Should I upgrade my speaker cables?


I got 4 Classe 25s that are bridged and pumping out 4000 watts to my Bower 802D3s , im bi amping and running 1000 to the highs and 1000 to the lows of each speaker, got 2 sets of Nordost Heimdell 2 speaker cables, which have 18 lines of 22 awg solid core copper. I feel that might be to thin to be running 1000 watts and considering selling the Heimdell 2s and upgrading to something with thicker gauges, am I fine with the Heimdells or should I upgrade now that I’m running 1000 watt’s per cable? What is recommended? My budget is $5k-$8k per set, I need 2 sets

128x128mariobeniteziv

 I found a gauge converter calculator and 18 strands of 22 gauge translates to 10 gauge all together 

It is easy to remember that every 3 steps of gauge double the area.  In this case:
gauge 22 - 1 strand
gauge 19 - 2 strands
gauge 16 - 4 strands
gauge 13 - 8 strands
gauge 10 - 16 strands

In addition it is enough to remember that middle of the pack gauge 16 is about 4 mohm/ft.  According to double area rule gauge 13 will have 2 mohm/ft and gauge 10 will be 1 mohm/ft

If you have that kind of budget you can buy used TYR 2 or Valhalla 2 Speakers cable USED....

I thought about that , but I need 2 sets, and it’s hard to find just one set, any ideas where I can get used Valhalla 2? I heard any Heimdell 2 are better than Valhalla 1 but not better than the 2

I’ve been casually reading this thread because I’m curious as to what 4000 watts and a 90dB speaker sensitivity have to do with speaker cable.  On the loudest of musical passages, in a large room, how many transient watts are passed to the speakers.  I’m going to specify that nobody is to have permanent hearing loss and no drivers will be destroyed in the process.

@mariobeniteziv...

First - 1000 watts is the max output of your amp, so unless you are using it to drive speakers in a very large hall I doubt very much that you are coming anywhere close to using 1000 watts of power

Second, Classe amps are a high current Solid State design and as such, speaker cables having a high capacitance can drive amps of this design to a point of oscilation which can seriously damage the amp i.e. damage the internal circuitry

High end Cardas cables have a very high capacitance, so this is one brand of cable I would steer well away from - they are great for tube amps though.

An aquaintance had this same problem with his Ayre amp and later his Gryphon amp and TOTL Cardas speaker cables - very costly - switching to lower capacitance cables resolved the issue

I am of the opinion that the cables you have are perfectly adequate for your setup.

If its the quality of sound you are concerned with, try Hijiri cables for a more refined presentation

As a comparison - a 1700 watt hairdrier normally has a significantly smaller power lead, so the efffective gauge of the Nodost cables is more than capable of handling the power at play here.

Regards - Steve