Speaker cables

Riaan

For the past four years I hardly ever had the chance to watch my music DVD's on my home entertainment system, due to the fact that I'm outnumbered by 3:1, and the majority of the household want to watch Tannie Carike, Postman Pat, Teletubbies...over and over, and then over and over again. They don't appreciate Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin etc. when they're played over and over again, and then over and over again... ???

So I finally showed them who's in charge of this household, there'll be no more kiddies DVD's on my system... >☹...well the truth is I got a cheaper surround sound combo unit for the living room, so the kids can still watch their DVD's while I'm moving my higher end system to my music room.

Thing is however, the speaker cables (rather thin ones that came with the surround sound speakers) runs through the roofspace, and I'm too damn lazy to climb up there again and take out the cables. I figured I'll use those cables for the cheaper system, and just get new speaker cables for my system's speakers.

Does it really matter that much what kind of speaker cable I use? Why not simply use ordinary flex? Would the low priced sold-by-the-meter speaker cable available from hi-fi shops be OK even though they're much thicker than the cables the speakers came with?

Gearhead

There is no subject between audiophiles more subjective (cheap/expensive) and no product range fuller of snake oil than the cable segment, yeehaa!

Riaan wrote Why not simply use ordinary flex?

If you only judge from high-end audiophile cables, no-one believes that they actually should be shielded, so that is a start: you're just looking for a pair of side by side conductors.

The next thing is, how well should they conduct? The lower the resistance, the better the bass response, since with bass the damping factor of your amp is crucial. The current is also high. Imho, if you want to save money on cable for bass, put the woofer close to the amp and get thick cable from the hifi shop (4mm2 is plenty thick enough for 100W on 2-3m). The resistance is still important with mid/high speakers, but less crucial. In fact, thick cable is generally regarded as detrimental to sparkling highs. So again the motto is: if you want to save money, take the shortest route from amp to speaker and leave the ceiling alone. For best results (again opinion), look for thinner cable at the same price segment per meter as the thicker bass stuff.

AlanRatcliffe

Good post Gearhead.

I think the lower the resistance the better - often the speakers in these systems are 4 Ohms, so I presume a cable measuring 2 Ohms will probably make a difference. I have some heavy duty Monster cable I bought a while ago for studio monitors (I use powered monitors now, so don't need it in that application) on the sub and centre channel and have the "by the metre" Monster XP cable for the front and rear. Seems to work fine.

I don't like using mains cables for speakers because they are not as flexible - they often sound fine, but once the wires tangle and twist, they stay twisted.

Gearhead

Alan Ratcliffe wrote I think the lower the resistance the better - often the speakers in these systems are 4 Ohms, so I presume a cable measuring 2 Ohms will probably make a difference.

That is not what you compare it against, the resistance of the speaker is what does the work. The output impedance of a good amp is <0.1 ohm so 0.1 ohm makes a huge difference....

Resistances in the loop between amp and speaker will influence the damping factor. This means that the amp will be less able to control the speaker at its resonant frequency. Mid-freq drivers and tweeters are rarely used anywhere near their resonance but unfortunately woofers are, hence the importance of low resistance cable for bass.