Speltz Anti Cables

Drubin: solid cables are a drawback when they are used in a situation that requires often movement or increased flexibility. If rigid enough, either due to conductor size and / or geometry, they can transfer energy via microphonics between connected components. In some cases where out of the ordinary dielectrics that lack physical support for the cabling, the cables are more likely to change impedance when moved due to the increased movement of the conductors inside of the dielectric. In most cases, solids are desirable, but i wanted to be fair and point out some of the drawbacks too.

As to breaking in, these cables have an enamel coating on them. Enamel is a lower grade ( higher loss ) dielectric than Teflon is. On top of that, solid conductors can develop fissures, cracks and "density damage" due to stretching / kinking the wire structure itself when initially packaging them or during the initial installation and / or relocation.

As such, this type of cable may require the passage of signal to help them "heal" or form more complete and uniform crystal structures after initial placement. The more signal that you can pass through any cable, the faster the electrical characteristics will tend to stabilize. Personally, i would recommend getting them situated in to position, hooking them up and then throttling them hard for an extended period of time. Put on some rockin' tunes and kick back and enjoy them.

After a rockin' good jam session, you'll have plenty of time to listen for the subtleties the next day or so. This will not only have "exercised" the cables in terms of an electrical work-out, but also allowed them to settle into their physical resting place.

As to how to configure the cables, just leaving the conductors loosely spaced will get you similar performance to the Stealth Fine Ribbons as tested in the Audioholics cable face off #1. This cable was measurably higher in inductance and much poorer in bandwidth than zip cord. While i don't like to use the figures here as i don't really believe them to be all that accurate, the individual conductors of the Stealth when randomly spaced apart had appr 5x the amount of high frequency roll-off that they measured with heavy gauge zip cord. This type of configuration would also raise the nominal impedance quite drastically, reducing power transfer characteristics. On top of that, transient characteristics would also be drastically reduced as compared to a wider bandwidth, lower inductance, lower impedance cable.

Luckily, one can take these individual conductors and configure them in many different geometries. For the most neutral performance in a well-balanced system, the easiest way to do this would be to configure the wires as a spiral twisted pair. The more that the cables spiral around each other, the less inductance you'll have with a wider bandwidth being the result. This also drastically reduces the nominal impedance, which increases power transfer and loading characteristics. The increased bandwidth also results in better transient response and improved treble resolution.

The drawbacks to this type of configuration is that the signal path is slightly longer than if a straight run were used ( you lose a small percentage of wire length due to the twisting ). The conductors are also more stressed due to the bending and forming of conductors around one another, which will mean a longer break-in period. Cable microphony is also increased due to increased rigidity of the two conductors being intertwined.

Some may prefer the cables arranged in a widely spaced loose lay pattern, and that's fine. When used this way, the cables will tend to smooth out and soften the upper mids and treble region, which might be a problem with lower grade digital gear, the piss poor modern day recordings they expect us to listen to , metal dome tweeters that aren't properly damped and / or lower grade SS gear that suffers from artificial brightness and / or smearing.

Like anything else, what works best as an individual component may not work best as part of a system or be best for one's personal preferences. As such, don't be afraid to experiment with this cabling in terms of the configuration that you have them in. Sean
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Thank you! Sean, I must say, you have been at the height of your educational effectiveness of late.

When I put the Speltz in yesterday, I just let them fall where they may ("fall" is not something these stiff cable do, but you know what I mean). My system sounded lifeless, colorless, and unextended at both extremes. I'll have to closer spacing and more break in.

Druben-Im think you're going to have to spend some time and a couple bucks to get the optimal performance of the anti-cables.

I think audiogoN member 'eagle' has (from all I've read) an optimal anti-cable istallation.
He has a couple pics in this thread also,In case yoy missed it.
I think my 'design' also adresses the 'special' needs of these cables.

Drubin: Thanks for the kind words. As a side note, i'm one of those people that get killed by the doom and gloom of murky winter weather. Now that the weather is breaking and the sun is beginning to show it's head through the clouds, i'm coming back out of hibernation. That first part of waking up can be a real bear though ; )

As to optimally configuring these cables, twist them into a spiral pair and then place them in the center of small diameter foam insulation tubes that are used for plumbing insulation purposes. When you have to make bends or radiuses, simply cut the foam before and after the radius leaving the cable exposed and then re-install the foam when going proceeding back in a straight line. Do yourself a favour though and cut the foam to fit by itself, not while it is wrapped around the cabling. Knicking the dielectric enamel on the conductors could result in a short circuit on your amp, which would not be pretty.

This approach not only protects enamel coating of the cabling from damage, it also acts as an acoustic isolater to reduce the microphony of the cables due to their increased rigidity. On top of that, the soft foam that lacks density also absorbs the mechanical vibration from the cable microphonics that makes its way into the cables past the acoustic isolation of the foam.

Those that are worried about "de-nuding" their cables by adding additional material around it, forget about it. You've already got a layer of dielectric that is not only covering the conductor, but that dielectric actually contours all of the nooks and crannies along the surface. In this respect, this is why enamel is a poorer dielectric than teflon. Not only is it more dense, it actually flows into the crevices whereas the type of teflon used as a jacket simply rides on the outermost surface of the metal.

In this respect, the foam pipe wrap may be equal to a or less "damaging" as a dielectric to the conductors than the type, density and quantity of enamel being used as an insulator. The foam is very soft and lacking in density on top of not being form-fitted to the conductors. Besides all of that, the enamal acts as a dielectric barrier between the conductors and the foam, pretty much making it a moot point. Sean
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PS... Like i said above, what works optimally and what one prefers within the confines of their system might be completely different things. Proceed at your own risk.

Sean (or anyone),
What would be a good rate of twist per foot for these solid wire cables?
thanks,
Gary