Paul Speltz speaker cables


Hi,
Does anyone have experience with Speltz's speaker cables. He seems to claim they are better than coventional cables at a fraction of the cost. I understand his cables are solid rather than stranded. Is it too good to be true, that he is better than the high priced stuff.
Thanks Bob
rbtwsp55
Thanks for your very informative response Sean. So the ant-cables would work with my Innersound amp and how do you think they would sound compared to the AP's?
Bradz: See my response to you in the other "Anti Cables" speaker thread.

As to my previous comment about "strange things" going on, the only thing "strange" is me. I forgot that there were two different threads on this same topic, hence my confusion. That's what i get for posting very late at night when i should be sleeping : ) Sean
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Sean-
I opened the link 'innersound/Goertz combo'.
In AA I see you mentioned Threshold which I own.
Im not a tech.whiz but am I way off 'assuming'
all this information about amps oscillating will make the anti-cables a poor/dangerous match for my amp?
Am I way off??
Only cables that are extremely wide in bandwidth and / or have a very low nominal impedance ( very low inductance ) can cause problems with your Threshold. The Anti-Cables are not capable of such a low impedance or low level of inductance regardless of how they are configured. Even if one were to use a cable that could cause the amp to self-oscillate, the addition of an inexpensive and simple to make Zobel network would solve any of those problems.

Using the Anti-Cables or any other design that physically separates the two conductors by a measurable distance drastically reduces bandwidth and raises nominal impedance. In effect, the Anti-Cables will act as somewhat of a smaller gauge zip cord with an increased tendency to roll-off the treble as spacing between the conductors is increased.

The treble roll-off may fool some people into thinking that the treble is cleaner, especially on digital based systems that tend to sound bright or ringy. The solid core conductors are what give the cable the majority of their "special properties", but the lack of other specific electrical traits are what limit the bandwidth and power transfer characteristics.

Like i've said before, buy and use what you like. These cables are a step in the right direction and can be even more than that, but you have to know how to get there in order to achieve the best results. If you already knew how to get there though, you would have chosen a different point to start at though. With that in mind, i'll never discourage someone from finding out what works best for them and / or learning along the way. That's why i said that i was glad to see people learning / experimenting with a type of product that i consider to be a stepping stone to better sound reproduction. Sean
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I asked Paul Speltz about how to configure his cables; he allowed me to quote him here:
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Dave,

The last time I went on the A-gon discussion form, they chopped the entire discussion out. I must have broken some "rule", so I'll stay out of it.

I have not tried twisting the Anti-Cables. You should ask Sean if he has tried it, since he seems to be recommending it.

Feel free to post a quote of what I have said below on A-gon if you like. Let them know this is what I told you.

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It is true that twisting the wires decreases the speaker cable's series inductance, but it also increases the cable's parallel shunting capacitance. Shunting capacitance tends to make amplifiers with feedback (as most do) unstable.

Now, getting back to the series inductance issue... Any series inductance in the Anti-Cable run is almost always offset by the tweater's's inductance. After all, it is a "voice coil", and coil has much more inductance than a
straight piece of non coiled wire.

Usually a tweater's's impedance rise, due to inductance, is much greater than even a very long run of Anti-cable wire, so any impedance rise due to series inductance in the Anti-cables can be disregarded.

Just look at all 3 speakers reviewed in the most recent issue of Stereophile (April 2005):

Page 139, NTH speaker impedance rises from 7.0 ohms to 7.9 ohms in the top octave.

Page 146, Linn speaker impedance rises from 3.0 ohms to 4.5 ohms in the top octave.

Page 159, EPOS speaker impedance rises from 4.0 ohms to 5.4 ohms in the top octave.

Might I be so bold as to suggest, there is the possibility that the extra treble information people hear when using a low inductance (high capacitance design) could be amplifier oscillation bursts that add spatial information. After all there is a company called TDS Audio (True Dimensional Sound) that makes a produce that intentionally created transitional oscillations to add spatial information.

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So, to answer your 1st question... run the wires separate, if it is to messy, use tie wraps every couple of feet to clean it up. If the sound degrades, you can easily cut the tie wraps off again.

Use your own ears, and trust yourself.

Please let me know how it goes.

Thanks!

Paul
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