• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

What cables do you use in your systems?

CMOT

Active Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2021
Messages
147
Likes
114
Will do. Just gotta break out the oscilloscope (which is very vintage....)
 

gino1961

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2018
Messages
428
Likes
139
Speaking of cables for speakers i can't help but notice how thin a woofer's voice coil wire "normally" is. :oops: (i understand that some high end woofers have quite thicker coils).
I don't have a precise datum of its gauge and length but if we talk about possible bottleneck for the current it seems to be this one and certainly not a decent section and reasonable length speaker cable.
A bobbin wire looks little more than a hair's size. And its resistance should be order of magnitude bigger than the speaker cable resistance ?
61NUsbyBq3L._AC_SX679_.jpg


i had a broken coil in one of my speakers and it was extremely thin ...
 
Last edited:

Frank Dernie

Master Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Mar 24, 2016
Messages
6,445
Likes
15,778
Location
Oxfordshire
Speaking of cables for speakers i can't help but notice how thin a woofer's voice coil wire "normally" is. :oops: (i understand that some high end woofers have quite thicker coils).
I don't have a precise datum of its gauge and length but if we talk about possible bottleneck for the current it seems to be this one and certainly not a decent section and reasonable length speaker cable.
A bobbin wire looks little more than a hair's size. And its resistance should be order of magnitude bigger than the speaker cable resistance ?
61NUsbyBq3L._AC_SX679_.jpg


i had a broken coil in one of my speakers and it was extremely thin ...
Of course it should.
This is the motor in the speaker, it will have a resistance of several ohms. This is the bit the speaker cable is intended to deliver current to!
 

DonH56

Master Contributor
Technical Expert
Forum Donor
Joined
Mar 15, 2016
Messages
7,834
Likes
16,496
Location
Monument, CO
Low driving (amplifier + speaker cable) resistance is usually needed to properly terminate the crossover network and/or to control back-EMF (charge kick-back) from the drivers. The speakers' voice coil impedance is relevant to crossover design and amount of EMF produced but does not change the desire for as low a driving-point impedance as possible.
 

gino1961

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2018
Messages
428
Likes
139
Of course it should.
This is the motor in the speaker, it will have a resistance of several ohms. This is the bit the speaker cable is intended to deliver current to!
Thank you very much for your kind and valuable reply. But it seems to me weird to look for speaker cables with the section of a water hose that end in a hair thick voice coil.
By the way i followed some DIY discussions about replacing headphones cords. In some they are very very thin. There was a guy who used a mini microphone cable and he was swearing that the sound was quite better. I tend to believe him.
To sum up ... if the goal is high power (i.e. high SPLs) could the voice coil section be an issue (i.e. bottleneck) much more than speaker cables section ? so that just a decent size speaker cable should be enough in most cases.
 

MaxBuck

Major Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
May 22, 2021
Messages
1,515
Likes
2,115
Location
SoCal, Baby!
The notion that cables are fungible strikes me as equally silly to the $1000/ft crowd's claims.
 

egellings

Major Contributor
Joined
Feb 6, 2020
Messages
4,004
Likes
3,244
If you include all drivers & crossover components in a a multiway speaker system, the bulk impedance will be much lower than that of a single woofer voice coil. Still, that's no reason for garden hose speaker cables. I guess if one wants to use oversized cable, knock yourself out. It likely will do no harm, and it won't help, either.
 

PenGun

New Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2021
Messages
1
Likes
0
First post. Tara Time And Space speaker wire, and the rest is Cardas. Old school. ;)
 

dfuller

Major Contributor
Joined
Apr 26, 2020
Messages
3,335
Likes
5,050
Just finished building a rackmount panel with XLR jacks on the front. I used the cheapest miniature 3-conductor wire I could get my hands on because it really, really does not matter that much - these are 4 foot long interconnects between my patch bay and the panel mounted plugs.

I'll never understand the people who pay through the nose for this stuff. Studios use the absolute cheapest they can get away with. Lamp cord as speaker cable? Totally fine, as long as it's big enough for the current.
 

wrat

Member
Joined
Jun 24, 2021
Messages
56
Likes
31
Location
south Carolina
living room speaker wire is all rat shack or home depot flat wire that I bought a HUGE spool of a long time ago to run under carpet and behind baseboards and such been reusing it for YEARS, interconnects are mix of manufacture supplied and rat shack ..
Audio room speaker wire is 10g solid core hook up wire from rat shack and interconnect is a mix of manufacture supplied and straightwire that I was given when I bought my TT and Phono Pre
 

Grumpish

Active Member
Joined
Jul 2, 2021
Messages
148
Likes
143
Van Damme Silver lo-cap for RCA
Mogami W2534 for XLR
Mogami 2964 for internal signal connections on DIY stuff
Van Damme Black 12AWG for speakers

The only one I could hear any difference with was the Van Damme Silver, and then only in one particular case, which was from a tube phono amp to a passive preamp to a tube power amp. I make no apologies for the tube stuff - I know that my Pass F6 is much more accurate and revealing, I just like the tube sound more.
 

snickers

Member
Joined
Oct 3, 2019
Messages
49
Likes
27
My speaker cables are self-made one's Bi-Amping wires with the Lapp Oelflex Classic 110 with 4x 6mm2 on each wire for my 3 front speakers.
For my surrounds due to space limitations around the wall, I have the type, just in a smaller diameter.
 

virtua

Active Member
Joined
Oct 3, 2020
Messages
108
Likes
153
I just went on eBay and bought the best looking cables I could find for the lowest price with free shipping, if my gear came with a power cable or USB cable that's what I use. All up I think I've spent less than 20 dollars on cables. There is absolutely no noise to be heard in my system and my Sonata HD Pro + Topping L30 sounds brilliant.
 

kschmit2

Active Member
Joined
Oct 8, 2018
Messages
159
Likes
208
My speaker cables are self-made one's Bi-Amping wires with the Lapp Oelflex Classic 110 with 4x 6mm2 on each wire for my 3 front speakers.
For my surrounds due to space limitations around the wall, I have the type, just in a smaller diameter.
Same here. And also some cables based on other Lapp Oelflex series for longer runs to the surrounds.
 
Top Bottom