What speaker wires do you use?

Speedskater said:

Inductance is dependable of how close the two wires are. If thy are twisted together, you can reduce it dramatically. If you can not twist them together, then separate them at least 1/2 an inch. This will reduce the inductance.
You have that upside down. The closer together, the less inductance. Twisting may help keep them together.

For the most part, capacitance and inductance are opposite sides of the same coin. If you reduce one the other one increases.

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Indeed, the wider apart the wires are the lower the C will be while the closer together the wires are the lower the L will be. This becomes an issue for an ESL because it performs best when both C and, especially, L are low in a speaker cable design. One way around this is to use a coax design which allows for 1 wire to be inside the other .... which gives the required low L value. But what of the now high value for C? The way to keep a high C cable from forming with coax wires so close to each other is to use a thick dielectric of high value. Voila, you now have a low L and low C cable as needed. At this point you just need to keep the R large enough to damp the high f L/C cct resonance that forms between the ESL's tranny's leakage L and C of the ESL itself.

And you have RLC specifications for such a coax cable?

Speedskater said:

And you have RLC specifications for such a coax cable?

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The Mogami 3082 spoken about above:

L – 0.12 µH/ft
C – 77 pF/ft
R – 0.0027 Ω/ft

So a little less inductance and a lot more capacitance than their UTP 3103.

L – 0.18 µH/ft
C – 30.5 pF/ft
R – 0.0015 Ω/ft

With such low L, the 3103 would make for an excellent choice as well. It is more than twice the price of the 3082 however.

Other options might be, the Mogami 2971 and 3104 four conductor cables wired as Star-Quads.

Estimated specs:

2972
L – 0.105 µH/ft
C – 60 pF/ft
R – 0.00135 Ω/ft

3104
L – 0.09 µH/ft
C – 55 pF/ft
R – 0.0008 Ω/ft

The capacitance numbers are a guess at best.

The 2972 looks great but is more costly still. 3104's low R would cause me some pause.

For a truly low budget solution, consider 14AWG Romex 3 conductor plus ground. Wired as a Star-Quad with the Red & Black as one conductor and the White and Ground as the other. The specs should be between the 2972 and 3104.
The two drawbacks are: it's stiff and ugly.
Did I mention that it's stiff?

When is a low R not a very good thing?

I Might give that Mogami 3082 a try on the panels since I direct-drive them from the Sanders amp.

I've been using Belden 5000 series from Blue Jeans Cable 10 gauge, and since I use active crossovers and bi-amp, each speaker has two runs. Satisfied so far.

Speedskater said:

When is a low R not a very good thing?

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when it is too low to adequately damp the high f L/C resonant cct that forms between the ESL's tranny's leakage L and C of the ESL itself. High frequency response could suffer. Otherwise, lower R is always better.

JonFo said:

I Might give that Mogami 3082 a try on the panels since I direct-drive them from the Sanders amp.

I've been using Belden 5000 series from Blue Jeans Cable 10 gauge, and since I use active crossovers and bi-amp, each speaker has two runs. Satisfied so far.

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It's inexpensive enough to try. I run a DIY pair on my Magtech.

Pneumonic said:

when it is too low to adequately damp the high f L/C resonant cct that forms between the ESL's tranny's leakage L and C of the ESL itself. High frequency response could suffer. Otherwise, lower R is always better.

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Now that's hard to believe. Any real engineering papers?
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And if it's real, why not chose a good cable and add a small power resistor to taste?

If the speaker’s tranny is poor and the L/C resonanance is <20k you could certainly have hf issues that are audible. Using a cable that damps, or a resistor as you suggest, would help mitigate the resultant brightness.

Won't the particular power amplifier be part of the equation?

Yes, especially if the amp has to deal with >20k resonance. Of course, if the resonance is at supersonic f the listening won't be able to hear anything but, nevertheless, damping and reducing the magnitude of this resonance is good news for any amp.

jerry9800 said:

Hello ML owners,

I just bought all my speakers and receiver. Last thing I need to get are the speaker wires. What wires are you guys using? Do wires actually make a difference?

Here is what I got

Front and Left ML ESL 8inch standing speakers
Motif center speaker
Klipsch Refer 12" 400W subwoofer r12sw
Denon x4200 receiver.

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I am on the other side of the spectrum. I did not want to hear a difference but I did.

I run Audioquest WEL signature, 8ft, solid core silver wires, 12g.

Yes, I'm crazy.

And no, I don't want an argument.

Joey_V said:

I am on the other side of the spectrum. I did not want to hear a difference but I did.

I run Audioquest WEL signature, 8ft, solid core silver wires, 12g.

Yes, I'm crazy.

And no, I don't want an argument.

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Joey, if you don't want an argument you're in the wrong forum!

I hope all's well, Doc.

I was using KnuKonceptz Karma 10 gauge wires but an audiophile friend of mine said solid cores sounded better so I bought a set of Audioquest Type 4. I heard absolutely no difference between the two. I have an open mind to these types of things so I might try out the coaxial wires next.

ElectroNoob said:

I was using KnuKonceptz Karma 10 gauge wires but an audiophile friend of mine said solid cores sounded better so I bought a set of Audioquest Type 4. I heard absolutely no difference between the two. I have an open mind to these types of things so I might try out the coaxial wires next.

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Type 4 is about their lowest speaker wire next to stranded construction wire. Not surprised.

Unfortunately, when I tried out AQ Oaks in my system, I was hoping for no difference so I could stick with my usual 12g OFC copper wire.

But alas, it was not meant to be and I was not happy when I heard the difference.

Brought my brother over, he heard the same thing.

But yeah, that's my n=2.