Is better speaker wire a big deal or what?

GoBlue

So if you look at my signature down there, and notice the Adcom 2ch amp, and the AR9's... all I have is regular 14 or 16 gauge wire running between them. Ive seen a lot of "high end" amp to speaker specific wires out there. Do they make a noticeable difference? Thanks!

mhardy6647

Audible differences between speaker cables? Yes, often.
Cannot beat empiricism.

heiney9

Do a search.................dead horse. This has been discussed ad nauseum since the beginning.

We DO NOT NEED another cable thread.

H9

BlueFox

GoBlue wrote: »

Ive seen a lot of "high end" amp to speaker specific wires out there. Do they make a noticeable difference? Thanks!

If you have good hearing, and good gear, then, yes, better cables make an audible difference. At least for me, different cables have made a difference. The question that only you can answer is at what price point do you feel the difference is worth the cost. Some people are happy with hardware store 12 gauge wire, and others are happy with "slightly" more expensive wire. Both are correct.

This also applies to all cables, such as power cords, interconnects, speaker jumpers, and speaker cables.

leroyjr1

Yes, depending on cables and gear. IMO it should be one of the last upgrades in your system, everything else should be in order first.

inspiredsports

GoBlue wrote: »

So if you look at my signature down there, and notice the Adcom 2ch amp, and the AR9's... all I have is regular 14 or 16 gauge wire running between them. Ive seen a lot of "high end" amp to speaker specific wires out there. Do they make a noticeable difference? Thanks!

It depends upon who you talk to.

As above, there are enough cable threads archived here at CP to keep you busy reading for at least a year.

I started reading cable threads in late November of 2008, and have amassed well cables valued well into 5 figures since, so I guess you can figure out my opinion.

F1nut

If you met all the requirements, you could find out yourself for nothing more than the cost of shipping.

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?115800-MIT-CVT-1-Cable-Demo-Review-Round-3

headrott

Jesse has the best advice.

Greg

rebuy

He wants up to date speaker wire advice.

decal

Strictly a personal thing, IMHO.

cnh

This is the most "civil" cable thread I've seen since Jinjuku was banned! I'm with everyone above. And that's a generous offer by Jesse (F1nut) above!

cnh

Tour2ma

cnh wrote: »

... that's a generous offer by Jesse (F1nut) above!

It sure is...

Even if he is a likely Michigan U fan... you gotta believe GoBlue meets the criteria... or else Jesse wouldn't have brought up the program.

F1nut wrote: »

-More than six months in Club Polk of ACTIVE and PRODUCTIVE participation.

-Positive Feedback in our Flea Market.

Oops... nevermind...

Tour2ma

Damn edit window timed out on me before I added...

h9,
Yea there are a ton of wire threads, but WTH kinda reply was that? It's "Member of the Year" not "Dick of the Year"...

Blue,
Lotta other good replies above.

How much difference might you hear with "better wire" in your Adcom/ AR9 rig??? Dunno... but finding out for yourself is where the fun is.

There are a many options for little money to get your ears on speaker wire that may be a step up from your lightweight, stock wire (lamp cord?). Budget names include Signal Cable, Blue Jeans, but even Loews/ Home Depot 12 ga "speaker wire" by the foot might be a step up.

I bought a spool from Loews years ago for my previous home's HT. I used almost the entire spool... a LOT of wire as my electronics were in the room next to the listening area. It was a definite step up IMO. Never felt the need to move beyond... and given the length of the runs it would have been cost prohibitive to do so. Different circumstances now will likely lead to different decision(s).

Going used will save you even more and/ or get you a bit higher in the wire hierarchy, e.g., entry level MIT. Some will be in this Forums Flea Market. Some will be on ebay, Audiogon, etc. And if you nab a Flea Market deal, you'll meet your Feedback requirement...

heiney9

Tour2ma wrote: »

Damn edit window timed out on me before I added...

h9,
Yea there are a ton of wire threads, but WTH kinda reply was that? It's "Member of the Year" not "Dick of the Year"...

It's a sore spot and 99.9% of the time spirals down, down, down.........there are enough dead horses in the hundreds of cable threads to feed a small country. Sorry you took offense to my response. I'm pretty sure with responses like your's you can contend for the latter if you wish.

H9

Tour2ma

As an esteemed member once said...

heiney9 wrote: »

I know I can be abrasive sometimes because my approach is to be direct and to the point.

Goose...
Gander...
Got it?

TECHNOKID

GoBlue wrote: »

So if you look at my signature down there, and notice the Adcom 2ch amp, and the AR9's... all I have is regular 14 or 16 gauge wire running between them. Ive seen a lot of "high end" amp to speaker specific wires out there. Do they make a noticeable difference? Thanks!

F1nut wrote: »

If you met all the requirements, you could find out yourself for nothing more than the cost of shipping.

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?115800-MIT-CVT-1-Cable-Demo-Review-Round-3

F1 provides the best answer to your question/quest. Personal demo with your personalized system, make your own mind via your own ears. Get an answer which is specifically tailored to your personal experience and needs. No better advice than your own ears as the advices you may get from this thread (as good as they can be) would be personalized experiences and/or beliefs. Like religion and/or politics it?s not up for debate but rather up to personal experience and choice.

KaosTsoc

Sorry for the lenght on this, but want to give you a straight shot answer.

Well IMO I think having good sheilded wire is what you should look at. You dont have to spend a bunch of money on so called "high quality" cable, but I also dont beleive that buying super cheep wire, or using lamp wire either. Here is my thought for what it is worth...... Our vehicles are not perfect inviorments. There is alot going on as far as inviorment goes. Lots of reflections, rattling, and electrical fields. I am going to focus on the elctrical fields in this case, cause that is were this question more or less lies in. All wires that pass any kind of electrical current throught it, also produces an electrical field. This field can sometimes intefere with other cables, and can "bleed" into those cables, causing unwanted hiss, or noise. So, the best way to combat that can be done in two ways. 1) If you are going to buy cheeper wire from like Home Depot, Lowes, or whatever. This is fine, but just make sure you put that wire into a flum. The Flum will help prevent the "bleeding" of other electrical fields into you audio wire. Just be aware that wire flum is not really cheep. This will also help if your power wire for amp is close to your speaker wire. In most cases this is the culprit when you hear a hiss, or something to that effect. This is due to the amount of current running through the wire, and since the wire is handeling more power it will have a bigger electrical field, were as with normal speaker wire it does not. Also if your power wire, and speaker wire do come close, or come in contact with each other. Try to cross the wires at 90 degree angles. Try not to run them side by side if you can. If they must run side by side, and your using cheeper wire. Flum the area, or run length of either the power wire, or the speaker wire, of you want to do both then hey go for it. 2) You can buy wire that is already in a clear PVC jacketing. Granted the wire will be a bit more expensive, but if you look in the right places you can find this wire somewhat cheep. The PVC jacketing is like a flum so to speak, and will help with keeping the "bleeding" of other electrical fields into the speaker wire. Now like I mentioned in #1. If you are running this wire next to a power wire, you might want to flum that area as well. This is more prevenative more than anything, and is something that I would do myself, but not really needed if you do not hear noise. Now if you still hear noise, then you may want to flum that run, or area. Also if you power wire, and speaker wire do come close, or come in contact with each other. Try to cross the wires at 90 degree angles. Try not to run them side by side if you can. Now the argument that happens all the time, is you need to buy "this" expensive wire to get good sound. Some say wire is wire, and just use lamp wire. so on, and so on, and so on..... you get the point. The wire I am using is this:

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_8180_Monster-Cable-MPC-S302-2C-15M.html

I got this cause of the interference in my truck. I also used these RCA's as well for the same reason.

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_11783_JL-Audio-XB-CLRAIC4-18.html

There are other companies that make this kind of wire as well, so you dont have to use what I put in here. Just used them as an example.
Both of the wire, and RCA's were not too expensive, but not cheep either. Just somewhere in the middle. Now for the RCA run. I did have to cross over my power wire, but I put some flum around that area, and was happy with that, and have not heard any unwanted hissing, buzzing, or whining noise at all. All in all does wire make a difference? I think so. Do you need to buy super high end wire? I dont think so. Do you need to do your own testing? I think so. I also think that good wire is better than cheep crap, and better on the wallet than high end wire. I hope this helps you out.

Thanks.

Tour2ma

^ About the only caution I'd add is not to coil excess speaker wire length as it can re-induct itself...

But I have to ask, what's a "flum"? Googling "wire flum" produces this thread and a bunch of stuff about a guy named Flum that makes wire racks for wine storage amongst other things.

BlueFox

Tour2ma wrote:

But I have to ask, what's a "flum"? Googling "wire flum" produces this thread and a bunch of stuff about a guy named Flum that makes wire racks for wine storage amongst other things.

I think the 'flum' poster, KaosTsoc, is flumoxed. He is talking about car stereos. :rolleyes:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/flummox

Tour2ma

LOL.... caught the car audio inclination, but also a hint of some kind of shielding...

KaosTsoc

Well first thing, I think I missread your post, sorry about that, but I think the same sort of idea would still apply. Second, I have not idea why this will not come up via google, but yes wire flum is a a plastic shield that you can put your wire into. It is split in the middle, and usually is from start to end. I have only known it as wire flum, or flume maybe, or maybe I am just misspelling it altogether.

Thanks.

F1nut

but yes wire flum is a a plastic shield that you can put your wire into. It is split in the middle, and usually is from start to end.

It's called a split loom.

cheep

It is spelled, cheap.

If you are going to buy cheeper wire from like Home Depot, Lowes, or whatever. This is fine, but just make sure you put that wire into a flum. The Flum will help prevent the "bleeding" of other electrical fields into you audio wire.

No, it will not. The shielding properties of a thin plastic split loom are not enough to prevent EMI/RF.

TECHNOKID

I too wondered about the flum comment and couldn't figure out what the heck it was.

No, it will not. The shielding properties of a thin plastic split loom are not enough to prevent EMI/RF.

Exactly as EMI has to be dealt electrically by mean of shielded wires not counting that I sure wouldn't want to see plastic split loom running behind my audio rack or even aywhere in any in-home audio set-up, would be useless anyway. It sure is OK in a car environment hidden under carpeting and body but IMHO, out of place in the home rig (be HT or 2 channels).

dorokusai

Plastic wire loom has no EMI/RF shielding properties in any way, shape or flume. However, I think it's fine to route wires and bundle the same types of cables together provided they're actually shielded with a drain wire or with sheathing. Unless they're optical or balanced....to wit it REALLY doesn't matter.

As far as coiling up excess cables for "re-inductance", I wouldn't worry about it unless it's 20+ feet or so and you happen to have tightly wound it around a spare power cable you had laying around. A few feet make no difference.

F1nut

Plastic wire loom has no EMI/RF shielding properties in any way, shape or flume.

Someone took their witty and clever pill today.

TECHNOKID

Maybe under the influence of some good flume perhaps?

TECHNOKID

zinnat123 spam reported!

Tour2ma

F1nut wrote: »

Someone took their witty and clever pill today.

At least he has some...

Tour2ma

dorokusai wrote: »

As far as coiling up excess cables for "re-inductance", I wouldn't worry about it unless it's 20+ feet or so and you happen to have tightly wound it around a spare power cable you had laying around. A few feet make no difference.

No doubt length is a factor, but so is the size (circumference) of the coil...