[Vintage-Audio] Re Speaker Wire Options

[Duane Fischer, W8DBF]

Hello All,

Once upon a time I purchased what was called "Speed Wire" for my James B. 
Lansing Century L-100 speakers. That was a mere thirty-three years ago! Yes, 
I am still using the same wire.

Last Saturday while my Bass singing buddy was here, we were going to remove 
the pair of JVC six-way speaker towers I am using as a mono center channel, 
and replace them with my recently acquired 'second' pair of James B. Lansing 
Century L-100 speakers, with the vintage H.H. Scott LK-72B integrated stereo 
amplifier.  Before you well versed and wonderously wise wizards of wire ask: 
yes I had an external amplifier to power the center channel speakers from 
the LK-72 amplifier. A solid state Marantz integrated stereo amp, no tuner, 
delivering 100 watts per side continuous RMS.

I remembered having a slight power to speaker delay back in 1974 when I 
powered up my Sony TA-1144 integrated stereo amp. A split second after I 
switched the TA-1144 on I heard a sort of 'WHOOSH" sound in both speakers. 
Like the speakers were saying to the human: "OK, let's rock and roll dude, 
as the RMS has finally been delivered! Maybe if you paid your freight bill 
there would be less resistance?"

The delay was caused by me using the wrong gauge or type of wire for audio. 
Or some combination of all, none, or some of the previous! So I got some 
'Speed Wire' a brilliant audio technician I knew suggested. It worked 
beautifully then, and for that matter, still is!

It is two conductor wire, solid core single strand and is about24 or 28 
gauge. It is about half the diameter of what RS currently sells as speaker 
wire.

So I made some calls. First was RS, "Huh? Like we don't sell speed here 
dude. If you want to get wired you'll have to go somewhere else." So I tried 
one of the two high end audio stores in town. This guy was doing his very 
best to sound like a laid back, audio wise, way cool, keenly familiar with 
every quality piece of audio gear manufactured since Ben Franklin invented 
"The Eureka Moment"! He did not confess he had absolutely no idea what the 
heck I was babbling about, but suggested this low resistance scientifically 
superior audio wire manufactured by a small store in Flushing, MI This is 
true! For liability reasons I can not give the name of this store, but if 
you read audio magazines I am sure you came upon the reviews. It sells for 
$3 per foot! I was already wise to this "Oxygen free" and "friction free 
electron electromagnetic field that allowed the electrical signal to travel 
at a higher velocity rate due to molecular alignment and things being in 
uniform phase and ..." The demonstration they give at said store is clever, 
but not true. They create resistance by wiring in such a way as to cause a 
signal delay and also cause some distortion. None of this is visible, so all 
appears to be straight up.

Then they use a second "identical" audio system where the only difference is 
their special wire. Wow! That delay is gone, the distortion vanishes and 
those funny dancing lines on the OhSilly Scope are no longer doing the 
Peppermint Twist but now the Flat Line Funeral March!

All in all, I found absolutely nothing like the Speed Wire I wanted. In 
fact, other then the $3 bucks a foot wonder wire, I did not find any quality 
speaker wire.

Help me out here guys. Tell me about the Speed Wire, please. Since I am 
totally blind, it makes it rather difficult for me to guess the gauge of 
small diameter wire. I need to run 20 feet, plus leave an extra five feet 
for those OOPS! moments, so let's say 25 feet from the amplifier to the 
speaker. The speakers are 8 Ohms. I am not bi-wired or bi-amped. The average 
continuous RMS power is 45 watts.

What would you recommend for efficient wire at a "reasonable" cost?

Thanks!
Duane Fischer, W8DBF/WPE8CXO
dfischer at usol.com
HHI: Halligan's Hallicrafters International
http://www.w9wze.net
HHRP: Historic Halligan Radio Project
hhrp.w9wze.net