Sh Members help me with Speaker Wire

[spotlightkid]

SH Members-i have had the same speaker wire for 20 years-some monster cable.my speakers are roughly 5 feet away from respective Marantz mono blocks.First-should the wire be only 5 feet long what if i want to move the speakers further apart.Second at this time i admittedly have lousy speakers and will be upgrading to Martin-Logans later in the year-what speaker wire do you recommend
thanks

Spotlightkid

[Steve Hoffman]

How much money do you want to spend?

[spotlightkid]

SH-somewhere that after i get my new speakers i will say that i am happy i got the wire i did-i'm not talking $1000 wire.besides i think many people on the forum know what a good value is.My amps will crank out 180wpc into 4 ohms.

[Todd Fredericks]

There's also the DIY approach which could get you excellent results (in many forms) for less (no mark-up or other extras). You also get the satisfaction of saying "Hey, I made this and it's great!".

Todd

[ericpeters]

I made this great Gomer speaker cables based on teflon CAT5 computer cable (http://members.tripod.com/beyond_gomer/). I have 4 of them an do biwiring. The cables themselves are cheap and easy to make and they sound great. Going from single wire to bi-wire was again a great improvemen. They've costed me about $40 where the terminal pads were the most expensive.

[Highway Star]

Originally posted by spotlightkid
SH Members-i have had the same speaker wire for 20 years-some monster cable.my speakers are roughly 5 feet away from respective Marantz mono blocks.First-should the wire be only 5 feet long what if i want to move the speakers further apart.Second at this time i admittedly have lousy speakers and will be upgrading to Martin-Logans later in the year-what speaker wire do you recommend
thanks

Spotlightkid

You mentioned moving your speakers further apart, how far apart are they now?

[spotlightkid]

about 10 feet apart at this time

[Highway Star]

Originally posted by spotlightkid
about 10 feet apart at this time

I'm not sure, but I would think this may be a little too far apart. Others here may be able to give better advice on that but I thought 6'-8' apart was about the normal range (but not carved in stone). It would seem that 10' apart would be a bit much, but I understand speaker systems and listening habits certainly vary.

[Gary]

I ran Monster cable for years. When I upgraded to tubes, I thought I'd put a couple of dollars into wires. For $8.00 a foot (2 X 10 foot lengths), I got van den hul cables. This is in Canadian funds. It *should* be cheaper in the US! There is an audiophile store here that sells Carey tubes, Krell and all sorts of other 'exotic' stuff. They use van den hul's everywhere.

Wow it was like someone removed a curtain from in front of the speakers. I never realized how bad Monster cables were!

I teminated them myself - very easy with banana plugs and spades and a crimping tool. I also soldered them to ensure that ALL the strands connected. With silver solder, not the usual tin solder. Available at Radio Shack.

Don't use tin solder! Sckott will tell ya!

This is a cheap alternative, easy to do. And fast! I'm sure others will recommend other 'recipes' for the DIY'er (do it yourself-er).

These van den hul's are copper (bass) coated with silver (trebble). Seems to be the best of both worlds for tubes. One day I may try a recipe of some sort and say "wow, never knew how bad those van den hul's were". :D

G

PS van den hul also sells interconnect wire. Make your own interconnects )with soldering iron and RCA plugs) for whatever length you want. They're pretty good, too!

[Gary]

Originally posted by telefunken


I'm not sure, but I would think this may be a little too far apart. Others here may be able to give better advice on that but I thought 6'-8' apart was about the normal range (but not carved in stone). It would seem that 10' apart would be a bit much, but I understand speaker systems and listening habits certainly vary.

I *believe* that if you require a long length of wire, that it's better to have it (the longer wire) as an interconnect instead of a speaker cable. The closer the amps are to the speaker, the better.

Can someone confirm if this is correct?

As for "far apart" I've always found that careful listening to your speakers will tell you all you need to know about imaging, etc.

And you can always shorten the speaker cable (or interconnects) if you had termnated them yourself.

Oh (sorry - these thoughts are just flying tonight!), the speaker cables and interconnects MUST be the same length. Which is sorta obvious.... :)

I'd love to hear what Steve suggests! :) :) :) :)

[Metralla]

I'm guessing that Steve would be recommending Pure Silver Connection cables imported from Australia by tmh audio, the same people who distribute the WAVAC Audio Lab amps Steve uses. That would square with what's been published.

Regards,
Metralla

[Dave]

Spotlightkid,

Here's something you may find interesting about speaker placement. I know it worked for my listening space. Check out Room setup on the right hand column.

http://www.cardas.com/insights/index.html

Also, more often than not, speaker cable lengths range between 8ft. and 12ft. at least in the 50 or so set ups that I've seen. I use 8ft. personally.

[PsychFan]

Originally posted by Dave
Here's something you may find interesting about speaker placement. I know it worked for my listening space.

I used the "Cardas method" for speaker placement in my listening room as well, with fantastic results. I experimented quite a bit with long- and short-wall placement options, and found the short-wall method Cardas offers worked best for me in my smallish (10 x 13) room, with Axiom M3Ti bookshelf speakers.

[mazort]

I would look for second hand Nordost flatline, Goertz or Kimber 4TC or 8TC on ebay or audiogon. Those are all really good. Any of those will probably work, but if even if they didn't you can usually sell for what you paid. Also the cables used are often already broken in...

Also I should mention The Cable Company that advertises in Stereophile. They have a big database re compatibility, they'll loan cable to try out and they also handle used cable. You might give them a try.

[spotlightkid]

thanks Mazart i will try cable company.

[rickjames]

For value, the Alpha Core Goertz Veracity wire is hard to beat. it is a flat wire and the copper series is very reasonable. I use it on my Watt/puppies and also used it on my ML Prodigy's (which I highly recommend). My Speakers are set at 14 feet apart and my cable are 18' long. Unless you wish to spend major bucks, Alpha Core is hard to beat. I also agree with the earlier post that the Nordost flatline is really good and a high end cable bargain.

[Henry Love]

Dave,thanks for the tip on the Cardas room setup. Amazing improvement.Also tried Humorems suggestion and unplugged the microwave.A more subtle improvement.

[Gary]

Originally posted by Henry Love
...tried Humorems suggestion and unplugged the microwave.A more subtle improvement.

Yea, this worked for me too! Subtle but it's there! Now it's time to rewire the house so you don't have to move out the refirgerator to unplug it before you listen to music. ;)

I wonder how long frozen food keeps frozen with the power off?

Of course if I bought a battery pack thing-ie I would not have to do that! What brand does Humoreum recommend (and sell?).

I wonder if 'unplugging' would work in an apartment?