Size, does it matter when talking about home speaker cables?

Gentle reader,

I had an "Oh, No!" moment with my recent project of recreating my 1976 first stereo. One channel stopped working. Using process-of-elimination trouble shooting, I traced the problem to the Southwest Technical Products amp. Here are a couple of pictures of the inside of it:

This is how it looked AFTER I cleaned the insides of it. To the right of the transformer, that big hunk of metal, is a small circuit board. On the left side are two fuse holders, with fuses in them.

I tested them, they were OK. 

If you move this photo to the left, you'll see another fuse holder at the bottom of the chassis right in front of the circuit board. Another fuse holder, this fuse has wires so it could be soldered into a board. That fuse "blows" if there is a short in the speaker or wires to the speaker. I found what the problem was and eliminated it for both cables. These fuses are about one inch long and maybe 1/4" in diameter. They have metal caps on both ends and depending upon the load they are to protect, a tiny wire anywhere from thinner than a human hair to smaller than the graphite in a pencil is inside them in a glass tube. The tube is so one may be able to see if the fuse has opened. That is if you have young eyes and/or a good illuminated magnifying glass. Which I do. Not the young eyes.

Here are some generic fuse pictures courtesy of a Google search:

See what I am describing? THIN WIRE. Each is designed to quickly melt and open if the load on the circuit exceeds the limits of the fuse. It protects the amplifier and speaker or whatever circuits it is included in to protect. You car has dozens of fuses of all kinds with many amperage ratings. But cars have not had fuzes that look like these for a very long time.

OK, now for the subject of this article: Speaker wire/cable sizes. Audio companies, such as Monster Cable, and countless others would have you believe that your ears deserve the very best in every link of the audio chain: Sources: Turntable, cartridge for same, CD player, tuner, tape deck, DAC, digital audio player, etc. Cables that connect all those to the next components in the chain: receiver, preamplifier, integrated amplifier, power amplifier. And cables from the receiver, integrated amp or power amp to the speakers. Oh, and don't forget, those thin factory power cords just won't do! No sir! You also need mega-buck power cables of incredible thickness:

Yes, I paid almost $100 for this, and this is thin compared to what some makers produce! It has seven gauge wires inside. I realized how silly that was. Never mind, about to go off on a tangent.

Many manufacturers tell us that we need to spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars PER FOOT (or meter) for these crazy thick cables with exotic metals inside and of course they must have "oxygen-free copper" and the terminals on each end of these cables must be the finest CNC machined and 24 karat gold plated. 

Here are examples of cables that I have bought, almost all, were bought "previously enjoyed". That is a term that I coined. It sound's better than used.

These below, I bought a 100 foot roll of. I can't recall the brand name. My wife calls them "umbilical cord wires". They are 10 gauge thick with both wires twisted around each other encased in clear external tubing/insulation. There is science behind twisting the two wires. Supposedly that helps the wires reject interference from radio signals (RFI) or the 60Hertz hum produced by 120 volt AC power cables.

If you look at the ends as they enter the Nakamichi plugs, you see that one is in clear insulation and has silver wires, the other in is clear blue insulation and is plain copper wires. I do not know what the silver colored metal is, silver plated copper? Perhaps. I chose the silver one for the positive (usually red) cable and the blue encased copper wire for the return (usually black) cable.

I bought 100 feet because the stereo was originally in the living room at the other end of the house. I had a similar terminal plate (above) in the living room ceiling and these cables traveled through the attic to another plate in this room's ceiling (the listening room is across the hall from where my PC is) and I had extension speakers in here. Thus the need for 10 gauge (thick) cables to cover that distance with minimal loss of music signal strength.

Monster Cable, whose products I wholeheartedly endorse,* makes all kinds of cables of varying quality and wire thickness. I have bought and used most of them, all except the really expensive ones. 

The gray (or is it grey?) ones below are Monster Cable's M-Series. They are second from the top in the hierarchy of their speaker cables. They are quite thick conductors, 10 gauge, I think.

The black ones above and below are their Z-Series which are pretty expensive unless you get them P-E (used) as I did. Go ahead and read what is printed on the black casing. "Multitwist Construction" is a term they coined. Not only is the copper wires, of which there are several different thicknesses in each conductor, twisted, but the two insulated wires are also twisted inside the black casing. Well, the average AC extension cable (they have three wires inside) are also twisted. M-C would have us believe "Coherent Time Correct System" is vital. Supposedly it works this way: The higher frequencies travel on the thinner wires and the lower (bass) frequencies travel on the thicker wires. All frequencies should join at the speaker at the "Correct Time" to reproduce the music correctly. Hey, I bought them!

The black Z-Series have clear pink insulation which they fortunately striped red and black for correct phasing of the speakers. The gray M-Series (above and below) are slightly thicker and not color coded but do have their signature pink insulation and also are twisted inside their gray casing. 

Above, you can see the umbilical cables, next to them are some black "speaker pants" that one can add to their cables between the thick part and the plugs that cover the thinner two cables. Sort of to dress up that otherwise messy end. I got over speaker pants.

This, somewhat blurry photo, is from some time ago when I always used "double-banana" plugs. Up until I bought components that did not comply with the industry standard of 3/4" spacing between speaker terminals.  See the cables with the braided covering? I don't remember what brand they are. But, they have TWO RED and TWO BLACK cables inside them. This can serve two purposes: ONE: Carry twice the audio current that thinner cables could. TWO: Be used for Bi-amplification. Some speakers, as shown below give the option of using two separate amplifiers. One could be less powerful to handle the tweeter's loads and the other more powerful to handle the woofer's loads. One would outfit these cables with TWO RED and TWO BLACK plugs on each end. Then by using a meter and marking which pair should go to the tweeters, they would loosen all four speaker terminals and remove the gold plated metal strips that connect the two and attach the tweeters cables to the top terminals and the woofers terminals to the bottom pair. There. Bi-amped!

One other little tidbit about Monster Cable's speaker cables and wires. Inside each copper conductor is a "flux tube" that's what they call it. I don't know what it is for other than as a form to twist the copper wires around. It gives the impression that the gauge of the copper is thicker than it actually is once one cuts off the little tube prior inside the exposed wires then retwisting the wires and inserting it into a plug or the terminal. 

Below are two more kinds of M-C speaker cables. They are an earlier version of the M-Series and came with these speaker pants and really thick terminal plugs as seen in the bottom row.

Below, another somewhat blurry photo of the same cables.

So, finally, I come to the other speaker cables that I bought new. Two reels in fact. These are M-C's MCX-1A cables. They come in 30 foot rolls on these black reels.

They also have their "Magnetic Flux Tube" inside and "PEX Dielectric" whatever that is AND include the red and black speaker pants designed exclusively for these cables.

The gauge of these wires is much smaller than the other M-Series or Z-Series and possibly even smaller than their no-frills pink or "Navajo White" (?) covered speakers wires. 

What follows is absolutely true: As noted, these are a smaller gauge, quite a bit smaller. So, I got them all ready to the length I needed and installed them. Sat back and began to listen. I noticed right away that the music sounded thinner. The bass seems to have diminished audibly! What? So, I Googled the M-C MCX-1 series and review after review stated the same thing: Bass has disappeared. So, it wasn't my imagination!

Based upon this conclusion and decades of listening to music, I had in fact "heard a difference" due to a specific component! I sold the unused reel and all the used MCX-1 cables and reverted to thicker ones.

About that, I have also used and am still using braided cables that are made by an eBay seller called BLE Design. I wrote twice about them in this space. Here are some images from the second chapter of the two posts:

These are based upon some audiophile speaker cables made and sold by Kimber Kable. K-K has a machine that braids their cables. BLE does his by hand. BLE's are a small fraction of the cost of K-K's. The cool thing about these, is although each conductor in the individual blue and white insulation is quite thin, in COMBINATION, they add up to thicker wires as seen below.

Below are seen the first pair I bought. They are made of four wires braided per speaker. The thicker ones are ten wires. Also you can see the size comparison in this bundle of snakes, er cables.

Below, the thicker ones next to M-C Z-Series and umbilical cables.

Below are the M-C M-Series cables the thicker BLE cables replaced.

So, did I give up on thick Monster Cable speaker cables? Nope. I still use the Z-Series. However, the BLE Design definitely impressed me and I am keeping them.

BACK TO THE SUBJECT: Remember the hair thin wires in the glass fuses? Also remember that most are one inch long? Obviously, hair thin wires, which are fragile would not do for long distances. They serve the purpose of protecting the amplifier and speakers. Yet every single bit of all that music from the highest tinkle of cymbals all the way to the deepest bass notes and even the loudest boom of cannon shots travels through that hair thin fuse. 

IN CONCLUSION: In my considered opinion based upon decades of listening and experimenting with various wires and cables, that yes, in many cases thicker is better. YET, some "audiophile" manufacturers, if they dare to show a cross section of their speaker cables, construct them with large tubes or fillers that serve no purpose other than making their cables that much thicker! Unless you are sending your speaker cables more than say, twenty feet, 12 gauge wire or thinner is all one needs. So, unless you have copious amounts of money and/or are intent upon trying to impress your peers and buddies with your speaker cables the size of octopus arms, don't waste your money. Monster Cable has audibly impressive cables of all sorts. 

*CAVEAT: I am not at all associated with Monster Cable, BLE Design or any other manufacturer mentioned in this article. I do not reap any reward whatsoever by reviewing products from any manufacturer, either.

I'm just a lifelong music lover intent upon enjoying my music in as realistic a manner as I can afford with my humble earnings.

Thanks for looking,

Scott  

A fellow audio enthusiast wrote this on a FaceBook page: 
John Pool "This is the best post I have ever seen, so detailed, humorous at times, informative and interesting. The photos and description of each stage is fantastic, the final job is so neat and tidy. Well done. Now to thicken up my fuse wire so I can get more volume."