Internal Speaker Cabling

I have performed quite a few modifications to existing commercial loudspeaker designs, some of them being as simple as removing and replacing the factory installed cabling with "better" aftermarket wiring. In every case that i can recall, there was always a very noticeable improvement in the sonic presentation. Then again, this may have come from making better connections just as much as replacing the existing wiring. The wiring used in many of these modifications was nothing fancy in itself and available from just about any source of aftermarket cabling. We are talking about cabling that i paid WAY, WAY under a $1 per foot for, yet it was FAR superior to what was used in speaker designs costing multiple thousands of dollars.

Having said that, a very carefully designed product that is "computer optimized" with very tight production tolerances could be "somewhat mangled" by trying to "upgrade" the internal wiring. As Gregm mentions above, some designs take the specific electrical characteristics of the internal cabling into account, both electrically and sonically.

As a case in point, i ran into this with one specific brand / type of speaker many years ago. When i pulled these apart, i found that the manufacturer was using different wiring in various parts of the loudspeaker circuit. Not only was there a difference in the wiring from the woofer to the tweeter, but also what was running on the positive and the negative to the woofer. For a relatively low cost mass produced speaker line, this demonstrated to me that there are still some products / manufacturers that not only pay attention to details, but also build products with their heart and soul invested into them. Sean
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PS... It is NOT abnormal for an aged loudspeaker system with all new internal wiring / new solder connections to sound bright, incoherent and "peaky" when first fired up after the modifications / internal cabling replacement. In many cases, the speaker will sound appallingly bad, to the point of one thinking that the speaker needs to be "broken in" again and / or is beyond salvaging.

Playing the Ayre Acoustics disc ( Track 7 ) on repeat for an extended period of time can make an absolutely staggering positive difference. The more volume that you can safely feed into the system, the better it will work. Having said that, use caution as this specific track can damage your woofers, tweeters and possibly shake things off the wall. Given that the first 5 seconds of this track are "digital silence", DO NOT attempt to initially overcompensate by cranking up the gain if you can't hear anything. What you will hear will be the sound of your woofer cones popping out of their baskets, your amplifier clipping and your wallet draining at a rapid rate.

Before doing this, I would first listen to the speakers as they are after modification. You might not believe the difference in sonics after a few days of consistently applied signal using a disc such as the Ayre. Until you experience something like this for yourself, it is all too easy to be an "unbeliever" in terms of things like solder joints and wiring "breaking in".

I totally agree,my 6.9 Norh speakers are so beautiful.
But upon opening,the wiring ,used inside, I could tell it
compromise the sound,so I decided to use my siltech
wire, to rewire it, the result in unbelievable.I dont
blame Norh though, the speakers are only $950 shipped.
No way they can use siltech for their asking price.

Yes! Upgrade internal speaker wiring. Madisound indicates the use of Nordost Flatline (rectangular conductors, teflon dialectric), my friend made kit speakers with this wire and they sound more alive/spacious than the same speakers I made with Audioquest Indigo Litz.
Avoid usage of thick, hard to manipulate cable, sucks to work with in enclosures. I have seen the inside of dynaudio speakers (contour/evidence)..that use 12ga zip cord! Due to all the oxygen which can penetrate stranded cheap zip cord..I have seen this wire turn green (oxidize) in 5 yrs.
The best cable I have tried has always been solid core conductors (rectangular or round) with teflon insulation. Exotic arrangements of conductors (litz) don't seem to really improve sonics that much.
I suppose your only concern here is, that speaker designers voiced their designs with whatever wiring they used..so using different wire could throw off their initial voicing. However..if dynaudio uses zipcord..you can discount their engineers belief/understanding of the effects of wiring. Their speakers sound dry and lifless anyway.

Something else to ponder are the quality of the binding posts at the speaker and at the amp,they can also alter the sound of those expensive cables.I like to simply bypass the binding posts whenever I can.If the speaker cable and the internal speaker wire are terminated in spades, it is very simple to use a copper or brass bolt and nut and clamp the two spades one on top of the other.If the internal wiring is not spade terminated it is easy to do this and a wise man would opt to match the spades so that all are the same.

Not to be condescending, but it makes no less sense to buy good speaker cable regardless of the internal wiring, than it does to buy a good CDP.

Many people don't want to get their hands dirty with mods, but anyone can hear the improvement with better cables or better CDPs. Whatever people can justify spending to improve the sound of their system is a worthwhile endevor...

The weakest link should be the next thing to improve, but sometimes links get missed because they are not obvious.

You are certainly wrong when you intimate that speaker manufacturers don't pay much attention to the interanl cables. There are as many divergant opinions about cables as there are speaker design, but most speaker makers are very much aware of the internals.

BUT some speaker makers spend the money where it shows, while others spend it where it sounds...