Surround Sound and HiFi Cable

ristac

ristac

ristac

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What do you all use. Years ago I picked up some used QED Silver XT and Anniversary cable with airlocks attached on each end at a very reasonable price from a HiFi forum market place.

We are soon moving, I am unable to take the cable with me, partly because we had a new French door fitted so part of the cable was buried under it out of sight, partly because two further runs of it are behind other immovable positions and skirting

I will be using decent surround sound, Monitor Audio radius 90 speakers and a Pro-Ject turntable.
 
Honestly, for AV set up cables such as from Kabeldirect which can be purchased on rainforest are a reasonable solution. Make sure you buy a decent thickness for long runs. 2.5mm seems like a sweet spot between retaining sound quality and fitting between side skirts etc., if you want to hide the cables.

My only concern is that the QED silver XT is silver plated oxygen free copper cable. Silver makes the sound little more detailed and sometimes bright in wrong speaker/amps combo. In my personal view, the difference between copper and silver is audible but not night & day. Plus once you run room EQ I doubt if you will be able to notice it at all.
 
My main speakers (in front room) use 4mm DCSK, DCSK and Kabledirect are both German, so probably from same factory.

Don't skimp for the sake of £20, the cable your installing could be used for next 20, 30+ years.

Never owned silver speaker cable, but do own silver interconnects. It's true silver often brings out more detail / clarity.
 
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When I installed our surround system I used the Van Damme Blue and to my old ears it sounds great.

Blue Series Studio Grade Speaker Cable | Van-Damme

Van-Damme grade speaker cable is useful for the recording studio environment, recording studios, live and presentation markets.
www.van-damme.com www.van-damme.com
Our room is only small so used 2.5mm.
It was a few years ago now, not sure of current cost, it was quite reasonable in comparison with what you can pay.
 
dholdi said:
When I installed our surround system I used the Van Damme Blue and to my old ears it sounds great.

Blue Series Studio Grade Speaker Cable | Van-Damme

Van-Damme grade speaker cable is useful for the recording studio environment, recording studios, live and presentation markets.
www.van-damme.com www.van-damme.com
Our room is only small so used 2.5mm.
It was a few years ago now, not sure of current cost, it was quite reasonable in comparison with what you can pay.
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I forgot about Van Damme, their cables are very very good. Their studio cables are used by the likes of Abbey Road, often the Van Damme cables are better than 'Audiophile' cables costing many times more.
 
JasonM said:
My main speakers (in front room) use 4mm DCSK, DCSK and Kabledirect are both German, so probably from same factory.

Don't skimp for the sake of £20, the cable your installing could be used for next 20, 30+ years.

Never owned silver speaker cable, but do own silver interconnects. It's true silver often brings out more detail / clarity.
Click to expand...
Why would it sound different? If anything I'd have thought silver to be worse as imo it tarnishes more than copper.
 
theone8181 said:
Why would it sound different? If anything I'd have thought silver to be worse as imo it tarnishes more than copper.
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It doesn't - it conducts all audio frequencies in the same way as copper, any difference is placebo or audiophile nonsense

www.audiosciencereview.com

Does silver used in interconnects "sound" different than copper?

I searched ASR and didn't find the answer. If I missed something, add the link; thank you. Question: Is there something about a solid silver or a silver alloy that can change an interconnect cable's performance in the audible range? If so what, and are there any measurements available?
www.audiosciencereview.com www.audiosciencereview.com
 
Currently I'm using Cat6 (Non-CCA) cables for all speakers. A bit controversial I know, my neighbor questions how capable it is of handling the kind of currents the Linn speakers and Tag McLaren amplifiers give/receive, to be fair he probably is a good judge considering he built my Tag amps and the Linn Aktiv crossover. He uses Linn cables on his setup (Aktiv Linn Nakamichi).

I'm curious to know others opinions on this.
 
Alpha audio measured speaker cables and differences were shown on test equipment.

www.alpha-audio.net

Megatest speaker cables - real measurements, samples and blind test!

What a bizarrely intensive, educational and special speaker cable test this has been to do. The aim was to establish a link between measuring and listening.
www.alpha-audio.net www.alpha-audio.net

The things that effect cables are resistance, capacitance, dialectic and also the shielding if any on a speaker cable.

Silver is around 8% lower resistance than copper. Van Damme use silver coated copper for their interconnect cables, their cables are used professionally around the world. Silver cable is also used in aerospace, and ministry of defence uses silver cable for communication signals.
 
JasonM said:
Alpha audio measured speaker cables and differences were shown on test equipment.

www.alpha-audio.net

Megatest speaker cables - real measurements, samples and blind test!

What a bizarrely intensive, educational and special speaker cable test this has been to do. The aim was to establish a link between measuring and listening.
www.alpha-audio.net www.alpha-audio.net

The things that effect cables are resistance, capacitance, dialectic and also the shielding if any on a speaker cable.

Silver is around 8% lower resistance than copper. Van Damme use silver coated copper for their interconnect cables, their cables are used professionally around the world. Silver cable is also used in aerospace, and ministry of defence uses silver cable for communication signals.
Click to expand...
Aerospace use silver plated copper. It's more about the insulation than the actual cable.
Namely high fire resistance, chemical resistant, and low smoke, plus abrasion resistance.
It is 100% nothing to do with it sounding better.
 
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