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INTERNAL CABLING- Heres some choices, give me your two cents on these cables..... Please _

So here is what I'm working on.
The cabling in my Mirage M1's is 12 gauge zip cord, that has oxidized and turned green at the terminations. Problem is I don't have a huge amount of cash to spend on new cabling, as I've spent most my money on replacing the existing caps in the crossover, with Jantzen superior and Standard Z caps (theres like 20 caps in each crossover).  I need close to 50 feet for the two speakers and I only have 75-120 to spend on the cabling, this is a shoe string situation. I can't stand the idea of leaving the green cables in there.-

So here is what I have considered, Please let me know your thoughts on each of these-

1. Jantzen = Constructed of 2 conductors, 1 x red and 1 x black, AWG 17.

The Copper is oxygen free 99.9999% pure, solid core. Both conductors are individually polyethylene coated and padded out with stranded isolating fibres the wrapped in polyester tape and further encased in blue termoplastic casing.

My concern with the Jantzen is the size, its only 17 awg, My experience has been the Mirages are power hungry speakers and like big cables. I have big Tara Lab temporal continuum cables running them. Even the zip cord in side them is 12 awg, going 17 AWG makes me nervous. Any comments on this is appreciated.


2. Audioquest type 2, type 4, or G2, X2, Q2

Not sure if any of these are worth their cost. Wondering how much better the type 4 is than the type 2 or how much better the type 2 is over the G2, X2 or Q2.      audioquest.com/flat_series_bulk_spools/q2


3. Belden 9497- Dont know much about this cable, I have heard other people have had good results but not sure seems like the size isnt all that I would like.

4. Canare 4s11, again dont know much about these cables but I've heard a lot of good things about them for their price.

5. Ive looked at the Duelund, but they appear to be only sold in single strands, and the cost for the amount required.

6. Curious about Vandenhul  (VDH) cables, I am interested in the Snowline and the Skyline, However I haven't been able to find anything on these cables.          vandenhul.com/products/cables/speaker-cables


What I want to know is

1.  Has anyone had experience with these cables, whats your thoughts on them being used as internal cabling for a pair of Mirage M1's?

2. Is 17 Awg on the Jantzen cables big enough to effectively drive the 8 inch bass drivers on the M1's?

3. Has anyone used the the Vandenhul  cables that use carbon, whats your thoughts on their overall presentation, are they neutral, detailed, dull, bright, etc?

4. Is all the hype about using solid conductors over stranded true-?


As always thanks to all who give their two cents-



My system overall, 

Proceed Amp3 (eventually I will bi amp with a second one)

Proceed AVP-S

Mirage M1

Tara Labs temporal continuum Speaker cables

Audioquest Diamond interconnects

Musical Fidelity Vdac w/ J-RIVER (coming soon)







idahifi
grannyring's avatar
grannyring
4,637 posts
 
Remember the Belden and Supra are not natural cotton, but rather an artificial synthetic dialetric. This is a big reason why the Duelund will most likely sound better. It is always system dependent, but the new Duelund wire is very special stuff folks. Very open and real or live sounding. 
idahifi OP
100 posts
 
I'm trying to wrap my head around cable sounding laid back. Years ago I tried dh labs t14 and one thing I noticed after burn in, was that it was significantly more detailed and seemed faster, would laid back be the opposite of these characteristics, or consistent with them? Or Would a laid cable sound kinda slow and rounded off sounding , kinda blurry? I had a classe CA200 amp a few years ago and many on agon referred to it as having a laid back sound. But I just thought it sounded smooth a bit warm while still being fairly detailed, would this be consistent with the 9497 description as being laid back? Any thoughts on this is appreciated.
timlub
1,649 posts
 
grannyring,  you are absolutely correct... just as skin effect changes makes changes in solid core vs stranded wire, insulation resistance changes how signal transfers also... The old Marcof Speaker cables that I referenced earlier were individual litz that used cotton insulation each strand was covered... The problem is soldering,  we had to use solder pots to make cables with the cotton insulated litz. 
I'm not arguing that the Duelund could be better,  just saying that the sound, vs cost/value of these other cables are tremendous. When you have a budget of $100 and you'd like to have 16 to 12 gauge wiring,  the Dueland breaks the bank. 
idahifi OP
100 posts
 
Yea that's the problem, mainly because the duelund I've seen comes in single leads, thus I'd have to buy double.
grannyring's avatar
grannyring
4,637 posts
 
12meters for $120 is a lot of wire? I thought that was your budget? 

Anyway,  understand if not in your budget. I typically never liked the sound of stranded wire always preferring solid core in the past. Tinned wire was also a big turn off for me in the past, but this new Duelund wire is  an outlier. I started down this whole road after using the very good Western Electric stranded and tinned wire from the 60s and 70s.  It bettered my $1200 speaker cables and the Duelund bettered the WE16 ga. Fun stuff. I use the Duelund wire inside my speakers, crossovers, low voltage hook up wire in gear, speaker cables and ICs. 
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