Caution Monster XP Spkr Wire


While hooking up my DEF TECH SM 65's yesterday I discovered that Monster XP spkr wire has TWO layers of insulation. First is the thick pink part that is stripped off. Then underneath that there is Another layer that is very thin & almost transparent. It is very easy to miss removing this thin layer and a poor connection will result if this is overlooked.
roscoe50
The directions that come with the Monster XP speaker wire clearly states that the inner layer of PTEF insulation need to be removed. I have used 1000's of feet of Monster wire for internal wiring in my speakers over the years, in the early years XP for the tweeter and M1 for the rest of the drivers, when the M1 was discontinued we changed to the M1.2 still using the XP for the tweeter - Monster makes good wire.

We have since changed to Canare as Monster got too big and too difficult to deal with, Canare is equally good wire.

As always, Good listening

Peter
I just found out that my Mons XP is only 16 gauge. It looks thicker than that to moi.

Bluejeanscable sells the Canare and also the Beldon 10 & 12 gauge. They say the bigger the gauge, the greater the conductivity.

I wonder though-- would the only difference be that I would have to change my vol, B & T tweaks to accommodate the new wire w/o out any real change in sound quality?

Thanks for all the responses in this topic. r
I periodically try to downgrade components in my main system. Why keep all that capital tied up? I have tried Monster XP and Blue Jeans interconnects and Canare speaker cable in my main rig and found them to sound not remotely as good as cables such as Audience AU24 and Cardas Golden Reference. However, I routinely use mid-level Monster cables for Home Theater and for my bedroom system and in those applications I am very pleased. The BJ interconnects and Canare would be fine for those applications as well, IMHO.

I have found downgrade experiments to be wildly unpredictable. Sometimes it works, but more often, not. Some years ago, for example, I was surprised to find that the Cary SLI-80 gets me most of what I want in a preamp / amp combination, and I was able to sell off my Conrad Johnson monoblocks and premier preamp. The Cary is not as good but it is wonderful (with some tube rolling) and fits my need just fine. However other integrated amps that I previously tried - because of their amazing reviews - were laughably weak compared to my CJ setup. Sigh.
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