Would you change your amp selection knowing...?

alpha core speaker cable has very high C. trash fo sho.

How come cable manufacturers don't warn potential customers? Surely they know, more so than amp manufacturers perhaps. 

When I bought an Odyssey amp years ago, I was warned NOT to use the Goertz flat cables because they would put the amp into oscillation.

QUESTION:
- would it put you off?
- would you select a different amp if the manufacturer warned of this "issue" up front?

Yes and yes

Hi Steve (Williewonka),

I suspect that **many** high end solid state amplifiers are prone to adverse effects from speaker cables having ultra-high capacitance, at least if a Zobel network is not used with the cable. (My understanding, btw, is that if requested Goertz will supply such networks for use with their ultra-high capacitance cables).

In extreme cases those effects may include destructive oscillations, as you indicated and as several members here have reported experiencing. In less extreme cases, though, there may be subtle but significant adverse effects on sonics, including things like overshoot, ringing, or low level ultra-sonic or RF oscillations that are not directly perceivable as such. Whether or not such effects occur will depend in part on how much feedback the amp uses, and on its gain, bandwidth, and output impedance.

I’m somewhat surprised to see Ayre on your list of susceptible amps, btw, since most or all of their amps are zero feedback designs. In general I would expect lack of feedback to minimize or eliminate such sensitivity.

To answer your question, though, the possibility of this issue, whether mentioned by the manufacturer or not, would have no influence whatsoever on my selection of an amplifier. It would certainly influence my selection of a cable, though. A cable having extreme and /or unusual parameters would be a non-starter for me. And if as is often the case basic parameters such as inductance, capacitance, and resistance are not specified for a particular cable, and if the manufacturer can’t or won’t supply that information, and if a rough idea of these parameters can’t be inferred from the cable’s description, I would look elsewhere.

Best regards,
-- Al