Does quality speaker wire make a difference in sound? I recently bought a Logitech z5500 speaker system to hook up to my microKORG, and was wondering, will I get a better sound if I replace the silver speaker wire that came with the speakers with monster cable clear coat speaker wire I saw at Radioshack? It's like $30 for 50 feet.
thanks

As far as my knowledge goes, $30 for 50 feet of monstor cable is too cheap. Is it possible that Monster started making "entry level" cable?

It will not make a bit of difference! The monster cable is heavier, but the cables that come with the Z-5500 are more than sufficient to carry the load distributed to each of the satellite speakers.

Chony,

The monster cable he was talking about is a bulk roll, and it's not cheap. You are probably thinking about Monster cables that come with the connectors, which are overpriced. The largest electrical cable manufacturer in the nation, Belden, will sell you the same cable for a lot less money, and I can guarantee you it is the same cable--it just doesn't have the connectors installed.

Cheers,

Gary

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Travlin' Easy

In a public address environment the critical points are good connections and sufficient current capability. I'm using 6 amp domestic appliance cable.

Whilst I am sure the hi-fi people are able to detect audible differences between cheap cable and audophile quality cable, this is only possible in a highly controlled listening environment using serious equipment. We do not have this luxury!

Speaker cable does make a difference. All you require is a low cost high number of strands speaker cable. Don't spend large amount on fancy expensive speaker cable.
i can't tell the difference...most people say they can to justify the money they have spent.

[This message has been edited by Graham UK (edited 11-22-2005).]

You could use lamp cord if you wanted to. There is a sucker born every minute and the Monster Cable people are taking advantage of that fact. As long as the wires have the ability to handle the current that is all that matters. Once you reach the ability to handle the current going bigger on the wires has no effect.

Tom

I've been using lamp wire for 40 years, I just get stranded 16 ga. probably overkill, but has more strength and rolls up better. I replaced the z5500's wire in the studio cause the orig. was to short. I look for the heavier insulation when buying wire, it lasts longer with fewer skins and kinks. I bought a 200' roll when replacing in the studio used about half of it, think I paid $22.00 for the whole roll, could have got the same ga. with less insulation for about $10.00. Unless you're wiring is laying on the stage with people walking all over it bigger is not better, same for speakers, bigger is not always better..........Pose

Actually the current in a cable just relates to the amount of heat produced.
The so-called sound properties of a cable, is down to the Inductance, Resistance and Capacitance of the cable, and how it interacts with the Speaker and Amplifier Inductance, Resistance and Capacitance.
If you know the exact amounts that are in the equipment and frequency range, you can calculate how the Frequency Response and Phase variance will differ from the a Flat Response.
Point to note, it tends to be the higher frequencies that change the most, which is why younger people can here differences and the more mature people cannot. (Human high frequency response reduces with age)

Bill

If you'll allow a "mature" person whose hearing may not be as good as it was a few decades ago to explain the relevant parameters...

A speaker's impedance varies with frequency; an "8 ohm" or other rating is "nominal", usually taken somewhere in the middle range. In order for a speaker to deliver relatively flat acoustic output, it has to be driven by a source (amplifier) having constant voltage output even if the speaker impedance (and therefore current required from the amp) varies. Decent modern solid-state amps typically have an output impedance under 0.1 ohm, thereby changing output voltage very little with load, and that would solve the problem if only we didn't usually need to have the amp and speakers separated from each other .

So the goal is to limit how much additional resistance gets inserted between the amp and speaker; the more resistance, the more audible the effect of the change in speaker impedance with frequency will be.

From a practical standpoint, if speaker wire resistance doesn't exceed 10% of a speaker's impedance, the audible effects are low, and at 5% or less, mostly unnoticable. One approach is to first determine the speaker impedance (minimum, if the manufacturer gives it, otherwise nominal value). Then divide that impedance by 20 (5%), and further divide by the number of feet between speaker and amp. The result is the maximum resistance-per-foot of the wire that can be used and assure very little or no audible influence from the wire. There are wire tables available online that give the per-foot resistance (remembering that zip cord has two conductors, if the table doesn't take that into account).

Obviously, the longer the wire or the lower the speaker impedance, the heavier the gauge should be to reduce its effect. As to inductance and capacitance, at 20KHz or less standard zip cord doesn't exhibit enough of either to have any significant impact, especially if the wire gauge is otherwise sufficient.

As has been pointed out by others, good tight connections can be as important as wire size/quality. Not only can a bad connection cause power loss and frequency response problems, but corroded metals often form semi-conductors, resulting in distortion and interference due to rectification as well.

Sorry if that got kind of long-winded and technical, but this topic is one of my pet peeves. I hope at least someone found it useful or interesting .


--Barry

Barry,

Good post and very informative, especially for those with little or no electronics background.

Gary

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Travlin' Easy