How to select a good Speaker Cable

Mr. kozka

Your name is a "dice" (kocka) in Hungarian. Best regards (Egészségért).

To whom do you answer with your post?

For the sake of this conversation, we are in speaker cables and their effect on the system’s sound. Just semantics...
They do make a difference. It can be shown with calculations.
It can be demonstrated by two different cables, of the same length, but different cross section.

No one recommend to stuck a cable into someone's ear. Especially not one as thick as
#0 awg as I offered to some.

I just love cable fantasies combined with insanity. Say do you need a cable cooker to make these work right? Are they directional?

Mr. mahlman

I do not use Voodoo or other kinds of magic  to get to a better sound.
I use physics, and mathematics (Electronics) to calculate and build a cable. That's the only thing that makes sense to me. 

Directional: Sound is an AC signal. It's nature to flow 50% of the time in one direction and the other 50% of the time in the other. (Nyquist theory, that all AC signals can be broken down into sine waves, is the basic of digital Audio!).
When you claim on a cable it's directional, which  50% of the time it benefits, and which  50% of the time it doesn't?

Cooker: the melting point of Copper is:  1,085 °C
In the process of making a cable, it is melted. Once it solidifies, the metal structure is set. No heating under that melting point would change that.
So is the other direction: Cryo treatment. No effect on conductivity.
When using supper conductivity, in extreme cold: (close to the 0 Kelvin = -297 °C) it is not a copper conductor, but composite material. None apply to Audio. They are used in supercomputers or cold fusion attempts.

Do you have more Speaker cables sales BS?  
It's fun to crash them, one at a time. There are so many. The latest is called: Geometry.
It will expend for Quantum physics, String theory, Singularity quiq to come and maybe lean over older fashioned religious blessing or cursing, to get ignorance to the a new hight.

As some issues on cables and speaker cables were pointed out (directional and cooker), I feel that the obvious need to be said:

All cable stories ever been told by speaker cables makers or sales rep's,
are a lie. An ugly lie, to enhance sales over clients ignorance. 

The fact is, that none of them ever came out with a reasonable say what cable we need, or why cable A is better than cable B. A shame.
An entire industry sale a product, that they have absolutely no idea what
it should be to fit a customer's sound system.

This is the situation even in those very moments, I'm writing those lines. 

Dear Michael,

You are right, again.

0 AWG wire delivered yesterday.  Within two hours I had it installed in the system.  Each side is now driven by 2x0 AWG cable.  Best $67 tweak, yet.

Two steps closer to believing the performers are in the room.  New aural clues being processed by my tiny brain.  Resolution from 30hz to 16khz was improved.

In-room Pink Noise Real Time Analyzer graph unchanged.  Response curve is slightly jagged but flat.

I used a different type of cable for the second run (Welding cable linked above).  I was unable to source the cable used for the first batch of cables.  The new cable is more flexible and easier to work with.  It's OD is 9/16" and therefore the plastic hose clamps previous used did not work well.  Metal screw tightening hose clamps would work, but they are a bit cumbersome.  Consequently, I wrapped the cable ends with Gorilla tape to hold the walls of the insulation.  I then screwed a #12 1- 1/2" brass round head wood screw into the center of the cable strands to secure a #10 eyelet with a 3" 10 AWG tail crimped and soldered to it. Spades at one end and banana plugs at the other were installed to the eight tails for connection to the system. Exposed surfaces were wrapped with Gorilla tape pending the ordering and installation of heat shrink tubing.

The speaker cables are 5 feet long, not six. At the risk of being redundant, do your calculations suggest an additional one or two 0 AWG cables would further improve the performance of the system?  If you think further improvement can be achieved, I will be ordering another length of cable.

Again, thanks for the generosity of your time and talent.

All good wishes,

J