Cable Asylum

Interconnects, speaker wire, power cords. Ask the Cable Guys.

Use this form to submit comments directly to the Asylum moderators for this forum. We're particularly interested in truly outstanding posts that might be added to our FAQs.
You may also use this form to provide feedback or to call attention to messages that may be in violation of our content rules.

You must login to use this feature.

Inmate Login

By default, logging in will set a session cookie that disappears when you close your browser. Clicking on the 'Remember my Moniker & Password' below will cause a permanent 'Login Cookie' to be set.

Moniker/Username: The Name that you picked or by default, your email. Forgot Moniker?	Examples "Rapper", "Bob W", "joe@aol.com".
Password:	Forgot Password?
	Remember my Moniker & Password ( What's this?)

If you don't have an Asylum Account, you can create one by clicking Here.

Our privacy policy can be reviewed by clicking Here.

Inmate Comments

From:
Your Email:
Subject:

Message Comments

Original Message

RE: Is 16 gauge speaker wite ok to use with my Merlin TSMBME

Posted by Duster on July 4, 2020 at 16:51:54:
Hi Dawnrazor,

When it comes to cabling, there's more than one way to skin a cat, so to speak. Some folks like copper, others like silver. Solid core or stranded. Unplated or plated. Numerous dielectrics and geometries to choose from. Same thing goes for vibration control methods, with so many options available to choose from. With strong opinions of my own, there are only so many options I'm willing to try for my own wants and needs, with a number of designs that are popular to some folks, that I'm simply not willing to explore for myself. I mostly keep quiet about my opinions of such things, out of respect towards others who enjoy and advocate matters I'm either not interested in, or have experience of and don't care for when implemented within my own particular audio systems, based on my own listening tastes. Sometimes my decisions are based on direct experience, other times they are based on cable philosophy developed over the test of time, which can be considered personal bias that every listener has a right to hold onto as a way to approach cabling and other audiophile devices they either choose to explore or simply ignore.

Again, I'm not saying that what you hear is not the most enjoyable way to experience audio for your own wants and needs, since there are a lot of things going for solid core magnet wire with an enamel dielectric; I get it. Adding more 24 AWG conductors within a bundle opens-up a can of worms when it comes to the cable resonance of litz wire, so using a single solid core wire with a low-mass dielectric that's smaller than 22-21 AWG with minimal skin effect to deal with is an attractive idea, and I think it's the primary reason why you enjoy the simple DIY build for your own wants and needs; I get it. I have nothing but respect for your right to have a personal approach to cabling, and I don't want to come across as being so critical of it that others should not try it for themselves, and make a decision based on personal evaluation, if that's what they are interested in doing. Audio cables tend to have compromises, with no standard offering that everyone can agree upon. Same thing goes for all of the different kinds of audio components to choose from. To each his own, and listeners should feel grateful that there are so many options that they can select for their own audiophile wants and needs.

BTW, what is the purpose of the thick outer layer implemented for the shotgun run? Is there a single 24 AWG wire per polarity involved in the design?

Best regards,

Duster