|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
80.189.213.195
I currently use mains twin and earth solid core that was built into the house, and am looking to upgrade this to something sensible!The problem is that one speaker cable has to run across a doorway (which is why the mains cable was built in under the floor). I have failed to convince Mrs C to allow the carpet to be removed in order to lay a flat cable like Nordost, and is is not possible to pull a new cable in using the old one.
The only bit of good news is that I have hollow skirting boards with removeable covers, installed in order to hide the speaker cables.
One option (the only one?) is to hollow out a channel into the side of the door frame architrave, install a thin cable and then fill over it. This gets the cable up and over the doorway; the hollow skirting does the rest.
I'm capable of doing this work, and it 'only' leaves two problems. Due to room layout and the extra length to go round the door frame, the speaker cable will be about 12 metres long. And to allow installation, the cable will have to be thin; the thinner the better!
Say 7mm dia if round, or say 10mm x 6mm or so if figure of 8 .... these are not hard and fast but I hope are useful guidance.Amplifier is a 300B single ended triode amp, and I tend to appreciate subtlety and emotion in music rather than ultimate 'get up and go'; but I do like naturalness.
Money isn't a great issue; I'm ready to spend a fair bit for a really good musical result - it may give a better result than spending £1000 on a new pair of speakers. But with 24 metres required, once the price goes above £20/metre the total cost becomes a bit on the heavy side ....
Follow Ups:
I'd recommend Kimber 8VS for a long run due to my own experience.
Thanks 'superguru', that came at just the right time.Mainly through info on this board, I was coming to the conclusion that a low L cable,
probably of woven construction, might work well.
As I have a valve amp, the L and R of the output transformer should
ensure stability even with a high capacitance woven cable.I've seen the valuable info on DIY Cat 5 cables and I'm tempted, but I
think the result would be too large in diameter for my problem installation.
Among the snake oil and misinformation about cables, I think there is
a lot of true physics and engineering; one such seems to be that PTFE insulation works well.All of which suggests a woven ptfe insulated cable; to suit my desired diameter I am strongly considering Kimber 4TC.
I've seen many good reports on this one and I think it could suit me well. I'll ponder a few days more before ordering .....
I saw somewhere a suggestion that these have low inductance and I wonder if that's a good thing with a long cable run?This range seem to be well rated by the UK mags, cost is within my budget, and the size seems just about manageable. Any thoughts please?
Hello Mike,It is absolutely critical that you obtain a cable with low inductance for a run of this length unless you want to completely eliminate the upper end of your frequency response.
I wouldn't normally post information about a product that we sell, except for the fact that we have a product that fits your specs perfectly that you may not find otherwise since we market it to the car audio industry. If the bored members decide to delete this post, oh-well, I tried to help.
Our 14 AWG Bosc speaker cable is a star quad design that has a small diameter (minimized for auto installs). The inductance is incredibly low, while still maintaining a very reasonable capacitance. If you can give slightly more space, the 12 AWG would be even better. Although specs are not yet published, you can view below:
14 AWG - 0.23" Diameter, Inductance - 0.07 microH/ft - 50 pF/ft
12 AWG - 0.30" Diameter, Inductance - 0.07 microH/ft - 50 pF/ftNo matter what you decide to go with, make sure it has a low inductance. Best of luck.
I'm pleased the moderators allowed this, as (1) your comment about inductance is very useful, (2)the products are worth me looking into and (3) the data you give sets a benchmark for me (even if I don't end up with your product.
Image: Kimber KWIK-12 (Star Quad Speaker Cable)A 12 meter run of speaker cable per channel (nearly 40 feet) is so long that a premium-priced speaker cable purchase would perhaps be a "waste of price-to-performance ratio". I'm surprised how good Kimber KWIK-12 performs (a low priced in-wall installation cable) that I use for a home recording studio application that requires a somewhat long run of cable, and actually found it to outperform a particular much more expensive cable to my ear. It offers a rather uncolored and well-focused presentation. The cable is a 4-conductor single channel design, intended to be wired cross connected (star quad) to enable noise cancelling (particularly nice feature for such a long run of cable). The KWIK-12’s OD looks to be about 8mm (5/16 inch).
UK seller link:
http://www.russandrews.com/product-KWIK-12-Installation-Cable-3055.htm
Kimber KWIK-12 product info link:
Thanks, I'll follow up on this one.FYI, I don't mind spending a fair bit to get a good result, as I'd rather get it right first time. The system is fairly high end (Teres tt, all tube gear, nice transmission line speakers) and I'm considering a speaker upgrade in the £1000 to £1500 region; so £500 on cables does not frighten me! :-)
I have no experience of it, but JPS Labs UltraConductor speaker cable is said to perform very well at long lengths, has a small OD, and is very flexible:-snip-
"Our Minimized Dielectric Technology (MDT) allows our cables to offer unparalleled performance by allowing our unique alloys to perform without the normal sound absorbing mass of insulation found in all other cables. This technology also allows the UltraConductors to be not only very flexible, but also to be made as small as possible for ease of concealment. Most importantly though, these cables can perform like no other in VERY long runs without the usual and typically serious sonic degradation, and will sound as good with 40 FT (12 meter) runs of speaker cable as they do in 10 FT ( 3 meter) lengths."
-snip-
(source: http://www.jpslabs.com/ultraconductor.shtml)
Google the product to find a number of reviews.
International shipper seller's link (US$599 per 40 foot pair - terminated with spades or bananas):
The wooden framework presents a serious problem for twin-lead or similar cables, as the wood is a poor dielectric for audio. The Jon Risch cross-connected coax design would diminish this problem, but you would have to use double-lengths of a small-diameter coax cable to make it fit. The DC resistance is not an issue, and, if you know the impedance of the cable, you can provide dynamic loading to minimize normal-mode resonances.
Hi,
Thanks for ideas; I use JR type interconnects of twisted 89259 inner and solid core, and am willing to buy the large amounts necessary. However, 4 runs of this kind of stuff will be too big to install ....
but I'll check Belden's site for possibles.
I think I'd rather go for a more known quantity even if it costs; saving money isn't a major concern.
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: