Doubling a Set of Speaker Cables


While reading a "professional "review of the Daedalus Audio Ulysses Floorstanding Speaker, the reviewer is adamant about the improvement TWO sets of speaker cables connected to each speaker - regardless of the brand - makes.

This is something that crossed my mind long ago, prior to reading it now, but I’ve never realistically considered trying it nor have I ever come across this in a review. At face-value it seems to me this technique would do more harm than good. I’m wondering if there are any folks on the forum using this technique of two sets of cables (and as mentioned in the article this is irrespective of bi-amping or merely using a smaller gauge) and if so, can/do you vouch for any "improvement" one should expect.

Thanks.

http://www.dagogo.com/daedalus-audio-ulysses-floorstanding-speaker-and-bass-optimization-woofer-bow-...
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Showing 3 responses by gdhal

@almarg thank you for putting this into perspective, including a mention as to the credibility or lack thereof of the author of that review. I imagined this post would spark some interest for you, obviously because of the Daedalus speakers themselves. Furthermore, you’re welcome :)

@bdp24 thank you for the information about clear day. I did take a cursory look at their site http://www.cleardaycables.com/shotgun.php
and will give the matter some more reading. Honestly though my "gut" feeling is that testing (albeit just a trial) could be more trouble than its worth. I liken this to "if it ain’t broke don’t fix it" kind of thing. Besides, I’m already content with the sound I'm getting (although remain open to improvement). Is double cabling something you have tried with success? This is the essence of what I’m looking to understand by writing this thread. Curious if there are any forum members that have actually tried this and can attest to a perceived or measured improvement.

I appreciate the feedback from all of you. At least there are some goners here that have tried this doubling technique and report positive results. That too gives me something to consider.

I'm currently using Belden 5T00UP wire. That's not entirely by choice and is somewhat dictated by cost as I simply wouldn't feel comfortable spending hundreds if not thousands on cables, like the Graphene cables mentioned in another thread or many of the other exotic cables out there. In addition, I'm connecting the bare wire to the binding posts and they wouldn't accept a larger wire / small gauge, so to even try doubling I would need spade connectors or similar.

This is an excerpt from the Blue Jeans Cables website. While this has essentially been stated in this thread, they sum it up rather eloquently.

"Because speakers are driven at low impedance (typically 4 or 8 ohms) and high current, speaker cables are, for all practical purposes, immune from interference from EMI or RFI, so shielding isn't required. The low impedance of the circuit, meanwhile, makes capacitance, which can be an issue in high-impedance line or microphone-level connections practically irrelevant. The biggest issue in speaker cables, from the point of view of sound quality, is simply conductivity; the lower the resistance of the cable, the lower the contribution of the speaker cable's resistance to the damping factor, and the flatter the frequency response will be. While one can spend thousands of dollars on exotic speaker cable, in the end analysis, it's the sheer conductivity of the cable, and (barring a really odd design, which may introduce various undesirable effects) little else that matters. The answer to keeping conductivity high is simple: the larger the wire, the lower the resistance, and the higher the conductivity. "
@miko71 I tend to agree with you. This is why I am using Blue Jeans Cables (10 gauge Belden wire) and have posted Blue Jeans write-up on the matter previously in this thread. They do sum it up rather eloquently. 

That said, it is noteworthy that certain manufactures (such as clearday also mentioned in this thread) have a purpose built double cable, and that I found at least one "pro" review (of a rather high end speaker too for that matter) raving about doubling the wire.

Hence this thread is merely to solicit the opinions and facts of our resident experts.