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I make my own 10awg ofc always been happy with them, however last year or so I have also used WBC Mogami cables, cannot speak highly enough about them .
Alpha labs tried a different approach to measuring speaker cable and instead of measuring the wire individually they connected it to the speaker and measured it at the terminal and it shown some interesting differences.
I really appreciate the work those guys do over there. They turned my attention to my network, and the issues inherent with noise. I could not believe the difference when I simply switched out my network switch to an inexpensive Netgear unit. I believe the GS108Ev3, around $50 at the time I purchased. I have recommended to friends, the few that tried this switch were honestly shocked at the improvement. Put a linear power supply on the switch and it gets even better. For those interested, look up the Alpha Audio "Network Switch Shootout".
Great A and B testing i felt i could hear a difference. A had better upper andmid range and sounded sweeter than B. B had overblown bass and lost the lovely sweet upper and mid range. Just my 2 cents.
I recently visited the Bristol hifi show 23 feb and most demo rooms i went into, all the speakers seemed to be connected to the equipment with this type of large diameter wire.
QED is my go-to (RCA, XLR, and speaker cables) based on strict sound quality tests I did in a home studio recording environment. I tested approx 10 different brands and the QED had the best (analog) sound quality (for my ears). I'm sure you can pay a lot more and perhaps achieve a bit more but for most people, these cables from the UK are my go-to based on my own testing and research. They also are highly regarded and award winning.
The interconnects matter, but the speaker wire and power cables do not so much. As long as it can support the power you are sending over it, OFC is all we "need." However, I have found that interconnects are more sensitive to picking up noise next to other cables and wires. Also, capacitance can play a minor role in a high-resolution system as it could increase the signal time and slightly smear the sound. Either way, I am glad to have found the World's Best Cables brand and will only run their products moving forward. They hit the sweet spot for quality, performance, and price.
I'm sipping coffee and watching a great video on a saturday morning, especially since it's raining quite hard here in Slovenia and there's nothing to do. But let's get to the point, with acoustic panels you could hear the difference 😉, joke aside, great comparison with Porsche, you hit the point. With hi-fi equipment, aesthetics are also important.
Cables are probably the most polarizing piece of equipment in hi-fi (no pun intended). I understand the science showing no perceptual difference. However I do like the quality of higher-end cables. Nice tight connections and they feel and look good, which is part of my enjoyment with equipment. That price is not outrageous compared to other cables depending on your budget. I’ve purchased budget cables from Amazon, better cables from Blue Jeans and SVS and the best from Audioquest, which I got on a really good deal. I Didn’t like the connections with the Amazon and Blue Jeans. I Liked the SVS and the Audioquest the best. No difference in sound IMO. I Will check these out for my next speaker setup. Thanks for the video. Peace, love and music.
All you needed to do was ask me. I've got cupboards full of the stuff. Be careful buying cable. Sometimes they list it as copper and its copper clad. From my electrinics scientific background I was really surprised saying that. I thought aluminum was not a conducter but the cables surprised me. In the 80s i got some expensive solid core cable. They were thin gauge. Not very good. I just use a think its 10 guage ofc cable cable direct amazon. Seems good to me. With cables, copper cables the thickness can effect capacitance and resistance. A bloke i know paid for cables £300 a meter. Says engineers use it. Couldn't tell any difference 😂😂😂. Great video. You reminded me of my old dad 😢. Any more from you and you'll see the back of my hand. He never did though. ❤
These are the cables i have being using for a month now on my new modest system after getting back into the hobby. I heard an improvement right out of the gate, especially with the low end, coming from standard 12awg. They are great cables as far as my ear can tell. Being honest i`m not spending more then $250 on speaker cables for my $2,700 tower speakers, it just would not be worth it in my mind even if i had extra cash.
Purchased the $40 Micca cable from Amazon, I suggest you listen to these! Better than my $300 cables! Midrange clarity and the detail from these cables is outstanding! Bass extension not the best but for $40!! The banana plugs they come with are awful! I suggest ordering a decent pair of locking bananas like I did. Amazing for the price!
I use the Worlds Best Cables Mogami Coaxial speaker wires, and I swear it made a difference in the sound vs my home made 10ga OFC. The soundstage opened up, the bass improvement was very noticeable, just an across the board improvement. Fantastic cables, and did not break the bank. The A/B, I'm on my laptop, and I heard no difference in SQ.
I have Lintons and I use good quality cables - I think they are QED and 9 AWG - but I changed out the speak end banana plug to a 90 degree which I find put less "load" on the terminal and it also allowed the cable to sit nicely snug behind the speaker ... I do agree its hard to really hear any real difference compared to my older speaker wiring set-up..
If I’m really honest I couldn’t hear the difference. However they looked a lovely cable, they are well priced and I won’t hesitate to buy them over bell wire etc. I have bought a pair of two meter cables that cost me £140 and I felt there was a slight difference in the base for the better, and was and still am well pleased with my purchase. At that kind of price I think it’s well worth the experiment. Best wishes, love the videos.
Gene has the measurements! He also says leave the impedance switch alone. But, in my opinion, as long as you're happy with your purchase, that's what matters!
12AWG - wider stage 7AWG - more expressive mids I don’t know which is better, it probably depends on the genre of music and the stereo effect on a particular album.
Just moved onto Chord Clearway X for my PC to amp. The 3.5mm jack to twin RCA. I run a Creative Audigy FX V2 soundcard in the PC which a a fine sound card. The Chord made a huge difference over a standard cable in regards to detail and clarity. I also changed my speaker cable around the same time. I was running a set of QED XT 25 cables for the last couple of years, they served me very well and after burning in sounded a step up in detail over the 79 strand from QED. I recently moved to the Audioquest Rocket 11 and noticed a difference. The R11 allowed a more balanced sound over the XT25 which in turn makes the Rocket 11 a great choice of cable for the Marantz PM6007.
This weekend I replaced my LCR mis-matched 16 and 14 (?) AWG speaker wire one at a time with a set of 12 AWG Mediabridge Ultra series speaker cables from Amazon Prime (2x12' and 1x6') for under $65 including tax. I personally noticed a difference, walking from one speaker to the other - highs not as shrilly and lower base. I had the 2-channel mode in my AVR set to auto subwoofer, tried a bunch of different kinds of music, and my subs never came on (I put them back into always on, though...just enough of a difference to make me fill in the edges). If nothing else I have matching nice-looking cables for my front 3 speakers. My heights and surrounds don't need the fancy stuff!. I have a combo of Klipsch (LCR, 4 heights and sub) and Polk (4 surrounds and sub).
Years ago I tried some fancy cables a friend loaned me (AudioQuest I think) and I couldn't tell any difference between those and my home-made 10 AWG cables on my $1000 system. I just kept what I have been using for years. Could it make a difference on an integrated amp better than my Marantz PM5005? Probably but who knows.
I could hear some difference like a 2% nothing crazy I was able to identify the 7 awg cables as sounding better the other ones were a tad more constricted sounding but again that’s me nit picking is it worth the cost for the sound upgrade no but for aesthetics yes
I'm actually glad you heard no difference. The trims on your hypothetical Porsche are visible and may be preferable for cosmetic reasons. Hopefully, your speaker cables are hidden - so why pay more even in an 'expensive' system if no audible difference is discernable? Most people know that the biggest profits in audio sales are made on cables. To me, B was a bit fuller in the bass and maybe a tad clearer in the piano. Was that the cheap one? Maybe I missed that bit. But why not just buy the cheaper cable and tweak EQ to achieve a similar difference if there is one? I'm listening through around £2,500 worth of DAC, amp and speakers which for some people is cheap but for most of the UK population is stupidly expensive for something to play music on. I use pretty basic cable from Amazon. probably similar to your cheap one. EQ is sometimes the least expensive and most effective 'upgrade'. Make the sound you hear suit your preferences!
I would need 4metres per speaker Marty I would need to sell some of my organs to afford those I’m also easy to buy for at Christmas birthdays and Father’s Day strong Belgian beer or CDS
Always used and found QED 79 strand good enough for me. I use to mess with different cables but really did struggle to hear any noticeable difference. Even tried 2 core electrical cable once after reading about how good it was, and did find that to be quite good
Honestly to my ears, I couldn't hear any discernible difference between the 7 AWG and the 12 AWG cables (or only extremely subtle differences at best, but sometimes I preferred the 7 AWG sound while other moments I preferred the 12 AWG sound) and I did my best to close my eyes or even look away for a few seconds to avoid visual bias popping into my brain where I might only imagine an improvement in sound purely when seeing 7 AWG was indicated in your video. Having said that though, those Worlds Best Cables are absolute beauties, are clearly made with genuine craftsmanship and style, and the price (even when converted to Canadian dollars versus British pounds) was actually reasonable (Not cheap, but very reasonable for audiophile quality cables), particularly when there are far more expensive cables out there that at some point would offer little to no discernible audio difference either (or only tiny subtle incremental differences), so why break the bank to pay more? To sum up, those speaker cables are winners for sure, are eye candy to any media room or stereo equipment setup, and they offer genuine value too. What's not to like? All the best and thank you, Utilitarian TV, for another fun, informative, and in-depth video. :)
Not going to lie, those cables look fantastic but I’m not sure I could tell much difference in the sound test. They are really reasonably priced for what you are getting compared to some other manufacturers too. I think I’ll stick with my QED XTs though as they sound good enough to my ears and I need 3m length to have a neat cable run
It all comes down to resistance. Thicker cables of the same material have lower resistance than thinner ones. Copper is the best bang for buck in terms of conductivity/$ so just get a decent gauge high purity copper cable and that's all you need. The longer the cable run, the thicker it needs to be for a given voltage drop. Basic Ohms Law. All these "high end" speaker cable suppliers pray on people who don't have a basic grasp of electrical principals (because most people don't). Buy these cable because they look good if you like but don't be fooled into thinking they make any difference to the sound.
When I purchased the WBC Mogami Coaxial Speaker Wires, the sound was better, everything opened up and the bass improved over my home made 10AWG OFC and Amazon banana plugs. I asked why? over at Amir's site. I thought it was an honest question, I know what my ears heard, and the fact that my speakers were producing more bass, so much so that I found myself adjusting my two SVS SB3000 subwoofers to get the sound even again. You talk about starting a shit storm... The membership called me everything but a white man, these guys went totally off the rails, like rabid dogs... It was embarrassing even to myself to see grown men act like this, like a gaggle of hens. Any how... Being Mogami, they publish the full data sheets on each cable they produce. And finally one of the more reasonable members over there actually looked at the Data, imagine that. His take, it was the low impedance of the coaxial wire, which he admitted could possibly do what I believe I experienced. Me, I just know what I heard, as I had never even heard of using mini coaxial wire for speaker cable. I now have four pairs in action throughout the house.
When listening, I prefer not to put up with the faint background signal noise (noise floor) One should try pressing pause or mute, and from the MLP, if one is unable to differentiate whether the systems off or on that's telling you, your cables are quality (or more like your cables got quality shielding) The more cables I shield the quieter my room becomes. In fact, the last group of cables I shielded were my HDMI's, and lo behold the room became slightly quieter yet again. After auditioning three separate AVR's, the same ambient sound of the room was still present! It was only on the third occasion when I finally purchased shielded cables that the noise floor in my small room finally came down to satisfactory levels. Cables often act as antennas for attracting RF, and the longer the cable, the better the antenna. Probably explains why when I used to disconnect my heights and surrounds within 10 minutes, the faint background signal noise (RF/EMI) within my small room used to disappear/dissipate. Even though I'm now using a high-performance arcam avr20 with matching power amps, at the time, as well as my original budget Sony SDR dn1080 AVR, most of my testing came from when I was auditioning mid-price Japanese AVR's Never mind the expense. Do you really think I would go through all this work not once, not twice, but on the third time to get it right... If interested, here's a 3-minute video of what I had to go through. Please bear in mind that I'm no videographer 😂 ruclips.net/video/wwU0d3NfRQw/видео.htmlsi=8RcX4g8b07jjmYEr
Solid core and multi strand core has a different outcome. I stripped down an outdoor armoured power cable to take the copper out and tried it as a speaker cable as an experiment, it sounded lush
Always a good thing to start audible cable differences on a nice saturday 😂 Personally, I didn't like the looks of my 'cheap' cables and DIY them into 'high-end' looking ones.
I thought at first, cable A sounded a little muddy and cable B sounded clearer. But then as the song progressed, I started feeling like cable A sounded more natural and cable B maybe had a little bit of a V curve, or something like that going on. Oddly enough, after the reveal, I was having a harder time telling them apart, when I probably should have been more biased... Which cable was A and B in the first half? Anyway, thanks for the review! I just ordered a pair of the 7awg with spades, so we'll see if I like them better than my DIY cables. My DIY I'm using now, are a 4 strand braid (two wires per connector, per cable) of Parts Express OFC 16awg wire. With I think, the Parts Express house brand, dual set screw banana plugs. PS, if you feel the cable is hanging too much weight off the back of the speaker for the spades to handle, you certainly don't want the straight banana plugs sticking out with all that torque!
I use audioquests cheaper rca cables and some QED basic cables and they sound great. Bare in mind that my system only cost me around 1300 pounds. I wouldn't recommend going super cheap on cables.
Great looking quality cables there Martin. In fact a set of Audio Quest speaker cables would set you back more than £200. I am sure we have have all spent time building up a quality audio system,, so it seems logical that we invest in interconnects that are safe, hardwearing and fit well, lasting the test of time. I have learnt to avoid cheaper no name brands, that gave no guarantee of quality or longevity.
Try silver speaker cable, you will definitely hear the difference in the HF detail. I just fitted QED Silver Anniversary XT......(had monster audio OFC), I was surprised at the extra HF detail silver gives you! Would be good for your Lintons
Those cables look nice and not too ridiculous a price tag. We have the same speakers! I got some nice 2.5mm² cable branded Kabeldirekt and some Deltron *solder* 4mm plugs costing about £50 total. The plugs weren't that easy to find with most having grub screws to connect the cable. All that's needed is low resistance, and however fancy they look a tiny screw making the connection isn't good.
OoooOoo dunno if it was my comment that spurred ya toward this, perhaps you’ve been hearing about these around, wouldn’t be surprised…Oh man you went after the Thiccy ones too 🎉 🎉 she like that. Kinda agree with the car analogy or keeping prices in line *thumbsup* Wether ya could hear the diff yourself or not, the aesthetics are on point, now you’ve got least 2 pair of nice cable.😮😊 It couldn’t just be me hearing the difference, Idve said A sounds better over my listening. Been enjoying your channel since I found it as well your Bros with the zoom in E-bikes, I’ve got to sub after such entertaining videos and this one, a banger. *Subscribed* Off to watch your most recent vid…
@@UTILITARIANTVUK Well deserved with my sub as well more, as mentioned among other things, been loving your humor and editing. Since Id been watching/ catching up from vids before I *subscribed the channel; pretty sure one of the vids you'd mentioned your bros channel and there was a link in the description so went right over. From that started watchin his vids lil by lil, particularly on the Ebikes which seem to have gotten pretty popular the past few years. Never had one myself though seems theyre pretty enjoyable and alright. *edited at asterisk
Funny you couldn't hear the difference, the recording picked up a bass difference, lower octave or 2, the mids and treble I heard no discernable difference. But all this said run them in for 50+ hours run in then give them another trial. I've often had cables in place for a couple of weeks before I suddenly hear the difference. Great content as always m8
He designated one cable to be cable A and one cable B, and then didn't tell us which was which. Very careless. Otherwise I liked the video..There can be big differences in the sound with certain cables. Generally, lower guage means more bass and warmth and a bigger sound. Amazon Basic cable with copper over aluminum was mentioned. Not a bad cable. JPS Labs, one of the better cables for decades uses or has used aluminum.
Well shit. I just bought these cuz of you. I have been using 20’ 14 gauge monoprice. Not sure these in 8’ will sound better, but I just want those fat snakes on the back of my towers. Might get some cable risers also just to piss my son off. He hates the snake oil even more than I do. 😆
You'll have a job hiding those buggers under the carpet! I'm not convinced spending a fortune on speaker cable makes any difference at all especially with my tinnitus! And another thing, open up a speaker & look at the wires connecting crossovers to the drivers it's basically jumped up bell wire!
isn,t it actually quite simple: when YOU hear a difference (for the better,of course) by all means spent you money on expensive speakercables. This sounds quite logical when you buy new equipment,why not then when you buy new cables?
The problem comes from relying on hearing alone... even small head movements while listening can change the sound drastically and upset your judgement of a thing's sonic qualities. Listening plus baseline measurements helps eliminate that problem quite nicely.
Surely you have contradicted your theory about buying expensive kit and using cheap cables as you have shown us those £125 oven ready leads only to terminate in cheap Amazon banana plugs ! IMO non technical opinion this has compromised this ‘ high quality’ sound signal that was supposed to have come from the expensive ready made cables ! Ok maybe I have misunderstood?
For that price i'll DIY: 0.9999 silver core cables from jewlery store. and sleeves? fiberglass fireproof and air loose .. xlr and speaker cable with it and never had any cable remotely compete with it.
big difference with cables ... 12 gauge ofc vs ps audio xtreme statement .... much more authoritative bass with the ps audio ... cheap cables restrict the music from coming through, good cables restrict a lot lot less
Cables matter (RCA & Speaker) & what matters as well is keeping the connectors clean with products such as deoxit... If you don't believe it, apply the following experiment. Only clean the left channel cable plugs and connectors of your cd player into your amp with deoxit,... clean the left channel loudspeaker plugs / banana's (or strip insulation) ... play a test cd containing a mono pink noise signal. What you will notice is that the character of your pink noise channel will sound unbalanced. You will definitely want to clean up the right channel as well and listen again. Effect will be stronger if you do not have gold plated connectors. Of course you will ony notice this when you have setup your speakers decently. (free in room, balanced)... You can apply the same experiment with cables... one channel with decent cables, the other with the standard stuff... run a mono pink noise signal and listen to it. It is no snake oil, but of course it is also not needed to throw too much money at it.
Easy test. B sounds better, more clear. A has more bass but it muddies the sound. BTW, I use Kimber 8PR with my modified KEF Q100 coaxial (PC, usually near-field). I bought it about 10 years ago. The connectors I put in later are from Kácsa (FurUtech manufacturer). KáCsa BP-6201BR - BFA banana plug
@@r423sdex That is FALSE. Just because many repeat it does not mean it is true. If you do not listen to the differences in this demo 4K video / AAC 192 kbps), it means that your audio system has a bottleneck, usually the power supply is the main one. Furthermore, many do not have the OS optimized to play multimedia, let alone YT videos. The OS must be tweaked to minimize the jitter created by the CPU (ALU -- registers).
Up front ... if you have it to waste, you are perfectly free to waste your money any way you like. The problems start when new cables become more important than paying bills or feeding your family. First ... CCA (copper clad aluminium) cable is a flaming disaster, one of those things we all wish we could dis-invent. Aluminum is far more brittle than copper and can crack when bent repeatedly or too sharply, leaving only the copper layer to actually conduct electricity. When the core aluminum does crack a lot of heat is generated by arcing and more than one house went up in flames before they stopped using CCA as mains wiring. It is also neigh on impossible to solder. Aluminium melts at a lower temperature than copper. When liquid it oxidizes almost immediately and actively rejects solder. CCA is also reactive. When you tighten a set-screw against it and cut through the copper layer, you need a special grease to prevent the connection from electrolytic oxidization and premature failure due to current passing through it. It's just the worst idea ever and a total waste of money. The right stuff is stranded copper. It doesn't need to be OFC to do a good job, but it doesn't hurt if it is. It also shares none of the problems with CCA. Copper takes solder easily, is generally flexible and does not react against brass or other metals used in connectors. So, what is the right size? We all know that once we have a chain that can tow a car, using a bigger chain does not make it any easier to tow. The same applies with wire and electricity. Once we have a wire that is able to handle speaker current, using bigger wire brings no advantage, it just costs more. There are two facts that matter here... A 100 watt amplifier driving into 4 ohms will produce peak currents of up to 7 amps. To properly control a speaker the wire needs to measure 1/10th the speaker's impedance (i.e. a Damping Factor of 10) So... to tow that speaker successfully we need wire that can handle at least 7 amps with a resistance of less than 0.4 ohms. Looking at a Wire Gauge chart we spot 16 ga copper wire which has an 18 amp rating and produces less than 0.013 ohms per metre. So a 10 metre speaker cable (which is actually 20 metres of wire) will have a resistance of 0.26 ohms, which is more than adequate, 18 ga wire is rated for 16 amps and has a running resistance of .025 ohms per metre, Thus a 10 meter cable will come in at 0.5 ohms. This is not adequate. Following our analogy 16ga wire is what we need for runs of 10 metres (30 feet) or less. Will you hear a difference between 18 and 16 ga... maybe. Will you hear a difference between 16ga and 14ga (or fatter)... nope. Save yourself some money, visit the hardware department and get 16ga copper lamp cord for about $0.75 per metre.
And again a different camera position. Just move the microphone 1 centimeter and the sound will seem different - it is more sensitive than the human ear.
Just Cause someone names their channel audioholics doesn't necessarily mean one automatically becomes audiophile. Sometimes, it's better to tell the listeners what they need to hear rather than what they 'want' to hear. Not unless, of course, one truly believes cables don't make a difference. Personally, I would rather take advice from an avid music listener than someone who's learned their trade from sitting in front of a monitor (no offence, Genie)
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I make my own 10awg ofc always been happy with them, however last year or so I have also used WBC Mogami cables, cannot speak highly enough about them .
Love the videos and the humour. Keep up the good work. 😊
Alpha labs tried a different approach to measuring speaker cable and instead of measuring the wire individually they connected it to the speaker and measured it at the terminal and it shown some interesting differences.
I really appreciate the work those guys do over there. They turned my attention to my network, and the issues inherent with noise. I could not believe the difference when I simply switched out my network switch to an inexpensive Netgear unit. I believe the GS108Ev3, around $50 at the time I purchased. I have recommended to friends, the few that tried this switch were honestly shocked at the improvement. Put a linear power supply on the switch and it gets even better.
For those interested, look up the Alpha Audio "Network Switch Shootout".
Great A and B testing i felt i could hear a difference. A had better upper andmid range and sounded sweeter than B. B had overblown bass and lost the lovely sweet upper and mid range. Just my 2 cents.
I recently visited the Bristol hifi show 23 feb and most demo rooms i went into, all the speakers seemed to be connected to the equipment with this type of large diameter wire.
QED is my go-to (RCA, XLR, and speaker cables) based on strict sound quality tests I did in a home studio recording environment. I tested approx 10 different brands and the QED had the best (analog) sound quality (for my ears). I'm sure you can pay a lot more and perhaps achieve a bit more but for most people, these cables from the UK are my go-to based on my own testing and research. They also are highly regarded and award winning.
They are great looking cables. That's the reason I bought a big power cable is because it looks cool in my setup.
Hey, That's part of the reason why I buy a lot of my cables... they just look kool!!
The interconnects matter, but the speaker wire and power cables do not so much. As long as it can support the power you are sending over it, OFC is all we "need."
However, I have found that interconnects are more sensitive to picking up noise next to other cables and wires. Also, capacitance can play a minor role in a high-resolution system as it could increase the signal time and slightly smear the sound.
Either way, I am glad to have found the World's Best Cables brand and will only run their products moving forward. They hit the sweet spot for quality, performance, and price.
WBC uses Audiocrast wire for these. I bought the 7awg. They were pretty good.
I'm sipping coffee and watching a great video on a saturday morning, especially since it's raining quite hard here in Slovenia and there's nothing to do. But let's get to the point, with acoustic panels you could hear the difference 😉, joke aside, great comparison with Porsche, you hit the point. With hi-fi equipment, aesthetics are also important.
Hope the rain has stopped! ☔
Cables are probably the most polarizing piece of equipment in hi-fi (no pun intended). I understand the science showing no perceptual difference. However I do like the quality of higher-end cables. Nice tight connections and they feel and look good, which is part of my enjoyment with equipment. That price is not outrageous compared to other cables depending on your budget. I’ve purchased budget cables from Amazon, better cables from Blue Jeans and SVS and the best from Audioquest, which I got on a really good deal. I Didn’t like the connections with the Amazon and Blue Jeans. I Liked the SVS and the Audioquest the best. No difference in sound IMO. I Will check these out for my next speaker setup. Thanks for the video. Peace, love and music.
All you needed to do was ask me. I've got cupboards full of the stuff. Be careful buying cable. Sometimes they list it as copper and its copper clad. From my electrinics scientific background I was really surprised saying that. I thought aluminum was not a conducter but the cables surprised me. In the 80s i got some expensive solid core cable. They were thin gauge. Not very good. I just use a think its 10 guage ofc cable cable direct amazon. Seems good to me. With cables, copper cables the thickness can effect capacitance and resistance. A bloke i know paid for cables £300 a meter. Says engineers use it. Couldn't tell any difference 😂😂😂. Great video. You reminded me of my old dad 😢. Any more from you and you'll see the back of my hand. He never did though. ❤
I could tell the difference, Happy my ears are still good at 50+
These are the cables i have being using for a month now on my new modest system after getting back into the hobby. I heard an improvement right out of the gate, especially with the low end, coming from standard 12awg. They are great cables as far as my ear can tell. Being honest i`m not spending more then $250 on speaker cables for my $2,700 tower speakers, it just would not be worth it in my mind even if i had extra cash.
Purchased the $40 Micca cable from Amazon, I suggest you listen to these! Better than my $300 cables! Midrange clarity and the detail from these cables is outstanding! Bass extension not the best but for $40!! The banana plugs they come with are awful! I suggest ordering a decent pair of locking bananas like I did. Amazing for the price!
I use the Worlds Best Cables Mogami Coaxial speaker wires, and I swear it made a difference in the sound vs my home made 10ga OFC. The soundstage opened up, the bass improvement was very noticeable, just an across the board improvement. Fantastic cables, and did not break the bank.
The A/B, I'm on my laptop, and I heard no difference in SQ.
Ηello.Which Mogami type?
I have Lintons and I use good quality cables - I think they are QED and 9 AWG - but I changed out the speak end banana plug to a 90 degree which I find put less "load" on the terminal and it also allowed the cable to sit nicely snug behind the speaker ... I do agree its hard to really hear any real difference compared to my older speaker wiring set-up..
Now, I’m calm. Great vid as always.
If I’m really honest I couldn’t hear the difference. However they looked a lovely cable, they are well priced and I won’t hesitate to buy them over bell wire etc. I have bought a pair of two meter cables that cost me £140 and I felt there was a slight difference in the base for the better, and was and still am well pleased with my purchase. At that kind of price I think it’s well worth the experiment. Best wishes, love the videos.
Gene has the measurements! He also says leave the impedance switch alone. But, in my opinion, as long as you're happy with your purchase, that's what matters!
Spot on mate 👍👍
12AWG - wider stage
7AWG - more expressive mids
I don’t know which is better, it probably depends on the genre of music and the stereo effect on a particular album.
Going from 12 AWG to 7 AWG wire cannot effect stereo imaging or be used as a kind of tone control that targets a specific frequency range.
Just moved onto Chord Clearway X for my PC to amp. The 3.5mm jack to twin RCA. I run a Creative Audigy FX V2 soundcard in the PC which a a fine sound card. The Chord made a huge difference over a standard cable in regards to detail and clarity. I also changed my speaker cable around the same time. I was running a set of QED XT 25 cables for the last couple of years, they served me very well and after burning in sounded a step up in detail over the 79 strand from QED. I recently moved to the Audioquest Rocket 11 and noticed a difference. The R11 allowed a more balanced sound over the XT25 which in turn makes the Rocket 11 a great choice of cable for the Marantz PM6007.
This weekend I replaced my LCR mis-matched 16 and 14 (?) AWG speaker wire one at a time with a set of 12 AWG Mediabridge Ultra series speaker cables from Amazon Prime (2x12' and 1x6') for under $65 including tax. I personally noticed a difference, walking from one speaker to the other - highs not as shrilly and lower base. I had the 2-channel mode in my AVR set to auto subwoofer, tried a bunch of different kinds of music, and my subs never came on (I put them back into always on, though...just enough of a difference to make me fill in the edges). If nothing else I have matching nice-looking cables for my front 3 speakers. My heights and surrounds don't need the fancy stuff!. I have a combo of Klipsch (LCR, 4 heights and sub) and Polk (4 surrounds and sub).
I swapped out a pair of Transparent Wave 200's for a pair of WBC Ultra 7aug.s and they are excellent.
Nice looking cables, seems like they'd also come in handy for the occasional kidnapping : )
Multiple uses!
I would love to see how the Micca 14awg cables for $40 compare to these. The Micca’s outperform many more expensive and some even thicker cables.
Years ago I tried some fancy cables a friend loaned me (AudioQuest I think) and I couldn't tell any difference between those and my home-made 10 AWG cables on my $1000 system. I just kept what I have been using for years. Could it make a difference on an integrated amp better than my Marantz PM5005? Probably but who knows.
I could hear some difference like a 2% nothing crazy I was able to identify the 7 awg cables as sounding better the other ones were a tad more constricted sounding but again that’s me nit picking is it worth the cost for the sound upgrade no but for aesthetics yes
I'm actually glad you heard no difference. The trims on your hypothetical Porsche are visible and may be preferable for cosmetic reasons. Hopefully, your speaker cables are hidden - so why pay more even in an 'expensive' system if no audible difference is discernable? Most people know that the biggest profits in audio sales are made on cables.
To me, B was a bit fuller in the bass and maybe a tad clearer in the piano. Was that the cheap one? Maybe I missed that bit. But why not just buy the cheaper cable and tweak EQ to achieve a similar difference if there is one? I'm listening through around £2,500 worth of DAC, amp and speakers which for some people is cheap but for most of the UK population is stupidly expensive for something to play music on. I use pretty basic cable from Amazon. probably similar to your cheap one. EQ is sometimes the least expensive and most effective 'upgrade'. Make the sound you hear suit your preferences!
I very much agree on that. EQ/PEQ and/or room acoustics play much more a factor than any cable (although some purists may go spastic over that). 😅
I would need 4metres per speaker Marty I would need to sell some of my organs to afford those I’m also easy to buy for at Christmas birthdays and Father’s Day strong Belgian beer or CDS
Always used and found QED 79 strand good enough for me. I use to mess with different cables but really did struggle to hear any noticeable difference. Even tried 2 core electrical cable once after reading about how good it was, and did find that to be quite good
Honestly to my ears, I couldn't hear any discernible difference between the 7 AWG and the 12 AWG cables (or only extremely subtle differences at best, but sometimes I preferred the 7 AWG sound while other moments I preferred the 12 AWG sound) and I did my best to close my eyes or even look away for a few seconds to avoid visual bias popping into my brain where I might only imagine an improvement in sound purely when seeing 7 AWG was indicated in your video.
Having said that though, those Worlds Best Cables are absolute beauties, are clearly made with genuine craftsmanship and style, and the price (even when converted to Canadian dollars versus British pounds) was actually reasonable (Not cheap, but very reasonable for audiophile quality cables), particularly when there are far more expensive cables out there that at some point would offer little to no discernible audio difference either (or only tiny subtle incremental differences), so why break the bank to pay more?
To sum up, those speaker cables are winners for sure, are eye candy to any media room or stereo equipment setup, and they offer genuine value too. What's not to like?
All the best and thank you, Utilitarian TV, for another fun, informative, and in-depth video. :)
Not going to lie, those cables look fantastic but I’m not sure I could tell much difference in the sound test. They are really reasonably priced for what you are getting compared to some other manufacturers too. I think I’ll stick with my QED XTs though as they sound good enough to my ears and I need 3m length to have a neat cable run
Why would you lie? 🤷♂
It all comes down to resistance. Thicker cables of the same material have lower resistance than thinner ones. Copper is the best bang for buck in terms of conductivity/$ so just get a decent gauge high purity copper cable and that's all you need. The longer the cable run, the thicker it needs to be for a given voltage drop. Basic Ohms Law. All these "high end" speaker cable suppliers pray on people who don't have a basic grasp of electrical principals (because most people don't). Buy these cable because they look good if you like but don't be fooled into thinking they make any difference to the sound.
When I purchased the WBC Mogami Coaxial Speaker Wires, the sound was better, everything opened up and the bass improved over my home made 10AWG OFC and Amazon banana plugs. I asked why? over at Amir's site. I thought it was an honest question, I know what my ears heard, and the fact that my speakers were producing more bass, so much so that I found myself adjusting my two SVS SB3000 subwoofers to get the sound even again.
You talk about starting a shit storm... The membership called me everything but a white man, these guys went totally off the rails, like rabid dogs... It was embarrassing even to myself to see grown men act like this, like a gaggle of hens.
Any how... Being Mogami, they publish the full data sheets on each cable they produce. And finally one of the more reasonable members over there actually looked at the Data, imagine that. His take, it was the low impedance of the coaxial wire, which he admitted could possibly do what I believe I experienced.
Me, I just know what I heard, as I had never even heard of using mini coaxial wire for speaker cable. I now have four pairs in action throughout the house.
@@michaelwright1602 what length of cable are you using?
@@Chris-hy6jy 12 feet
Same here with chord odyssey silver plated way better than pure copper cable from Amazon. @michaelwright1602
When listening, I prefer not to put up with the faint background signal noise (noise floor)
One should try pressing pause or mute, and from the MLP, if one is unable to differentiate whether the systems off or on that's telling you, your cables are quality (or more like your cables got quality shielding)
The more cables I shield the quieter my room becomes. In fact, the last group of cables I shielded were my HDMI's, and lo behold the room became slightly quieter yet again.
After auditioning three separate AVR's, the same ambient sound of the room was still present! It was only on the third occasion when I finally purchased shielded cables that the noise floor in my small room finally came down to satisfactory levels. Cables often act as antennas for attracting RF, and the longer the cable, the better the antenna. Probably explains why when I used to disconnect my heights and surrounds within 10 minutes, the faint background signal noise (RF/EMI) within my small room used to disappear/dissipate.
Even though I'm now using a high-performance arcam avr20 with matching power amps, at the time, as well as my original budget Sony SDR dn1080 AVR, most of my testing came from when I was auditioning mid-price Japanese AVR's
Never mind the expense. Do you really think I would go through all this work not once, not twice, but on the third time to get it right...
If interested, here's a 3-minute video of what I had to go through. Please bear in mind that I'm no videographer 😂
ruclips.net/video/wwU0d3NfRQw/видео.htmlsi=8RcX4g8b07jjmYEr
Solid core and multi strand core has a different outcome. I stripped down an outdoor armoured power cable to take the copper out and tried it as a speaker cable as an experiment, it sounded lush
Couldn't tell any difference personally. Think this might be just showing how good 12AWG pure copper (OFC) is for cables generally.
love your Channel! Very refreshing!
Thanks!
Always a good thing to start audible cable differences on a nice saturday 😂
Personally, I didn't like the looks of my 'cheap' cables and DIY them into 'high-end' looking ones.
I thought at first, cable A sounded a little muddy and cable B sounded clearer. But then as the song progressed, I started feeling like cable A sounded more natural and cable B maybe had a little bit of a V curve, or something like that going on. Oddly enough, after the reveal, I was having a harder time telling them apart, when I probably should have been more biased... Which cable was A and B in the first half? Anyway, thanks for the review! I just ordered a pair of the 7awg with spades, so we'll see if I like them better than my DIY cables. My DIY I'm using now, are a 4 strand braid (two wires per connector, per cable) of Parts Express OFC 16awg wire. With I think, the Parts Express house brand, dual set screw banana plugs.
PS, if you feel the cable is hanging too much weight off the back of the speaker for the spades to handle, you certainly don't want the straight banana plugs sticking out with all that torque!
I use audioquests cheaper rca cables and some QED basic cables and they sound great. Bare in mind that my system only cost me around 1300 pounds. I wouldn't recommend going super cheap on cables.
Cables don't have a sound. Go mad and get the Amazon basic cables, way over spec.
Great looking quality cables there Martin. In fact a set of Audio Quest speaker cables would set you back more than £200. I am sure we have have all spent time building up a quality audio system,, so it seems logical that we invest in interconnects that are safe, hardwearing and fit well, lasting the test of time. I have learnt to avoid cheaper no name brands, that gave no guarantee of quality or longevity.
Try silver speaker cable, you will definitely hear the difference in the HF detail. I just fitted QED Silver Anniversary XT......(had monster audio OFC), I was surprised at the extra HF detail silver gives you! Would be good for your Lintons
Those cables look nice and not too ridiculous a price tag. We have the same speakers! I got some nice 2.5mm² cable branded Kabeldirekt and some Deltron *solder* 4mm plugs costing about £50 total. The plugs weren't that easy to find with most having grub screws to connect the cable. All that's needed is low resistance, and however fancy they look a tiny screw making the connection isn't good.
you realize the screw compresses the wire around it so it contacts and fits securely i hope.
Cable socks! I'm impressed 😎👍
"Sound Test! ☝️
Nice work
OoooOoo dunno if it was my comment that spurred ya toward this, perhaps you’ve been hearing about these around, wouldn’t be surprised…Oh man you went after the Thiccy ones too 🎉 🎉 she like that.
Kinda agree with the car analogy or keeping prices in line *thumbsup*
Wether ya could hear the diff yourself or not, the aesthetics are on point, now you’ve got least 2 pair of nice cable.😮😊
It couldn’t just be me hearing the difference, Idve said A sounds better over my listening.
Been enjoying your channel since I found it as well your Bros with the zoom in E-bikes, I’ve got to sub after such entertaining videos and this one, a banger. *Subscribed*
Off to watch your most recent vid…
Thanks for the sub. How'd you know he was my brother?
@@UTILITARIANTVUK Well deserved with my sub as well more, as mentioned among other things, been loving your humor and editing.
Since Id been watching/ catching up from vids before I *subscribed the channel; pretty sure one of the vids you'd mentioned your bros channel and there was a link in the description so went right over.
From that started watchin his vids lil by lil, particularly on the Ebikes which seem to have gotten pretty popular the past few years. Never had one myself though seems theyre pretty enjoyable and alright.
*edited at asterisk
A had clearer cymbals , HF, I’m pretty sure. Great video as always, love those sound tests!
Love the back hander !
Funny you couldn't hear the difference, the recording picked up a bass difference, lower octave or 2, the mids and treble I heard no discernable difference. But all this said run them in for 50+ hours run in then give them another trial. I've often had cables in place for a couple of weeks before I suddenly hear the difference. Great content as always m8
I'm glad you amended the typo! 😄
@@UTILITARIANTVUK haha me too!
Are you sure that isn't the cable from the national grid?? X
🤣
I like the 12 gauge. It has better highs. It sounds more lively. Which brand model is it?
It's Amazons own cable amzn.to/4cfgUUD
He designated one cable to be cable A and one cable B, and then didn't tell us which was which. Very careless. Otherwise I liked the video..There can be big differences in the sound with certain cables. Generally, lower guage means more bass and warmth and a bigger sound. Amazon Basic cable with copper over aluminum was mentioned. Not a bad cable. JPS Labs, one of the better cables for decades uses or has used aluminum.
Well shit. I just bought these cuz of you. I have been using 20’ 14 gauge monoprice. Not sure these in 8’ will sound better, but I just want those fat snakes on the back of my towers. Might get some cable risers also just to piss my son off. He hates the snake oil even more than I do. 😆
Make sure the the cable risers are made of stone taken from the mountains of Gondor and forged by the Dwarf stone masons!
@@UTILITARIANTVUK I like how you think. 😂
You'll have a job hiding those buggers under the carpet!
I'm not convinced spending a fortune on speaker cable makes any difference at all especially with my tinnitus!
And another thing, open up a speaker & look at the wires connecting crossovers to the drivers it's basically jumped up bell wire!
My experience is when I use below 14 awg cable I start to lose higher frequencies.
Would say I preffered the 7 gauge, but it's not by much.
Gotta admit those things are Nice looking.
WBC make great cables at good prices!👌
@UTILITARIANTVUK can I ask what cabinet you have there?
Sure, it's a Kallax from IKEA. www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/kallax-tv-bench-with-underframe-black-brown-s39552175/#content
Is not the thickness of the cable due to the heavy duty insulation and armour if they have that ?
Armour? Do you have medieval cable?
Where are GIK Acoustics Impression Pro Series Acoustic Panel Diffusor Absorber??? Did your wife throw them away???
This was filmed before I put them up 😄
7 AWG is obviously better. Well done!!
I have tried all sorts of cables and speaker wire and found zero difference over at least 40 years.
isn,t it actually quite simple: when YOU hear a difference (for the better,of course) by all means spent you money on expensive speakercables. This sounds quite logical when you buy new equipment,why not then when you buy new cables?
The problem comes from relying on hearing alone... even small head movements while listening can change the sound drastically and upset your judgement of a thing's sonic qualities. Listening plus baseline measurements helps eliminate that problem quite nicely.
Surely you have contradicted your theory about buying expensive kit and using cheap cables as you have shown us those £125 oven ready leads only to terminate in cheap Amazon banana plugs ! IMO non technical opinion this has compromised this ‘ high quality’ sound signal that was supposed to have come from the expensive ready made cables !
Ok maybe I have misunderstood?
For that price i'll DIY: 0.9999 silver core cables from jewlery store. and sleeves? fiberglass fireproof and air loose .. xlr and speaker cable with it and never had any cable remotely compete with it.
big difference with cables ... 12 gauge ofc vs ps audio xtreme statement .... much more authoritative bass with the ps audio ... cheap cables restrict the music from coming through, good cables restrict a lot lot less
I use Amazon basics, way over spec. I have had Kimber select and they are the same as the Amazon cables. Go with the science !
Shocking price when anyone can make up your own if you buy cable, plugs , best shrink separately for a fraction of the price
Cables matter (RCA & Speaker) & what matters as well is keeping the connectors clean with products such as deoxit... If you don't believe it, apply the following experiment. Only clean the left channel cable plugs and connectors of your cd player into your amp with deoxit,... clean the left channel loudspeaker plugs / banana's (or strip insulation) ... play a test cd containing a mono pink noise signal. What you will notice is that the character of your pink noise channel will sound unbalanced. You will definitely want to clean up the right channel as well and listen again. Effect will be stronger if you do not have gold plated connectors. Of course you will ony notice this when you have setup your speakers decently. (free in room, balanced)... You can apply the same experiment with cables... one channel with decent cables, the other with the standard stuff... run a mono pink noise signal and listen to it. It is no snake oil, but of course it is also not needed to throw too much money at it.
Easy test. B sounds better, more clear. A has more bass but it muddies the sound.
BTW, I use Kimber 8PR with my modified KEF Q100 coaxial (PC, usually near-field). I bought it about 10 years ago. The connectors I put in later are from Kácsa (FurUtech manufacturer). KáCsa BP-6201BR - BFA banana plug
Almost a tie with a slight edge to the 12awg I think, really hard to tell the difference. Nice test .the big money should be invested elsewhere. 👍💯👍
No difference, because science will tell you it's not possible.
@@r423sdex That is FALSE. Just because many repeat it does not mean it is true. If you do not listen to the differences in this demo 4K video / AAC 192 kbps), it means that your audio system has a bottleneck, usually the power supply is the main one. Furthermore, many do not have the OS optimized to play multimedia, let alone YT videos. The OS must be tweaked to minimize the jitter created by the CPU (ALU -- registers).
lol
Definitely a tone difference and space between the piano notes 😅
Up front ... if you have it to waste, you are perfectly free to waste your money any way you like. The problems start when new cables become more important than paying bills or feeding your family.
First ... CCA (copper clad aluminium) cable is a flaming disaster, one of those things we all wish we could dis-invent.
Aluminum is far more brittle than copper and can crack when bent repeatedly or too sharply, leaving only the copper layer to actually conduct electricity. When the core aluminum does crack a lot of heat is generated by arcing and more than one house went up in flames before they stopped using CCA as mains wiring.
It is also neigh on impossible to solder. Aluminium melts at a lower temperature than copper. When liquid it oxidizes almost immediately and actively rejects solder.
CCA is also reactive. When you tighten a set-screw against it and cut through the copper layer, you need a special grease to prevent the connection from electrolytic oxidization and premature failure due to current passing through it.
It's just the worst idea ever and a total waste of money.
The right stuff is stranded copper. It doesn't need to be OFC to do a good job, but it doesn't hurt if it is. It also shares none of the problems with CCA. Copper takes solder easily, is generally flexible and does not react against brass or other metals used in connectors.
So, what is the right size?
We all know that once we have a chain that can tow a car, using a bigger chain does not make it any easier to tow. The same applies with wire and electricity. Once we have a wire that is able to handle speaker current, using bigger wire brings no advantage, it just costs more.
There are two facts that matter here...
A 100 watt amplifier driving into 4 ohms will produce peak currents of up to 7 amps.
To properly control a speaker the wire needs to measure 1/10th the speaker's impedance (i.e. a Damping Factor of 10)
So... to tow that speaker successfully we need wire that can handle at least 7 amps with a resistance of less than 0.4 ohms.
Looking at a Wire Gauge chart we spot 16 ga copper wire which has an 18 amp rating and produces less than 0.013 ohms per metre. So a 10 metre speaker cable (which is actually 20 metres of wire) will have a resistance of 0.26 ohms, which is more than adequate,
18 ga wire is rated for 16 amps and has a running resistance of .025 ohms per metre, Thus a 10 meter cable will come in at 0.5 ohms. This is not adequate.
Following our analogy 16ga wire is what we need for runs of 10 metres (30 feet) or less.
Will you hear a difference between 18 and 16 ga... maybe.
Will you hear a difference between 16ga and 14ga (or fatter)... nope.
Save yourself some money, visit the hardware department and get 16ga copper lamp cord for about $0.75 per metre.
That just isn’t true. The thicker cable offers less resistance thus brings better sound. 14awg should be the minimum used in speaker cable
@@bigmacfullerton7870
Don't just blurt stuff out ... Do the math ... you'll never hear the difference.
A is the 7 awg cable (not cheating)
👍
@@UTILITARIANTVUK there was a little more bass
I listen on my Lenovo tablet and hear no difference. They look nice, no snake oil, but snakes.
No difference but I might buy these because they look deadly
Hundred dollars for cables!! jojojo, you're spending your money in snake's oil
ruclips.net/user/shortsyXLuLBvhGN4?feature=share
@@UTILITARIANTVUK jejej
Prefer less or even better no silly comedy routine
Lets all do what Andrew wants because he prefers it. 😄
And again a different camera position. Just move the microphone 1 centimeter and the sound will seem different - it is more sensitive than the human ear.
The camera and the microphone are not attached. I used a separate mic, which stays in the exact same position. 👍
dude.. There was a difference in the low frequency!!.. obvious!
What a waste of money people spend on cables. I wouldn't spend that amount of money for such a short distance of cable.
Hey Kiddo, nice intro punch. But never tell your wife that! Nasty.
Just Cause someone names their channel audioholics doesn't necessarily mean one automatically becomes audiophile.
Sometimes, it's better to tell the listeners what they need to hear rather than what they 'want' to hear. Not unless, of course, one truly believes cables don't make a difference.
Personally, I would rather take advice from an avid music listener than someone who's learned their trade from sitting in front of a monitor (no offence, Genie)
Sorry couldn't tell the difference 🤔👍
Yea these are made in china.... You can bet the copper is not what there are saying.
I believe they were made in Taiwan?
@@UTILITARIANTVUK might be worth while for the price. Ill check them out.
Complete bs with audiophiles cables