I decided last night to finesse the routing of my speaker cable last night (nac a5), as the left speaker run is nice and straight (just enough wire), BUT the right speaker is closer and requires an amount of coiling.
I've always been troubled how the soundstage pulls to the left too much, but put this down to room settings.
So i decided to route the coiled wire past the speaker, then back on its itself (a 'C' type shape), thus eliminating any coiling...
Fired up my system, WOW - the bass strangely hardened UP, very solid but quick, and the extra PRaT was nearly overwhelming, but i could still keep up, but now imaging was more solid, separation between singers, instruments was easier to discern.
Now left and right seem 'balanced',so i get attacked from all angles by stirring bass-lines and amazing dynamics AWESOME.
I remember a thread early or late on the old forum regarding this coiling-inductor type phenomenon, but never thought of this sort of improvement , anyone else made this mistake or making IT.
Posted on: 26 January 2001 by Martin M
Also make sure mains and signal cables cross (if you can't avoid it) at right angles.
For the real experimenters try suspending your speaker cables off the ground. Plastic cups with a hole cut through the 'cup' bit make good suspension towers. Suffice to say I don't do this due to residual house pride and the wife. It does make a difference though.
Posted on: 26 January 2001 by Naheed
I think i try wrapping my naca5 in bubble-wrap.
I've also been experimenting with sponge and polystyrene in between touching cables, or to act as a router/seperator...
Sad isn't it
Naheed
Posted on: 26 January 2001 by Naheed
I'm more in to whole wends, when i do (fri night through to Sun afternoon).
But there's time for tweaking.
Nigel
Posted on: 26 January 2001 by NigelP
Now then Naheed I don't think even I am going to get as far as bubble wrap around the speaker cable!
Posted on: 26 January 2001 by Naheed
My Nigel salutation applies to non-naimies.... (honestly)
Jonathan: The system to me is more even, in terms of whats going on Left and Right and especially in between.
Anyone for CK One ???
Naheed
Posted on: 27 January 2001 by Philip Pang
Fred,
I've had a similar experience with my SBLs, and on advice from my dealer, quickly saw to an obvious but often neglected aspect of speaker set-up : keep everything consistent around your speakers in terms of treatment (no bare wall on one side and curtained wall on the other, for eg), and also make certain that they are equidistant to the side walls, which makes a world of a difference... The SBLs in particular are very sensitive to their precise location, and only seem to work for me when their tweeters were 4 feet from each other, equally placed from the side walls. 4ft's rather close, but I got centralised and very full sounding vocals in that distance. I don't know what speakers you're using, but follow the rule of thumb for the set-up (don't forget the rest of the room - should be a mirror image of each side - paranoah yes, but such is life) and you should be able to get a centralised image between your speakers. If everything has been seen to and still you don't get what you're after, start looking into your amplifier, the connections and even your speakers (they could themselves be faulty, with one side sounding softer than the other).
Oh, and before I forget, don't fall rather foolishly into the trap of forgetting to make sure that the recordings being played have centralised vocals...(!); it could turn out to be a wild sonic goose chase for the impossible!
Hope this helps; good listening, the music's still groovin'.
Philip
naimniac for life
Posted on: 27 January 2001 by Rockingdoc
The best thing to wrap around your cables is as much air (or vacuum) as possible, all other dilectrics will degrade the sound
Malcolm
Posted on: 27 January 2001 by Chris Brandon
Dilectrics ;
Interesting point raised by Malcolm about Dilectrics .
Many Many years ago I read about some guy ago had stripped ALL Dilectric material from the speaker cable,in such a manor leaving the cable undamaged.
The resultant bare wires were then suspended from the ceiling by using very thin loose plastic fishing wire (...minimal contact).
Even the bends in the wire were kept to a minimum.
I remember thinking to myself that this guy needed to get out more....you can guess what's coming next can't you ?!
Anyway,the following day,then fully recovered from the previous nights outing.I found myself with a couple of hours to spare...and some excess speaker wire sat in a cupboard somewhere..Mmmmm..
I replicated the magazine scenario as close as possible,and as much as I hate to admit it. The overall sound DID benefit,even taking into account the fact that the kit at that point was of the Nad/Marantz/Tannoy ilk.
The above information can only now be revealed due to it occuring some twelve years ago,and hopefully the intervening years have imparted a maturing influence therefore alleviating the need for the men with the "close fitting white coats" (You know the ones,they tie at the back
Regards
Chris
