nick wrote:
>
> The other day, someone mentioned using mains cable as speaker cable, because
> its so damn cheap. Is anyone using this setup?
Well, it IS cheap, but I think places like Parts Express and MCM
Electronics sells high-quality finely stranded oxygen free 16, 14, 12,
and even bigger gauge speaker wire for a pretty good price. I have a
huge 100ft spool of 14-ga oxygen free copper wire from Parts Express,
and it's really high quality. Must have been cheap because I wouldn't
have purchased it otherwise (I'm financially challenged).
> I've heard things about the quality of interconnects between amp and
> CD/MD/other stuff making a difference to sound quality, and simliar things
> about speaker wire, and 99.99999% oxygen free copper wire or some crap.
> There must be some truth in it, if people are willing to pay hundreds and
> hundreds of $ for a few metres of speaker wire.. Anyway, does anyone know if
> there'd be an appreciable difference between reasonably cheap but "thick"
> speaker wire from an audio shop and mains cable from a hardware shop?
No, I don't think there is much difference in sound quality between
cheap mains cable (also known as "zip cord") and high-quality speaker
wire. Some people might be able to hear a difference, but I think the
majority in double blind testing cannot tell the difference.
Usually high quality speaker wire, being oxygen free, doesn't tarnish
and corrode on the exposed ends like regular copper wire eventually
does. High quality speaker wire also has much finer copper strands. As
you may know from physics class, electronics travel along the outside
diameter of each of the copper strands. As a result, finer copper
strands means more strands fit into a given wire gauge diameter. That
equals greater electron flow. Not to mention the finer strands also
means much greater flexibility. Also, the thicker the conductor (bigger
gauge), the less resistance and also, better electron flow. Plus,
quality speaker cable is much prettier to look at. ;)
In real life, the mains cable will work just as well. I remember seeing
a magazine article quite some time ago where someone tested cheap
18-gauge mains cable against high-quality, oxygen free speaker cable.
They used very expensive test equipment, and the result was that the
difference was very miniscule and probably inaudible. I can't remember
which magazine, I want to say an old Radio Electronics magazine, but I
can't remember.
--
Shawn Lin
http://www2.cybercities.com/g/gmwbodycars/
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