No one actually knows how to lculate what speaker cable they need

Thanks, I reviewed.

It looks good for me in terms of score.

I replaced like for like in terms of length (so 2 x 2.5m was replaced with 2 x 2.5m). The cost of the new cables was £130 ($170) for a stereo pair of 5 m.

b4icu OP
Mr. geoffkait

What a story over nothing.

Your first par. refers to the burn-in (BI) process without calling it by that specific name.

Burn in to a cooper cables!

I’ll ask you again (asked you already on the BI thread, you avoid from answering with your perfect manners):

What is a burn in?

How long does it takes?

When is it required and why?

Your second par. You do a statement, as you are the absolute authority to define what cable is hi-fi, hi-end or extra-hi-end, and what cable is not (trash cable). You are actually bringing here the lord’s word on cables grading. You are the messenger. If you would understand the original old testimony it its original language (Hebrew) you would know that the miss translated word "Angle" to English is "Messenger" in Hebrew. From your extensive postings on my thread and other’s threads, you are none of the two for sure.

Just kindly remind you, that cooper as an element has fixed (k) conductivity (ρ). It is 1.68x10-8. Or 1.59x10-8 for Silver and it is only 5.3% better than cooper (I know this will make your day…).

A wire (cable) has a resistance (R cable) that is: R = ρ x L/S

L is the lengths in meters and S is the cross section in mm^2

I assume that your judgmental approach is based on the cables isolator look, the color and a scale of reputation given by the firm that you are doing all this for.

Your Third par. You go into some lyrics about the sound. The sound of music…That is fascinating observation, that all the sudden you can tell what someone’s system sound’s, in someone’s room you never heard with any cable, of what it sounds like now with a blue colored thick cable, in incredible detail.

I’m impressed Mr. geoffkait from your lyrics, but I don’t like the tune, the rendition. You’ve got my attention and I got suspicious. For the amount of time and effort you put into your crusade, you must have a motive and maybe a sponsor.

>>>>>A few comments. One, the numbers you give for copper and silver are actually their respective resistance, not conductivity. Thus, the resistance for copper is higher than for silver. From what I gather from the review of the Van Damm Blue cables they are very average in terms of sound quality. Almost ANY cable compared to them would seem fantastic. Lastly, I included the cable burn in comments by the reviewer to suggest that unless the Van Damm cables were properly burned in they would sound even worse than if they were.

Yes, I know the difference between crap sounding cables and high end cables. I doubt that you do, however.

conradnash
I went with Van Dam cable as that’s offered by Mark Grant Cables, a well known and well respected cable maker (in the UK at least).

its also the cables they use in Abbey Road studios, who also happen to use classe amps and B&W speakers.

>>>>One can only hope Abbey Road studios doesn’t employ Van Damme Blue cables in the recording chain. 😀 One can’t help wondering if Abbey Road is cognizant of cable burn in. Probably not. Nevermind.

Mr. geoffkait

What is between resistance and conductivity?

Yes, silver is by 5.4% better than cooper. But the cost...Mr. geoffkait, the cost. Is 94 times higher. You can add 6% to the cross section and save the cost of silver.

For the rest, as you are not responding to my questions, I'll take the liberty to do the same.

 

I'll do answer myself regarding Burn In (BI)

In the military and airborne industry, regarding reliability the attitude is serious. As so, they came out with MIL-STD-785B, MILITARY STANDARD: RELIABILITY PROGRAM FOR SYSTEMS AND EQUIPMENT DEVELOPMENT AND PRODUCTION and  MIL-HDBK-217F, MILITARY HANDBOOK: RELIABILITY PREDICTION OF ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT.

The theory (I'll save you from reading all of it), is that a LRU (line replaceable unit) has a life cycle and a life span. Most of its failures accrue during its childhood and at the end of its days. A BI process (mandatory!) is done on each unit (100% of all batches), in which the units are entered into a temperature chamber that has a bottom vibration plate for 10 cycles. Those cycles are calculated as the MIL STD requires, and their cycle's length and durations are set. By the end of this BI process, the LRU is over its childhood and starts its failure free life cycle.

At the same time the BI also surface craftsmanship and components with poor margins. At an event of a failure, an analysis is conducted and the data is accumulated. Pattern failures will surface engineering or reliability issues if any. During the process, the LRU is turned off at extreme cold (-54 Deg. C) and turned on at -40C. After some time at -40, it will climb to +55 or +70C for a longer period of time. During all that the LRU is "ON" and runs a BI test loop.

So how is that relevant to a speaker cable? As the LRU is not performing any better at the end of the BI process, nether is a cable. BI is not about performance. It is about reliability.

No one, even in the military and airborne industry ever do reliability predictions or reliability verification for single wire. Also the MIL STDs don't require it (it is required only for: SYSTEMS AND EQUIPMENT and ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT, as the MIL STD specifies).

The swindler part of the audio industry and sales borrowed this say to get things working for them. When a guy gets an expensive cable or is demonstrated with one, to be convinced to buy it, and the impression from hearing cession, doesn't cut the deal, The BI comes to their help. It will buy them time to send a full customer home with that item, waist its time (as really nothing changes in the physical level, it remains the same cooper wire with the same properties as before the BI), and the deal is sealed. Don't be full and don't fall into this scheme. Another way to call it, is a full's story over a bad product. An excellent deal for the sales man, but not a good deal for you. Never buy the BI story. Don't be full.

For your info, b4icu, I’m not one of those runny nose, naive, gullible teenagers you’re trying so hard to protect. As far as the relative costs of silver and copper cables your facts seem to be as screwy as always. Maybe your calculator is broken, who knows? As far as MIL Standards go, they are irrelevant to the discussion and can be ignored. But you get an A for name dropping.