Speaker cable thickness

I was browsing the Maplin website today, and noticed they have some Van Damme professional speaker cable, however, they have 3 different thicknesses: 1.5 mm, 2.5 mm or 4 mm.

What difference does having thicker cable make, if any?

 

Its heavier, thicker and less bendy

Actually, I haven't compared them, but I'm using the 2.5mm Van Damme here - its good quality, highly flexible copper cable that does a fine job at just under £2/M. There may be gains to be had from the 4mm - but I haven't tried it.

 

Thicker cable = lower resistance

 

Agreed but there are down sides too....IMO

thick multi strand copper can sound dire....fat bloated bass round rosy mid muddled top end. It often sounds great when you first use it loads of bass.

Try this get some 15amp twin and earth and use the two wire furthest appart [not the ground] Its a pig to work with looks awful wont lie flat on the floor ....but its cheap and it may just supprise you sound wise. It seems to do a lot things right. If you want push the boat out ...solid core silver is for me the only way to go !

 

The most important reason for me is Fat cables look PHAT.

Low diameter cables have a higher resistance which can reduce the dampening factor of you amp resulting in less control and a higher risk of speaker damage at high volumes.

The only dissadvantage I have heard is an increase in capasitance of fatter cables. I have yet to have heard of anyone who can explain why that is bad.

Fatter cables cost more and look better so will impress your friends.

 

IME speaker cables don't make that much of a difference. 2.5 mm is fine for all but the most high-powered amps.

I'd recommend getting inexpensive cables and spending a bit of money on terminating them well. I like the Eichmann speaker plugs and those hollow bananas from Z Systems and others.

 

Right so I'll go for the 2.5 mm ones then, at £2 a meter that fits in nicely in the context of my incoming system

Markus, I had always believed that bare wire was perhaps preferable to any kind of termination unless you are going to swap cables regularly (which I dont plan on doing) ?

 

Bare wire works fine, too, if you have good binding posts which don't come loose over time or remember to tighten them up every now and then..

 

you could also try richersounds - they normally have some spare cuts of the Gale stuff at knock down prices...

I bought some Gale XL315 years ago at a real knock down price and the rrp price of 2.50 a metre (now 1.99 I think) is good going anyway...

 

Homemade Triple-T construction Cat 5e cable blew my expensive multistrand from the hifi shop completely out of it!
Better clarity full stop.
Go on, make your own - you know it makes sense

 

Been there, done that, didnt like it.

 

That Van Damme cable looks to be pretty neat and is used by folk such as the beeb (iirc).

Boredom is setting in and i might even give it a little try myself .

Cables are almost always specified by the area of the conductor, i found this little program useful for making quick calculations to give a better idea of whether something 'will fit'

Area to Diamater convertor

 

Maplin's and Richer sounds are on the same street in Reading and they are opposite each other. A maplin Metre is about 1.4metres or as big asthe guy can span! I bought 10 metres of the 2.5mm and it sounds fine. Have enough to shotgun but am a lazy git so one day

 

Paul, 2.5mm^2 mains cable, around 80p p/m

 

you not got that Naim NACA4 i gave u then buddy? That would do nicely

If you are only after short lengths i have some Nordost Flatline lying around too

 

You might want to check with Exposure about speaker cables. Naim at that time didn't include a Zoebel circuit on their amplifiers, and relied on the high? capacitance of NACA4 and 5 to balance out their amplifiers. They weren't the only ones. I'd make sure that Exposure isn't the same

 

I use the 2.5 van damme and think its very good.I did try some cable talk flat cable but the van damme is much better (imo).I use banana plugs simply for ease of use ,plus the fact that the cheap plastic "nuts" on my marantz pm7200 have to be opened right out ...and a bit more to get the ends in.
ew

 

I asked on PFM, and it seems the Exposure will be fine with the Van Damme stuff.