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ARSCLIST  May 2012

ARSCLIST May 2012

Subject:

Re: speaker wire signal loss?

From:

Tom Fine <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>

Date:

Mon, 7 May 2012 14:30:29 -0400

Content-Type:

text/plain

Parts/Attachments:

Parts/Attachments

text/plain (57 lines)

Hi Rod:

There are many things written in the audio press about speaker wire, most of them complete and total 
BS with no scientific foundation. Here are your main considerations:

1. you need wire hefty enough to be appropriate to your power-handling needs. Most of us have run 
super-thin cheapo wires at some point and audio does come across, but my rule of thumb is use at 
least what RadioShack and others call "speaker wire," which is multi-strand copper and nowadays 
about what typical copper "lamp cord" was in the 60's (alas, most made-in-China lamps today include 
much thinner-gauge wire in their power cords). I prefer to tin the ends with solder and most of my 
speakers and amps now use modern push-in speaker connectors (similar or identical to what used to be 
push-in test-lead connectors), so I use those (available at many different electrical suppliers). If 
you want to buy into some of the audio-press BS, you can spend a _lot_ of money on speaker wires. I 
note that even the audiophillic Absolute Sound found little to no "listening tests" differences 
between very expensive wires and an off-the-shelf Home Depot extension cord! I imgine there was some 
furious blowback to the magazine from certain advertisers!

2. you need to assure the integrity of your speaker wires. This means, don't staple or tack through 
the wires, and make splices secure and permanent by twisting the proper wires together and soldering 
over the join, then wrapping the whole thing in good-quality electrical tape. If you are splicing so 
as to avoid replacing installed wiring, then I would say just make a good splice and it will be 
fine. If you can avoid splicing, that's better. Again, you can spend plenty of money and go nuts 
with "accessories," such as plastic or wooden "elevators" which keep speaker wires off the floor (in 
my book, this is in the PT Barnum hall of fame, along with the wooden "Replacement Knobs").

Regarding 35 feet on one side and 45 feet on another, in real-world practice I doubt this will cause 
a problem. If you have any doubts, coil up 10 extra feet behind the short-side speaker.

Also, regarding your earlier question about speaker selection, there are many options and speaker 
design is much better today than it was say 25 years ago. My suggestion is go and listen to as many 
speakers as you can. If you buy online, make sure there's a return-money back policy. Speaker 
selection is very much personal taste and when you get into "civilian" or "hi-fi" speakers, each 
type sounds somewhat different. Studio monitors should be designed to produce a relatively flat 
frequency response within certain measured parameters (which are rarely duplicated in real studios, 
but in the case of near-fields you can usually place them where there's a direct line for sound to 
travel to your ears without too much room interference). Short version of what I'm saying is, listen 
to a lot of options and let your ears be your guide. It's a fun exercise, always something new to 
discover with listening to different equipment.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "rod smear" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, May 07, 2012 1:40 PM
Subject: [ARSCLIST] speaker wire signal loss?


> Would there be any signal loss if 2 separate strands of speaker wire are connected (spliced) 
> together, as opposed to 1 continous run of cable? The total length would be about 40 ft, indoors. 
> Also, do both the right and left speaker cable length need to be the same. Right speaker is 35 
> feet from receiver, and left speaker 45 feet away.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Rod 

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