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Speaker Cable: Please Try This Experiment ?

J

jmdesignz2

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Aug 19, 2025
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Curious about the science behind this

I’ve tried this myself and noticed a huge difference. Not subtle at all.

ABX? How about wife DGAF but noticed the difference immediately

She was totally unaware of what I had done and couldn’t care less

But she walked in and said is your stereo broken?

Take 10 feet of 12awg solid copper bare wire. Insert into 10 mm clear polyethylene tubing. Use that as speaker wire and compare to normal 12 awg stranded copper speaker wire.

The solid copper sounds like shit

I forget which amp I used , was either the DNA mono blocks or a Bryston 4B SST

Speakers were Aerial 10t v2
 
You want me to try 3m of bare wire? How am I supposed to lay these without risking a short? Are you serious?
 
jmdesignz2 said:
The solid copper sounds like shit
Click to expand...

First time for me reading about cable change in those terms :)

Usually it’s being more musical, more detailed, bigger soundstage, or some such words.

Good one!!!
 
If you have two wires in two separate tubes, wont the measured inductance go up a bit? I thought that the wires in speaker wire are run very closely together to minimize the ability of magnetic fields to run between them.
 
Either you did something wrong or your fooling yourself. WARNING - This isn't your average audiophile forum... We are mostly skeptical-scientific types.

The Amazing Randi's (RIP) million dollar cable challenge was never completed but I believe at one point he was saying that nobody could hear a difference between high-end cables and cables made from coat hangers.

ABX?
Click to expand...
What does that mean? You didn't do any Controlled Blind Listening, right?

But she walked in and said is your stereo broken?
Click to expand...
Of course, that needs context. She sees you fooling around with it, maybe turning it on & off, maybe listening to the same thing over-and-over, playing with the volume, obviously not just listening to music, etc. and wonders why you are messing around.

The conditions of the wife have to be controlled too. ;) The opinions of someone who's not part of the controlled test don't count.

The solid copper sounds like shit
Click to expand...
How many dB of S*** would you estimate? :P Seriously, you don't have to estimate the dB but this is a scientific audio forum so we do like to talk about levels, frequency response, distortion, or noise, etc.

If you have two wires in two separate tubes, wont the measured inductance go up a bit? I thought that the wires in speaker wire are run very closely together to minimize the ability of magnetic fields to run between them.
Click to expand...
Those things are insignificant at low (audio) frequencies and low impedance. They can get significant at radio frequencies. The resistance can be important depending on the wire gauge and length. 1000 feet of 12AWG copper wire has 1.6 Ohms of resistance. That's 3.2 Ohm's round-trip so it can be a problem with 4 or 8-Ohms speakers if you have 1000-foot speaker wires (or very thin wires).
 
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Assuming this isn't a troll, there are way too many variables at play here. First thing I would ask is how did you connect the solid wire to the amp and speakers? Relatively thick solid wire like that is going to be much harder to work with and get a good termination on compared to the typical stranded stuff.

Second thing I would ask, what exactly was the problem with the sound? It sounding like "shit" just doesn't give us any useful information.
 
Not trolling. I actually expected to hear no difference or hear better results from the solid copper.

I was pissed it sounded so terrible

Yes I double checked the phase connection etc.

I coiled them up and tossed them somewhere in the attic. I’ll see if I can find them later

I also did an experiment years ago in my dorm room. Ramen budget but lusted after all the high end braided, twisted, terminated multi thousand dollar cables as a victim of the prevailing marketing lol

Compared highly Twisted zip cord vs straight. I totally expected the twist to make it sound better due to common mode rejection etc but it sounded worse.

My PHD science, non audiophile roommate concurred it was obvious the difference

Straight stranded 10-12awg OFC is all I use these days.
 
One can buy magnet wire (varnish- or polyurethane- (etc.) insulated bare copper wire, single 'strand') in 'reasonable' gauges (e.g., 18 ga -- not fashionably large but more than adequate for short runs) and DIY one's own cables, or one can (still... I think?!) buy Anti-Cables, which are the same, other than that one pays them to 'make' and to terminate the 'cables' for you. :)

2 Channel

ANTICABLES: hand-made speaker wires and connectors delivering pure sound, proven performance, and true audiophile quality.
anticables.com anticables.com

The stuff sounds perfectly OK. Do not ask me how I know this*. ;)

_______________
* ahem. How I know this... :facepalm:


(they're visible in the photo above, which also includes the infamous Mad Scientist Audio "Black Discus" free sample... umm... thingies. :facepalm:

 
Long, widely spaced conductors in a speaker cable can roll-off high frequencies in loudspeakers that have a very low, high frequency impedance (think Apogee and some electrostatic speakers).
 
A difference? Certainly possible with so many variables. A "huge difference"? While being wildly subjective, is pure fantasy.
 
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