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." 

PART THREE: Reliving the 1976 sound of Dynaco PAT-5 preamplifier and SWTPC power amplifier!

Gentle reader,

This is the third but not the final post on my gathering the components that made up my first stereo that I built from kits in 1976. Here are the previous installments:

Reliving the 1976 sound of Dynaco PAT-5 preamplifier and SWTPC power amplifier!  

AND
PART TWO: Reliving the 1976 sound of Dynaco PAT-5 preamplifier and SWTPC power amplifier!

Here is a link to a post that lists every article I have written and illustrated regarding stereo equipment:UPDATED Every Vintage Stereo Equipment and Speakers Blog post I have done! UPDATED.

Part one includes a link to the original article I wrote when the idea came to me. I moved to Richmond, Virginia in 1975 and soon met a neighbor my age, one of four brothers and a little sister. He too was into cars and it turns out, stereos. 

At the time I had a plastic "suitcase" stereo. It had a carry handle on top and looked like a suitcase. Yet, flip the latch and the center portion folds down revealing the record player and amp, all in one unit. The portion of the case still upright were the speakers. Sounded great to me. But I soon found out how wrong I was.

My new friend had a 60 watts-per-channel Pioneer integrated amp, a turntable and huge Revox reel-to-reel tape deck. Plus, he'd built these enormous speakers with 18" woofers! First thing he played was Pure Prairie League's LP Two Lane Highway. Not only was it incredibly LOUD, but it sounded so GOOD! When I got back home and saw that plastic "stereo" I whimpered and vowed to build a real stereo.

If you read the earlier posts, there is more information and photos of the components that I'd bought and built to create that stereo. 

I have written about just about every component you see here. If you have a sharp eye, you might see that the speakers in the middle of each totem-stack are a little different. More on that later. This is how everything looks as of this date, September 6, 2017.

This is how it looked today when I first played the middle speakers that arrived yesterday. They are 1970's vintage Dynaco A25 speakers. The left one is a standard A25VW. The V stood for vinyl veneer, I have no idea what the W stood for. The one on the right is a Dynaco A25XL. No, it doesn't stand for Extra Large. More like extra loud. The XL models are 3dB more efficient than the A25. They also reach higher into the treble range and the woofer moves out and in farther too for better bass response and reproduction. The crossover is at 1200 Hertz verses the standard's 1500 Hertz.

Here is what I found when I opened the box. Speakers, despite having no padding, look undamaged as does the box. Good, or so I thought.

Here they are without the grilles. Yes, the left one is dirty and in fact looks like water dripped on the woofer. It is OK. I picked it up and placed it atop the right Klipsch KG4 (big speaker on the bottom). When I picked up the right speaker, I heard, "thunk" inside. That could not signify anything remotely good at all. 

I remembered a guy who bought some speakers from me insisting that I remove the tweeters and wrap them separately. He told me of magnets falling off tweeters during shipping. "Sigh." So, I unscrewed the tweeter. lifted it out and no magnet! Any Dynaco "XL" model speaker is very rare. When I saw these on eBay I bid the opening $100 and to my utter delight, I won! I couldn't believe no one else bid on them. 

So, I contacted the seller. We talked by phone and he was more than willing to refund some money to cover the cost of a replacement tweeter. Which he did: $50. After considerable web searching, I found the part number for the SEAS tweeter for the A25XL: H086. To my utter disbelief, there was one on eBay! In Poland. Yep. $42 plus shipping. So, I jumped and bought it.

Prior to all this, I'd found a single A25 on eBay which is the VW model. Neither seller knew anything about speakers and both stated theirs sounded great. The A25VW arrived very well packed. I tested it with the old preamp and power amp and it sounded fine, but quieter than the Klipsch GK4s. 

Now, this all began when I won an old Luxman turntable. I did not know where to put it but found that cool folding wooden shelf that was more than large enough to hold it. At first I'd mounted it on the wall to the right. Then realized that was a poor choice. So I moved it to the present location and had to remove the two steel TV shelves that previously held many smaller speakers, but originally the BOSE 301 speakers my wife had bought for me. Plus, I had to move the shelf upward so that the cover could open far enough.

If you look at the "Before" photo, (second from the top of the article) you'll see the Dynaco PAT-5 silver preamp and SWTPC small power amp on top of it with both on top of the subwoofer. It's never a good idea to have components on top of any speaker. I have these resilient rubber feet that I added to each component thinking that would acoustically isolate them from the subwoofer's potential vibration. 

As you can see, the Southwest Technical Products 215A stereo power amplifier uses 1/4" microphone terminals for speakers. That is what commercial amplifiers used until the advent of XLR balanced terminals. So, I had to buy speaker cables with those plugs on one end and double-banana plugs on the other. I chose 12 gauge Seismic Audio cables in 10 foot lengths.

I wired the "B" speakers through the high level inputs and outputs ans I have done many times before. The subwoofer's internal amp divides the bass from the rest of the music which it sends on to the small speakers.

The PAT-5 is probably the only preamp with speaker terminals and a speaker selector switch, which you can see wired here. The double-banana terminals are the input terminals.

I was using some old 18" video cables made by Liberty Cable in their Z-500 series. Once I shoved the whole stack back and connected the turntable, I realized this was just not going to be practical. I put casters on my stereo shelf/table for a reason: Easier access to the back.

Thus, I settled upon this arrangement. Having two separate stereos on the same structure driving two pairs of speakers, each. Plus the larger (black) kit also drives two more pairs in THIS room which are my Cerwin-Vega LS-12s and the aforementioned BOSE 301s.

Here's the A25XLs as they appeared when I opened the box and below without their grilles. The grill cloth is supposed to be off-white. But someone in the past replaced it with black. Since I don't use the grilles, it doesn't matter.

Above is the left "totem-stack" with the right one below. The tiny speakers were once Radio Shack's Minimus 7W models. The "W" referring to walnut. All other Minimus speakers have diecast aluminum cabinets. I always wanted some of the W models. I completely replaced every component and wrote about them in a series of previous articles.

Above is the A25VW. One can easily see the differences in the veneers. This one is in remarkable condition. Below is the A25XL. Note the smaller tweeter.

In my early testing of the silver Dynaco PAT-5 preamp, I discovered (well, I knew it, but it's been years since I had one) that the input and output RCA terminals are very close together compared to modern equipment. I'm told there were "premium" RCA interconnect cables and speaker cables in the 1970's but I was not aware of them then. So, I realized that I'd need to buy "cheap" cables. The kind I had in 1976. Plus, since CDs did not exist then, I would not hook one to the "1976" stereo. The cheap cables arrived today which is why I began this task today. That and it's raining outside. Started just as I plunged a shovel in to start planting the plants my wife bought Monday. Darn.

If you compare the thickness of the modern quality cables and their male RCA terminals in the lower photos with these cheap cables you can quite a difference.

It has two outputs, so I plugged a cable in for the subwoofer too. Below, you will note that the double banana plugs are no longer in the input speaker terminals on the PAT-5 preamp.

I had previously cut a short piece off each cable that has the 1/4" plugs on one end. As I have written before, it's easier to shorten a wire than it is to lengthen it. I came up with the solution (below) of plugging one end of the Monster Cable Z-Series cables that once connected from the black Dynaco power amp to the high-level inputs on the subwoofer, into the female ends of the double banana plugs. I wire-tied them and covered the now unused male ends with electrical tape to prevent any possibility of them touching metal.

Above and below: "Cheap" RCA cables plugged into the inputs of the SWTPC power amp.

Because the aforementioned Z-Series cables are too long, I had to loop them. Note the size difference between the white standard AC cord of the SWTPC amp and the blue/black aftermarket Pangea brand power cable for the much newer and four times as powerful 1990's Dynaco Stereo 200 power amp. You can also see the Proton 1100 preamplifier has been wired back up minus the cassette deck. Note the size difference between the "audiophile" RCA cables and the "Cheap" ones below them plugged into the PAT-5 preamplifier.

The power switch quit working on the PAT-5 (Geez, you buy a forty year old amp and the switch stops working?) so I decided to use a power strip to turn everything off and on. I have a really nice power strip/2100 joules surge protector coming which will replace this cheap strip. NOTE: The really thick black cables with no woven covering are Radio Shack ones. Too long.

Above shows the back of the Denon turntable and the aftermarket RCA terminals I installed in it to enable me to use said thick cables. I once had exclusively Liberty Cables in the system. But then started trying other brands as can be seen below:

The grey (or is it: gray?) ones are Monster Cable ones and too long, thus the looping. I believe they are plugged into an equalizer. I stopped using them. 

These darker blue ones are also too long and Monster Cable brand. I eventually sold all the Liberty Cable brand cables and have a hodgepodge of mostly Monster Cable and the sole remaining 1/2 meter Liberty Cable units hooking the black preamp and power amp together. I noted below one of the photos higher up some thick Radio Shack cables. I once had a bunch of them:

As you can see, they are very nice. This particular pair was 20 feet long and I used it to connect the subwoofer to a preamp when the room was configured differently.

NOW, the conclusion. How does the "new" 1976 stereo sound and how does it compare to the much newer all black components? 
WELL, if you must know. In a word......FANTASTIC! Firstly, I was shocked at how good the cheap RCA cables sounded and not a whit of interference hum (60Hz) from any AC wire or cable. It really knocked me for a loop! I'm just glad I never bought any "audiophile" cables new nor spent anywhere near three figures for any of them. 
Even cassettes, granted, my JVC deck is a top-line 3-head unit which of course sounds better than most decks. Yet, the cassettes sound amazing. And the two I played are from the late 1970's. 
I CAN'T truly compare the two systems. I can switch cables to the Dynaco A25 speakers and listen to the same album and compare them that way. In a few words, even though the two A25 speakers are different models, I put it in mono, closed my eyes and kept adjusting the balance control on the silver preamp until the music seemed equidistant from each speaker, then set it back to stereo mode. 
THE DYNACO PAT-5 preamp was substituted in place of the PROTON black preamp and played through the Klipsch speakers. But I couldn't do a direct comparison. I have not yet tried the Dynaco speakers with the all-black system, yet. But I will.
SUFFICE it to say, I have reached this conclusion: The new "1976" stereo sounds fantastic! Since the Dynaco speakers are not nearly as efficient as the Klipsch speakers so the little gold SWTPC power amp has to work harder when playing loud. What I built and used for years were this amp's bigger brother. Two units the same size, but each put out 60 watts verses this little one's humble stereo 25 watts per channel. Below is a pair that showed up on eBay and were snatched up ($150 for the pair) before I could get them.

 Above is the factory sheet for my humble power amp. They use the same circuitry but the little one uses smaller less powerful power transistors and transformer which allowed them to fit it all in one case.

Here's the back of the two 60 watt mono amps. Since the heatsink (two of them back to back) is inside these, there is plenty of room for all these goodies on the back panel.

SO, am I glad I took on this challenge? Yep! Since CDs did not exist, I did not hook one to the 1976 system. Only what was available then. Lastly, I drew the line at speaker cables, I was not going to buy "zip-cord" as lamp wire was called and hook bare wires to the amp and speakers. In that respect and since it is a different turntable AND I didn't own a cassette deck then, frankly, they may not have existed in 1976 either. No matter, I'm VERY HAPPY!

Thanks for looking,

Scott