Morrow SP3 Review (Speaker Cable)

[Louie]

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?

13 AWG should be okay for 8 ft run. They should split the runs 2:1 for woofer and tweeter as the former is higher current/power. Shielding is not necessary as radiated power would be very low.

 

[sam_adams]

Everyone here should already be familiar with or should familiarize themselves with the work of Fred E. Davis regarding speaker cables:

Effects of Cable, Loudspeaker, and Amplifier Interactions, Fred E. Davis, Journal of The Audio Engineering Society, Vol. 39, No. 6, June 1991

Testing Speaker Cables for Audibility, Fred E. Davis, Audio Magazine, Pp., 35 - 43, July, 1993

Careful and attentive readers will notice something in the above articles that also challenges a long-held belief among some audiophiles.

 

[Louie]

Amirm. For cables, especially speaker ones, it may be useful to measure the RLC parameters as it would provide quick quality comparison.

 

[AdamG]

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.



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?

Welcome Aboard @Carmac.

 

[MrPeabody]

... Also, if someone may enlighten me on this:

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

All that this could possibly mean is that the cable can handle the amount of current implied by this amount of power with a speaker having some specific impedance. Since the impedance of the speaker isn't specified, neither is the current, which means that the statement is essentially meaningless. But if we assume 6 ohms and 150 watts, then I^2 x R implies 5 amperes. Which means that the cable is supposed to be able to handle 5 amps without melting the insulation. Which means that it's as good as 22 gauge wire. If they had thought about this and had done this simple analysis before making the claim, they would likely have gone for much higher numbers, e.g., 500 watts continuous and 1000 watts peak.

 

[thegeton]

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...

You forgot to mention "directionality." These cables have a direction. You have to connect the label end to whatever is the signal source.

SMH

 

[sam_adams]

Notice that I boosted the AP output to 20 volts to resemble in some way the higher output voltage of an amplifier.

It's not the volts that get ya', it's the amps.

 

[MrPeabody]

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?

In theory a speaker cable with extremely high resistance (very thin and/or very long) could affect the frequency response. The way this would happen would be that the speaker's share of the amplifier's true output voltage would be a greater share at the speaker's impedance peaks vs. the speaker's nominal impedance. If you really, really, really want to know how to calculate this effect, you can search for the writeup I did on this a few weeks ago and posted here. It was titled something like, "A more exact understanding of amplifier output impedance". The gist of it, though, is that except for cases where the speaker wire is a good deal thinner than what anyone would normally use for speaker wire, and/or much longer than what anyone would normally use for speaker wire within a home, the resistance of the wire combined with a typical amplifier's output impedance will be well below the threshold where this effect would yield a peak in the frequency response greater than half a decibel. In other words, so long as the speaker cable isn't ridiculously long or ridiculously skinny, this potential effect isn't real. And neither is there any appreciable reduction in signal level so long as the speaker cable isn't ridiculously long or ridiculously skinny. And neither does it matter if one speaker cable is a whole lot longer than the other one so long as neither of them is ridiculously long or ridiculously skinny.

 

[MrPeabody]

Speaker cables.
The common concept among audiophiles and pro audio engineers, about speaker cables iw wrong!!! (I rolled the chalang in front of R&D of MBL,
TEAC and more. None picked the glove!)
As so, also is the testing method or the provided results. They show, more than any other, what the tester would like to show: No difference.
Well the first logical question will be the difference between this cable and What?
Measuring and measuring methods would have an impact on the results.More than it's price, we need its gauge and length, and it's resistance
(even that it can be calculated from the two: gauge and length).

The speaker cables is defined as the transfer function between an Amp's output to the load (speakers).
However, the way to look on it, as an extension of the Amp's output resistance (Ro or more common name: DF=Dumping Factor).
The speaker cables is about to deliver the Amp's output signal to the speaker (an inductance lod with a moving coil in a magnetic field, and some components in it's crossover, as capacitors and more coils).
In order to do this successfully, a higher DF amp would be required. If you own a tube amp. or a low cost receiver, this is not for you.
But if the Amp's DF is above 150, or better (400, 500...1000 or D Class up to 8,000) the cable gets tricky), than the game changes dramatically.
Let's assume that we own an Amp with a DF of 400 (Ro=8/400, or 0.02 Ohms).
What is tested speaker cables resistance? What is the AWG (gauge) and length?
As no such data is provided (but it's price: $149), we can not say what it's calculated resistance (assume its made of copper).
This idea, that speaker cables should have a related (series) resistance to the Amp's Ro, would provide a formula that can calculate the ideal
speaker cable gauge, vs length. (R = ro x L (meters) / S (mm2).
So none of the suggested test by Amir or AP are to show any relevant data about the cable. It would help, as much if you would use it to fishing,
or hang some laundry to dry in the open air.

The effect to which you crudely allude is a real effect only in extreme, unrealistic circumstances where the speaker cable is either much skinnier than any realistic speaker cable or very much longer than any speaker cable that anyone would likely use in a home setting. It is not reasonable to take a theoretical effect that can occur in unrealistic scenarios and treat it as a real effect that applies in realistic scenarios. You needed to have made the extra effort to make certain that the effect you're talking about is a real effect in realistic scenarios.

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...standing-of-amplifier-output-impedance.22380/

 

[SIY]

Everyone here should already be familiar with or should familiarize themselves with the work of Fred E. Davis regarding speaker cables:

Effects of Cable, Loudspeaker, and Amplifier Interactions, Fred E. Davis, Journal of The Audio Engineering Society, Vol. 39, No. 6, June 1991

Testing Speaker Cables for Audibility, Fred E. Davis, Audio Magazine, Pp., 35 - 43, July, 1993

Careful and attentive readers will notice something in the above articles that also challenges a long-held belief among some audiophiles.

I’ve cited Davis and Dick Greiner over and over, to no apparent effect.

 

[Louie]

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

 

[MrPeabody]

@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...

There are many questions that are best answered through analytical theory, with no reason to perform any sort of test or experiment. Thankfully. The number of questions of this sort is virtually uncountable, and if anyone were to try and take measurements to corroborate each and every one of them, they could devote a lifetime and still not make a dent in it.

 

[amirm]

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

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.

 

[testp]

If the cable is calculated, and it's resistance will be X (to fit the Amp's DF, even if you go wild and get a thicker cable, or even a superconductore, the sound will remain the same. If you go the opposite direction (increase resistance) the sound will get less clear and present.

i dont believe in expencive cables and have no preference what i am using, but when i tested few generic cables long time ago , that's exactly what i experienced, just a small change to sound being less clear or such, so basically i figured my cheap-reciever + resistance produced by the cables + speakers, small tonality change happened.. so maybe a Test of resistance between cables could reveal something

 

[AudioSceptic]

Aesthetically, these cables look nice to me. More so than some of the more generic, or over built over engineered, options out there... Perhaps part of the holistic equation of sonic enjoyment, is the visual pleasure achieved through simple elegance of cables in the context of an audio system. I appreciate the measurements nonetheless in the interest of fewer people wasting their time debating tedious content. I just wish I could find a pair of cables that looked this nice on the cheap.

Look no further! <http://archimago.blogspot.com/2020/02/diy-archimagos-colorful-set-of-speaker.html>

 

[Tks]

It's unfortunate people in the market for better cables are seekingsound improvements when that is virtually impossible at this point, rather than build quality and aesthetics which still have lota of room to grow. Must be odd building cables, especially if they're well built, and your company take upon a policy of lying about sound quality improvements, when most of the cost should be, or is allocated to the build quality, rather than the marketing department straight up fraudulent claims.

 

[stereofink]

Better hurry to get your order in! Morrow Audio sale could be ending soon!
Actually, they are a continuous sale website with "the absolute sound" awards plastered everywhere.

Yes, I own some of their products.

Their marketing gives me hives.

 

[AndreaT]

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.



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?

I would also consider the position of planets and their moons to rule out influences from the heavens.

 

[milezone]

I would also consider the position of planets and their moons to rule out influences from the heavens.

I agree with this.

 

[izeek]

Aesthetically, these cables look nice to me. More so than some of the more generic, or over built over engineered, options out there... Perhaps part of the holistic equation of sonic enjoyment, is the visual pleasure achieved through simple elegance of cables in the context of an audio system. I appreciate the measurements nonetheless in the interest of fewer people wasting their time debating tedious content. I just wish I could find a pair of cables that looked this nice on the cheap.

My point as well. Can we buy them because we like their aesthetics as well as their purpose. It doesn't matter to me if it doesn't actually contribute to anything other than MY personal enjoyment.
I'm real sure those who buy cables for their sound ALSO enjoy their looks.
I bought a pair of biamp speaker cables from BJC to really tidy up the mess. They look good, too.