Speaker Cables

@cakyol, we all get it, your hearing is suspect or your system is not revealing enough.

Why do members with considerable sums of money invested have to listen to your negativity and rude put-down???  Do you really believe so many enthusiasts across so many forums are all delusional?


My wife and I easily hear the difference but then you come along to piss my battery wet.

Give it a rest man.

OP, the advice to use 8AWG cable for hook-up wire is simply ridiculous!
I like AWG 21 to 24 solid core pure copper OCC wire for the tweeter with no crimped on terminals anywhere. Solder all connections. If using solid core then provide vibration relief by using cable ties or some hot-melt glue to anchor the wire close to it's termination.

https://www.vhaudio.com/wire.html#vh18hookup : Chris supplies this wire with AirLok insulation which has a very low dielectric constant, even lower than Teflon. I use it inside amps too.

For mids and bass use AWG 14 to 18 OCC copper, avoiding PVC insulation. There are many outlets for good cable.

The advice to contact Audio Envy could work, they are garnering some good reviews. I have not used any of their stuff so have no comment.

With regards to changing capacitors: I do this all the time with great results.
I am sure pesky_wabbit was well-intentioned when he mentioned ESR. This is insignificant in a crossover and can be ignored. In the formula for capacitive reactance there is no 'R" value in the equation.   It is:   Xc =1 divided by (2xPixFxC) If you consider that when caps are chosen for XO duties the closest standard value to the theoretical value is used, then there is the individual driver's response, the overall response and the room's response,you will realise that ESR is a non-issue   : )

Perhaps when rewiring you consider replacing just the cap/s in the tweeter circuit and while you are at if you find any white sand-cast resistors replace them with Mills or similar. Expect a noticeable improvement.

@pesky_wabbit, interesting article thanks. An increase in resistance in series with a DUT will attenuate the signal I agree but the ESR delta between good film caps will have no noticeable effect. Any slight effect will be completely swamped by the room's response which is why I termed it a non-issue.

Certainly I would never add an extra small resistor to the XO. When I design a speaker I try my best to closely match, if possible, the sensitivities of the drivers so that no attenuating resistance is needed resulting in a simpler and cheaper XO. You may be underestimating the harm extra components do.

Vance Dickerson, Joe D'appalito and Sigfried Linkwitz's work is mostly what I studied regarding speaker design. None of these gentlemen even mention ESR when creating an XO from first principles. I think I will take their teachings before
ken kantor.

Hey pesky_wabbit stop chasing carrots and educate yourself.

To get an understanding about XO design try reading articles from the experts I mentioned. You are not arguing with me, you are arguing with Sigfied Linkwitz. Yes it's that Linkwitz of Linkwitz/Riley fame. His filters are probably more widely used than Bessel, Butterworth or Chebychev in crossovers.

You state:  (ESR) "altering a fundamental characteristic of the crossover which affects frequency response"

For simplicity lets look at a first-order XO.  A series resistance will NOT alter this basic function, the position of the XO knee or -3dB point is determined by the VALUE of capacitance, (not the value of capacitance plus ESR)  The XO response has now been established and any resistance in series will merely attenuate the level to match the other drivers.

Now what about speakers with level controls for the tweeter?  Are you claiming that when you adjust the level setting, which just switches different value resistors in circuit and here we are talking 10 or 20 ohms and not milliohms, that it is changing the XO point?

I consider neither your nor K Kantor's unsubstantiated bloviating worth hijacking this thread further.