Cable/gauge?

MartinLogan Audio Owners Forum

Help Support MartinLogan Audio Owners Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

khenegar

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 13, 2007
Messages
508
Reaction score
12
Location
doylestown, oh
I have summits as u know with self powered woofers, I was wondering if it's necessary to go with a larger gauge cable since I don't have to drive the bass drivers in the summits! My runs are 35 ft long to the left and right summits. Thanks
 
The guy at SONICRAFT (JEFF GLOWACKI) recommends 12AWG stranded copper wire for Woofers. I've tried it and it works great. Steer clear of SOLID CORE (single strand) for use on a woofer - it gives you Lean Bass i.e. you lose deep bass. I can confirm this is true because I've also tried this too.
 
12 GAUGE will provide you with an ideal speaker cable too. Especially because you have disconnected your woofers
 
Cable/gauge

Dan Odin: do u have summit speakers? I thought I would be driving the stat panels only since the bass drivers have there own amps.
 
Last edited:
No I have HIGHLY MODIFIED CLS IIz's. As I already stated, I have done LOTS and LOTS of experimentation with DIY wiring. I know that you AREN'T using the woofer (you want ideal speaker wire for the STAT PANEL only). Therefore your best bet is to use 12AWG STRANDED copper or silver wire (LESS THAN 20 STRANDS) for the best TREBLE to MIDRANGE balance. This will also give the MIDRANGE the correct proportion of BODY.

Too many wire strands = Too much bass/rolled off treble.
Less wire strands = Less bass/more treble extension.
One Single 12AWG strand = Lean Bass/Rolled off treble.
 
Last edited:
No I have HIGHLY MODIFIED CLS IIz's. As I already stated, I have done LOTS and LOTS of experimentation with DIY wiring. I know that you AREN'T using the woofer (you want ideal speaker wire for the STAT PANEL only). Therefore your best bet is to use 12AWG STRANDED copper or silver wire (LESS THAN 20 STRANDS) for the best TREBLE to MIDRANGE balance. This will also give the MIDRANGE the correct proportion of BODY.

Too many wire strands = Too much bass/rolled off treble.
Less wire strands = Less bass/more treble extension.
One Single 12AWG strand = Lean Bass/Rolled off treble.
Dan: Can u tell me were or who I can get some of your recommended cable
 
If what you say is true then how come when I've used CARDAS 9AWG (LOADS OF STRANDS) as speaker cable you can clearly hear an 'EXCESSIVELY ROLLED OFF TREBLE' combined with a WOOLY BASS. Then when I swapped over to CARDAS 11.5AWG you can clearly hear TIGHTER BASS combined with BETTER TREBLE EXTENSION?



Lots of strands, few strands or solid = no difference in sound.
 
Speak to Jeff Glowacki at SONICCRAFT. He knows his stuff. Neotech UPOCC copper and silver wire is the PUREST in the world.

Dan: Can u tell me were or who I can get some of your recommended cable
 
Last edited:
Speak to Jeff Glowacki at SONICCRAFT. He knows his stuff. Neotech UPOCC copper and silver wire is the PUREST in the world.

Dan: thank u for ur suggestions but at my cable distance 2 runs ar 40' it would cost a fortune! Any other suggestions?
 
If what you say is true then how come when I've used CARDAS 9AWG (LOADS OF STRANDS) as speaker cable you can clearly hear an 'EXCESSIVELY ROLLED OFF TREBLE' combined with a WOOLY BASS. Then when I swapped over to CARDAS 11.5AWG you can clearly hear TIGHTER BASS combined with BETTER TREBLE EXTENSION?
It would be had to find cables with lots of strands, few strands and solid, with matching total R, C & L values, all at the same length. Before you can talk about stranding, then much more important parameters must be equal.
 
Lots of strands, few strands or solid = no difference in sound.

as Tim said ……..'oh boy' ………..

Oh boy, here we go...

Ok, let me step in here …………… debating 'strands' as we seem to be doing here means next to nothing unless you know values of inductance, capacitance and resistance. Boys and girls our speakers(electrostatics) present a capacitive load to ones amp so the higher the capacitance of one cables (exacerbated over length) does not help matters any, combined with inductance issues ………………..read this , hopefully it will help.

http://sanderssoundsystems.com/technical-white-papers/54-cables-white-paper

As we know here, Mr Sanders knows a thing or two about electrostatics.
 
Well the Sanders Sound Systems - Cables White Paper does have a lot of good stuff, but it does have bad stuff as well.
a] Speaker cables and damping don't work exactly that way.
b] Coax speaker cables, there is no free lunch in the capacitance/inductance trade-off.
c] Interconnect coax cables with small center conductors will not affect the frequency response.
Note that coax cables with a heavy braided shield are good but for another reason.
 
Generally speaking, in my experience I have noticed that the number of strands in a given wire genuinely influences the behaviour of TREBLE, MIDRANGE AND BASS. I have studied this phenomenon since 2010. The president of ANTI-CABLES (Paul Speltz) will also back up what I am saying here.

I originally helped Paul to develop his SPELTZ POWER CORDS a number of years ago. I constructed the original prototypes for him too. We both experimented with the NUMBER OF STRANDS in each of the conductors (Live,Neutral and Ground).

For the first prototype i went with 7 STRANDS of 18 GAUGE per conductor. The result was good. Next came the second prototype, for this we tried 8 STRANDS of 18 GAUGE per conductor. When we compared both prototypes of power cord it became clear that the 8 STRANDED model went slightly deeper in lower bass than the 7 STRAND.
Both prototypes were 5 FOOT LONG and used identical plugs.




It would be had to find cables with lots of strands, few strands and solid, with matching total R, C & L values, all at the same length. Before you can talk about stranding, then much more important parameters must be equal.
 
Last edited:
Dan, it's not just the number of strands that you are changing. You're changing all the L,C,R values and they are much more important than the stranding.
 
The number of wire strands affect the inductance, capacitance and resistance values. You can actually hear these alterations with your ears.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top