Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions My speaker cable quibble

Alright, $300 3-foot speaker cable here, $1000 2 foot cable there, it's all relative.

I've heard numerous reviews of these high tech cable companies saying "you want your speakers to not take on the 'sound' of the cable." Whatever that means. So, I'm thinking, yea, maybe a tiny bit of improvement, but then, it hit me.

INSIDE the speaker, there are speaker cables. Now, lets say you get this super-dee-duper oxygenated whatever cable, and connect it to the speaker. Now, think about this for a second. The interconnects WITHIN the speaker are most likely plain ol' copper. Even though this run of cable is relatively short, whatever gains you expected to get by getting this super-dee-duper cable are effectively thwarted because of the interconnects within the speaker, that probably arn't oxygen free...whatever that speaker cable jargon they use.

So, hypothetically speaking, the speaker cable wire should be of the same quality but at a higher guage rating than the interconnects in the speaker. Any really high tech cable that claims to be better than copper in extending highs and lows, will just get trunicated by the copper interconnects.

I'm just wondering if my assumption is correct. I think one sentence answers such as "yes" or "no" with a tiny bit of reason will keep a war of the worlds happening to this thread as I have seen with other speaker cable threads. Maybe it's hopeless anyways.

I'm guessing that the small amount of wire used inside a speaker has ZERO imapct on your expensive, or inexpensive speaker cable. The distances are far too short.

From Alan at Axiom's audio tips.
"The voice coil of the woofer (the bass driver) contains more than 100 feet of fairly thin wire, much thinner than your speaker cables. It’s that thin wire in the woofer voice coil plus the wire in the tweeter’s voice coil (probably 20 feet or so) and the wires in the crossover that comprise the speaker’s impedance."

Cool thought!

"Discussions" on things that are "hypothetical" and not necessarily "fact"

"What Ifs" rather than "What are"

"How bout this" and "How bout that"

OK....shouldn't start any arguments!

......what's that about "Famous Last Words"??....

Here's a thought, simply a mind experiment not based in fact.

The speaker, as produced, is "the Speaker"

The wires "in" the speaker help give it "its'" sound; good, bad or otherwise. And maybe, just maybe a poor grade wire is used to taylor the sound.....naw; not likely. Hmmmm....

Yeah,...your suggestion makes sense!


I was of the impression that OFC was used to thwart corrosion, so what benifits are obtained by using it inside the box I don't know.(although the super-dee-duper brand is probably bettercause "Barnie" would recommend it!!)

(Yeah, we got "Lots" of kids!!)

Dang,....I don't recall what speaker manufacturer it is, but one of the Majors advertizes "Monster" wire used inside their speakers

Go Figure.
Rich.





oh oh......can-o'-worms No. 2:

(and a question which may not even matter, but it may be an "interesting" question)

What wires do the truly "High-End" speaker manufacturers use inside of "Their" speakers??!!

And if they do use something exotic, is it only a marketing gimmic and not truly benificial? And how do we know?? Yeow!!

Hey!...this could be a whole new ballgame!!

Although for us using Axiom speakers.....hmmmm...
Rich.

I believe it is Klipsch that flaunts having "Monster Inside"...

Pbbbbt.

WhatFurrer

Another peice to chew on:

Most "high end" speaker cables are only available in short distances, 3 - 5 feet where resistance would be very low even with a copper cable...and the runs IN the speaker are at most one foot...

Wharfedale has has Monster inside as well, had a pair of their WH-2 surrounds which proudly proclaimed Monster cable inside.

Ok guys, here's a thought on "Monster Inside"

My understanding is the(unlike Bose, which is not so good at any price)that Monster actually makes some pretty good stuff, just that the price is wildly excessive.

So, if their wires are Ok, and they may or may not add or subtract from the sound quality; who then pays whom?

Does the speaker manufacturer pay Monster for use of the name; or does Monster pay the speaker manufacturer for the advertizing potential? Or does Monster just supply them with the wire at cost and nobody pays(but the customer!) Hmmmmm......

This speaker length question is another fascinating one!

If a manufacturer charged something like $1000(or more)for an eight foot cable....

....how much would they have to charge for all four surrounds in a 7.1 system?

Things that make ya go..hmmmmmm...









.....sorry cable makin' dudes....my surrounds are just as important to me as my mains!

I've been watching the discussion on speaker cables for a while, now. In looking around for more information, I came across a study done by the McIntosh company using different types of cables with their amplifiers and speakers. (Sorry, I don't have the link just now.) They had a sophisticated instant switching mechanism between several types of cables, including romex, zip cable, speaker cable, really thin (24 ga) wires, and high end speaker cables. The cables were all about 20' if I remember right. This was all set up at some of their stores, and also, I believe, at some expos. They would play different types of music on their speakers, switching among the cables, then polling listeners as to which sounded best, or if any difference could be detected. The bottom line was that nearly all the listeners couldn't detect any difference between cables, EXCEPT for the 24 ga wire. Their conclusion was that multi stranded or solid made no difference, nor very low oxygen content copper; the main factor determining an audible difference in the cables appeared to be the total resistance / impedance of the cable, which had to be less than 5% of the speaker's total impedance. At 10% and higher, they noticed that people were actually beginning to percieve a difference. They also concluded that the "difference" people heard with more expensive cables was what they wanted, or needed, to hear because they were looking for, or expecting, an improvement with all the money spent on more expensive cables. Interestingly enough, people at their stores who noticed cheaper cables installed with the demo units insisted on having more expensive cables put in use before they would listen to the equipment. The conclusion here being that they placed a certain amount of trust in the advertising "authority" they were basing their beliefs upon as to the audible differences in cabling.

Have I hit the bee's nest hard enough yet?.......