which Alpha Core MI2 is the one to buy?


I am interested in buying Alpha Core MI2 speaker wire and even the Alpha Core website is confusing. There is MI2 Python, MI2 Veracity and MI2 Goertz, I think the Goertz is the main one that gets the rave reviews but, can someone confirm this? What is the difference between the three? Also does anyone know the sonic difference between the regular spades and the silver spades? It seems to me if you buy a copper wire you would not want silver spades.

thank you everyone who answers
Phil
128x128philjolet
Lou's description would be for a cable that could be used "full range" or internally bi-wired. Sean
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Here is a reply that I received in the past from Lou at LAT in regards to their SS-1000 D bi-wire.

"The bi- wire version has four separate wires in the jacket along its entire length. At the amplifier end two wires are placed in one connector for the negative post and the same is done for the positve post. Some people who biamp ask for all four wires to be placed in individual connectors."
I can see how you would be confused Brian. I am too on a lot of this stuff. Most of it is marketing nonsense.

If the LAT used two conductors per cable for the lows and two conductors for the highs, that would be internally biwired. Each frequency range has dedicated conductors making it a true BI-wire design but all of the conductors are "in" one jacket. Hence the "internally" bi-wired status. If you had two conductors in one jacket for the lows and two conductors for the highs in another jacket, that would be "externally bi-wired" due to the two runs being outside of each others' jackets.

If the Cardas design shared conductors for both frequency ranges and simply split the connection into multiple spades or bananas at the speaker end, i would call that "bi-terminated". While this is a term that i made up ( please make note of this and record this fact for future posterity : ) i can not justify such a design as actually being "bi-wired" in my mind. I made the same comments about how the Goertz Veracity's come from the factory when "bi-wired" ( really "bi-terminated" ). The only "benefit" to such a design is that it allows you to bypass the possibly lower grade factory supplied "jumper" connection between the binding posts. Sean
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Sean, thou art beside thyself; much learning doth make thee mad.

All kidding aside, thanks for the lengthy reply, I am not sure I know anymore now than before though.

You did raise another question I have though. I have LAT SS-1000 D bi-wire speaker cables and I recently had Cardas Golden Cross, intgernally bi-wired. LAT states the following on these, "(Four wires in one jacket)". It appears to me, on the Golden Cross, that for their bi-wire they take a single run and at the speaker end split the wires to make the bi-wire. (I could be wrong but that is the way it looked.) If this is true, I assumed that the LAT design was considered externally bi-wired, as Cardas lists their design as internal. Am I correct?
Think of "shotgunning" like you would "mono-blocking". Just as you have one amp for each channel, you would have one cable for each polarity of the speaker jacks. This would mean using one conductor ( solid, stranded, braided, etc.. ) in it's own jacket for the positive and another identical yet separate cable for the negative. Cables that share both polarities within one common jacket can not be shotgunned unless the following approach is taken.

A somewhat common method of "shotgunning" is done with Kimber 8TC. The 8TC has 8 blue conductors and 8 black jackets in each braided run. Most folks end up using the 8 blue jacketed wires for the positive and the 8 black wires for the negative. In order to "shotgun" this cable, one would tie the black and blue jacketed wires together and use all 16 of the conductors for one polarity of the speaker. Let's say we did the positive. It would now require an identical cable i.e. 8TC using all 16 of the black and blue jacketed cables to connect to the negative polarity. You would literally have two seperate "barrels" of 8TC to make up one full run on a channel. In order to do this on a 2 speaker system, you would literally need four complete identical runs of 8TC to "shotgun" the cables for both channels.

This approach is obviously more costly and effectively doubles the gauge of wire being used. It also changes ALL of the electrical characteristics of the cable being used. Due to the physically separate runs for each polarity, the "low inductance design" of the Kimber's is now completely negated and the design now becomes high inductance. The same thing can be achieved by simply "unzipping" zip cord and spacing out the two conductors. Obviously, the type of conductors used ( individually insulated for the Kimber vs the lumped together strands of the "zip" ) would still create a slightly different electrical characteristic.

In order to "shotgun bi-wire" a stereo system, you would need EIGHT runs of 8TC. Let's start with the right speaker. One positive for the woofer, one negative for the woofer, one positive for the tweeter, one negative for the tweeter. You would then have to duplicate that same set-up for the other ( left ) speaker. Now you are talking TALL cash.

In terms of "bi-wiring", my PERSONAL take on this is that each section of a speaker ( woofer and tweeter on two way, woofer, mid, tweeter on three way, etc... ) each has it's own separate positive and negative wires feeding it. In other words, you would need four wires insulated from each other to "bi-wire" one speaker, eight wires to do a stereo pair. In this sense, Goertz MI-2 Veracity is technically not really "bi-wired" so much as it is "bi-terminated". Since this design shares the same conductors for each frequency range, you can't "bi-wire" with Goertz unless you literally have a seperate cable for each frequency range ( highs and lows ). The main advantage to "bi-terminating" the Goertz is that this allows you to bypass the factory installed jumpers.

Another version that is also called "shotgun biriwing" can be done this way. A run of Kimber 8TC is used for the woofer and a run of 4TC is run for the tweeter. While these cables are obviously separated from each other to connect to the various woofer and tweeter jacks on the speaker, they are sometimes connected to the amplifiers binding post using one common spade or banana jack. These cables are still "shotgunned" as the highs are physically separated yet maintain a common connection at the amp. It is kind of confusing as the polarities are not separated to form the "two barrels" in this version of shotgunning. Rather than that, the highs / lows are physically separated i.e. making the "two barrels" of the "shotgun" terminology.

Some cables have multiple wires all individually insulated within one bigger jacket. Some of the more common brands that do this are Audioquest, Straightwire, Axon, etc... Using this type of cable or even something like Kimber, XLO, etc... you could separate individual insulated runs out of the bunch and divide the signal WITHIN the cable itself between the highs and the lows. This is called an "internally biwired" cable. The Goertz MI-2 Python's can be done in this manner also, as they use four conductors per jacket rather than the two conductors that the Veracity uses. While this approach may give you some benefits, it is reported that physically separate cables between the highs and lows work better.

This can be a VERY confusing thing to try and explain. Besides being tired, i'll let someone else try to confuse you with their explanations : ) Sean
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Thanks!

I guess I'm just really confused about this.

All I know is my speakers have two sets of binding posts.
I'm sure it is a "true" bi-post design as the specs for the speakers say 4 Ohms for the bottom and 8 Ohms for the top.
The manual that came with the speakers said that bi-wiring was highly recommended.

Then, I go to the Alpha-Core site and see you can purchase bi-wired cables.
But are they really bi-wired?
I dunno.

Then I call up the speaker factory and they are talking about using a jumper (copper wire not gold plated bar) so that I am minimizing any time smear (phase shift) by having the entire signal runnning down the same wires.
He talks about running the cables to the top and jumping down from there and vice versa to see what sounds better.

But then he talks about bi-wiring in the next breath.
So I don't know if he's talking about shotgunning or what?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My experience with biwiring any speaker is that the biggest benefits come from two separate runs of wire i.e. one set of cables to the top and one to the bottom. This is NOT the same as using cables that are internally bi-wired.

Using Goertz in a bi-wired arrangement with just the one cable would simply allow you to bypass the "jumper". This in itself might be an improvement for several different reasons. Two of them would be the lack of skin effect with the other being the fact that the two frequency ranges would be transferred from amp to speaker at the same rate of propogation ( speed ). Different cable designs, geometries, types of dielectric used, different lengths, etc... can all alter how fast the signal gets from point A to point B. Using the same cable for both frequency ranges can only miminize the potential for problems.

As to shotgunning Goertz cables, that would completely negate the "special" features of this design. I can think of better ways to waste my money. Others may have different ideas or points of view : ) Sean
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What's the best way to bi-wire speakers with the Alpha Core MI 2's or 3's:

- two seperate runs -- one to top posts / one to bottom posts
- two parallel runs to top or bottom / jumper from there
- shotgun Veracity
- shotgun Serpent
- others?

I guess, as a general rule of thumb, copper cables are better with solid-state front ends and silver cables with tube front ends.
Is that correct?
Ditto Ligi - the MI 2's are the best I've had, perfect explanation by Sean.
I have a pair of the MI Veracity 2's and 3's . I have tried other brands along the way but these just seem to make their way back into the systems. I am done looking for good speaker cables - I have them. Good job by Sean as usual.
Alpha-Core is the company.

Goertz was the designer.

MI is a prefix for their copper speaker cables.

AG is a prefix for their silver speaker cables.

Both the MI and AG come in different gauges.

1's are 13 gauge

2's are 10 gauge

3's are 7 gauge

You can order the MI-2's in two different versions. Either one will give you a 10 gauge copper cable. The difference is in the internal cable geometry and the type of dielectric used.

The MI-2 Veracity is the "old style" that uses two wide & flat conductors stacked on top of each other with minimal dielectric.

The MI-2 Python is the "new style" that uses four thinner "purled" conductors stacked on top of each other in a round package with quite a bit more dielectric.

I am assuming that you want the MI-2 Veracity's. The Python's have not been out for all that long nor have i seen any rave reviews of them. Sean
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