Do Cheap Cables Matter?

ATLAudio

ATLAudio

Senior Audioholic
I came across some copper clad aluminum speaker cables, 14 awg.

100' was like 10$ at Fry's and I needed something that day.

I haven't done a proper comparison, but I can't tell anything detrimental, at least right off the bat.

Has anyone else experimented with CCA wire? As I understand it, it uses copper on the outer sheath of the wire (where the sound travels- as I understand it) and an aluminum core, so on paper it shouldn't matter, or does it?

I know that aluminum for home wiring was the worst idea since the Ford Pinto, but this is sound, not electricity, so who knows.
 
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William Lemmerhirt

William Lemmerhirt

Audioholic Overlord
Cmon man!!! You know better than to buy anything but audioquest. Sheesh!!!!
 
j_garcia

j_garcia

Audioholic Jedi
I've tried a few AQ speaker wires just to form my own opinion. I expected to hear something. I didn't.
 
ATLAudio

ATLAudio

Senior Audioholic
I've tried a few AQ speaker wires just to form my own opinion. I expected to hear something. I didn't.
Not to state the obvious, but if you didn't hear something, then that's worse than bad... ;)
 
j_garcia

j_garcia

Audioholic Jedi
lol. I heard something, just not something better :) I hoped there would be a difference for the $3/ft. cost of the wire. I was a bit disappointed. Plus the single conductor wire was a PITA to work with, almost like using Romex.
 
ATLAudio

ATLAudio

Senior Audioholic
lol. I hoped there would be a difference for the $3/ft. cost of the wire. I was a bit disappointed.
I personally don't mind paying for decent looks, like some of the AQ bi-wire cables look nice, but I'd need to find them AT LEAST half off.

They clearly like them more than I do.
 
j_garcia

j_garcia

Audioholic Jedi
The Canare 4S11 from Bluejeans I use now looks better than the AQ wire did and is easier to work with. Not unsurprisingly, it sounds the same.

All of my AQ interconnects I bought on discount back in the day, but the wire was full price. Have been happy with Bluejeans interconnects and wire since then.
 
ATLAudio

ATLAudio

Senior Audioholic
The Canare 4S11 from Bluejeans I use now looks better than the AQ wire did and is easier to work with. Not unsurprisingly, it sounds the same.

All of my AQ interconnects I bought on discount back in the day, but the wire was full price. Have been happy with Bluejeans interconnects and wire since then.
Right now, most of everything is Monster Cable (always on sale,or deep sale, on Amazon)
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
CCA will work, just need a larger gauge for as long a length as with all copper....there's always coat hangers in a pinch, or even aluminum foil like that guy on avsforum did.
 
Irvrobinson

Irvrobinson

Audioholic Spartan
IMO, using aluminum cabling for residential audio systems is a bad idea. Stranded copper zip cord is cheap, flexible, and has great conductivity. Aluminum has lighter weight for a given level of resistance, but that should be interesting to the power company, not audio/HT enthusiasts. If you want to be different, whatever, but frankly using aluminum just looks silly.
 
ATLAudio

ATLAudio

Senior Audioholic
IMO, using aluminum cabling for residential audio systems is a bad idea. Stranded copper zip cord is cheap, flexible, and has great conductivity. Aluminum has lighter weight for a given level of resistance, but that should be interesting to the power company, not audio/HT enthusiasts. If you want to be different, whatever, but frankly using aluminum just looks silly.
I don’t think I could find OFC lamp zip for the same or lower price than the CCA. It basically looks the same, and can’t really see it for the application.

I also see come CCA for dirt cheap on amazon. My main concern is any sonic difference.
 
mtrycrafts

mtrycrafts

Seriously, I have no life.
I came across some copper clad aluminum speaker cables, 14 awg.

...

I know that aluminum for home wiring was the worst idea since the Ford Pinto, but this is sound, not electricity, so who knows.
It has much more resistance than copper. Relative conductivity is 59 versus 100 for copper.
It may also have more internal inductance.
 
Speedskater

Speedskater

Audioholic General
What matters most in speaker cables is end-to-end resistance of the entire cable. So a 14AWG CCA aluminum cable will have higher resistance than a 14AWG copper cable. But if a shorter or larger aluminum cable has the same end-to-end resistance as a copper cable (or gold or silver cable) they will sound the same.
(this is a simplification, I left out the details)
 
highfigh

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
Aluminum wire is OK, but only if it won't be moved later- it breaks more easily when bent often. Use copper.
 
Johnny2Bad

Johnny2Bad

Audioholic Chief
There are plenty of reasonable reasons not to use CCA wire.

It's chief advantage is it is cheaper and lighter than copper based wire.

Because of the reduced current carrying capacity of aluminum, add about 3~4 AWG to the equivalent copper cable. So you are in effect using AWG 17~18 copper-equivalent speaker cable.

Although the skin effect is certainly operative, at audio frequencies it isn't significant, so little to none of the current going from your amp to speakers is along the copper layer; you are basically using aluminum cables.

The copper layer is simply there to overcome the corrosion effect of bare aluminum; which oxidizes almost immediately in contact with air. Aluminum oxide is a very poor conductor ... much worse than aluminum metal itself ... so any area nicked on the cable where bare aluminum is visible will essentially not conduct.

Unless you are using gas-tight connectors (and HiFi amp/speaker binding posts generally are not) you can expect the cables to deteriorate over time with regard to electrical transmission.

Regular application of environmental metal cleaners is highly recommended. A bottle or spray, wipes or pen of Deoxit is highly recommended, along with regular cleaning/application.

To sum up, I feel there are plenty of reasons not to use CCA wire in a HiFi application. There is no need to go into sonic characteristics, but for what it's worth, to my ears CCA sounds terrible (brittle and lack of dynamics). Others may disagree, but essentially it's moot. They are a poor choice without subjective assessment being brought into the argument.

The wire you purchased is generally used to build radio antennae, where the aluminum layer's light weight is an advantage and where the high radio frequency is able to use the skin effect to carry the signal on the copper layer.

It's not completely relevant, but for a time in the 1960's homes were built with aluminum AC wiring. Two issues developed, somewhat related. The corrosion of the aluminum cable made poor contact with brass and copper AC connectors used elsewhere (AC outlets, marrettes, breakers, etc), causing sparks and eventually home fires.

Aluminum is also brittle, and will not survive many, or even a very few, bend cycles (in sharp contrast to copper, which is amongst the most bendable metals in existence). Cracks tend to develop where connection is made. Again, breakage of the aluminum wire in homes caused fires. The use of aluminum AC wiring is currently banned in Canada and the US.

In the end, you would be much better off simply by using good-old-copper cables. AWG 18 lamp cord is available for a similar price to your 14 AWG CCA cables, if cost is your primary consideration.
 
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Mikado463

Mikado463

Audioholic Spartan
IMO, using aluminum cabling for residential audio systems is a bad idea. Stranded copper zip cord is cheap, flexible, and has great conductivity. Aluminum has lighter weight for a given level of resistance, but that should be interesting to the power company, not audio/HT enthusiasts. If you want to be different, whatever, but frankly using aluminum just looks silly.
agreed, garbage.....
 
M

MrBoat

Audioholic Ninja
I buy 100' spools of 12 awg from Parts Express and make my own. Home Depot also carries it. The value of the different connectors and ends comes in bulk so I always end up with a collection. I'll be awhile using up that spool.
 
S

shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
Many speaker drivers use CCA for the coil, but it might not be quite the same. The reason they use that stuff is aluminium is a lot lighter than copper, and that helps reduce mass on the moving assembly, always a good thing if you are after a higher response. Copper helps to reduce resistance. However, the drivers are designed for the specific resistance load of their coils. As for using CCAW as speaker wire, the question is how much resistance does it have and how will that affect the response. I don't know, but if you have a multimeter you can measure it pretty easily. Wikipedia says that "The skin effect causes alternating current to concentrate on the more-conductive copper cladding of the conductor, causing the resistance of the wire to approach that of a pure copper wire at high frequencies, which makes the copper-clad aluminium wire a good fit for such applications." I am guessing it is fine as speaker wire, given it is used in applications that deal with far higher frequencies than audio.
 
Johnny2Bad

Johnny2Bad

Audioholic Chief
Many speaker drivers use CCA for the coil, but it might not be quite the same. The reason they use that stuff is aluminium is a lot lighter than copper, and that helps reduce mass on the moving assembly, always a good thing if you are after a higher response. Copper helps to reduce resistance. However, the drivers are designed for the specific resistance load of their coils. As for using CCAW as speaker wire, the question is how much resistance does it have and how will that affect the response. I don't know, but if you have a multimeter you can measure it pretty easily. Wikipedia says that "The skin effect causes alternating current to concentrate on the more-conductive copper cladding of the conductor, causing the resistance of the wire to approach that of a pure copper wire at high frequencies, which makes the copper-clad aluminium wire a good fit for such applications." I am guessing it is fine as speaker wire, given it is used in applications that deal with far higher frequencies than audio.
"Many speakers" are also junk. Having said that, aluminum coils to save moving mass are typically employed on Low Frequency drivers, with large coil diameters, and at those frequencies, the entire coil carries the signal; there is zero skin effect below 100 Hz. With a 2" or 3" voice coil, mass does become an issue. Heat also is an issue, and aluminum cannot tolerate high heat as well as copper, but does dissipate heat well. You will always find larger AWG wire used in the coil if aluminum is used versus copper.

Note too that other metals may be deposited on voice coils because aluminum is non-magnetic.

Loudspeaker coils are complex devices even though they are fundamentally simple; put another way, manufacturers do not simply substitute aluminum for copper, they design for the specific metal used and adjust the coil dimensions and coil gap accordingly.

"... high frequencies ..." = radio wavelengths, not audio wavelengths.

Really, it comes down to two possible conclusions. Either CCA wire is unsuitable for loudspeaker cable, or copper speaker wire is Snake Oil.
 
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Darenwh

Darenwh

Audioholic
I purchased a set of Monster cabling for my system. This included speaker cables for my front speakers, a couple HDMI cables, and a subwoofer cable. Didn't really hear much of a difference but at $5 for all of them it was worth it for the better looking cables. Oh, did I mention I got them from an estate sale? There is no way I would pay anywhere near the new cost for simple cables.

Now I just need somebody to perform some cable break in for me and I need to get a premium fuse for my subwoofer. The one I have restricts the dynamic range so very badly... :rolleyes:
 
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