Interconnect Inductance vs. Capacitance

Ric

I think you'd be better off with 2' between your pre-amp and your amp and 10' between your amp and your speakers. Do you have power amps integrated in your speakers?

With all due respect, I'd strongly recommend longer ICs with shorter spkr cabling.
The spkrs-wire-amp circuit is tricky enough as is without the added complexity of extra long wires.
Regards

Ric,

I can't really think of any good reference that would bring the scholarship which it sounds like the Ramos book contains to the subject of audio cables. My perception is that unfortunately most of the writing on the subject is in one of two opposing camps, neither of which is helpful. One being the camp which is well schooled in EE theory, but ignorant of high-end audio, and the other being the camp which believes in (or creates or promotes) the nonsense and quack science which pervades much of the cable marketing literature and other writings about high-end cables. Even the appeal of cables which undoubtedly (based on anecdotal indications) are really excellent performers, and worth their high cost, is spoiled for me by distaste for the white papers and other writings that are associated with them, which I am sufficiently schooled to know are nonsense.

If you've never seen it, you'll want to read this paper by Bill Whitlock of Jensen Transformers:

http://wiring.svconline.com/ar/avinstall_designer_cables_critical/index.htm

You won't agree with all of it, and I don't completely agree with everything he says, but he is a noted authority in the field, his products serve both the pro audio and high-end consumer audio markets, and this and some of the other papers on the Jensen site are the closest thing I've seen to writing about cables that is both knowledgeable and balanced (no pun intended).

Re speaker placement/room treatments, etc., Shadorne is very knowledgeable. I suggest that you research his posts in the Speaker category of the forum.

The debate about long/short interconnects/speaker cables is an old one, of course, with many previous threads here presenting differing opinions. My own feeling is that it is probably dependent on the particular components and cables, and on what is most synergistic with the overall sonic character of the system. My initial bias, in most cases, would be to err in the direction of having the speaker cables short, because of the higher currents that are involved and the low impedances that are needed. In my own system, physical placement considerations dictate that both preamp to power amp and power amp to speaker connections be about 6 to 8 feet.

I have no particular thoughts to offer about your cable experiments. Have fun!

And thanks for your good contributions to this thread.

Regards,
-- Al

Hello again. Sorry that I was away with my other new toy...

I was a beta tester for a cable maker and tested about 10 versions of his ICs. This guy is quite interesting. He told me that he would never share any findings from his IC experiments with others. This is similar to a good friend of mine from Kansas. He makes the best BBQ that I have ever had. He told me that his grandpa would not pass the recipe to his own family until he was *very* ill...

My point is that EE courses only teach the basics. A lot of know-hows, tuning, refinement, and/or tweaking are the accumulation of experiences in the said field. Most companies' whitepapers most likely will not reveal their secret ingredients.

Bill, have you had the chance to find out the capacitance of your AH ICs? Note that Bill's configuration needs 5ft of ICs and mine needs 10ft. Bill's power amp is more sensitive and so his Dude preamp needs to have higher attenuations and thus lower output impedance. (Review Al's note about 75/25 vs. 50/50, using Thevenin's Theorem.) Consequently, the requirement for his setup is not as strict as mine.

Thanks all for the contribution.

Greg,
I'm inclined to agree with you and retract my speculation. Certainly that's how a large concert venue would be set up. If I had some monoblocks instead of an integrated amp - I'd probably have be thinking more along this line. Minimizing cable lengths within the limits of equipment placement is always a good thing, but given you have a choice between length of ICs and length of speaker cables, putting the amps at the speakers would probably be the best choice for sound quality.

I have not asked Joseph at Audio Horizons for the specs on my Dimension cable yet. I will this weekend.