Has anybody tried using single solid core cables?


At a recent hi-fi show an exhibitor auditioning $47K speakers repeatedly asserted the following: "Any solid core wire, even $0.03 a foot is better than any multi-strand available. Experiment for yourselves, you will be amazed."

My question before I ditch my multi-stranded Audioquest Indigo cables in favor of 4 individual single solid core 18 gauge cobber cables from Home Depot for my newly acquired SA Mantra 50s, has anyone tried using single solid core wires?
arcamadeus
Jea48, am I missing something here? The Indigo diagram at the link you
provided seems to show 8 strands of 17, 19, & 21 gauge solid copper conductors
per cable. Not a single solid conductor that the OP seemed to be interested in.
12-31-13: Ghosthouse
Look at the AQ Link again. Each of the solid core wires are individually insulated. If stranded each group of + and – would be bare wires with only a covering of insulation over each group.
The equivalent wire size for the Indigo cable is 12 ga.

As for the OP feeding his speakers with only one solid core #18 ga wire for each + and - terminal I would not think that would work too well for the sound of the speakers or for the amp. I will leave the technical why nots to Almarg and Kijanki.

SA Mantra 50 speakers.

This might explain their description of Indigo as being stranded.
Could you please point out where AQ says the Indigo uses stranded wire.

I suggest you reread Kijanki post again. What he says is basically what Bill Low of AQ has been saying for years.

AQ cable theory

http://www.audioquest.com/pdfs/aq_cable_theory.pdf
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Re the Indigo cable and the solid/stranded question, while a case could be made for referring to it as solid core, IMO (based on what I perceive to be the most common usages of the terms) cables employing any form of Litz construction (i.e., a single overall conductor consisting of a group of individually insulated conductors) should not be referred to as either solid core or stranded. It's simply a different animal than what both terms are generally used to refer to.
As for the OP feeding his speakers with only one solid core #18 ga wire for each + and - terminal I would not think that would work too well for the sound of the speakers or for the amp. I will leave the technical why nots to Almarg and Kijanki.
I agree, as indicated in my earlier post, unless perhaps the cables are unusually short. Simply put, the resistances of typical lengths of 18 gauge speaker cable are high enough to conceivably/perhaps/maybe under some circumstances result in sonic effects that are at least slightly audible.

First, the combined resistance of the two conductors in a 10 foot run of 18 gauge solid core wire is about 0.128 ohms. For the OP's nominally 4 ohm speaker impedance, that would limit the damping factor seen at the speaker terminals to no more than 31, no matter how high the amplifier's damping factor may be.

Now a case could be made that damping factors above a few tens of ohms are overkill with most speakers, and that happens to be my opinion FWIW. But I don't consider my opinion to be the last word on the subject, and a lot of audiophiles and designers believe otherwise.

Second, when cable resistance is high enough to constitute a non-negligible fraction of speaker impedance, the interaction of that resistance with the speaker's impedance vs. frequency characteristics may conceivably affect tonal characteristics. 0.128 ohms is 3.2% of 4 ohms. Is 3.2% a "non-negligible fraction"? I don't know. But it seems high enough to suggest that it would be best to not take any chances, given that the percentage can be easily reduced.

On the other hand, I am aware that over the years there has been some advocacy for narrow gauge solid core speaker wire, even 20 or 22 gauge. I believe some of the writers at the British publication HiFi News & Record Review advocated for that twenty or more years ago. While I don't doubt that in SOME systems the results of that approach may be subjectively preferable, I would have to think that what is happening in most of those cases is that the cable is altering the sound in a way that is complementary to the colorations of the rest of the system. In other words, IMO it amounts in most cases to applying a band-aid.

Happy New Year to all!

-- Al
Hi Jea48

Sorry for the confusion (trying to be genderless by use of [their] rather than
[his]). I was not saying AQ claimed to use stranded wire. I was referring to the
OP's description: [My question before I ditch my multi-stranded Audioquest
Indigo cables....]. Multiple solid conductors vs multiple stranded conductors vs
single solid core and their equivalency or lack thereof appears to be the issue.
Al, perhaps you're right (as usual) because if there is any chance of smearing sound because of small cable resistance vs frequency change (caused by skin effect) when wire is too thick, then it has to apply to changing (vs. frequency) impedance of the speaker loading, when wire is too thin.

Perhaps solid gauge 14 can be a compromise (AQ type 4 etc) without paying too much.

Happy New Year!
Great question!! I've tried the expensive firehoses, multi-threaded, and the stuff from Home Depot - yes, the solid core - I think it's the 14 gauge. The solid core from the hardware store wasn't bad, but I much preferred the solid core Anti Cables. I currently use MapleShade Helix solid core. Very small gauge compared to the Anti Cables, but both sound good. And the price is right too! More than the solid core from Home Depot, but for $150 or so, you get about a 12' pair.