Alpha-Core Goertz speaker cables


My curiosity is tickled by these speaker cables and the idea that low cable inductance is the desired electrical characteristic for speaker cables, after low resistance. I find no discussion of this in the past topics and few systems show these speaker cables. What are your thoughts on this type of cable and its advantages and disadvantages? Any current users of the M1 or M2? I am currently using Wyred 4 Sound Sx-500 monos with short anti-cables and Von Schweikert VR-4JRs. Thanks in advance.
tgrisham
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I can tell you they are sweet sounding cables with terrific tone and an open quality (on the one system I am familiar with) though a bit lean.

I did not need the supplied zoebel networks with my Plinius amp and Maggie 1.6 speakers you may need them

My favorite 'economy' cable.

though several years since I owned them and cables like Morrow are out there which are also very good.

YMMV of course
I have use Goetz AG-1 center stage for about 10 years now with a variety of equipment. It temporarally gets replaced but somehow I always wind up going back to it. A friend of mine loves his Goetz Micro-Pearl interconnects. I highly recommend the Goetz stuff
Alan
A lot of people have reported excellent results with them, but I'd be cautious, as Elizabeth suggested. Their ultra-low inductance is achieved at the expense of ultra-high capacitance, and if a Zobel network is not used that can cause some amplifiers to oscillate, and possibly fry. Although since you are using monoblock amps the relatively short cable lengths will reduce that possibility, since the total capacitance of the cable is proportional to length.

The extent to which the ultra-low inductance will make a difference (as opposed to being overkill) depends on the impedance of the speakers at high frequencies. The lower that impedance, the greater the likelihood of there being a difference (which is not to say that the difference will necessarily be for the better, subjectively). But as with most dynamic speakers (as opposed to electrostatics, for instance), I suspect that the impedance of your speakers rises considerably, rather than falls, at upper treble and ultrasonic frequencies.

The combination of ultra-low inductance and ultra-high capacitance also results in the cable having ultra-low Characteristic Impedance, about which the Goertz website says as follows:
The characteristic impedance of the Goertz MI cables in the order of 2 to 4 ohms closely matches the impedance of loudspeakers. Almost all other speaker cables have characteristic impedance ranging from 50 to 200 ohms, a mismatch which causes distortion due to signal reflections. Impedance matching primarily improves the clarity of the highs and upper mid-range, but many users have also experienced improvements in the lower mid-range. The cause seems to be that signal reflections caused by impedance mismatch enter the feedback loop of many amplifiers and disturb their ability to reproduce faithfully even lower frequency signals.
IMO that makes no sense, at least in the context of a dynamic speaker. The reflection effects that it refers to will only occur at RF frequencies, and possibly to a small degree at ultrasonic frequencies. At those frequencies the impedance of a dynamic speaker will be much higher than the 4 or 8 ohm impedance it may have at audible frequencies, and at those frequencies the impedance of the speaker therefore will not come close to being a good match to the characteristic impedance of the cable. Very conceivably it could even be a worse match than would exist between the speaker impedance at those frequencies and the characteristic impedance of a cable having ordinary parameters.

Regards,
-- Al
The MI-2 is a nice cable at a great price. I have a set I still use on occasion in my system. As mentioned, the Zobel network may be required in order to prevent the amp from oscillating. I purchased mine with the Zobel network built in but you can get the Zobel network separately as well. Look up some posts by Audiogon member Sean (he dropped off here quite a while back) and you will find some interesting discussions on this speaker cable.