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Cable Asylum Interconnects, speaker wire, power cords. Ask the Cable Guys. |
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Cable Asylum Interconnects, speaker wire, power cords. Ask the Cable Guys. |
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In Reply to: Wow, ... posted by PEB on August 10, 1999 at 23:19:22:
I do not wish to discourage you from experimentation, there is not enough of that now, what with folks like mtry just reading white papers instead of listening. I do want to try and make sure you both understand what is going on with the wires in a speaker cable.First, please read this post about speaker cable inductance:
/audio/cables/messages/17.htmlI will reiterate from the above post. BOTH wires MUST carry the signal, it is not possible for only one wire to carry the signal, and the other wire to remain uninvolved. In order for the signal to pass through the 'hot' wire, it must travel through the speaker, and then back though the 'ground' wire. If the 'ground' wire tends to impede the signal, it will affect the signal the loudspeaker receives just as much as any effects within the 'hot' wire.
In terms of Kirchoff's Law, this is known as a current loop, and the currents in all elements of the loop must be identical. Since all dynamic loudspeakers work via current flow, and even electrostats and other exotic designs also draw current before they can make a sound, the signal is indeed the current flow through the cable. A voltage without any current flow is a static voltage, e.g., static as in NO CURRENT FLOW. A static voltage (static electricity) can do no work, and will make no sound. When a comb is charged up, and a loose bit of paper jumps up to it, a current flowed as the work was done, otherwise the paper would not have moved.
It is fallacious to think of the ground reference point established at the amplifier output terminals as extending all the way (without any effect or penalty) through the ground lead of the speaker cable, and being maintained completely all the way to the speaker terminal. This is just not possible, due primarily to the inductance, and secondarily to the DCR of the ground lead. Other effects are possible and occur, and they also add to the further loss of the actual ground reference potential that exists at the amplifier terminals, but can no longer exist at the far end of the speaker cable due to these factors.
Note that this will be true no matter if the two wires carrying the opposite polarities of the signal are close together, and depend on the canceling effect of the mutual inductance to lower the overall inductance, or they are far apart, and have a certain inherent amount of inductance. There are tradeoff's both ways, just be aware that the separated scheme will raise the overal inductance, which can soften highs and make things sound smoother and less harsh, espcialy if the system had a tendency to sound a bit harsh or bright in the first place. Separating the wires would add in that extra inductance (approx. 3-4 times as much as the same wires in close proximity), and soften any hard edges. It could also be acheived by adding in a small inductor in series, or turning the proper type of Equalizer/tone control down appropriately.
It is easy to confuse these effects with the other results of the total sound of a particular design.
Jon Risch
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- Re: Wow, ... - Jon Risch 22:04:59 08/12/99 (0)
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