[aurelius]

Hi all,

I am about to wire up my Orions and have a question about cable grouping.  

It seems that everyone's experience is to keep speaker wiring configuration as low in capacitance as possible for use with AKSAs.

For the Orion (being an active crossover system), I have 8 wires to each side... 4 hot and 4 earth.  

Can I group all the earths inside one sheath and all the hots inside another?  Or should I really keep all wires as separate from each other as possible (not sure how practical this is)?

Thanks and regards,

Mark

[Builder Brad]

Hi Mark,

I have wired the drivers in my Orion + Thor set up with 5 pairs of cables per chanel which is a lot of wire, but they do sound great!. I would not consider joining all the earths to reduce the cable overhead, if it was an option I recon that SL would have given it in his design. You could allways wire up all the individual =/- driver connections and then experiment with the earthing configuration to see if sharing the earth wires has an audiable effect.

[andyr]

Hi all,

I am about to wire up my Orions and have a question about cable grouping.  

It seems that everyone's experience is to keep speaker wiring configuration as low in capacitance as possible for use with AKSAs.

For the Orion (being an active crossover system), I have 8 wires to each side... 4 hot and 4 earth.  

Can I group all the earths inside one sheath and all the hots inside another?  Or should I really keep all wires as separate from each other as possible (not sure how practical this is)?

Thanks and regards,

Mark

Hi, Mark,

Yes, your speaker wiring configuration should have as low capacitance as possible with AKSAs ... but this comment refers to the 2 or 3m (or more!) of external speaker cable, not the 300mm or so inside the box.

However, it is just as important to have low L ... so the speaker cable does not act as a brake on the AC current flow.  Hence you want each 'hot' and 'return' pair in close proximity  Not necessarily twisted but certainly in the same sheath.

Regards,

Andy

[AKSA]

Mark,

In deference to Andy's response, I don't believe it's important to have hot and earth in the same sheath;  for convenience you could do it the way you suggest.

Certainly wiring inside the box is not so important except insofar as it minimizes hum issues, and it is possible to have positive feedback from capacitive coupling of the output and the input as they are both in phase, so keep the output cable a generous distance from the input circuitry.

Finally the capacitive intolerance of the AKSAs is largely confined to the 100W, where for reasons of nimble response the design is maximised and the rail voltage is higher.  The 55W is more relaxed about capacitance in the output stage.  And essentially, since the speaker cable is an extension of the output stage, appreciable length will add to all the reactive elements, and in any amp these are important considerations, not just the AKSA.  I see the speaker cable much as the tailshaft in a front engine rear drive automobile;  a very long tailshaft, as in a truck or a limo, does introduce problems of its own, chiefly to do with the reactive elements;  damping, oscillation, 'springiness' if you will.  The mechanical analogues here are very apt.

Cheers,

Hugh

[aurelius]

Sincere thanks for your responses Brad and Andy.

Hugh, thanks also... I wrote this simultaneously with your response.  Do you think I could get away with a loose 8 wire Litz braid as suggested below?

Brad, your suggestion of 1 earth and 4 hots has merrit in terms of simplifying the cabling... I might try it as an experiment later to determine if I can hear the difference. All theory I have read suggests that the earth cross sectional area (CSA) should be equal to or larger than (eg. eichmann ratio) the combined hot CSA, but having said that, If I can't hear the difference, it doesn't matter to me.

Andy, I understand discrete component capacitance and inductance plenty good, but always struggle with transmission lines.  

FYI, the run between the amps and speakers will be about 6' (1.5m).

It seems to me that most people who have used Tara Phase II TFA with Return cables with their stereo AKSAs  separate the hot and earth by a decent amount (10cm) and so was wondering whether i could do the same.  

In truth, I am clueless as to what configuration I should use.  
I could for example, loosely litz braid all 8 wires and create a single umbilical... this would be tidiest.  

I could create octagonal wooden spacers with a hole just inside each vertex and run the wires like a power transmission line.

I could sew channels in a flat piece of canvas and alternate hot and earth... although the geometry of this config will make it difficult to bend.

Or the untidiest solution... just route 8 individual wires independently.

Any thoughts?

Regards,

Mark