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What is the purpose of

Hi. I am fairly new to Audiogon and if this question has been discussed before, I apologize. Reading this you will realize I know practically nothing about electronics, and even less about component design. When you look inside a piece of equipment, you usually see very thin wires used, to say nothing about the fuses commonly seen, with a wire about the width of a hair. Then, when the signal finally reaches the speakers, there is usually more very thin wire throughout the crossover. So what is the point of buying (sometimes) obscenely expensive interconnects and speaker cable? Isn't the audio signal chain only as strong as its weakest link? Or am I missing something obvious? Any answers or comments would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
xrayz
sean
6,231 posts
 
Twl, it is sometimes not the gauge that matters, but the geometry of the conductors being used. Goertz speaker cables are very heavy gauge ( range from 7 gauge to 14 gauge ) but will not suffer from "skin effect" since they are ALL "skin".

As to "smaller sounding better", i agree to a certain extent, especially on interconnects. Speaker cables are another matter ( and yes, i have tried this ). You just can't get the bass impact or control from a 20 gauge wire ( let alone the 26 gauge wire ) that you can out of a much heavier gauge. The use of high efficiency speakers that require less voltage / current to operate may make this more of a moot point though. For the record, i did my experimentation with a set of 96 db speakers and i still found "skinny" speaker wires lacking in "oomph".

I will agree that solid core is typically MUCH better, regardless of gauge. If you go back into the Asylum archives, you will find that i was a proponent of solid wire before they were even archiving the forums. Sean
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twl
3,251 posts
 
Sean, I agree that in some systems, bass control could suffer to a degree with small wire. I use a very low power amp and very light quick drivers so it is not a problem for me. Simply a matter of current needs and delivery capability. Goertz is a very good wire if you need to go with a larger gauge because of the reasons you stated. In fact their smaller gauges are very good too.
mrowlands
54 posts
 
The conductors in the interconnects / speaker cable, regardless of diameter, are more subject to the effects of capacitance, inductance, and noise than the typically separated wires within a metal chassis. Expensive cables are not necessarily ripoffs. Not all equipment is as you've seen. My pre-amp has a signal path of something like 6 inches and the 2 channels never come within 2 inches of each other.
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