Speaker Wire - A History
I believe that this link has previously been posted on this board by somebody else, but I feel the link is worth citing here again.
This historical essay by Roger Russel** conclusively settles the "myth" of speaker wires (at least for those of us who are willing to use some scientific reasoning). But perhaps even more importantly, the essay eloquently depicts the process in which a good scientific reasoning succombed to the powerful marketing forces, through what the author calls "Authority Belief."
** former Director of Acoustic Research at McIntosh Laboratory, Inc. and the founder of McIntosh Loudspeakers.
Allow me to waste some server space to cite a couple of Dr. Russel's paragraphs:
...Gordon Gow's cable demonstration provided a personal experience for customers that could replace the Authority Beliefs they had relied on earlier. The demonstration was controlled. It was an instant comparison and the listeners did not know the wire identification. Gordon held many such demonstrations in dealer showrooms and at shows.
Despite the effectiveness of Gordon's cable demonstration and the truth about speaker wire, people visiting the McIntosh room at the shows, who had not experienced the cable demonstration, were disturbed that we were using ordinary heavy zip cord instead of one of the popular brands of speaker wire. Instead of listening to the McIntosh speakers and electronics, they recalled "bad" things they had been told about "common" speaker wire and this promoted questions about the "inferior" wire being used. When we changed the wire to a popular brand of wire, customers were happy with the setup, and directed their attention to the McIntosh equipment.
The demand for high quality speaker wire was increasing and appeared to be a new marketing area for several companies. McIntosh did not make or sell speaker wire. The solution seemed very obvious--rather than spend time and effort to create negative sales for McIntosh dealers who were beginning to sell speaker wire, it seemed best to encourage the speaker owner/customer to consult with the dealer about what speaker wire to use. Consequently, I no longer recommended the kind of wire or wire sizes in the speaker manuals.
By 1988, McIntosh no longer supplied audio interconnects with the electronics. Again, many kinds of special audio cables were available to the customer/owner. The dealer could also be consulted about what cables to use.
I credit the success of the speaker wire industry to their expert sales and marketing ability. However, it is my experience that ordinary copper wire, as long as it's heavy enough, is just as good as name brands.
While browsing Dr. Russell's web site, I found the following page also informative, and funny!
Audio Distortions - Truth and Humor
Cheers!
