[SCUBADON]

I,m another bare wire guy.  Sounds best to me.  I do coat them with Silclear about once a year to reduce oxidation.

[Sonny]

I,m another bare wire guy.  Sounds best to me.  I do coat them with Silclear about once a year to reduce oxidation.

good idea...i'll need to get on it!
T

[jrebman]

A few days ago I rearranged my system and put individual 5 foot lengths of 1930s vintage solid copper, double cotton-insulated wire (with bare ends only treated with Pro Gold) between my Signature 70s and my Adagios and... freaking amazing!  An entirely new system -- absolutely the most dramatic cabling change I've ever heard in any system of mine or anybody else's for that matter.

I will probably put some low-mass, all copper spades (like the Vampire SPDs) on the speaker ends so I can use my Walker Reference HDLs, and I'll probably also treat everything with eSST, but right now I'm just enjoying the hell out of this entirely too simple and cheap setup.

Never would have guessed...

-- Jim

[Steve Eddy]

A few days ago I rearranged my system and put individual 5 foot lengths of 1930s vintage solid copper, double cotton-insulated wire (with bare ends only treated with Pro Gold) between my Signature 70s and my Adagios and... freaking amazing!  An entirely new system -- absolutely the most dramatic cabling change I've ever heard in any system of mine or anybody else's for that matter.

Coolness!

Had a bit if a similar experience some time back but with interconnects. This was with some really old Western Electric wire. Stranded, tinned copper with a double silk serve (a serve is where it's just wrapped helically around the wire), a cotton overbraid and wax impregnated. Just took two lengths, simply twisted them together and terminated them with RCAs. Sounded fantastic.

I will probably put some low-mass, all copper spades (like the Vampire SPDs) on the speaker ends...

Panduit makes some low-mass, all copper 1/4" spades. You can get 'em from Mouser for 15 cents each. They're tinned rather than gold plated, but hey, if you're going to use 1930s wire, why not use 1930s connectors? 

Mouser catalog number is 644-P18-14F-M

se

[JoshK]

i like nuetrik speakons myself.  it requires retermination, but the advantages are many fold.  they are cheap, they are low mass, they make good connection and are super convenient to disconnect and reconnect. 

[Steve Eddy]

i like nuetrik speakons myself.  it requires retermination, but the advantages are many fold.  they are cheap, they are low mass, they make good connection and are super convenient to disconnect and reconnect. 

Yeah, I'd played with the Speakons before, but what turned me off is that externally I found them much too big and clunky.

I've pretty much come full circle, simply using #6 spades and #6 screw terminals, the same combination on the first stereo system my father bought back when I was a child.

se

[lonewolfny42]

From the gallery....jackman using the Neutrik Speakon Connector......Gallery photo...

[Steve Eddy]

From the gallery....jackman using the Neutrik Speakon Connector......Gallery photo...

Ah, thanks. I'd always wondered how loudspeakers reproduced. 

se

[jrebman]

I've pretty much come full circle, simply using #6 spades and #6 screw terminals, the same combination on the first stereo system my father bought back when I was a child.

I'm definitely going to look into these for my second system with the Scott 222.  I think I still need to consider either the speakons or vampires for the speaker connections on the Adagios though -- the binding post nuts are huge, and the HDL spades are thin and fairly wide, and I'm afraid the tiny vintage spades would result in too little contact area for the hdls to be effective.

I'm also giving some serious consideration to rewiring both sets of single-driver speakers I have, with this wire, and perhaps some Edison Price unplated, bare copper posts.  It will be an interesting experiment at the least.

Thanks for the Mouser P/N.

-- Jim

[Steve Eddy]

I'm definitely going to look into these for my second system with the Scott 222.  I think I still need to consider either the speakons or vampires for the speaker connections on the Adagios though -- the binding post nuts are huge, and the HDL spades are thin and fairly wide, and I'm afraid the tiny vintage spades would result in too little contact area for the hdls to be effective.

Mmm. I'm not quite following you here. You say the HDL spades are thin and wide and afraid the small spades would result in too little contact area for the HDL spades to be effective. Are you stacking a spade on top of a spade or something? I'm not getting how the small spades and the HDL spades relate to each other here.

As for contact area, a #6 spade on a #6 screw terminal will give you at least as much and probably even a bit more contact area than you'd get with a Speakon. Speakons use a curved, leaf type spring for the contact in the panel connector. The cable connector uses solid cylindrical contacts which compress the spring contacts when the connector is engaged. So the contact area is a rather thin line which runs the length of the cylindrical contacts.

So don't discount the small spades' contact area just 'cause they look small.

I'm also giving some serious consideration to rewiring both sets of single-driver speakers I have, with this wire, and perhaps some Edison Price unplated, bare copper posts.  It will be an interesting experiment at the least.

True. And screw terminals would work with your solid core wire too.

se

[jrebman]

Mmm. I'm not quite following you here. You say the HDL spades are thin and wide and afraid the small spades would result in too little contact area for the HDL spades to be effective. Are you stacking a spade on top of a spade or something? I'm not getting how the small spades and the HDL spades relate to each other here.

Yes, you stack them, and with the HDL on the outside away from the body of the speaker and closest to the nut.  In other words, the signal carrying cable contacts the base of the binding post and the HDL sits on top towards the outside.  The HDL is basically an RF trap and, with my experience to date, seems to work best on speakers with complex crossovers, but now that I actually own a pair of these, I can spend more time evaluating them on my single-driver speakers.  As with most things tweak, the change is not huge, but does tend to tighten up the imaging a bit, or more accurately, give a bit more focus to the image.  It is definitely not, from what I can tell in my limited experimentation, equal in effect for all variations of speaker/amp combinations, and as good as it is, I'm sure glad I didn't pay full price for them.  In fact, if I hadn't got them for half-price or less, I probably wouldn't have considered them.  I also got to hear them before even looking to buy a used set because I was completely and totally skeptical that they did anything at all.  So, I'll try them in a few different configurations of speakers and amps over the next 6 months or so, and if they aren't worth keeping, I'll probably be able to sell them for near what I paid for them as demand for them seems to be quite high as they don't last long once they hit agon.

Sorry, that's not what this thread is about -- lost my head.

-- Jim

[Steve Eddy]

Oh! Those things!

Sorry, when I read "HDL spades" I thought you meant they were just spades and the "HDL" was a model number, like the Vampire SPDs. I missed the "Walker Reference HDLs" in your previous post.

Ok, I'm with you now.

Why couldn't you just solder on some #6 spades to the HDLs? Connect the speaker cables to the screw terminals from the bottom, and the HDLs from the top.

se

[jrebman]

Oh! Those things!

Yeah, those things

Why couldn't you just solder on some #6 spades to the HDLs? Connect the speaker cables to the screw terminals from the bottom, and the HDLs from the top.

Umm, because, errr, I didn't think of that, but there's really nothing to stop me from doing it.

I need a few other things from Mouser anyway, so I'll give them a call tomorrow.

Thanks,

Jim

[Steve Eddy]

Umm, because, errr, I didn't think of that, but there's really nothing to stop me from doing it.

There's nothing stopping you but yourself, Weedhopper. Well, you and that giant man-eating grasshopper at your feet. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

se