2. cables
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Is rewiring worth it considering...


My question surrounds rewiring. Why bother?

Let me explain my point by following a signal path:

First, a nice thick speaker cable connects to the terminals. But the second it crosses the terminals threshold, a thin little circular spade is sandwiched between 2 screws which is attached to a rather thin wire. This thin wire goes to the crossover (again attached with a thin spade) which is then distributed across a circuit board that is even thinner than the thin wire, into caps and inductors with non copper ends, etc.

From here more thin stainless steel spades to wires and onto the actual drivers, again spades and then an very thin wire into the actual driver itself where the wire spun around the voice coil is thinner than every part of the signal path so far.

So, long winded, but here is my point: why bother rewiring when all you will end up with is a point where the internal wiring will get very thin and you cant do anything about it?

Isn't this akin to having a 40 lane highway bottleneck into a 2 lane road when it reaches the woofer's voice coil?

idfnl
hifitime
715 posts
 
A lot of people use the word theory for their explanation.A
dealer that sold high end audio gear was trying to sell me
large speaker,and power cords that were short and had very
large gauge wire.He told me that the signal was restricted by
passing through a small connection.He said I would be way
better off using a 1 meter 1/2" plus power cord.He said it
works that way in "theory".When I asked him how much I was
loosing since it all was squeezing through the amps little
fuse,he was silent.No theoretical explanation there.Don't
think about the small thin short connections,and enjoy your music.
jmcgrogan2's avatar
jmcgrogan2
6,346 posts
 
This is one of many audio questions that cannot be answered, sorry. As with other questions relating to personal tastes, such as favorite wine, scotch, favorite golf clubs, favorite car, etc. Listening to music is an emotional experience, not a logical one. No computer or calculator will answer your question. If it could, you could just look it up in the archives.

Your only choice is to continue beating your head against the wall, or go on with your life. Is it possible the whole cable thing is a farce? Certainly it's possible. Cables are no more immune from public scrutiny than are cars, movies, vacation resorts, politicians, etc. None of the above have any definitive answers. Whether any of the above are right or wrong is all in the eye (ear) of the beer holder.

Enjoy the music.

Cheers,

John
idfnl OP
16 posts
 
While its not as simple as a yes or no thing, Hifitime hit upon it, its just a salesman's theory and nobody seems able to explain how all the cable as thick as your wrist gets bottled thru a tiny wire.

A performant cable shouldn't create any more than 5% of the resistance of the speaker itself.

A very thick speaker cable will create more resistance than a very thin cable, but once you get past about 14 gauge, you need a massive amount of energy moving thru the wire to have it generate enough resistance to make any difference at that gauge.

The longer the cable, the more resistance that gets built up, so the longer the span, the thicker the cable.

In almost all normal scenarios, science says that a 12 or 14 gauge cable is more than sufficient. Wouldn't this explain why the wire inside of speakers and amps is thin and still performant?

So what is the point of all this mega cable? Especially the ones that cost uber money for like 1 meter... a span that small would be fine at 18 gauge.
jmcgrogan2's avatar
jmcgrogan2
6,346 posts
 
There is more to cable construction than just the gauge of the conductor. Some use multi-stand very small conductors, some are larger gauge solid core conductors. Not all conductors are copper, some are silver, gold, platinum, palladium or carbon. Some conductors are a mixture of these materials. Some conductors use higher purity metals, for example: 99.9999% copper vs. 99.99% copper.

Then you have the dielectric, where some cables use helium or vacuum. Some cables even have networks built into them. Just like any other commodity, you are not simply paying for building materials either, you are paying for R&D, Advertising, Sales and Distribution.

I'm not trying to justify the cost of cables, I'm just saying there is more to a cable than the gauge of it's conductor. You are certainly entitled to feel any way you want about it. In the USA, the extreme seems to be the norm.

Cheers,
John
idfnl OP
16 posts
 
John,

I'm aware of the different variations out there, and I agree some of the more exotic materials justify the price of the cables, what I question though is how they can really make any difference if within 1 cm of the termination of the $$ cable is a basic wire. Its illogical to me that you can go from 2 extremes of wiring and have it work.

Again, I am not saying these cables are a ripoff on their own, but how much good can they do with a simple wire at the ends of the termination?

As far as the purity of the copper goes, all the .00999% gets you is an incredibly insignificant reduction in resistance. When they eliminate the oxygen they are also eliminating iron and traces of other metals which have more resistive properties.

I doubt my thoughts are extreme, but in the USA you are entitled to label me any way you wish. I'm just a guy trying to make sense of something that doesn't.
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