Speaker Cable - old vs new?

[MajorFubar]

Speaker cables can't burn in. Common-sense should tell you that, even if your ears deceive. What electrical property exactly do you think is changing over time?

 

[AmigaNut]

If burn in is true, my leccy bill should be getting cheaper by now. :rofl:

AmigaNut

 

[steve_1979]

Send them back, 100 hour run-in is rubbish thats just to discourage folk from returning them.

+1

 

[ellisdj]

I have owned cable talk 3 for c.18yrs.

Recently upgraded my system to Yam 2010, MA rx6av, Chord Odyssey 4 & 2. Have read for many hrs about upgrading cable. Some say won't make any difference some say it will. Some say don't use silver plated cables with MA use copper. Some have upgraded to Odyssey 4, 2 and said it improved the sound on many different set ups but it may need time to run in. Even some reputable advertisors on this site who own their own shop have recommended this cable with my set up. I thought what the hell I'll sell it on ebay if it's worse than cable talk 3.

I have wired up my front speakers bi-amped one with Odyssey 4 and the other has cable talk 3. Chord say 100 hrs to run in (from memory I think), mine has been on 1 hr.

Emile Sande cd - rewinding the cd back and forth as I listen to one speaker and then the other over identical parts of a track I can say the Odyssey sounds identical to the cheaper copper cable talk 3. To my ears Odyssey doesn't sound harsh with my MA front 6's, tone, voices, instruments etc sound identical on both cables imo so far.

Now when it has run in if Odyssey 4 doesn't sound better than the cheaper, much cheaper cable talk 3 I won't be very happy as I have just shelled out nigh on £300. Time will tell.

Are you listening to one speaker at a time? How the hell is that testing the cables no wonder they sound the same

You need to have them both wired up for starters then listen to the complete image - secondly if your speakers have metal inbetween the binding posts high freq and low freq that should be changed as well to the wire you are using.

Thats should be the rule of thumb for all speaker cables whether twin and earth or Valhalla

The bits of included metal make speakers sound terrible, worse than terrible in fact and I am yet to hear different. It normally affects the part of the speaker thats not wired into - i.e. wire into the tweeter the vocal will be metallic - wire into the low bidning posts and the treble is metallic. It will also make a difference if you wire into the high freq posts or the low posts.

Just making sure a you are testing properly and b getting the most from your money.

 

[andyjm]

You need to have them both wired up for starters then listen to the complete image - secondly if your speakers have metal inbetween the binding posts high freq and low freq that should be changed as well to the wire you are using.

Thats should be the rule of thumb for all speaker cables whether twin and earth or Valhalla

The bits of included metal make speakers sound terrible, worse than terrible in fact and I am yet to hear different. It normally affects the part of the speaker thats not wired into - i.e. wire into the tweeter the vocal will be metallic - wire into the low bidning posts and the treble is metallic. It will also make a difference if you wire into the high freq posts or the low posts.

It is likely that the jumper plates supplied by the speaker manufacturer have a much greater cross sectional area than any cable used to replace them, and therefore will have less impact on the quality of the sound than the replacement cables. In either case, the difference in resistance in changing a 2 inch metal plate for a 3 inch length of wire will be in the milli-ohms and completely inaudible.

Yet another good example of the power of suggestion.

 

[Tommo2]

ellisdj wrote

"Are you listening to one speaker at a time? How the hell is that testing the cables no wonder they sound the same"

.....................................................................................

No not exactly but I did initially have the L speaker biamped with cable talk and the R speaker with Odyssey 4 biamped.

From the listening position, equal distance from speakers I could not notice a difference in sound whilst listeneing to cd's.

I also listened to various short sections of cd tracks whilst positioned close to the L speaker and then quickly rewound the cd to the same section of track and listened whilst positioned closely to the R speaker. ( not scientific I know) Voices, instruments sounded identical imo.

Have since biamped both L & R speakers with Odyssey, only for a few hrs and then switched both cables back to cable talk, then back to Odyssey again and haven't really noticed any difference to the soundstage or tone quality but it is early days (if you believe in 100hrs burn in claim) so will evaluate at a later date.

I was mainly hoping for a sweeter treble on the centre speaker which is biwired, imo it also sounds no better than the cable talk so far. The shop I bought it from said it should sound sweeter as the cable was an upgrade over the cable talk by several levels/price points.

Will burn it in lol, for many more hrs before I make my final judgement.