Kill Top End Extension - All Silver Ribbon Cables

What is a desirable impedance for speaker cables and what is desirable for interconnects are two different things. As such, using the same materials in the same geometry for both types of cabling can result in different problems in the circuit. Where those problems arose would depend on what geometry was used and where the resultant impedance was best suited for.

This is why i it cracks me up to see companies using identical cable designs for both their interconnects and their speaker cabling, as they should be quite different by design. Yes, the same or extremely similar materials can be used, but the geometries and net impedances should be measurably different.

As such, it's quite possible that your interconnects will work fine, especially with tubed gear that already has higher impedances to deal with. We are talking about thousands of ohms here. On the other hand, the amplifier / speaker portion is all of very low impedance, where just a few ohms can make a measurable difference.

Whether or not the speaker cabling is responsible for the majority of problems that you're encountering obviously remains to be seen. It's possible that you have other problems elsewhere in the system and you're running into a compounding effect. Sean
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In a great system I have found ribbon cables to be superb. Nothing compares to the "sense of space." I own the Pure Note Enhanced Paragons (over a year) which replaced my old Nordost Valhallas.

I suppose many of you are correct in saying the equipment just needs to burn in a little. I'm guessing if the SET amps are using the V-Cap capacitors, the waiting period may be even longer. Does anyone know the characteristics of V-Caps as they are burning in?

I'm also concerned about this oscillating problem when potentially using Ribbon based cabes in SET tube amps.
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Sean, I was fooling around with some 9' DIY silver/cotton speaker cables & would appreciate your thoughts. Each phase is a 4-braid litz weave of four Audio Consulting 24 awg solid wire strands inside four 2mm cotton sleeves. I found that treble response became more extended when I twisted together the two 4-wire bundles representing the two phases (as compared to running the two phases separately across the floor.) Do you think it's worth going a step further, and weaving all eight strands of the two phases into one 8-braid? This would bring all +/- strands closer together and in a uniform geometry.

Dgarretson: Making a twisted pair lowered the inductance and nominal impedance of the cable as compared to running the cables spaced further apart. Since impedance typically rises with frequency in most audio circuits, making it harder to pass signal as frequency climbs, and inductance rolls off the treble response, the steps that you took helped to negate those potential problems. That's why you can hear the changes that you made in a clearly audible fashion.

Having said that, unless you can maintain near identical conductor lengths and a VERY consistent weave, i would stick to using the twisted pair configuration. Even going this route with multiple conductors can be tough. That is, it becomes difficult to control the internal geometry of the multiple conductors within each leg of the cable.

If you are trying to optimize a design using the parts that you've already got, you might want to try going the spiral wrapped star quad approach. This will require using two more cotton sleeves per cable, meaning that you would need four more total.

Use two conductors per leg and stagger the polarities of each leg. In other words, use 2 pos, 2 neg, 2 pos, 2 neg in an alternating circle arrangement. Once you've got the four individual bundles somewhat anchored together, apply a slight but consistent spiral twist to the entire length of the bundle.

This approach will lower your nominal impedance, offer improved power transfer, offer increased transient capabilities, broaden the bandwidth of the cable, reduce EM radiation from the cable itself, offer a reduction in potential RFI susceptability, etc...

This approach is about as good as you can get using what you have without getting far more complex and time consuming. Whether or not you like the end result would obviously be a matter of personal preference. Sean
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PS... Your aggregate gauge size is appr 18 gauge for the four 24 gauge wires per polarity.