Planar Speaker Asylum

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Planar Speaker Asylum

andyr can you clarify? regarding your post below I am buying some Belden 1585A cable

23.121.124.120

which is 24 AWG I am not sure how that translates to 3x21g.

can you clarify how many strands to use?

I just want a stereo pair 7 ft long

I do not know electronic basics...

fwiw TakeFiveAudio has cryo treated Belden 1585a available in 1 ft lengths

thanks for your help

Phil

Follow Ups:

RE: andyr can you clarify? regarding your post below I am buying some Belden 1585A cable - Satie 13:50:36 06/27/15 (1)
I am going to guess that these are going to sound like cat 5 and be top heavy just above the presence region on the SMGs. The SMGs need to fill out the air region at the top octave and have plenty of presence, so I suggested a stranded silver on copper in teflon mil spec that does that well..
- I decided against the stranded silver on copper just because I am a purist, but, to be fair I know very little - PhilJ 15:35:33 06/27/15 (0)
  about these wires and I may still try your suggestion Satie but I have a few options on my plate right now. Also my Muse CD player has a slightly tipped up high end and sounds terrific as well so I wonder if I need an additional boost in those frequencies...
  thanks for the extra insight
  Phil
  
  Edits: 06/27/15
RE: andyr can you clarify? regarding your post below I am buying some Belden 1585A cable - neolith 16:20:18 06/25/15 (2)
Here's a link to a calculator for AWG .
BTW I just bought a 1/2# spool of 16AWG magnet wire for ~$18 including shipping from Remington Industries. I twisted to wires together to make one 15' and one 10' speaker cable (I don't think it is necessary that a stereo pair be of equal length). This is for my 3.7i's which I plan to pickup this Saturday. I have about 1/2 the spool left over. I decided not to terrminate the cables but just use bare metal and clean periodically with Caig Gold. The best termination is no termination.
When I get around to ripping out the xo and biamping, I will go back to 18" speaker cables (also magnet wire) and long XLR IC's.

Just as an aside, I spent $6k for the speakers and essentially $10 for the speaker cables. I twisted the two wires clockwise but am left wondering if I should have accounted for the Coriolis effect and wound them anti-clockwise. At least I know my credentials to be on the Asylum are genuine and if things don't work out I can try to sell the cables to AndyR and wind another pair the the other way.
- RE: andyr can you clarify? regarding your post below I am buying some Belden 1585A cable - Satie 13:44:29 06/27/15 (0)
  Re twist - depends on whether you are going to use them down under or up here....
- thanks for the link! - PhilJ 04:51:00 06/26/15 (0)
  ...
RE: Belden 1585A cable - andyr 16:05:10 06/25/15 (4)
Hi Phil,

Thanks for the info that Take5Audio sells cryo treated 1585A in small lengths. I did not know this.

I have just had most of a 1000' roll of 1585A installed in my new house (wiring up 4 rooms back to the hifi system). These were long runs (up to 50') so I used 2 jackets to each speaker - 1 jacket (8 wires) for '+' and 1 jacket for '-'.

For 7' runs you could also do this; this gives the minimum 'C' (which amps like) but maximum 'L' (which acts as a brake on speaker current). But as these are all ancillary speakers in my house ... SQ is not a problem. :-))

For 7' runs, you could use just 1 jacket to each speaker - ie. 2 twisted pairs for '+' and the other 2 pairs for '-'. This gives higher 'C' - which shouldn't be a problem as the cables are only 7' - and lower 'L', however, I personally would be worried about only having 4x 24g wires carrying the current.

If the Take5Audio cryo product is expensive, perhaps try this first; if it's affordable then I would again use 2 jackets to each speaker.

However, for 7' cables, I would use 2 twisted pairs from each jacket for '+' and the other 2 pairs from each jacket for '-'. This way you end up with:
* 8x 24g wires going to each speaker terminal (for high current)
* less 'L' than just using 1 whole jacket to each speaker terminal (so better SQ), but
* greater 'C' ... which your amp should be able to cope with, given the wires are only 7' long. However, you should perhaps ask the mfr how this amp copes with capacitance on speaker cables - one way of asking this question is to ask whether they are suitable for driving electrostatics (which are high 'C'!). If the amp doesn't like 'C' - and some amps don't (I blew up a Harmon Kardon "wide bandwidth" amp about 15 years ago trying to use it with long speaker cables! :-(( ) - then go back to 1 jacket to each speaker terminal.

Regards,

Andy
- when you say twisted pairs do you mean to use the special speaker cable instructions others have posted? - PhilJ 18:56:40 06/26/15 (2)
  I know this matters but wonder how much it would matter in my short runs?
  - No, I mean the twisted pairs (there are 4 of them) which you see inside the jacket. nt - andyr 19:46:13 06/26/15 (1)
    .
    - thanks again Andy I can handle that... ;^) - PhilJ 21:24:06 06/26/15 (0)
      ...
- thanks for the help Andyr! the cost at TFA is .45 per foot of cryo treated 1585a Belden cable - PhilJ 16:51:55 06/25/15 (0)
  they also post this disclaimer: According to a product engineer at Belden, the new version of the 1585A still uses Teflon as the insulation material that is in direct contact with the conductor. The change that has been made is that the Teflon is only a thin layer which then has Polyolefin applied over it to build up the overall thickness of the insulation.
  I think this is normal if I remember correctly I hope so.
  I will do a shootout between the Anti Cable and the Belden and report my findings here in about a month or so (as both have to break in) fwiw using my SMGa driven by Outlaw Audio amp and source is Muse model nine Ref sig CD player thru Mogami 2534 ICs.
  
  Edits: 06/25/15

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