Mr. stevecham
I would like to clear this subject:
This thread is about
speaker cables.
Your (all of you) system is
a given. I have nothing to do with your choice of equipment.
The idea of speaker cables
to fit the DF has no significance when tube amplification with very low DF is
involved. So is your case. There were other guys who asked me, with tubes, I've
told them the same and they accepted. Please do too.
If such case occur (low DF),
it is not me to say it is not working for that, it is the math behind the idea.
As much as it works for high DF, it is not working for the low DF.
The speakers are not much
of a player in this game. Unless, they are not conventional. Even thou, in the
case of Mr. keppertup it worked very well.
I think that the name:
"speaker cables" are a mistake. They should be called amplifier
cables!
I do not want to get personal in this thread.
Except a few guys who need their daily dose of contemning my thread, for quite
a while, all other are welcome.
Speakers sensitivity or efficiency:
The range goes from the highest (106dB/w/m SPL) to the lowest (85dB/w/m SPL).
There might be exceptions, but this is the majority.
The combination of 88dB/w/m SPL sensitivity
with low impedance of 2.7 Ohms, makes the Thile a taught cocky to drive.
Understanding Damping Factor and its role
in the chain of amplification, cables and speakers:
If I would reflect the audio world into the
car's world, the amplifier would be the engine. The speakers would be the wheels.
For the power (watts) would be the engines HP. The DF is the engines torque.
The speaker cables would be the driveshaft.
We know that an engine with lots of HP but
low torque will not deliver the sporty drive experience. A powerful engine must
have both: the high HP and a high torque.
The fact, that tube amplification has a
problem with DF is an old issue, that been tackled by SS. It is even better
with class D but in a different way, not as with class A/B amplifiers.
Speaker cables as drive shaft, would present
a serial device with some flexibility to be the extension of the amp's DF. A
thin cable would be more flexible, and a thick one more rigid. Why would
someone like to get a car with a strong engine with fantastic torque and than ruin
it with a thin (flexible) driveshaft? To deliver the power from the engine to
the wheels with a high torque engine is like delivering the power of an
amplifier to the speakers from a high DF amplifier. It is about control! The
high DF is more control. A coil loaded speaker requires such control, to overcome
the reactive nature of a moving coil in a magnetic field (speaker structure).
That's the analogy. I hope it helped some to
better understand it.
This relation is not an empiric figure to
guess of find by trial. It is a figure that has values and can be calculated.
The calculation is telling with accuracy, what is the required cable for the
task.
Regarding your system, did you try some other
combinations like matching a very efficient and easy to drive, horn loaded
speaker with your Manelly?
Did you try a powerful SS amp with high DF
and thick cables attached to your Thile?
Even if you did, and you like your sound,
that's O.k. My remarks were pure technical.
