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In the Forum: Audio Discussions
In the Thread: We who are about to die... (a cable thread)
Post Subject: If you're not cheating, you're not tryingPosted by Paul S on: 6/30/2008
Why not try to build on/off the best one has gotten to date? Without some kind of a pivot, there is only drifting; plus, it's got to be nice to have a fall-back position. I'd be perfectly happy to just BUY the damned cable, believe me, if I could find anything interesting that didn't also have some kind of stench attached to it.
As for wire gauges/diameters, I have tried many during my manic foraging. As it happens, I have gotten the best overall balance and "neutrality" so far, at least as far as frequency balance, and with any speakers I've tried as a "tell", using 24 - 26 gauge wire(s), regardless of any "physics" that suggests/"proves" otherwise. I have had better luck so far with multiple strands for speaker cable, and I ass-u-me this is simply due to current demands.
I have forgotten DNM's very impassioned schtick re: the thin parallel singles; but my versions of this just didn't cut it with big +/- FR speakers, for sure. Coherent? yes, up to a point; FR? no.
It has been my understanding that some very expensive "exotic" cables use several strands per leg of very fine gauge wire carefully wound into proprietary "lays". I have been curious for years about some of the modified "tubular" Litz cables that weave multiple strands around a (generally propritary, of course...) dielecric core, including some like this that are also shielded. To repeat, I don't want to shield; I so far regard any shield I have tried as a necessary evil. Also, I still question the "ultra-thin" part of the "exotic" equation, on general principals, with core anxiety rooted in the bad sound of zip cord and general dis-satisfaction with small net gauges.
I also used for a while parallel single-strand copper (~ 20 - 24 gauge; I don't remember), eventually twisted about once every 40mm, but only for speaker wire, since it seemed to act as an antenna when used for IC. I also had some concerns with real or imagined inductance roll-off. In any case, this stuff did not do bass, and it got badly congested on the big stuff with +/- FR speakers, as noted above.
I agree that wire gauge alone affects frequency balance, at least up to a point. In my experience, large diameter wire, past a critical point, is not just stronger in LF relative to thinner wire, but it simply becomes incoherent.
Meanwhile, the sudden onset of exceptionally clean AC on Sunday, and the PROFOUND effect of this on the Sound, got me thinking again about the numerous functions that IC are gererally expected to perform simultaneously. And how annoying is it that most of these functions seem to be at odds with one another, in the sense that trying to optimise any one of them invariably creates issues somewhere else. Basically, I could hardly believe how great my "cable" worked when the AC was great. Sobering.
Paul SRerurn to Romy the Cat's Site