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Would you change your amp selection knowing...?

OK - so this thread was promted by some comments on another thread - not wanting to hijack that thread I created this one...

ISSUE: some high current designed amps have an issue with speaker cables that have a high capacitance.
- the amp can be driven to self destruction because of internal oscilation caused by the high capacitance of the speaker cable
- this does NOT apply to Tube amps - i.e. to my knowledge

The amps I know of that are affected in this way are Ayre, Gryphon and NAIM
- only NAIM warns of this up front AND instruct their dealers to let customers know about it

So why don’t other brands warn about the possibility?

QUESTION:
- would it put you off?
- would you select a different amp if the manufacturer warned of this "issue" up front?

Cheers



williewonka
erik_squires
16,058 posts
 
Thinking of Wonder Cable, yes, this is possible. It warms up the sound, and enhances imaging.

The oscillation part though, IMHO this is poor design. First, I don't know of any cable that has more capacitance than an ESL speaker. Second, it is easy to deal with this, and usually is, with an appropriate output snubbing network, or massively over-built output stage like Sander's Sound does.
shadorne's avatar
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shadorne
7,477 posts
 
Appropriate speaker cable should not be high capacitance. 

There is plenty of badly designed equipment around - don’t choose said equipment.
czarivey
5,946 posts
 
alpha core speaker cable has very high C. trash fo sho.
newbee
4,767 posts
 
How come cable manufacturers don't warn potential customers? Surely they know, more so than amp manufacturers perhaps. 
stereo5's avatar
stereo5
6,388 posts
 
When I bought an Odyssey amp years ago, I was warned NOT to use the Goertz flat cables because they would put the amp into oscillation.
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