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From: bblue@crash.CTS.COM (Bill Blue)
Newsgroups: rec.audio,sci.physics,sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Mercury Filled Speaker Wire
Message-ID: <1741@crash.CTS.COM>
Date: Wed, 31-Dec-69 18:59:59 EDT
Article-I.D.: crash.1741
Posted: Wed Dec 31 18:59:59 1969
Date-Received: Sun, 20-Sep-87 23:00:10 EDT
References: <3816@watdcsu.waterloo.edu> <578@uthub.toronto.edu> <1700@crash.CTS.COM> <1854@ucbcad.berkeley.edu> <1709@crash.CTS.COM> <1222@pinney.munsell.UUCP>
Reply-To: bblue@crash.CTS.COM (Bill Blue)
Distribution: rec
Organization: Crash TS, El Cajon, CA
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Xref: mnetor rec.audio:3360 sci.physics:2229 sci.electronics:1377

In article <1222@pinney.munsell.UUCP> pac@pinney.UUCP (Paul Czarnecki) writes:
>In article <1709@crash.CTS.COM> bblue@crash.CTS.COM (Bill Blue) writes:
>>In my view, the big culprit that kills the 'hardware store' variety
>>cables is the varying time of arrival of different frequencies at the
>>other end of the cable due to skin effect propagation and other factors.
>
>>I make these statements from personal experience with all sorts of
>>cables.  Take *any* heavy, stranded, copper cable -- anything from 12/2
>>or 10/2 electrical cable to the 12 guage (standard) Monster cable
>>(reasonably cheap at ~$.50/foot) and you'll get a similar sound.  The
>>number of strands and thickness of each will provide subtle differences,
>>but all in all they're about the same.
>
>Why must you use stranded cable?  I realize the mechanical
>difficulties in using a solid core cable but are there any electrical
>problems?
>
>I used 12 gauge solid core for many years.  It was the cheapest stuff
>I could find.  (It was UL listed for underground use also. :-)

I've tried that too - 12/2 in fact, though it wasn't UG.  I even tried
it once in a studio between the monitors and power amp to see what the 
reaction from other engineers would be and if that reaction was similar
to mine.  It was. I had observed that with 12 gauge solid, there was an
extreme loss of high frequency detail.  It was replaced with sort of a
soft haze, not offensive but very vague.  The lower octave (kick drum,
etc) seemed to all but disappear as well.  I was an engineer at the time
(early 70's) when I performed this experiment.  All of us (myself and
two others) concluded in separate recording sessions (our own clients)
that our ability to equalize and balance the various tracks was
seriously impaired.  In tests repeated recently, the same differences
are heard, but with higher grades of speaker cables becoming available,
the differences are much greater.

I believe the big problem with large gauge solid conductor cable is
skin effect related.  The diameter is simply too large for reasonable
handling of high frequencies.  In the above tests which, by the way,
were long before there were any 'audiophile' cables, we found that
moderately heavy gauge, stranded, non-plated soft copper wire was by far
the most revealing.  Now this was about '72 -- with many so-called
audiophiles in '87 still poo-pooing the sound of cables -- imagine the
kinds of comments this topic produced back then?


It always has struck me rather funny when engineer types (not recording
but electronics) go into long dissertations on how we audiophiles can't
be hearing differences in so-and-so cables, or capacitors, or resistors,
or (gasp) power supplies, and spout streams of numbers and other
specifications that 'prove' such things don't apply to audio
frequencies.  Years later though, when it becomes generally accepted
that such things do in fact make audible differences, the same engineers
not only agree that these things do make a difference, but can spout
reasons why.  I guess all it really has to do with is your current
levels of understanding and awareness -- both of what quality audio
really can sound like (unless you've experienced it, it's indescribable)
and technically in how you associate formulas and specs to the real
world.

--Bill