Expensive and cheap speaker cables: what's the difference? Part 2

Original author: Brent Butterworth
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Note translator: the text uses the classification of cables in accordance with the American system for marking the thickness of wires. You can specify cable specifications in accordance with the international standard for wire gauges IEC 60228 (AWG) here .

We use measurements to clarify the situation with cables




[ Part 1 ]

When I wrote my original article , exploring the possibility of measuring the influence of speaker cables on the sound of a speaker, I showed that replacing the cable can lead to audible changes in the sound of the system.

For research, I used, for the most part, the exact opposite of the cables, for example, 24 and 12 gauge cables. Many readers wondered what kind of difference I measured if I compared a regular 12-gauge cable with a high-quality audio cable. And I was also surprised. Therefore, I chose all the best cables that I had, borrowed several from friends and repeated the test.

This is what the testing method looked like: I used my Clio 10 FW sound analyzer and the MIC-01 measuring microphone, to evaluate the performance of my Revel Performa3 F206 indoor speakers. It was necessary to conduct a study in the room to make sure that the ambient noise did not affect the experiment. Yes, the room’s acoustic effects will be superimposed on the room’s experience, but that doesn’t matter, because I only looked for differences in the measured results when I changed the cables.

And to recall the theory behind all this: the dynamics of the speakers and the components of the signal spectrum splitter work like a complex electric filter, tuned to provide the speakers with the desired sound. Adding additional resistance, in the form of an acoustic cable with a high resistance, will change the frequencies at which the filter operates, which in turn will change the frequency response of the speakers. If the cable additionally introduces a significant amount of inductance and capacitance into the filter, this will also affect the sound.

Test 1: AudioQuest, QED and 12 gauge cable




In my tests, I measured the effects of several professional cables, 10 to 12 feet long, and compared the performance with a regular 12 gauge cable. Since the results were mostly similar, I will present them three at a time, with two professional and one normal on the chart.

The graph shows: a regular cable (blue curve), AudioQuest Type 4 cable (red curve) and QED Silver Anniversary (green curve). As you can see, in most cases the differences are incredibly small. In fact, most of the differences are within the normal, minimal deviations arising from measurement to measurement when working with sound sensors, due to a certain number of traces of noise, thermal fluctuations in the speakers, etc.

There is a slight difference at a frequency below 35 Hz. At these frequencies, professional cables produce less bass at the speaker output, although the difference is about -0.2 dB. It is very likely that this difference cannot be heard, due to the relative insensitivity of the human ear in this range. In fact, most music has no content in this range (for comparison, the frequency of the lowest note of a standard bass guitar and double bass is 41 Hz). This is also difficult to hear because only large tower-type speakers have a sufficient output level at frequencies below 30 Hz (you can connect a subwoofer to play these frequencies, but almost all of them are self-powered, and the speaker cable will not have any influence). You will hear much greater differences in low-frequency characteristics,

I did not have the opportunity to measure the electrical properties of the AudioQuest speaker cable (the guy I borrowed it urgently back), but I measured the resistance and capacitance of the QED and the usual cable (the cable inductance was too small for my Clio 10 FW, it didn’t could measure it).

Conventional 12 gauge cable: resistance - 0.0057 ohms per foot, capacitance - 0.023 nF per foot.

QED Silver Anniversary: ​​resistance - 0.0085 Ohm per foot, capacitance - 0.014 nF per foot.

Test 2: Shunyata, High-End Prototype, and 12-gauge Cable




The next step involved a more professional cable, 1.25 inches thick by Shunyata Research Etron Anaconda and a 0.88-inch prototype that is being developed for a professional audio company. Both are quite thick due to the use of a fabric outer braid, but they are still heavy and expensive. A Shunyata Reserach cable costs about $ 5,000 a pair.

The graph shows the characteristics of a conventional cable (blue curve), Shunyata Research cable (red curve) and an unnamed High-End prototype (green curve). Here are their parameters:

Shunyata Research Etron Anaconda: resistance - 0.0020 Ohm per foot, capacitance - 0.020 nF per foot.

High-End prototype: resistance - 0.0031 Ohms per foot, capacitance - 0.038 nF per foot.

Here we began to notice some differences, especially above 2kHz. Let's get closer and take a closer look ...

Test 2: Zoom View




Expanding the magnitude scale (dB) and limiting the frequency range, we can observe that large, thick cables produce measurable differences in speaker performance. The F206 is an eight-ohm speaker, but the magnitude of the differences will increase when using the four-ohm speaker.

This is not a big difference, as a rule. The level increase was +0.20 dB with Shunyata and +0.19 dB with the prototype, but it covers a range of more than three octaves. With a four-ohm speaker, these values ​​should double to 0.40 dB and 0.38 dB, respectively.

Based on the research mentioned in my original article, low-Q resonant vibrations (high frequency range) of 0.3 dB can be heard. Therefore, replacing a regular cable or a thin professional cable with one of the large cables, you can most likely hear the differences.

What do these differences mean? I dont know. You may or may not notice them, and the latter is likely to happen. I won’t wonder if this speaker sound improves or worsens, because it makes the higher frequencies more saturated, which is good for some speakers and bad for some. Please note that conducting the experiment in sound-absorbing rooms would measure greater differences.

In one of the issues of our podcast, we just discussed the issues of measuring sound quality with Yuri Fomin, a high-end speaker design engineer, founder of F-Lab.

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