[Vintage-Audio] Re Speaker Wire Options

Thu Nov 29 19:24:09 EST 2007

Hey Bob The Wolf Man,

I just went and Brailled the speaker terminals on the rear of the James B. 
Lansing Century L-100's in my utility room. They are the type that you 
insert the stripped end of the wire into the end of and then twist to 
secure. Not going through the speaker terminal shaft parallel to the cabinet 
and then being held by tightening the screwdown top portion.

The Sony GX-80 ES stereo amplifier uses screwdown plastic ends to secure the 
wires wrapped around the metal terminal shaft. Hence, I would have to cut 
the cable you mentioned in half, two 25 foot lengths, then cut the gold 
plated connectors off both ends of the cables. Considering what I am losing 
to make it work, would buying one still be a good value?

I do not have any amplifiers here with either RCA female or 1/4 inch female 
jacks for speaker connections. Now my commercial sound gear had 1/4 inch 
jacks, but nothing I have ever used for my home sound systems did. Maybe 
just the real high end ones do.

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: "wolfbob" <wolfbob at csnsys.com>
To: "Vintage home and professional audio equipment from 1975 back" 
<vintage-audio at mailman.qth.net>; <w9ran at oneradio.net>
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2007 5:52 PM
Subject: Re: [Vintage-Audio] Re Speaker Wire Options

> Maybe we have a semantics issue here, but there is NO delay in speaker 
> wires. No echo either.  Signals travel down the wire at slightly less than 
> the speed of light or about  one foot per nanosecond. 100 ft =100 nSec or 
> about 0.000001 millisec wnhich is about the smallest delay you can hear. 
> Mis match may produce a reflection but it is only a small fraction of one 
> cycle and again even if in bounced back and forth for one million trips, 
> it would amount to no more than a millisec. delay. It's  gotta be quite 
> tuckered out by 1000 trips much less a million. Also changing the wire 
> size or nature does not effect the mismatch which is simply a concern of 
> the amplifier source imedance and the speaker impedance. The speaker wire 
> is too short (in wavelengths) to get in to the game. Something else was 
> going on.
>
> MCM is having a sale on #12 speaker wire at under $20 for 50 ft with gold 
> plated connectors.
>
> www.mcminone.com
>
> WBob, WB6JPI
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Duane Fischer, W8DBF" <dfischer at usol.com>
> To: <w9ran at oneradio.net>; "Vintage home and professional audio equipment 
> from 1975 back" <vintage-audio at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2007 2:37 PM
> Subject: Re: [Vintage-Audio] Re Speaker Wire Options
>
>
>> All I can report are the facts. The wire I used was either 14 or 18 
>> gauge, multiple strand conductor. There was a definate delay from amp to 
>> speakers due to a mismatch somewhere. The Sony TA-1144 amp was SS and 
>> rated for 8 Ohms, as are the Century L-100's. When I replaced the wire 
>> with the smaller gauge wire the problem vanished. The wire did solve the 
>> problem, whatever it may have been.
>>
>> It was not some fancy wire with wild claims, it was simply wire. It did 
>> not cost much money, it was nothing special.
>>
>> As far as lows falling off etc. Not with this system!
>>
>> So as far as any wild claims, fancy wire etc. Not here guys. Just 
>> inexpensive ordinary wire.
>>
>>
>> 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
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/vintage-audio
>>> List Administrator: Duane Fischer, W8DBF
>>> ** For Assistance: dfischer at usol.com **
>>>
>>>
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>>>
>>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/vintage-audio
>> List Administrator: Duane Fischer, W8DBF
>> ** For Assistance: dfischer at usol.com **
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
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> List Administrator: Duane Fischer, W8DBF
> ** For Assistance: dfischer at usol.com **
>
>
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