[Vintage-Audio] Re Speaker Wire Options

[wolfbob]

Duane.

I said it before and will always say it. USE BIG WIRE. Think 
of Ohms Law a minute. If you are running 20 watts into what 
is probably 4 ohms (at 50-100 Hz into a big speaker. They 
are 8 ohms or so at 1000Hz) you will have about 9 volts 
across the speaker and will be drawing about 2.5 amps. Now 
if your speaker wire has 0.5 ohm of resistance you will 
loose 1.25 volts or about 2 dB of bass. You can easily hear 
this loss. If you don't believe me run your #24+ wire and in 
parallel run some #14 or #12 and do an A/B test and play 
your bass singer. He will fade into the background. I have 
#14 speaker wire ala RS running to all my speakers. Things 
get much worse if you are punching those JBLs with some real 
peaks. They just won't be peaks anymore as the IR losses eat 
away your great audio.

WBob


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Duane Fischer, W8DBF" <dfischer at usol.com>
To: <vintage-audio at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 7:06 PM
Subject: [Vintage-Audio] Re Speaker Wire Options


>
>
> 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
>
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