Honest no-foo speaker cable question

[Jim Audiomisc]

Yep. I covered it in some detail up thread...

I would disagree though that adding a Thiele network can make any amplifier unconditionally stable.

It can be worthwhile doing empirical testing of the required size of damping resistor when it comes to square wave ringing as you can sometimes get away with 1R or less and this pretty much kills the ultrasonic ringing

Agreed. Some potential designs might need more like a 1MOhm series resistor than a 5 microH inductor. 8-]

But for sensible designs any ringing should be small and ultrasonic.

In fairness, though, early transistors and designs made this far harder. So it was hard in the early soild-state days to square (pun) this circle. But by c1980 is was fairly easy to deal with and well understood, and the best transistors were a hell of a lot better, making the task easier.

I recall reading at least one early review where the reviewer clearly thought the ringing was HF instability when to me it looked like the effect of the series inductor.

 

[deebster]

And you don't want to be knowing what you are talking about. Far better to stay on PFM.

Nah, not while I'm having this much fun

Onto 4 pages now. I thought this thread would just burn out

No, in

 

[Mullardman]

It's a cable thread. They are required to go on indefinitely. It's the Law....

 

[Jim Audiomisc]

It's a cable thread. They are required to go on indefinitely. It's the Law....

Its the only way to guarantee the cable impedance is matched, whatever cable you use. ...or at least, no reflected signal from the other end ever comes back to tell you otherwise. (N.B. This is an example of what engineers regard as a joke. )

 

[Arkless Electronics]

.... and too many "Poles" on the wrong side of a plane can be very dangerous

 

[deebster]

Surely resistance goes up the longer they are, impedence too, and capacitance drops off a cliff?

In direct proportion to thickness

 

[PerF]

Will I need to burn them in at night and listen in the day?

Don't forget to shake them

 

[davidsrsb]

Surely resistance goes up the longer they are, impedence too, and capacitance drops off a cliff?

In direct proportion to thickness

Speaker cables are best treated as lumped components at audio and ultrasonic frequencies, you have to go up to VHF before they become transmission lines. Resistance, capacitance and inductance all go up with length.

 

[Konteebos]

Does anyone remember the craze for using 2.5mmsq twin-and-earth solid core mains cable for speaker connection, back in the '80s? As an impoverished student I tried all the cheap tweaks at the time. The sound was fine, but using such inflexible cables was a total pain.

 

[deebster]

Speaker cables are best treated as lumped components at audio and ultrasonic frequencies, you have to go up to VHF before they become transmission lines. Resistance, capacitance and inductance all go up with length.

It was a joke

 

[Arkless Electronics]

Does anyone remember the craze for using 2.5mmsq twin-and-earth solid core mains cable for speaker connection, back in the '80s? As an impoverished student I tried all the cheap tweaks at the time. The sound was fine, but using such inflexible cables was a total pain.

Indeed I do. It is as good as anything else and still a cheap solution. I recall using the super thick stuff for wiring in cookers etc as speaker cable also.... the big problem was that it is so thick, heavy and inflexible that it could pull small speakers over! A mate and I bi-wired his speakers with this stuff at the time....

 

[Konteebos]

Indeed I do. It is as good as anything else and still a cheap solution. I recall using the super thick stuff for wiring in cookers etc as speaker cable also.... the big problem was that it is so thick, heavy and inflexible that it could pull small speakers over! I mate and I bi-wired his speakers with this stuff at the time....

I removed the crossovers from my Rogers LS1 speakers and had them mounted close to my amplifier in boxes, then I had twin-and-earth going to the tweeters and some chunky multi-core going to the woofers. It seemed to make a difference at the time, but when I converted it all back to standard at a later date it all sounded the same...

 

[Tarzan]

I can't remember. Last time I watched Top of the Pops must have been about 1983. When they show old editions from, say, 1987 on BBC4, I don't recognise most of the songs.

Here! Here!

 

[Joe Hutch]

Neither do I.. but I'd query 'old' editions.

'Old' editions are from the 1960s.. except that the BBC in it's infinite lack of wisdom wiped most of them.

But just think; if the '60s TOTPs hadn't been wiped, the BBC would have to wipe them anyway, to remove all traces of Jimmy Savile.

 

[deebster]

Cables arrived and installed, and very nicely put together they are

Just wanted to give some good feedback for @Mark Grant for them

 

[MikeMA]

Will I need to burn them in at night and listen in the day?

And would that be based on urban or nautical twilight?

You don't want to do that! The differences will be night and day!

 

[Andrew C!]

I can only repeat that Mark Grant does a very nice job of making up cables.

Lurking on this thread, but wanted to +1 for his cables. I've used his speaker cables in my av set up, and had some longer mains cables done for neatness etc. Very nice job, especially if you aren't good at making your own...

 

[thejoker]

re termination. My amp and speakers can do spade or banana plugs. Is one any better than the other?

 

[Cereal Killer]

Spades, if you have the choice.

 

[Cereal Killer]

Try CMC terminations from HiFi Collective