entry level cables

[fredness]

If I believe _______ speaker cable face off, only measurements count to evaluate the performance of speaker cables. They seem to imply resistance, capacitance, and inductance are the significant values that indicate quality. Reading their articles there is no indication they played music through any of the cables tested.

Of course the system is only as good as the weakest link (connectors and jacks?). I am using a Sony SCD-C333ES cd player and a Pioneer VSX-1014TX receiver (110x7ch MOSFET). I have BESL 5MT and Energy Veritas 2.2 speakers. I want to upgrade my interconnects from Radio Shack/ Monster.

I am considering Cardas Crosslink, Belden 8214, ______Cable and I own Sound King 12awg. The Sound King has better specs than the Cardas Crosslink. Can anyone provide insight on these products? I read that the Cardas sound warm but I don't know if that means they rolloff highs.
I am also looking at Cardas or Vampire cable hardware.

For analog I was going for the 89259 (or Crosslink) and digital 1694A.
Thanks for your time,
Fred

[JonMarsh]

This would probably be best posted in the Audio Hideout section, not Mission Possible DIY.

I'm curious, in what regard does the Sound King 12 AWG have better specs than the Cardas Crosslink? The Cardas Crosslink has four conductors, and when configured to a normal single speaker pair, is net 10AWG, as each conductor is AWG12. Sound King is PVC zip cord, which I don't tend to recommend becuase of the chemical interaction and oxidation that occurs between the insulation and the bare copper strands over time. The Cardas Crosslink uses individually insulated mult-guaged strands, with a teflon insulator over each main conductor, with a nice cotton and teflon wrap over that, under the outer cable jacket. Because of the insulation, you have to use a high temp soldering iron, like a #7 or #8 tip in the standard Weller stations.

Now, the Crosslink IS Cardas's olded and least expensive wire, and doesn't have the sophisticated braid constructions to lower inductance which the Cross, Golden Cross, Nuetral Reference, and Golden Reference (my favorite- what's in my two channel system) use. For reference, the Golden Cross has a loop back inductance per foot of 0.031 uH on a net AWG 5.5 cable, whereas zip cord is about 0.17 uH/foot.

For this reason, in speaker projects which require long internal runs for the tweeter (Arvo, M8ta), I usually use Kimber 4TC, as it has similar braided construction, at a wire guage reasonable for the tweeter connection ( 2 X 13 AWG) (OK, I'm a little fanatical about speaker cable- at least I'm not using 8TC for internal speaker wiring- that's AWG11 equivalent).

I do use the Cardas Crosslink for internal speaker wiring for woofers, and for dual MTM connections from the crossover. You'll find the folks here have a variety of preference, but the Audio Hideout is were you want to be to discuss cable. And don't forget to check out Cat Cables, too.

~Jon

[Andrew Pratt]

please read the FAQ on cable questions

[fredness]

I could not get thecableforum webpage to open. I'll post this on audio hideout if that is ok. I'll put the posted specs there.
Thanks.