[sanlanman]

Now that I have ordered V3s, I am curious as to what the other Salk owners use for speaker cables and any particular reason why. I am familiar with the factions on this sometimes hotly debated issue. One faction says anything more than lamp cord is overkill and the other faction extreme is that megabuck cables offer improvements in small but valuable increments and nuances. I hope this thread does not degenerate into flame war, so please no bashing or disputing the merits, or lack of merits of somebody elses choice of cable.
I am just looking to get a feel for speaker cables, hopefully reasonably priced ones, to consider.

[Philistine]

I'm using Gregg Straley's Reality cables with my HT3's:

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=51700.msg462733

http://www.realitycables.com/

About as good as it gets at the price.

[rockadanny]

Make sure you ask Frank Van Alstine what cables he uses with his HT3s over at AVA 
(and don't forget to duck!)

[DMurphy]

I use Radio Shack 16 Ga Mega Cable because the polarity is clearly marked (red vs. clear), it doesn't cost very much, and the Rat Shack is next door to my favorite Chinese take-out.   Oh--it also sounds like any other decent wire. 

[Big Red Machine]

Good cables don't have to be megabucks. Lampcord sucks btw. Clearly can hear a difference btwn that and silver for instance (which I have done with a room of people). Many times copper sounds like copper no matter the price but silver sounds different than copper. Many silvers sound the same. I have found ridge street audio poiema silver to be non bright and fulfilling.

I'd recommend seeing if you like silver versus copper. There are bad silvers like lampcord can be bad copper if that makes sense. I'm typing on a blackberry from india right now.

[robinje]

Although I don't have my Salk speakers yet (they're in transit right now...   ), I have a set of Belden speaker wire I intend to use with them.  I was satisfied with Belden coax wire assembled by Blue Jeans Cables for inteconnects, so I thought I'd try out Belden speaker wire, too.  Zebra Cables offers Belden speaker wire with a nice variety of termination choices, and the price is still reasonable, so that's what I have.  So...  I have Belden all around:  interconnects from Blue Jeans and speaker wire from Zebra. 

[martyo]

I bi-wire with Blue Jeans Cable. 2 sets of BJC 10ga. Belden 5T00UP terminated with bananas and piggy backed.

[sanlanman]

Make sure you ask Frank Van Alstine what cables he uses with his HT3s over at AVA 
(and don't forget to duck!)

I will be sure to do that........NOT. I have met Frank once and check in on the AVAHIFI forum here. I don't know exactly what he uses, but based on his no nonsense attitude, I would assume it is some plain vanilla type of wire.

Thanks guys, keep the replies coming.

[jsalk]

About two years ago I overheard a woman at RMAF asking Frank what kind of speaker cable he used.  "Rope," was his reply.  She stormed out of the room in disgust.  The story spread until one day Frank received rope in the mail.  A customer had woven wire through pieces of rope and sent them to Frank as a joke.  Now that's what he uses (really).  I think it is thick hemp rope (the thicker the better).

So you don't have to ask Frank - now you know rest of the story.

- Jim

[martyo]

About two years ago I overheard a woman at RMAF asking Frank what kind of speaker cable he used.  "Rope," was his reply.  She stormed out of the room in disgust.  The story spread until one day Frank received rope in the mail.  A customer had woven wire through pieces of rope and sent them to Frank as a joke.  Now that's what he uses (really).  I think it is thick hemp rope (the thicker the better).

So you don't have to ask Frank - now you know rest of the story.

- Jim

That was my brother.

[DMurphy]

About two years ago I overheard a woman at RMAF asking Frank what kind of speaker cable he used.  "Rope," was his reply.  She stormed out of the room in disgust.  The story spread until one day Frank received rope in the mail.  A customer had woven wire through pieces of rope and sent them to Frank as a joke.  Now that's what he uses (really).  I think it is thick hemp rope (the thicker the better).

So you don't have to ask Frank - now you know rest of the story.

- Jim

I sure hope he brings his thickest gauge rope to RMAF this weekend.  I'm not flying all the way out to Denver to hear your speakers fed by girly-boy hemp.   Speaking of which--is anyone going to be there besides Jim and me  (And Frank)?  I'll finally get to hear the ST ribbons in stereo. 

[ArthurDent]

About two years ago I overheard a woman at RMAF asking Frank what kind of speaker cable he used.  "Rope," was his reply.  She stormed out of the room in disgust.  The story spread until one day Frank received rope in the mail.  A customer had woven wire through pieces of rope and sent them to Frank as a joke.  Now that's what he uses (really).  I think it is thick hemp rope (the thicker the better).

So you don't have to ask Frank - now you know rest of the story.

- Jim

That was my brother.

Ah ha, that finally explains the 'magic' speaker cables Frank was talking about. I never caught the final info on the specifics, though I remember you noting they were from your brother.

I'm using simple RCA 16GA copper speaker wire from HD. I 'built' a number of sets of the White Lightning Moonshine wires discussed in depth elsewhere on the Circle. I did note a difference in the sound, but not being sufficiently knowledgeable on electrical issues was concerned about Frank's capacitance vs inductance discussion. So back to simple, avoid any possible issues. As the ears age there's only so much subtlety that can be detected. So will leave those finer points to more knowing/hearing parties.

[martyo]

Ah ha, that finally explains the 'magic' speaker cables Frank was talking about. I never caught the final info on the specifics, though I remember you noting they were from your brother.

Sorry I never sent you another pm after AudioKarma explaining........

[Nuance]

About two years ago I overheard a woman at RMAF asking Frank what kind of speaker cable he used.  "Rope," was his reply.  She stormed out of the room in disgust.  The story spread until one day Frank received rope in the mail.  A customer had woven wire through pieces of rope and sent them to Frank as a joke.  Now that's what he uses (really).  I think it is thick hemp rope (the thicker the better).

So you don't have to ask Frank - now you know rest of the story.

- Jim

Hilarious!   

I am one of those guys that doesn't believe in expensive cables.  Resistance is resistance, and as long as their is no signal loss you should be good to go.  With that said, I do believe some materials have lower resistance, so silver may be a good way to go (though it will be more expensive).  I don't use lamp cord, but rather bluejeans cable and audioquest 12 gauge. 

[BPuckett]

I, also, fall into the camp of people who use what works well and doesn't break the bank.  Here's a link to what I use.

http://www.impactacoustics.com/product.asp?cat_id=3102&sku=29176

It works very well with my HT3's, looks good and is priced right.

Regards,
Bob

[jsalk]

I sure hope he brings his thickest gauge rope to RMAF this weekend.  I'm not flying all the way out to Denver to hear your speakers fed by girly-boy hemp.   Speaking of which--is anyone going to be there besides Jim and me  (And Frank)?  I'll finally get to hear the ST ribbons in stereo. 

I sure hope the gauge is thick enough.  We're driving cross country for the next two days and I certainly wouldn't like to arrive in Denver to find some wimpy twine.  For those attending RMAF this year, we'll see you (rooom 2005) on Friday and put Frank's rope to the test (maybe we can even do an A/B comparo with some more expensive cables).

- Jim

[robinje]

I've heard that twine is actually better than thicker rope because of the "skin effect" of larger diameter fibers.  Hemp is worst because the electrons become way too mellow and unfocused during their long strange trip toward the speaker. 

[R Swerdlow]

Something recently was published in the medical literature showing that expensive placebo medicine seems to work better than cheap placebo medicine.

RL Waber, B Shiv, Z Carmon, & D Ariely Journal of the American Medical Association vol 299: pp1016-17; 2008

http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/299/9/1016

82 volunteers were recruited and paid $30 each to test a new pain killer drug. 41 volunteers were given pills that were said to cost $2.50 a pill, and the other 41 received the same pills, but were told they cost 10¢ a pill. All volunteers took identical placebo pills that had no pain killer at all in them.

Each participant received test electrical shocks at the wrist to identify his/her maximum tolerated pain level.   After that, participants received the test shocks in 2.5 volt increments between 0 volts and their individual maximum tolerated voltage.  They rated their perceived pain on a scale from "no pain at all" to "the worst pain imaginable".  Stimulation at each voltage level was carried out twice for each participant before and after taking the pill.  The change in reaction to the stimulation was assessed.  The group that took the expensive placebo pill clearly thought it worked better than the group that took the cheap pill.



Something similar was found with wine tasting when the same wine was presented to tasters as $90 a bottle or as $10 a bottle http://news.cnet.com/8301-13580_3-9849949-39.html.

Perhaps the makers of expensive speaker cable have known this for a long time, that expensive wires "sound better" than cheap wires.  They seem to make a good living depending on this.

Usual Disclaimer
I do not intend to insult anyone who does have expensive cables or prefers expensive wine.  I only point this out because it is widely understood that differences in price have a genuine effect on people's perception of performance or quality.  Maybe something similar is going on in audio.

I use 12 g zip cord on my SongTowers.

[orientalexpress]

i'm still using CAT5 from radio shack clearing bind.i paid $10 for 100ft roll.it's work good for me since i single driver speakers from omega.

[martyo]

I've heard that twine is actually better than thicker rope because of the "skin effect" of larger diameter fibers.  Hemp is worst because the electrons become way too mellow and unfocused during their long strange trip toward the speaker. 

Good for listening to some LIVE Dead.