by a member. The base cost is US $149 but in the bi-wire configuration/length I have, I think the total adds up to $187. Company however has a 38% sale currently which then gets it back to the $149 or so.

Even though the terminations are stiff, I like that the cable itself is not:

View attachment 126405

The banana connectors fit well in the various devices that I tested it on. For a custom made cable, I think the price and what you get is very reasonable. I know I would have to charge you three times as much to do the same.

Our mission here is to see if we can find any differences between this cable and any other. For comparison, I reached in my bin of ancient speaker cables and found some zip cord that is at least 30 years old (no exaggeration -- I never throw anything out!). I terminated it with random, not matched banana connectors I have/bought on Amazon that would scare any high-end customer out of the room! In other words, it is hard to do worse. I estimate the gauge to be 16.

Keep in mind company statement regarding fidelity: "Morrow Audio cables differ in three major areas of design from other popular cables. Our proprietary technology removes major distortions that are common in most other cable designs. "

We will test for that!

Speaker Cable Measurements
My audio precision analyzer has balanced banana connectors on input and output so I decided to start there. While this eliminates all other instrumentation wires, it has to live within confines of audio precision which means a source impedance of 40 ohm and sink of 200K ohm. Yes, not the same as any real amp to speaker config but we will get to that later. For now, let's treat these cables as interconnects and see how they differ. First let's measure the Morrow SP3:

View attachment 126406

Notice that I boosted the AP output to 20 volts to resemble in some way the higher output voltage of an amplifier. Not that it made any difference as the performance is the same as audio precision loopback (no wire). Nothing added, nothing taken away.

Oh, the two channels are shown are each leg of the bi-wire connection. In other words, there is one output from Audio Precision and two inputs. We see that there is no difference between the two legs as it should be.

Here is the same test with my generic cheap cable:

View attachment 126415

I ran this test at slightly different time so please forgive tiny differences. Overall, the two cables are identical as far as noise, distortion and level.

Let's compare the frequency response of the SP3 against generic cable:

View attachment 126408

Note how I am testing all the way up to whopping 200 kHz (20 times over audible band) and still there is not any difference between these two cables. I have zoomed way in to just 1 dB above, and 1 dB below and we still have ruler flat response. This rules out any tonality differences in this configuration.

Some will complain that music is more "complex" so here is a complex, 32-tone signal with far higher treble response than any music:

View attachment 126409

There is just no difference at all. No distortion is removed and thankfully none added either.

Let's sweep the audible band this time looking to see if there is distortion at any frequency while measured to 90 kHz (4.5X audible band):

View attachment 126410

Once again despite our superb precision that crosses human hearing threshold, no differential between the two cables is found.

Differential In-situ Speaker Cable Measurements
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:

View attachment 126411

In a nutshell, I am measuring any difference between the signal at one end of the cable at the amplifier compared to the other (speaker). Of course, I didn't realize that my analyzer was set to 4 volt and hit "run" meaning the amp was producing its full power! Speaker was sitting face down and while I could not see it, I clearly heard it jump up and down followed by the loudest test sweeps you can imagine! It was as if an explosion had happened behind me!

Fortunately the amp and speaker survived the ordeal and we can look at the results. This is the frequency response differential between SP3 and generic cable:
View attachment 126412

I had to zoom this graph way in to show what you see. We are talking thee decimal places in 1 dB! Yet the two cables are showing the same response.

To go even more crazy, let's subtract the two cable responses:

View attachment 126413

As noted, worst case difference is 0.0065 dB! This shows how great our instrumentation is and how silly assumptions about cable differences are.

Conclusions
Company states that these cables reduce distortion. Distortion is a measurable thing so why do they not show it? Most likely this is an assumption and not anything ever measured. Problem was imagined and solution was put in place. With no verification of the problem, it is impossible to see if anything is fixed. Our measurements show that losses in these cables is incredibly small and no different than a generic, near garbage cable that I build to compare. No matter how hard we try, sound waves going in, are the sound waves coming out of the speaker wire.

On purely performance front, I cannot recommend the Morrow SP3 cable. There simply is no benefit in it. From form and function, you may want to look at such a cable if it makes you feel better to look at them. And they are certainly far cheaper than the bulk of "high-end" audio cables. I wish the company would revise its marketing and just emphasize the custom aspects of these cables, flexibility, etc. rather than trying to claim audio improvements that they cannot deliver on.

Edit: video review posted:

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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

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As you report, these cables cost a fraction of some ‘high end’ options. But this simply makes them more dangerous in terms of magic thinking. People who pay thousands for speaker cables deserve, in my opinion, what they get (or don’t get), but there will be many people on a budget who may be convinced that they are getting better sound with cables at this price level.

 

[welsh]

As the mighty Amir is sleeping, this might be the time to ponder the ever increasing panther death rate?
I appreciate it's in the interests of tradition (& science), but do so many have to be sacrificed?

Only one panther has been decapitated. His sad remains are simply wheeled out again and again to be photographed together with disastrously underperforming equipment. Unless… no, it’s unthinkable that this mutilation is performed time and time again!

 

[welsh]

I'm waiting for when a company, like Morrow, designs a blind test using their cables versus a super expensive cable like Synergistic Research.

I believe it would be marketing genius - "No one could tell our $200 cables from SR's $30,000 cables. NO ONE!"

You control what is tested and make it a one-time test, with as many well-known audio cable guys (like Fremer, Guttenberg) you can get. Also include some owners of SR cables as well. Document and film everything. Never bring $5 generic cables into the testing environment, just yours vs SR, and then put it up on YouTube.

I'd watch, probably over and over again.

You are right - I’m amazed that a manufacturer of ‘mid-priced’ snake oil cables hasn’t done this already! As long as nobody does the test including basic cables, it could be a marketing coup…