Speaker wire for ..."difficult Electrostatic Loudspeaker System"

[andrew-benn]

I was reading through the Audio Video Cable Budget Guidelines on this site (http://www.audioholics.com/how-to-shop/cable-budget-guidelines )
I was thinking I didn't need anything special for speaker wire other than some 10 gauge wire with good terminations and then I came across this in the above guidelines:

"The truth of the matter is, standard 10 or 12 AWG Oxygen Free Multistranded Cable (OFMC) is fine for most applications except for maybe the extreme scenario of a particularly difficult Electrostatic Loudspeaker (ESL) system driven by tube amplifiers ....."

So I do have a electrostatic speakers and a "semi" tube amp. Whether my Electrostatics are "difficult" to drive I don't know but the above passage made me think I should ask what speaker wire one would use for the above mentioned "difficult Electrostatic Loudspeaker (ESL) system"?

Anybody have any ideas?
Thanks.

 

[Irvrobinson]

I was reading through the Audio Video Cable Budget Guidelines on this site (http://www.audioholics.com/how-to-shop/cable-budget-guidelines )
I was thinking I didn't need anything special for speaker wire other than some 10 gauge wire with good terminations and then I came across this in the above guidelines:

"The truth of the matter is, standard 10 or 12 AWG Oxygen Free Multistranded Cable (OFMC) is fine for most applications except for maybe the extreme scenario of a particularly difficult Electrostatic Loudspeaker (ESL) system driven by tube amplifiers ....."

So I do have a electrostatic speakers and a "semi" tube amp. Whether my Electrostatics are "difficult" to drive I don't know but the above passage made me think I should ask what speaker wire one would use for the above mentioned "difficult Electrostatic Loudspeaker (ESL) system"?

Anybody have any ideas?
Thanks.

How long do the cable runs need to be?

 

[andrew-benn]

One is about 14' and the other is 4'.
...But what I'm curious about is why the writer of the Audio Video Cable Budget Guidelines made an exception for electrostatic speakers and what wire he/she envisions being used in a "...difficult electrostatic" application.

 

[Irvrobinson]

Some electrostatic speakers have an impedance curve that falls to about 1 ohm at high frequencies. The Soundlabs, for example. And at low frequencies the impedance of the Soundlabs is much higher. So some people use very large gauge wire on these speakers, or position the amps right next to the speakers. (The latter being the best solution.) However, 14 feet of 10 gauge stranded copper has a DC resistance of less than .05 ohm, and I'd bet you won't hear any degradation.

 

[highfigh]

I was reading through the Audio Video Cable Budget Guidelines on this site (http://www.audioholics.com/how-to-shop/cable-budget-guidelines )
I was thinking I didn't need anything special for speaker wire other than some 10 gauge wire with good terminations and then I came across this in the above guidelines:

"The truth of the matter is, standard 10 or 12 AWG Oxygen Free Multistranded Cable (OFMC) is fine for most applications except for maybe the extreme scenario of a particularly difficult Electrostatic Loudspeaker (ESL) system driven by tube amplifiers ....."

So I do have a electrostatic speakers and a "semi" tube amp. Whether my Electrostatics are "difficult" to drive I don't know but the above passage made me think I should ask what speaker wire one would use for the above mentioned "difficult Electrostatic Loudspeaker (ESL) system"?

Anybody have any ideas?
Thanks.

What is a "semi tube amp"?

For short cable runs, don't worry about it unless you listen to music that uses sustained notes that happen to coincide with the impedance dips and the amp has a problem with those frequencies.

 

[andrew-benn]

"semi tube amp" is my admittedly inaccurate description of my Butler TDB 2250 amp.