Necropost but this was just talked about in my PA thread.
I've always used the doubled wire in my return simply because that is what I read here in the forum. If it doesn't matter too much what then matters is being consistent; or is it?
My runs are now quite short, if I think about it tomorrow I'm going to measure the DCR of left and right sides and see what the total resistance in now I've cut the cables in half
If you know the cross section copper area of the wire you can calculate the resistance from the resistivity of copper (1.7 * 10^-8 ohm-metre), usually accurate enough.
To measure set a lab power supply to 1A current limit and connect to the ends of the wire (if in same room!), and the voltage drop is the same as the resistance in ohms!
To measure set a lab power supply to 1A current limit and connect to the ends of the wire (if in same room!), and the voltage drop is the same as the resistance in ohms!
Well I did try, but my reading was zero; or more accurately the same as the resistance of my shorted test leads, 0.3R
Book resistance of domestic flex of this size and length is nominally 0.05R and I am assuming this is negligible and it's only going to take 380 Watts maximum and that's too loud to be pleasant anyway
Book resistance of domestic flex of this size and length is nominally 0.05R and I am assuming this is negligible and it's only going to take 380 Watts maximum and that's too loud to be pleasant anyway
Never had issues, as long as sufficient diameter / current capability is ensured. 100 meter 2.5mmq for open field 2 x 200W stage monitors in parallel, those wires are rated ~16A.
If it's copper and it's thick enough (as domestic mains flex is), then the reistance of the cable is indeed completely negligible.
In my experience, buying mains cable from a decent outlet is a good way to ensure you get the actual copper that you paid for. We appear to live in a world of fake stuff, but 10A mains flex is still the same as it was a few years ago, in my experience - so I'm a fan 
.
I'm even stripping the outer souble-insulation off and using it for internal amp wiring these days, as it's a known quality, twists well, copper and solders well
.I'm even stripping the outer souble-insulation off and using it for internal amp wiring these days, as it's a known quality, twists well, copper and solders well
Gotta get my two cents in before the Threadlok:
Google this and get twice the length you need, cut it in half, dress the ends. etc (if over a couple hundred feet, go to 10/2 to be sure):
12/2 low voltage landscape wire
This points out that it's "Audiophile" cable that's likely to have extra capacitance (and/or inductance, whatever it takes to change the sound - "Hear that difference? This High Quality cable really is better!").
Google this and get twice the length you need, cut it in half, dress the ends. etc (if over a couple hundred feet, go to 10/2 to be sure):
12/2 low voltage landscape wire
1.5mm<2 flex is mid-way between AWG 15 and 16 if I'm reading the conversion tables correctly.
Nominal 240V / 10A flex is cheap enough here but going bigger means a lot of extra money, so all of my long leads are of the 1.5mm cable. Not to mention I got all the stuff free.
The cheapest large cable here in Oz isn't going to be flex it seems.
Nominal 240V / 10A flex is cheap enough here but going bigger means a lot of extra money, so all of my long leads are of the 1.5mm cable. Not to mention I got all the stuff free.
The cheapest large cable here in Oz isn't going to be flex it seems.
Didn't they leave out a zobel network (or something) which made the amp susceptible to cable capacitance? And then sold a special cable guaranteed not to cause a problem.The post above reminded me about Naim - some Naim amps were very very very very fussy about the cable.
Discussed in lots of places, IMO not a great advert for the brand
Some of those early Naim amps had transformer hum too.
That 'rings a bell' (literally in this case LOL), yes.
i always thought they had a dry, brittle sound, 'What HiFi' would describe as 'detailed', perhaps being on the edge of ringing contributed.
In my view there's a point which the amplifier will oscillate, but even backing off into the stable portion there's quite a big part of 'stable' with audible disturbance - little overshoots here and there - the amplifier is 'stable', but like an old car with worn shocks, will still pogo down the road in a terrible way
I've always found amplifiers that don't use negative feedback to fight with the output, to sound nicer than those that do.
The Zobel does this to a degree, releasing/isolating the GNFB from those bothersome HF-RF frequencies.
I guess at the limit the output devices are best as simple current amplifiers, with no feedback.
There was an interesting observation in the loudspeaker forum, sort of related, any crossover with a capacitor directly across a driver, forms an LC tank, which also may not be a good idea..
Perhaps this contributes to my ignoring much of the 'cable talk' - that design of the amplifier matters more than the cable, and also the lazy use of selling hyped up cables to make money, instead of decent devices - too much snakeoil for me in the hifi world, since the 1990s
Nailed it!Perhaps this contributes to my ignoring much of the 'cable talk' - that design of the amplifier matters more than the cable, and also the lazy use of selling hyped up cables to make money, instead of decent devices - too much snakeoil for me in the hifi world, since the 1990s
Yep, all this talk of cable capacitance and inductance... when the capacitance and inductance in crossovers is orders of magnitude greater...
That dirty trick is known and used by some in the Guitar Amp world.
Ken Fischer's Trainwreck amps are known for an undocumented "bright boost" or whatever, achieved by running some unshielded signal wires parallel and too close to speaker out ones.
Tuning is achieved by moving them closer or further away.🙄
Some Mesa Boogie amps have little rigid wire antennas (literally) soldered to some grids, they are bent "this" way or "that" way at Factory to achieve desired result.
Crazy unreliable engineering if you ask me, but hey ...
I'm definitely in favour of cheap and effective but yesterday my mate the sax player let me know of a sale at the local music store, made up speaker cables with Speakon ends, a two pack of 10m leads for less than the cost of a single extension lead the same length and with fatter cable [ 2mm<2 Vs 1.5mm<2] so I went out and bought a pair just in case.
Ten metres is plenty for home use but probably a bit short for live music and stage use, ditto for pairs of 1500mm long. got a pair of those as well. Made up cables for less than the price on terminals is a bargain in my book
Ten metres is plenty for home use but probably a bit short for live music and stage use, ditto for pairs of 1500mm long. got a pair of those as well. Made up cables for less than the price on terminals is a bargain in my book