speaker cable

  • Thread starter Thread starter famous beagle
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famous beagle

famous beagle

Well-known member
This may be a stupid question, but what the hell.

Until now, I've just had to use my boom box as a monitor when regarding. But I finally got some separate monitors and an Alesis RA 100 power amp, and I'm not sure which cables to use.

My speakers have the push-clip-type of connectors (the kind where you shear off the wire and stick the bare wire into the little clamp. The RA 100 has these as outputs, as well as phono jacks.

In the RA 100 manual, it says that the push-clip type are the preferred method because the connection is better, but it says that high-quality cable should be used.

So my question is: Where do I find that type of high-quality cable? Will I be forced to make my own?

Please help!

Thanks
 
Great cables you should have. Check your local audio store (even car sound system store would give explanations on good cables...) or local radio shack to get some. You'll need to do wiring yourself if they dont get it.
 
Take the advice of someone who designs loudspeakers - Don't spend a lot on wire. It makes no difference to the sound. Oxygen free copper is better, but only because it is less prone to corrosion and will maintain a better contact. Otherwise don’t believe the hype!

barefoot
 
I will whole heartedly agree with Barefoot on this! Just pick up some standard 12, 14 or even 16 gauge wire. Home Depot has some really nice 12 gauge wire that is very flexible and looks 'purty' for about 40 cents a foot.
 
barefoot said:
Take the advice of someone who designs loudspeakers - Don't spend a lot on wire. It makes no difference to the sound. Oxygen free copper is better, but only because it is less prone to corrosion and will maintain a better contact. Otherwise don?t believe the hype!

barefoot
I followed a thread over at the mastering engineers website and they essentialy said the samething. They told this guy to go to home depot and get lamp chord. The insueing discussion and actual listening shown only neglible differences revealed even on monitoring systems that run in the tens of thousands of dollars. So in addition to barefoots expertise I would say. Trust the experts. Not the marketing dept.

SoMm

Its too bad for me, I wasted money on Monster for my monitors, then had to rip em out because of poor soldering on the connectors.
 
My theory on some people claiming to hear a difference between 'lamp cord' and the 'super-ultra-yada-yada' wire, is that they hear a difference because they want to hear a difference. If you invest $1000+ in speaker wire, your brain sure as hell will want to justify that cost somehow...hence the reason they claim to hear a difference. It's the placebo effect in full force.
 
Yes, the placebo effect is very real and very powerful. Most people don’t know that many of the drugs proven effective and approved by the FDA where actually less effective than the placebo effect was during their testing.

I give the same advice about wire to people for whom I build speakers. Some absolutely refuse to believe me - even after I tell them that the voice coils inside their very high performance speaker drivers are wound with a few meters of aluminum :eek: wire because it has a better conductivity to weight ratio than copper, or their beloved >>silver<<. :rolleyes:

barefoot
 
Wow. I guess this wasn't such a stupid question after all. A lot of people seem to be in the dark about it.

Thanks for the help guys.
 
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