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From: pmr@drufl.UUCP (Rastocny)
Newsgroups: net.audio
Subject: Re: Speaker wire: reader reactions - (nf)
Message-ID: <689@drufl.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 11-Oct-83 08:49:53 EDT
Article-I.D.: drufl.689
Posted: Tue Oct 11 08:49:53 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 13-Oct-83 00:32:47 EDT
References: <1970@hp-pcd.UUCP>, <937@watcgl.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Information Systems, Denver
Lines: 55

At a meeting of the AT&T ISL Audio Club yesterday, eight members
listened to five different types of wires through the same system with
the same source material.  The reference system was an NAD 3140 with the
the following two modifications:
a. output transistors are wired directly to one set of speaker
   terminals (speaker selector switch bypassed).
b. power supply wiring to the output devices is beefed up
   by three orders of magnitude.
Loudspeakers were AR-5s (modified internal wiring and crossover
capacitors, grill and front lip cut off).  Turntable was a Denon DP-30L
with a Boston Acoustics moving coil cartridge (both stock).
Wires evaluated were:
	1. #16 zip cord
	2. #10 Saxton 2-wire separates
	3. Kimber cable
	4. Home-made 4-wire pseudo Litz from #12 copper, 
	   19 strands of #25, PVC insulator
	5. Home-made 4-wire pseudo Litz from #12 tinned copper,
	   65 strands of #30, PVC & cloth insulator.
Reference recordings were "Pressure Cooker", Thelma Houston on
Sheffield Lab, and "Billy Jean", Michael Jackson.  Cables were
connected via banana jacks to the loudspeaker terminals and
reduction pins to the amplifier terminals so wires could be changed
in about 10-20 seconds.

Unanimous (and I stress the word unanimous) observed differences were
that the zip cord and the Saxton "2-wire" stuff sounded lifeless and
muddy with respect to the other three.  Sound stage was almost non-
existent and imaging was poor.  Inner detail on the high hat was totally
missing.

The Kimber cable sounded very (overly) bright.  Sound stage was better
but not good.  Instrument inner detail was better but still slurred or
veiled.

The copper conductor 4-wire (#4 from the above list) had an incredibly
wide and deep sound stage and very good definition but the bass was
still a bit muddy and the top end a bit soft.  This wire was so much
better that people had to recheck the tone control and volume settings
to make sure that nothing else in the evaluation had changed.
Nothing did.

The tinned copper 4-wire (#5 from the above list) sounded even better
than its pure copper counterpart.  This observation was totally
unexpected but still confirmed by everyone present.  The sound stage
was better defined, deeper, and wider.  Veiling, especially on the top
end, was noticeably less and the bass was tighter.  This was the
best wire there period.

One member said that he had taken home these wires and not noticed such
dramatic differences on his home system (Yamaha receiver and Jensen
loudspeakers).

Phil Rastocny
drufl!pmr