Second Round of Questions on Speaker Cables


Following up on a post of a couple months ago. Running Audience AU24SE cables but looking for something with more "body" if such a thing exists. But I do love the open, airy and even frequency balance of the Audience. A buddy runs Cardas cables and loves them but Audience not so much. So I was asking what else besides my Audience. Two answers were in the majority:

Stick with what you like, Audience, but go up in the range. Or, try Cardas. 

So went for with AU24SX and really like them. Better than the SEs, maybe a bit more body.

Then tried the Cardas Clear Reflections. What I find is an emphasis with the mids and upper bass. Great for music with an emphasis on vocals maybe, but for my wide-ranging likes of rock, jazz, and occasional vocal-centric music, just not right with that lower-end emphasis.

FWIW, Bryston amp, Spatial Audio and Rogue pres, Sopras.

So still looking but not sure where to go next. I realize I'm being a little vague, but there's so many other options out there and it's impossible to try them all. Open to suggestions.

Thanks.

 

jaybe

I am glad to see my comments sparkled such a discussion. Hopefully some folks will now have a desire to learn more about acoustics.
I was educated and worked in the field for 40+ years. 
I was building my own amplifiers and speakers (building one right now), and performed various sonar and antenna calculations.
I would not dare to discuss a topic I do not fully understand.

@mgrif104 All said above about role playing factors, is true. I can add to the list:
- temperature factor
- wire attachment and placement (affects oscillation) 

But all those factors are quite negligible in our application. Because of two factors, mainly - amplitude and frequency range of an audio signal.
We can compare with impact of a wire resistance (it actually plays much bigger role). Does it really makes a notable difference if your wire gauge is 10 or 12? The resistance of 10 ft copper piece is 0.012 and 0.015 ohms, respectfully. Compare with a speaker nominal impedance of 4-8 ohms.
Other factors mentioned play much, much lesser role.
Think of why audio or power cables do not have any shielding (speaking of antennas).

As an experiment, connect oscilloscope and/or spectrum analyzer to you speaker terminals. (It is quite entertaining, actually). Record same audio signal using different wires. Compare. I bet you will see no difference.

Oh, by the way, what about headphone wires? the wires inside of a speaker box?

Good luck, with all due respect.

@jaybe 

Long story but during an attempt to see if the Tellurium Q Black Ultra II speaker cables were a legit vendor being sold on Amazon " the owner and designer Geoff wrote me back personally. ( Nice guy). I wrote him my experience with his product and he liked it so much he put it on the Tellurium Q Facebook page. I wrote"

"

An English friend introduced me to them and while looking at the Black II I saw the Ultra for a decent price and the size I needed ( 2.5 m). I must say I was a little bit reluctant when I read about the 50 to 100 hours of break in time.  To avoid disappointment I set my expectations low; telling myself ok you may not hear a big difference but it's coming !  I was so impressed with the sound right out of the box . I'ld never heard that speaker leads can open up a sound stage but I craned my neck turning to look down the hall looking for a new instrument being played with Peter Gabriel's song " Red Rain". 

   Thanks for that ; I'm saving my Penny's  to buy the Silver Ultra ! "

 

 

@jaybe FWIW i second @mike4597 recommendation on the Fidelium cables--i bought into the concept after talking with Jeff at Silversmith audio--he also is an engineer and spent much of his career in the Navy dealing with underwater acoustics.  The concept is complete neutrality.  However, i also agree with those who think you need to perfect your room and speaker placement first before going down this road--i took that advice from Jim Smith, the author of "Get Better Sound" in a long phone conversation.  His firm belief is that room is the biggest and most important influence on the sound.