Speaker cables (different send & return)

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karatestu
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#1 Speaker cables (different send & return)

Post by karatestu »

Hello,

I had a thought today about speaker cables. Is the quality of the send (positive) wiring more important than the return (negative) wiring? Or are they both equally important ?

Say you used a very high quality send cable and a much cheaper return cable (this assumes send and return are separate cables). What would be the audible effect of doing this ?

Many thanks, Stu.
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Paul Barker
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#2 Re: Speaker cables (different send & return)

Post by Paul Barker »

There is no send and return there is a waveform equally reliant on both cables’ quality.
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karatestu
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#3 Re: Speaker cables (different send & return)

Post by karatestu »

Paul Barker wrote: Wed Sep 25, 2019 5:02 pm There is no send and return there is a waveform equally reliant on both cables’ quality.
Thanks for the reply and putting that little notion to bed :D Coax speaker cables are obviously different though in the positive and negative (my Avondale blacklink is coax.

Cheers, Stu
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izzy wizzy
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#4 Re: Speaker cables (different send & return)

Post by izzy wizzy »

karatestu wrote: Wed Sep 25, 2019 5:17 pm Thanks for the reply and putting that little notion to bed :D Coax speaker cables are obviously different though in the positive and negative (my Avondale blacklink is coax.
Cheers, Stu
It's not really a positive and negative as the signal is AC. Cables are marked with different colours so to identify the correct phase i.e. make both channels the same.

So as you have coax, you could do a simple experiment, reverse both cables and see if there's a preference/difference.

Cheers,
Stephen
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ed
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#5 Re: Speaker cables (different send & return)

Post by ed »

I was curious....
so I had a look at Avondale blacklinks

are these what you have Stu? cos they don't look like coax from the photo..unless its coax for each phase and the inner and outer are tied together.

http://avondaleaudio.com/audiophile-cab ... y=15258427
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karatestu
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#6 Re: Speaker cables (different send & return)

Post by karatestu »

Sorry, my terminology has been bad. Send & return, positive and negative are just incorrect terms you pick up on the web and labelling on the back of amps.

Hi Ed. Yes those are the ones. I don't use them anymore (replaced by NVA LS6). Just looked back at the posts on PFM from over a decade ago and my memory has played tricks on me. It is very thin twin core with shielding. For some reason i thought the screen was the second core.

As you were, i think i have embarrassed myself enough already :oops:
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