Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Bi-wiring and Speaker wires: Is it necessary?

Saturn,
Its very possible that your nine year old Monster cables had some oxidized ends or sections or possibly were not a completely copper material that could make a difference in sound between the newer Kimbers. I would say this is somewhat possible but i cannot judge as to how large the effect would be.

I was also looking at Kimber cable many months ago when i was having trouble finding anything cheaper here in Canada (cheaper and yet stereo quality that is, since the Home Depot material, 12ga was still a buck fifty a foot and more stiff than clothes hangers).
As cables expense goes, i would agree with Semi in that Kimbers have a neat look and are a decent make but lower priced than most.
The biggest problem in buying such cables is the markup. I saw a 'standard' price for some Kimbers (can't remember the model offhand) at around $7 a foot and through a connection who sells the material, they were going to offer it for $4 a foot. Knowing that my connection was still going to make a profit, what does that tell you about the retail markup of these things?
Absolutely ridiculous.
It is the equivalent of paying $60,000 for a Honda Civic. No one would pay that much for such a vehicle but when it comes to cable, the logical approach goes out the door. Perhaps people have a better idea how to judge the value of a vehicle better than the value of home electronics and components.

In any event, as long as you don't post a detailed description of how your Kimbers changed your life by turning the upper frequencies yellow, made the mids make your morning toasts and the lows send the shuttle into space let alone sound great then i'm good with whatever you find makes a difference to you.

morning toasts.... hahahaha

point taken.

I thought i would post this link i came across while looking at the Hsu subwoofers pages:

Hsu sitepage

This is rarely seen but refreshing to see.
Hsu, the reknowned sub makers (sushi just bought one), are selling subwoofer cable for a whopping 50 cents a foot and even recommend/suggest using a plain old Radio Shack y-cable if you are splitting the signal.

Its not too often you see a speaker company selling or recommending the "cheap" or often called "low quality" speaker wire.

Ah... you found it, chess.

And I bought it! LOL

When you buy the cable with your subwoofer, you further save whopping $5 on the cable! Now it is 25 cents/ft.

You know, I bought the Axioms; I bought the Hsu... Do you see some behavioral patterns here? LOL

Ah... you found it, chess.

And I bought it! LOL

When you buy the cable with your subwoofer, you further save whopping $5 on the cable! Now it is 25 cents/ft.

In reply to:

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Its not too often you see a speaker company selling or recommending the "cheap" or often called "low quality" speaker wire.

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There's a link around here somewhere from the people at McIntosh that explain this phenomenon. They actually were at a trade show and were using lamp wire with their setup to demo their new units. They wound up having to go get expensive speaker wire because people were biasing themselves based on the fact they could see the cheap wire.

Every time they made people do blind listening, everyone failed, but as soon as they saw the wire, they heard all kinds of boogie men. It's an interesting read if you can find it.

I read that about the Macintosh owner as well, that he was not one to condone using expensive cable to increase sound quality.

Maybe they should have hid the cables under a rug and told people they were Cardost. I would bet money that you would have ppl come along and say "oh ya, those sound like Cardost cables".
Then perhaps you could tell the browser that you also have some MIT cables they could hear, walk around back and simply swap the lamp cord for another set of lamp cord.
Of course that is just being evil and playing with people's minds. You would offend way too many and then of course not sell your product all too well.

This may have been posted elsewhere, but for those that are interested, here is the link to "Speaker Wire - A History" by Roger Russell formally of McIntosh. Very interesting reading, expecially the part on wire gauge, blind testing, well actually all of it. Enjoy.

http://home.earthlink.net/~rogerr7/wire.htm

Saturn,

Man, you sure know how to liven up a lull in a message board. Here is yet another article concering "wire".
www.audioholics.com/FAQS/Audioquest.html.

mwc

That was a nifty discussion. A good take on marketing skill and scientific spin.

Thanks for the link mwc.