[Vintage-Audio] Re Speaker Wire Options

Thu Nov 29 22:52:15 EST 2007

Yes gold is a rather lousy conductor of electricity but it 
is better than most oxides (corrosion). It doesn't take much 
gold to keep the corrosion bugs at bay so it is a practical 
matter to plate even very cheap connectors.

My Daughter-in-law once worked at a connector factory where 
they made connectors with with gold plated pins. Of course 
they had a certain amount of pins that either failed, were 
bent or were other wise unsuitable for their connectors and 
they threw these away. My DiL would bring home a pound or so 
of these trashed connector pins each day and after a couple 
years my industrious son made a small crucible and extracted 
4 lbs of gold which became the down payment on their first 
house.

WBob

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Duane Fischer, W8DBF" <dfischer at usol.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 4:03 PM
Subject: Re: [Vintage-Audio] Re Speaker Wire Options

> Now was that 10K, 14K or 18K Gold plate Bob? (LOL!) You 
> know there is a Skunk with a defective Buttalytic 
> Converter when they tell you the wire is hollow core but 
> is Gold filled!(For those who have a ring that says "10K 
> gold filled" it has a value about equal to that of a ring 
> that is 14K gold plate!)
>
> Did I read somewhere that Silver or Platinum were actually 
> a better conductor than Gold? Of course Gold has the 
> advantage of not being subject to corrosion as most, if 
> not all, other metals are. So in the long run, say to our 
> nearest star, actually a trinary, (3 stars), in the Alpha 
> Centuri system at 4.3 LY, Gold would be a good investment 
> as it is a real pain in the apogee to get "Binary Bytes Or 
> Bust" to make a service call beyond Pluto!
>
>
> 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 **
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -- 
>>>> No virus found in this incoming message.
>>>> Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.503 / Virus 
>>>> Database: 269.16.9/1155 - Release Date: 11/27/2007 8:30 
>>>> PM
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Home: 
>>> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/vintage-audio
>>> List Administrator: Duane Fischer, W8DBF
>>> ** For Assistance: dfischer at usol.com **
>>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Home: 
>> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/vintage-audio
>> List Administrator: Duane Fischer, W8DBF
>> ** For Assistance: dfischer at usol.com **
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> No virus found in this incoming message.
>> Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.503 / Virus 
>> Database: 269.16.9/1155 - Release Date: 11/27/2007 8:30 
>> PM
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Home: 
> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/vintage-audio
> List Administrator: Duane Fischer, W8DBF
> ** For Assistance: dfischer at usol.com **
> 