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I decided to replace the 35 year old internal wire in my CW1s. I used 16awg copper wire from Radio Shack. The speakers sound a little clearer in the highs, but the mids do not seem as smooth and the sound seems to be lacking in weight. I know any wire takes time to break in, but I'm starting to wonder if the speakers will ever sound right with the new wire.
What I'm looking for is suggestions on what gauge and what type of wire to use(silver,copper,solid core, etc.) that might be better than what I used.
"Idiocracy" had it all wrong. We'll be there way sooner then 500 years!
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I'd recommend Acrolink hook up wire..
AP
(silver plated copper, teflon dielectric). The results were very good indeed. Clear, clean, and balanced. 18 ga., I doubled it up for the woofers.
Here is a very good and very clear wire:
14 Gauge Speaker Cable Studio Grade Silver Plate 25' FT Carol 2 Wire
It is silver plated high quality copper. Sounds excellent and very easy to solder.
PeterZ
Here it is for $9.95
http://www.summitsource.com/carol-14-ga-studio-grade-speaker-cable-25-ft-silver-plate-pure-copper-digital-inwall-high-performance-2-wire-audio-signal-hookup-extension-ul-listed-part-c15615592-p-8058.html
Strange that they have the exact same product at 2 different prices.
25 feet for $10???
I like the idea of using 14 gauge .vs 16, but $10.
"Idiocracy" had it all wrong. We'll be there way sooner then 500 years!
I noticed the pricing on the site. It works fine selecting the cheaper one for checkout.
About a 2 months ago I ordered 4 rolls of 14GA 50ft since it is no longer made. I have found it to be super clean wire. Very inexpensive for what it is. It makes the other much more expensive 12GA sound muddy in comparison.
I originally got 12GA from Parts-Express but they no longer carry it as it looks like the mother company for Carol no longer makes it. At that price I can see why they don't or can't.
For $10, you can't go wrong especially if you are soldering with silver solder.
PeterZ
I use mapleshade speaker wire to wire my speakers. I use it from amplifier output to the crossovers to the drivers. This results in a coherent sound. Easy to use, flexible, and often available for sale on audiogon.
Van den Hul cs 12 is used by lots of manufacturer, affordable and the results excellent. Not long ago I rewired a pair of old B&W 801 and the results where startling, I also eliminated the spade terminals and soldered everything.
Jazz1,
I too am going to rewire my 801 Matrix series 2. Which specific wires did you use? Did you bypass the XLR connector between the midrange and bass boxes? I've been looking for a 4 connector 90 degree XLR but haven't found one yet.
I'm also going to build outboard crossovers, have you done anything to yours?
thanks, Dave
These where a friend of mine speakers, the first 801, before the Matrix serie, we did bypass the tweeter "tone control"
No crossover change just the wiring and soldering.
We used Van den Hul CS12 which was relatively cheap, flexible and nice to work with. We also used a good quality silver solder.
The difference was incredible, but I am sure that removing the spades
was a major benefit.
"The speakers sound a little clearer in the highs, but the mids do not seem as smooth and the sound seems to be lacking in weight."
So you actually hear this much difference between the old and new wire?
What gauge was the old stuff, thicker or thinner than the new?
Maybe you should try the new wire on the tweeter only, and keep the old on the mids/woofers?
The old wire probably has a fair amount of oxide (or chloride) buildup by now, which could possibly degrade its HF response but would possibly have less effect on the longer wavelengths.
What kind of capacitors are in the crossover? If they're electrolytics you should replace them with decent poly film ones of the same nominal value. That will probably make a more audible improvement than wire.
I'm fond of Stinger brand wire, available from Meniscus and other sources. I use the 18ga or 16ga for internal wiring in most of my DIY speaker projects. It's "High purity copper" (they don't say how many nines) in a nice supple black jacket of I'm not sure what plastic. I don't think it's PVC, 'cause there's no chloride tarnish on the wire when I strip the end of a really old piece. Shiny as new. Anyway, this stuff is soft and flexible and solders REAL nice and (while I'm not a wire cultist) "sounds" a little better to my ears than RatShack "speaker wire" or hardware store lamp cord of the same gauge. Oh, BTW, it's also fairly cheap (at least by "audiophool wire" standards) at around 70 cents a foot.
The Stinger seems to be the way to go. Van den Hul looks interesting, but I could not seem to find a US distributor.
I'm also intrigued by the idea of eliminating most or all of the spade connectors. I soldered the wires to the tweeter and woofer. The squawker has spring connectors, so I just tinned the wires in solder. There are 12 spade connectors in each speaker. Getting rid of as many of those as possible would have to be a step in the right direction.
The caps are all new from Bob Crites.
"Idiocracy" had it all wrong. We'll be there way sooner then 500 years!
I was going to suggest some Belden 16/2 but it looks like you already figured that out.
LOL - thanks, I needed that!
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