Good value speaker cable advice please.

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  • aliEnRIK
    aliEnRIK Posts: 17,741
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    Van Damme LC OFC speaker cable is the best you can buy that costs FAR less than any equivalent
    Its used in recording studios worldwide, including the infamous 'abbey road'
    :idea:
  • 6A twin mains flex (0.75mm). £21 +VAT per 100 metres from electric wholesalers.

    If your system is more than 100 W per speaker use 13A mains flex.

    Just what I was about to suggest.

    If anyone thinks that they can tell the difference with £5m specialist cable, they need rewiring!! Unless you have an anechoic chamber of course.
    Don't lie, thieve, cheat or steal. The Government do not like the competition.
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  • seedyh
    seedyh Posts: 105 Forumite
    Can't say I've any experience with Van Damme cables, but I agree that cost means little when it comes to speaker cable. I only posted the Odin's as it's utterly ridiculous :D

    I'm looking to change my speaker cable at some point, will have to have a closer look at the Van Damme..
  • kwikbreaks
    kwikbreaks Posts: 9,187 Forumite
    If anyone thinks that they can tell the difference with £5m specialist cable, they need rewiring!!
    Now that's plain daft - of course the difference is easy to spot. Just work out the difference in your bank balance.

    Don't forget they will need "running in" too - or is that just mains leads? :)
  • aliEnRIK
    aliEnRIK Posts: 17,741
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    Ive tested quite a few speaker cables out. Van Den Hul, QED etc
    I bought the Van Damme studio blue as everyone said speaker cables make no difference. Well certainly frequency extremes (bass and treble) can sound different
    Ive just recently replaced the studio blue to van Damme LC OFC, and its definitely a step up
    People can argue all they like. The LC OFC is definitely better than stock basic cable (at least when used on a half decent hifi system)
    :idea:
  • kwikbreaks
    kwikbreaks Posts: 9,187 Forumite
    edited 5 August 2010 at 10:42AM
    aliEnRIK wrote: »
    People can argue all they like.

    What???

    Wassatt you say young man???

    Eh?

    Eh?

    SPEAK UP!!!
  • Hammyman
    Hammyman Posts: 9,913 Forumite
    aliEnRIK wrote: »
    Ive just recently replaced the studio blue to van Damme LC OFC, and its definitely a step up

    Err, no. That's your brain convincing yourself that you've not just realised how stupid you've been buying expensive cable you didn't need.

    Lets look at it from a technical point of view.

    The signal that is sent out is a sinewave of varying amplitude and frequency. It has varying voltage and current. The cable needs to be able to handle the frequency, voltage and the current and to have sufficient ability to reject unwanted signals. Ideally, the loss in the cable needs to be minimal to ensure as much of the power in the outputted signal makes it to the speaker, although increasing the power outputted (turning up the volume) compensates and unless you're running cables 100m long and have 3dB loss on that, you're not really going to notice much. Once you've got a cable that does that, then no additional ability provides any additional benefit.

    It doesn't matter if its oxygen free or any other free. It cannot modify the waveform being outputted from the amplifier to any beneficial effect. A cable NOT up to meeting the minimum requirements will be detrimental but once you get up to around 1mm diameter core, then for home use you're not going to get any problems other than interference due to poor screening. In fact, its actually the screening capabilities you want to be interested in because at the lengths of typical speaker wires, they make very good antennas for HF and LF frequencies and you're more likely to get RF induced noise being picked up and outputted through the speakers from all kinds of sources.

    Speaker wiring, along with gold plated optical leads, is one of the biggest cons there is.
  • aliEnRIK
    aliEnRIK Posts: 17,741
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Forumite
    Hammyman wrote: »
    Err, no. That's your brain convincing yourself that you've not just realised how stupid you've been buying expensive cable you didn't need.

    Lets look at it from a technical point of view.

    The signal that is sent out is a sinewave of varying amplitude and frequency. It has varying voltage and current. The cable needs to be able to handle the frequency, voltage and the current and to have sufficient ability to reject unwanted signals. Ideally, the loss in the cable needs to be minimal to ensure as much of the power in the outputted signal makes it to the speaker, although increasing the power outputted (turning up the volume) compensates and unless you're running cables 100m long and have 3dB loss on that, you're not really going to notice much. Once you've got a cable that does that, then no additional ability provides any additional benefit.

    It doesn't matter if its oxygen free or any other free. It cannot modify the waveform being outputted from the amplifier to any beneficial effect. A cable NOT up to meeting the minimum requirements will be detrimental but once you get up to around 1mm diameter core, then for home use you're not going to get any problems other than interference due to poor screening. In fact, its actually the screening capabilities you want to be interested in because at the lengths of typical speaker wires, they make very good antennas for HF and LF frequencies and you're more likely to get RF induced noise being picked up and outputted through the speakers from all kinds of sources.

    Speaker wiring, along with gold plated optical leads, is one of the biggest cons there is.

    I cant even be bothered reading what youve put there
    fact ~ abbey road use these cables
    They cost me approx £3.50 a meter (hardly mega expensive)
    Ive compared all sorts in my time and ive a fair good idea of what im doing and im fully aware of the placebo effect

    Clearly you believe what you believe and thats your call. Ive physically measured differences
    :idea:
  • aliEnRIK
    aliEnRIK Posts: 17,741
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Forumite
    Just to add. The RFI wouldnt be outputted through the speakers, it actually goes into the amp and effects the noise floor (So I suppose technically ends up through the speakers, but not the way youve described)
    :idea:
  • kwikbreaks
    kwikbreaks Posts: 9,187 Forumite
    alienrik wrote: »
    i cant even be bothered reading what youve put there
    .
    .
    .
    .
    .
    alienrik wrote: »
    just to add. The rfi wouldnt be outputted through the speakers, it actually goes into the amp and effects the noise floor (so i suppose technically ends up through the speakers, but not the way youve described)

    ????
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