Questions on stepping up to making higher quality speaker wire

[Snakebitten]

Hello AH. I noticed that Audio Quest uses thicker wire for the woofer and thinner wire for the mid/tweeters on their bi-wire setups. I have found the star quad Canare wires on BJ Cable site but all 4 wires are 14 gauge. I like it buuuut:

I was wondering if I used one set of twisted pair 14/2 gauge for the mid/highs and twisted pair 10/2 or 12/2 for the woofer would there be a problem? From what I read I don't think so but I also don't want to do anything to damage my new speakers (MA Gold 300's). I would wrap the two cables into one using flextech to look nice and terminate with some pretty nice locking banana plugs.

 

[slipperybidness]

Hello AH. I noticed that Audio Quest uses thicker wire for the woofer and thinner wire for the mid/tweeters on their bi-wire setups. I have found the star quad Canare wires on BJ Cable site but all 4 wires are 14 gauge. I like it buuuut:

I was wondering if I used one set of twisted pair 14/2 gauge for the mid/highs and twisted pair 10/2 or 12/2 for the woofer would there be a problem? From what I read I don't think so but I also don't want to do anything to damage my new speakers (MA Gold 300's). I would wrap the two cables into one using flextech to look nice and terminate with some pretty nice locking banana plugs.

Don't forget some cable pants for that real pro look!

 

[Snakebitten]

Hey Slippery I already have them. Don’t know what size techflex to get yet. Will have to wait to see how thick the two cables together are.

 

[slipperybidness]

Be sure to come back with pics!

 

[KaatheSnake]

Hello AH. I noticed that Audio Quest uses thicker wire for the woofer and thinner wire for the mid/tweeters on their bi-wire setups. I have found the star quad Canare wires on BJ Cable site but all 4 wires are 14 gauge. I like it buuuut:

I was wondering if I used one set of twisted pair 14/2 gauge for the mid/highs and twisted pair 10/2 or 12/2 for the woofer would there be a problem? From what I read I don't think so but I also don't want to do anything to damage my new speakers (MA Gold 300's). I would wrap the two cables into one using flextech to look nice and terminate with some pretty nice locking banana plugs.

Banana plugs are a blessing to have... I hate getting poked with copper speaker wire every time I plug in my speakers. What snake did you get bit by? It's cool we have similar usernames.
Ryan

 

[killdozzer]

My more experienced and wiser colleagues must be tired of this, so I’ll land a hand.

There’s a huge, HUUUUGE stupidity tax on all Audio Quest products. It is the amount one has to pay if he’s ill-informed or just plain dumb, hence the name “stupidity-tax”.

Unfortunately, before you get to know someone a little bit better, there’s almost no visible difference between ill-informed and dumb. End results of their actions amount to just about the same.

Of course I place all my hopes that you’re the former.

Only, and let me say that again, only if you have money to throw away and you find their products irresistibly beautiful should you buy Audio Quest.

No other justified reason has been discovered so far.

You should also be very careful because from what I remember some of their cables fail to perform even in what every Monoprice cable manages.

Very people from Audio Quest bent their knees when asked to deliver any form of background to any of their claims.

Unfortunately, Audio Quest won’t close their doors because you don’t give them your money, but that fact should in no way encourage you to give it anyway.

 

[Snakebitten]

Slippery it’ll be a few weeks. Waiting on the cable from BJC.

I’m assuming since no one says don’t do it that the gauge mixing should be fine???

Kaathesnake lol. Give myself that name after seeing the Dodge Viper in early 90’s. Been my screen name ever since. Yes love the banana plugs too.

I’ve never had a pair of name brand speaker cables. I’ve always made my own out of lamp cord or Radio Shack wires. But I’ve never tried higher than 14 gauge wire and never tried to dress them up to look purdy. This will be my first attempt at 10-12 gauge speaker wire, shrink tube and pants and flex-tech

Regardless of how it turns out I’ll post pics either as a diy or a don’t do this if it sucks haha. .

Killdozer thanks for your post. I in no way will buy AQ or any other brands mega money cable. I am attempting to replicate their build quality using ordinary products. I too am not drinking the koolaid.

I just don’t understand what improvement using two different gauge wires would make in a bi-wire since both are tied to the same amp terminal. So I’m trying to make one and test it against my home made 10 gauge wire that I’ll be making to see if I can hear any difference. I doubt it. But I’ll have fun doing it.

 

[KaatheSnake]

Slippery it’ll be a few weeks. Waiting on the cable from BJC.

I’m assuming since no one says don’t do it that the gauge mixing should be fine???

Kaathesnake lol. Give myself that name after seeing the Dodge Viper in early 90’s. Been my screen name ever since. Yes love the banana plugs too.

I’ve never had a pair of name brand speaker cables. I’ve always made my own out of lamp cord or Radio Shack wires. But I’ve never tried higher than 14 gauge wire and never tried to dress them up to look purdy. This will be my first attempt at 10-12 gauge speaker wire, shrink tube and pants and flex-tech

Regardless of how it turns out I’ll post pics either as a diy or a don’t do this if it sucks haha. .

Killdozer thanks for your post. I in no way will buy AQ or any other brands mega money cable. I am attempting to replicate their build quality using ordinary products. I too am not drinking the koolaid.

I just don’t understand what improvement using two different gauge wires would make in a bi-wire since both are tied to the same amp terminal. So I’m trying to make one and test it against my home made 10 gauge wire that I’ll be making to see if I can hear any difference. I doubt it. But I’ll have fun doing it.

Ah! The Dodge Viper, aye?

 

[slipperybidness]

Slippery it’ll be a few weeks. Waiting on the cable from BJC.

I’m assuming since no one says don’t do it that the gauge mixing should be fine???

Kaathesnake lol. Give myself that name after seeing the Dodge Viper in early 90’s. Been my screen name ever since. Yes love the banana plugs too.

I’ve never had a pair of name brand speaker cables. I’ve always made my own out of lamp cord or Radio Shack wires. But I’ve never tried higher than 14 gauge wire and never tried to dress them up to look purdy. This will be my first attempt at 10-12 gauge speaker wire, shrink tube and pants and flex-tech

Regardless of how it turns out I’ll post pics either as a diy or a don’t do this if it sucks haha. .

Killdozer thanks for your post. I in no way will buy AQ or any other brands mega money cable. I am attempting to replicate their build quality using ordinary products. I too am not drinking the koolaid.

I just don’t understand what improvement using two different gauge wires would make in a bi-wire since both are tied to the same amp terminal. So I’m trying to make one and test it against my home made 10 gauge wire that I’ll be making to see if I can hear any difference. I doubt it. But I’ll have fun doing it.

Oh our jest around here is "bi-wiring = buy wiring" because that is all you are really gonna do here!

It offers no benefits, it is pure marketing, and even worse, all it really does is give you another opportunity to make a mistake by mis-wiring your system.

If it were me, I would skip out on that. The only real benefit to using a smaller wire for a bi-wire cable would be to save a buck on the set of wires vs. the larger gauge all around. I suppose that having 2 different size wires may help to avoid a mistake when you make the connections.

 

[Out-Of-Phase]

I still remember these:

I won't say the brand name, but it rhymes with hard as.

 

[KaatheSnake]

I still remember these:

My worst nightmare.

 

[j_garcia]

Slippery it’ll be a few weeks. Waiting on the cable from BJC.

I’m assuming since no one says don’t do it that the gauge mixing should be fine???

Kaathesnake lol. Give myself that name after seeing the Dodge Viper in early 90’s. Been my screen name ever since. Yes love the banana plugs too.

I’ve never had a pair of name brand speaker cables. I’ve always made my own out of lamp cord or Radio Shack wires. But I’ve never tried higher than 14 gauge wire and never tried to dress them up to look purdy. This will be my first attempt at 10-12 gauge speaker wire, shrink tube and pants and flex-tech

Regardless of how it turns out I’ll post pics either as a diy or a don’t do this if it sucks haha. .

Killdozer thanks for your post. I in no way will buy AQ or any other brands mega money cable. I am attempting to replicate their build quality using ordinary products. I too am not drinking the koolaid.

I just don’t understand what improvement using two different gauge wires would make in a bi-wire since both are tied to the same amp terminal. So I’m trying to make one and test it against my home made 10 gauge wire that I’ll be making to see if I can hear any difference. I doubt it. But I’ll have fun doing it.

The intent of that sort of cable is not for bi-wiring, it would be for biamping, where presumably the woofer would be able to handle higher current. Generally the tweeter will demand far less current, so the idea would be larger AWG isn't needed. Reality is, we all pretty well know biwiring is useless. When connecting to the SAME terminal as you've already stated, there is zero benefit, period.

 

[Speedskater]

Any reasonable cable can carry way more current than any reasonable loudspeaker can handle.
The thing that matters most with speaker cables is:
The total end-to-end resistance of the cable with respect to the loudspeaker impedance curve at the frequencies of interest.
* * * * * *
And yes you can run different size conductor pairs together. Just keep track of the polarities when you hook them up.

 

[Snakebitten]

Lolol at that cable pic out-of-phase. That looks like the transmission lines that carry 345kv from Niagara Falls.

J-Garcia yes I’m aware of the bi-amping but then both ends would be 4 banana plugs instead of 2/4. I have an Anthem 1120 and will see if it supports bi-amping. I’d like to use the 10 gauge for the woofers and maybe 14 or 16 gauge for the mid/highs just to see if there are any benefits vs just a single 10 gauge to the jumped terminals at the back of speakers.

Speedskater thanks for verifying that it’s okay to run different sized conductors. How do you feel about 10g/14g combo?

As the consensus as I suspected is that bi-wiring is useless I will do the bi-amping cables if the Anthem supports it just to experiment.

 

[lovinthehd]

Pretty useless..try this https://www.audioholics.com/frequent-questions/the-difference-between-biamping-vs-biwiring

 

[KaatheSnake]

Pretty useless..try this https://www.audioholics.com/frequent-questions/the-difference-between-biamping-vs-biwiring

Hey. I got banned off ak for supposed spam, which I didn't do, how long does a ban like that last?

 

[lovinthehd]

Have no idea...never cared much for AK

 

[Snakebitten]

Apparently I don't have enough posts to even quote someone elses post with a link haha so had to remove the quote to post this.

Anyway, just read the thread LovintheHD. Wuh wuh wuhhhhhhhh......Oh well I'll just stick to making the single 10G wire.....This was more of an excercise in trying to make as high-end as possible looking/behaving set of cables and to experiment on the possible benefits of bi-wiring and bi-amping. Think I'll just stick to the tried and true "safe" way.

Thanks everyone for your input.

 

[Speedskater]

Speedskater thanks for verifying that it’s okay to run different sized conductors. How do you feel about 10g/14g combo?

That should be OK.
But don't expect audible differences from other reasonable cables.
* * * * * *
Also cable length and speaker impedance are the big players.

 

[-Jim-]

This is killing me. I'd love to know what science is behind a 10 American Wire Gauge (AWG) /14 AWG combo? Or even a 10 AWG solo? The manual for the Anthem 1120 doesn't give the maximum speaker wire gauge (diameter) when not using banana plugs that I could find. You can check out the manual here: Anthem 1120 Manual But usually banana plugs can only take a 12 AWG Max. Anything larger means you have to cut off conductor strands to get it to fit. And there's no point to that.

I assumed you are in the USA or Canada, as US models allow banana connectors. Your speakers nominal impedance is 8 Ohms. I think that 14 AWG multi strand cable will do for almost all domestic installs => but don't believe me.

A simple search on the web and you can come up with lots of charts. (Audioholics won't let me post one.)

Even Crutchfield (who sell Audio Quest speaker cables too! OMG! Folks are still drinking the Kool-Aid!) say: "For relatively short runs (less than 50 feet) to 8 ohm speakers, 16 gauge wire will usually do just fine."

So if the longest distance from the Athem 1120 to a Speaker doesn't exceed 80 feet, there is no rational to waste money on fatter cables. Just make the thinner ones "look purdy" if you want to.

I hope this is helpful.