[Vintage-Audio] Re Speaker Wire Options

Thu Nov 29 18:33:27 EST 2007

I went back and read the various posts commenting on speaker wire.

Let me set the record straight. I bought the James B. Lansing Century 
L-100's new in August of 1974. The store was on Dort Highway and was named 
Teletronics. (long out of business). I paid a few cents under $300 per 
speaker. They sold me "no" wire.

I was using a solid state Sony TA-1144 integrated stereo amplifier. Which I 
still have and is powering the audio for my oldest grandson's Sony PS2 
machine! I think it has 35 watts RMS per channel.

I disconnected my James B. Lansing 8 inch full range speakers in bass reflex 
cabinets. The cabinets were built by my late father, a Carpenter, per 
instructions JBL supplied with the speakers. The speaker wire in use was 
probably lamp cord!

The electronics technician who suggested the 'speed wire' did not even sell 
it. I think I bought fifty feet from a hardware store. Where ever I got it, 
it was not "special" or "expensive". Just wire. Possibly even doorbell wire 
as one post suggested.

It solved the delay problem, Ohms law, a Monkey's bronze gonads or whatever. 
I can not complain, as after thirty-three years it is still working great!

I have heavier wire, fourteen gauge multiple strand, on the ten other 
speaker enclosures in use. Nothing special, just the standard speaker wire 
sold everywhere.

Perhaps the real issue was something in the TA-1144 and the Century L-100's 
that did not agree with each other. All I know is that this 'speed wire' 
solved the problem, there is NO bass fade out, fall off or any other audible 
issue that I can hear. And with my hearing, after thirty-three years of 
listening to these speakers, I should have detected something amiss before. 
At least I think so anyhow.

As far as "speed wire", for all I know that was this audio tech's slang term 
for doorbell wire! To me, speed=velocity. Just as with coax, distance of the 
run, frequency of the signal, amount of continuous or 'mean' power, 
efficiency of the antenna (or speaker) etc. all get mixed into the soup of 
the velocity factor. However, Ohms Law is like all other laws, they are not 
without exception.

I am not going to take one of them down from the ceiling mount to test Wolf 
Man Bob's decree. But I will test one of the two in the utility room when I 
can get somebody to help me carry it into the living room and park it atop 
something hefty enough to support its weight!

I would be thrilled if it performs better! I hope it does! Then Bob you can 
get your rump to my QTH to help me run the new wire through the drywall, 
down to the floor, fish it out of the drywall, put it through a hole we just 
drilled through my utility room floor, go under the house in the comfy crawl 
space, find the dangling wire, shove it up through the hole behind the 
stereo console and I will grab it! Sounds like a plan to me!

Not to worry either Wolf Man Bob or Bob the Nickel Man, as my crawl space is 
BIG! About forty inches high, floor has bisquine on it, concrete block side 
walls have styrofoam for a vapor barrier, walls have automatic open/close 
air vents etc. So it is pretty comfy and clean and easy to navigate as crawl 
spaces go!

The worst job is going to be fishing the dangling end of the new wire out of 
the interior wall when it is enclosed by 3/4 inch thick drywall on both 
sides! Why do I think I am going to get that job? Somebody is certain to 
assert that a blind man's super sense of touch would make it much easier for 
him to find the wire and fish it out then for a sighted person. Hmmm.

Have any of you seen the Ads for this wire sold by this small company in 
Flushing, MI? I'm going to have to drop a dime ... OOPS! ... How much is a 
pay telephone call nowadays anyhow? ... And make a few calls to get a name 
for this serious sound wire stuff.

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

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert Nickels" <w9ran at oneradio.net>
To: "Vintage home and professional audio equipment from 1975 back" 
<vintage-audio at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2007 8:11 PM
Subject: Re: [Vintage-Audio] Re Speaker Wire Options

> Well,
>
> There's a lot of personal opinions about speaker wire, and obviously some 
> of them come from those who make a lot of money by creating demand based 
> on FUD (Fear Uncertainty and Doubt).   I don't buy into any of that, and 
> sorry Duane I don't buy that some small gauge  "speed wire" has superior 
> properties either, at least without knowing more about it's composition, 
> and I have been unable to find any reference to it on the web.
>
> What I do believe is that connecting an amplifier to a load follows the 
> same laws of physics that govern every other electronic interconnection. 
> Resistance in series creates a power loss and the speaker won't sound as 
> loud.  And if the speaker impedance is not constant, then the effect of 
> increased resistance in series will have greater effect at those 
> frequencies where the speaker impedance is highest, altering the sound. 
> It matters not whether your speakers are connected with  zip cord, lamp 
> cord, coaxial cable or barbed wire spaced on vintage glass insulators (see 
> the link below) - as long as the wire gauge chosen provides a sufficiently 
> low resistance for the cable length required, it will do the same job and 
> sound just fine.  Honest testing based on measurable parameters over the 
> years has repeatedly confirmed that there is no difference between the 
> performance of properly selected "cheap wire" and the high priced 
> audiophool wire.
>
> I don't intend to offend anyone - if you think something sounds better, 
> use it!  It's a hobby after all.   For a no nonsense treatment of this 
> topic and the data to back it up, see 
> http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm   OK there's a little nonsense 
> there, but it's toward the end of the page!
>
> 73, Bob W9RAN
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