Longer speaker cables or interconnects

unreceivedogma,


Here we were in the UK thinking how incredibly exciting it was that Punk was going to change the world, and it was ours - homegrown. Only later we found out about places like Max's and it's connection with the Velvets/Warhol, New York Dolls/Malcolm McLaren all leading to the Sex Pistols.

We later got to see Debbie Harry/ Blondie and the Ramones on TV for ourselves and then hear all about CBGB's. Now all those NY bands have passed into legend.

In the end it did all change the world if only to make it cool to be young, even more than the 60s had done.

The great thing now is that if you have the attitude you're never too old to rock. Or as a certain Mr Young might say, 'Keep On Rockin' in the Free World'.

Great stuff, thanks.

Keep the long speaker cables and short interconnects. Amps have a low, low output impedance and output high level signals which are not affected by interference (well, unless the amp has a design issue).

Over and out :)

According to some literature when I researched this topic, the total resistance of the wire should be less than 5% of the nominal impedance of the speakers. Of course, the speaker impedance can dip well below the "nominal" value at certain frequencies so the safer bet is more like 2-3% depending on the impedance curve. Furthermore, the amplifiers with multiple speaker impedance taps, e.g., 8, 4, 2 ohms, etc., tend to have a different damping factor (output impedance) for each tap. So sometimes it might be worth to experiment with the different taps, especially when running long cables, to decide which sounds better. For example, my MC2200 manual lists the following damping factor values:
DF 16 for 1 ohm
DF 50 for 2 ohm
DF 30 for 4 ohm
DF 16 for 8 ohm

In my set up where I need to run very long speaker cables (true bi-wire 12awg), I get an overall better SQ when I use the 4 ohm tab for my 6 ohm speakers but at the expense of a narrower/deeper soundstage when compared to the 8 ohm tap. Interestingly, the 2 ohm tap has a slightly fuller sound but it compresses the soundstage even more considerably. My 2 cents FWIW. 

I have my equipment in a different room from my speakers to eliminate some turntable feedback issues. Have used 25 foot lengths of speaker cable with very fine results. Not expensive cables either, MITerminator 2. Excellent bass and slam on my Revel Performa 206's!

Kalili,

My speakers are 16 ohm and 101dB efficiency. My Dyna MK III have 4, 8, and 16 taps but the Futtermans do not. When I had the 604Cs rebuilt by Gabriel Sound, I had the option of keeping them at 16 or switching them to 8. Jon Specter, my engineer, said to absolutely keep them at 16.

It looks like I will be staying with my current configuration: long speaker cables, short interconnects.

Paulrandall,

Putting the table in a different room is an intriguingly OCD idea (let’s face it, to have this hobby, we all have to have a little OCD), but as there is only one room on this floor, not an option unless I put it out the window. It might be a little tricky changing LPs from three stories up. And then what happens on a windy day?

But that brings up something else I was recently considering.

Before, I had the table sitting on top of a record cabinet that I had bolted to the 16 inch thick brick wall in my nyc loft. I was going to bolt it to the 24 inch thick (non functioning) chimney in this space. However, my masonry guy used a five foot L-shaped steel plate to stabilize masonry on another building of ours and I got the idea of having him bolt an L-shaped steel plate to the chimney that was large enough to rest the table on. The steel is very thick. Question is: what would that sound like?

I don’t use VPI’s springs between the chassis and the base btw: I use little rubber balls.