pcking1624705747 Posted October 27, 2006 Posted October 27, 2006 Hi Guys, recently just upgraded my 20-39PCi's ISD driver (now sitting in dbchoong's sub) with the new NSD driver. This was the first time I got to see the "innards" of my cyclinder & I was rather disappointed to see that the original speaker cables attached to the driver are just a pair of thin power cords (black & red) of only 18AWG. :( I was wondering did anyone change the cables to something better & thicker like a 14 or 12 AWG speaker cables ? And does it improve on the SQ of the sub ? I remember a few years when I changed the cables of my car's sub to some cheap 12 AWG power cables, the bass quality already improved by quite a lot.
Jag Posted October 27, 2006 Posted October 27, 2006 Yeah, if you got the time, should upgrade. It might sound better to some, but at the very least, it will sound no diff.
pcking1624705747 Posted October 27, 2006 Author Posted October 27, 2006 Yeah, if you got the time, should upgrade. It might sound better to some, but at the very least, it will sound no diff. Hi Jag, have U changed yours ? Although in terms of specs/theory, a pair of 18 AWG wire is supposed to be able to deliver enough current to the sub driver, it's always good to have more "headroom". From my own experience, it seems that the quality of the sub driver's speaker cable is not as critical as the thickness of the cable. I have tried using thin (16 AWG) audio speaker cables vs thick (8 AWG) power cable (used for powering car audio amps from the car battery) as the sub speaker cable & the difference is great. As a sub tends to draw lots of power when it hits, so the key point here might be the efficiency in delivery of current rather than the quality of the signals. Another reason might be because low frequency signals are more torelant against "medicore" cables. All the above are purely based on my own experience & views. Test was done only on car audio sub but I guess it should apply for home sub as well. ;) Correct me if I'm wrong.
Jag Posted October 27, 2006 Posted October 27, 2006 You are absolutely right. The purity of the copper, how its braided, how colourful the insulator is not important (IMO) as compared to the fundamental thickness of the copper conductor. After all, when at full whack, we want as much power delivered directly to the driver; and a thick cable does precisely that. If a thin cable is used instead, the thin cable having higher resistance means power and energy is dissipated as heat in the thin cables; and not in the driver's voice coils. Thats exactly what we want to avoid. Simply said, thick cables are more efficient in delivering power and energy than thin cables. Simple physics.
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