Thick cables sound better?

[martin_wu99]

Hi guys,

I know speaker cable topic has been covered in this forum before, but want to double check with your opinion and feedback.
Do thicker speaker wires, say, 10 or 12 awg, sound better than thin ones such as 16 or 18 awg?
Googling on this shows mixed opinion, with some going for thick cables (usually audiophiles), but others showing skeptic response.

Personally I've used 16g wires for my bi-amped 4343 with good results in my basement listening room.
Depending on your opinion, however, I'm thinking of switching to thicker cables, at least for for the woofers.
I hear thicker cables work especially better for sub-woofers.

Any feedback and comments would be welcome.

Not so simple,i don't think so

[pyonc]

No need for biwires on the usual 4343 speakers, unless you rebuild the crossover to use them.

Thanks! That's what I guessed.
I see high-end cables like MIT or Neotech are bi-wire cables...

[Mr. Widget]

Thanks! That's what I guessed.
I see high-end cables like MIT or Neotech are bi-wire cables...

Makes sense... that way they get to sell twice as much wire. Makes perfect sense from a business perspective.


Widget

[martin2395]

I tell you, all the money in MIT's went to the "magic boxes", military grade resistors, cryo treated coils

I have a BiWire set but the low and high leads are shorted together, of course if I had the choice I'd go with single wire but at the price I bought mine for I won't complain...

[hjames]

I DO have a set of MIT Terminator 2 BiWire cables on my Biwire enabled Vandersteen 2CE speakers. Obviously, it is different than the Bi-Amp configuration I used on my JBL 4341 monitors, but on the biwired speakers, the MIT cables do quite well.

Caveat: I got them used off CL for substantially LESS than retail price.



The casing was loose on one pair of the MIT cables, so, of course, I opened it to see what was inside -
tho I did not fiddle with the encapsulated block I found inside.

[martin2395]

Wow, I've never seen Terminator2 opened up yet, thank you for the pic!
I've heard from a tech guy that the secret of MIT cables lies in their shielding/grounding principle and because they affect the amplifier's slew rate

I'd never ever buy them new as the prices are riddiculous - $45k bucks for their TOTL loudspeaker cables.....sometimes you can get the older models very cheap through local ads.
If you want the real deal from MIT's then I suggest you too lok for at least the MH-750 (versions with boxes) or Shotgun models, much better than the entry Terminator series.

MIT's are kinda fake Bi-Wire cables as they always have single connectors on the amp side and within the box they just split to low and high outputs.
By the way - those T2's look A LOT like Monster M1's, only the colours differ (M1 has black and white leads) and of course they don't use the Terminator box.

[Dave_72]

Thanks! That's what I guessed.
I see high-end cables like MIT or Neotech are bi-wire cables...

Neotech is the main OEM of many high end cable brands! The technology is not bs. They use a purer copper which is superior to OFC. That is a fact.

[hjames]

Wow, I've never seen Terminator2 opened up yet, thank you for the pic!
I've heard from a tech guy that the secret of MIT cables lies in their shielding/grounding principle and because they affect the amplifier's slew rate

I'd never ever buy them new as the prices are riddiculous - $45k bucks for their TOTL loudspeaker cables.....sometimes you can get the older models very cheap through local ads.
If you want the real deal from MIT's then I suggest you too lok for at least the MH-750 (versions with boxes) or Shotgun models, much better than the entry Terminator series.

MIT's are kinda fake Bi-Wire cables as they always have single connectors on the amp side and within the box they just split to low and high outputs.
By the way - those T2's look A LOT like Monster M1's, only the colours differ (M1 has black and white leads) and of course they don't use the Terminator box.

That's what biwires are ... one connection on one end and dual connections at the speaker ends.

I also have a pair of XO biwire cables that the Vandy 2CE seller threw in with the sale.
They have full pairs of wire from the amp end - but honestly, the MIT T2 wires sound "better", and both sound better than just regular zip cords.

If I could find a 20 foot pair of MIT T2 biwires for reasonable money, I get them to run my side surrounds with - they are Vandy 2CI and I run a single heavy copper cable pair to each them and made a pair of bridged jumpers that are at the speaker end. Those are "fake" biwires.

And personally, due to the heavy handed lawsuit-crazed nature of the Monster company,
I won't buy ANYTHING from them - they can rot for all I care.

[ivica]

Hi,

We have to be aware of some physical cable properties

10ft - 18awg - 0.064 Ohms

http://www.cirris.com/testing/resistance/wire.html

so for usually used 15ft - two wire cable, total resistance would be 3 * 0.064 about 0.2 Ohms, and if 8 Ohms speaker is used (neglecting amplifier output impedance) we can get 8/0.2 = 40 damping factor.

regards
ivica

VERY, VERY interesting explanations and cable comparison

http://diyaudioprojects.com/Technica...elson-Pass.pdf

regards
Ivica

[fpitas]

Cable high-frequency terminations can make a difference:

http://sound.westhost.com/cable-z.htm

I use ordinary large gauge twisted pair, but terminate the speaker end as Rod suggests.

[svollmer]

And personally, due to the heavy handed lawsuit-crazed nature of the Monster company,
I won't buy ANYTHING from them - they can rot for all I care.

Boy do I agree with that! Bose is another famous for suing everyone. They sued Thiel in the 1990's because Thiel called a model the 2.2 and Bose had a 2.2. So Thiel changed the name to 2 2. I'm surprised Bose didn't already trademark the "space".

[pyonc]

I tell you, all the money in MIT's went to the "magic boxes", military grade resistors, cryo treated coils

I have a BiWire set but the low and high leads are shorted together, of course if I had the choice I'd go with single wire but at the price I bought mine for I won't complain...

Pics tell all, after all. Like hjames showed her MIT cables.
Can you upload some pics of your MIT biwire speaker cables hooked into your 4343 terminals on the back?
I'm getting curious.

[SEAWOLF97]

Boy do I agree with that! Bose is another famous for suing everyone. They sued Thiel in the 1990's because Thiel called a model the 2.2 and Bose had a 2.2. So Thiel changed the name to 2 2. I'm surprised Bose didn't already trademark the "space".

Now it's that fruity company and their Korean rivals suing each other because they own the rights to the shape of "rectangle" or "rounded corners"

but yeah, Munster and Boze are low on my lists too, but I'm amazed by how many intelligent people think it's great stuff.

when I was on "audio street" in TPHCMC , looking at connectors ....they had Munster and generic side by side. Either the generic was a perfect 100% copy or they were both made in the same factory. There was about a 15X difference in price. Guess which one I picked ?

[martin2395]

You underestimate the power of commercials

Btw, pyonc the low and high outputs are simply shorted together, no magic here:

[Mr. Widget]

...no magic here...

Perhaps not much science either.

Widget