Has anybody tried using single solid core cables?
My question before I ditch my multi-stranded Audioquest Indigo cables in favor of 4 individual single solid core 18 gauge cobber cables from Home Depot for my newly acquired SA Mantra 50s, has anyone tried using single solid core wires? The AQ Indigo+ is solid core construction. http://www.audioquest.com/archives/ Speaker cables >> Spiraled Hyperlitz >> Indigo+ . |
Another + for the Clear Day Double Shotgun speaker cables. . |
I'm not sure why cables have to be thick since speaker source impedance for back EMF is mostly resistive but it will lower inductance of straight wire. Skin effect starts at gauge 18 in copper at 20kHz. Stranding wires will make it worse because current will flow toward outside jumping from strand to strand thru impurities while skin effect still exists. Better solution is to use insulated strands. Placing them in regular fashion puts them in magnetic field of each other still allowing some skin effect. Better solution is to place them either on hollow tube (like in Indigo) or as a tape so that each strand is only in magnetic field of neighboring strands. I don't know what is audible and what is not but Indigo was great improvement over thick stranded Monster Cable (that was plain horrible). Later I found Indigo to be thin sounding and replaced it with Acoustic Zen Satori Shotgun that I will likely keep forever. It is total of gauge 6 and I have no idea why. |
Jea48, good call on the Indigo. Maybe the OP has a counterfeit. I'm another who has come back to solid core cables and at this stage am no longer searching. My preference is copper and am happy with the older Audioquest cables such as Crystal or any in that vein. Not sure about using household wiring but if you have it on hand and are curious, give it a try and let us know. |
Jea48, am I missing something here? The Indigo diagram at the link you provided seems to show 8 strands of 17, 19, & 21 gauge solid copper conductors per cable. Not a single solid conductor that the OP seemed to be interested in. This might explain their description of Indigo as being stranded. I guess the less desirable alternative would have been if the individual conductors themselves had been stranded rather than solid. Have to say the number of cable offerings from AudioQuest (current and archived) really has me scratching my head. Could all those offerings really represent significant technical/sonic differences? |
