[Vintage-Audio] Re Speaker Wire Options

Fri Nov 30 20:10:04 EST 2007

Thank you Bob. I will give them a call in the morning. Thanks for the 'heads 
up'!

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 11:06 PM
Subject: Re: [Vintage-Audio] Re Speaker Wire Options

> Duane.
>
> I just read what the MCM ad had stated. I don't know if there are two 
> hunks of #12 wire, each 25 ft and each having two conductors and 4 
> connectors or some other configuration. Give them a call and ask. 
> 1-800-543-4330 and inquire about part number 58-12185, $14.95 in catalog 
> 711A56 (marked down from $49.95). Odds are that it is a 50 ft of two 
> conductor with 4 pins. You could cut it in half leaving the pins to go 
> into the L100 connectors and the stripped ends to fit under the screws of 
> your amp for each of the two 25 ft chunks.
>
> 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 4:24 PM
> Subject: Re: [Vintage-Audio] Re Speaker Wire Options
>
>
>> 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 **
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> -- 
>>>>> 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 **
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> 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
> 