7 Hi-Fi Speaker Lies That Need To Die

Comments · 94

• RE

  @renaissanceman7145 · 1 month ago

  I&apos;ve been an &quot;audiophile&quot; (not the snob or big spender type) for 45+/- years &nbsp;and everything said in this video is spot on. <br><br>1st rule, Buy Quality. That doesn&apos;t mean outrageously expensive. Signal cables and speaker wire should have Oxygen Free Copper (OFC) at it&apos;s core however OFC is 99.9% oxygen free while non OFC is something like 99.4% oxygen free. So, as long as it&apos;s purely copper it wil be fine. <br><br>Stay away from Copper Clad Aluminum (CCA)! Especially in a vehicle for power wire. Aluminum will harden with heat and moving electrons along a wire generates friction which means heat. Over time, many heat cycles, aluminum WILL harden and become very brittle. It will happen quicker at tight bends and terminals. It is especially dangerous if it&apos;s run where it can be stepped on or have heavy objects placed on it. When CCA becomes brittle it&apos;s resistance increases meaning it will get hotter accelerating the hardening making it more brittle. Eventually it will crumble leaving gaps the electrons must jump, increasing resistance and heat. At this stage a fire is very likely. I learned this the hard way. Using CCA for power wire in a car audio system nearly cost me a car. 100% copper wire does not harden with heat. You can remove it from the car when you are ready to sell or trade it in and use it in your new vehicle. Repeat for as long as you live. <br><br>Welding cable is still the most cost effective choice when buying heavy guage copper cable. It can be more easily found in larger sizes than most car audio dealers sell, it&apos;s made to higher standards because safety is a big deal in welding and the insulation is as tough or tougher than the car audio stuff. The best car audio power cable may have more strands, making it more flexable. However, if you shop around you can find welding cable with very close to or equal strand count and an equally flexible jacket making it just as flexible as any car audio power cable.<br>Buy bigger than you need.<br><br>2nd rule, speakers matter most. Every link in the musical chain matters however speakers will make the biggest and most obvious diference.<br><br>3rd rule, sound treatment exists for a reason, it works. In a room it stops soundwavs from bouncing around canceling each other out, which decreases volume and fidelity. <br>Educate yourself on sound treatment for a room and, very important, speaker placement.<br><br>In a car sound deadening reduces energy loss that was going to vibrating metal that now goes to SPL. The system doesn&apos;t have to overcome rattles. Sound deadening also reduces road noise, one less thing the system must compete with to sound good and play loud. Good sound in a vehicle is more difficult than a room though not impossible. Speaker placement &nbsp;and direction mater a great deal so be ready to invest alot of time in thought and planning due to the limited mounting locations. I find DIY car stereo installation very rewarding. Since it&apos;s your vehicle you are free to change whatever you want, whenever you want, as often as you want with the install. There are plenty of videos on YT to learn how to install including wiring, box building, using fiberglass for speaker pods or amp racks plus great ideas on every aspect of installation. <br><br>I&apos;ve written enough. All the best.

  2

• GS

  @gsmollin2 · 1 month ago

  Years ago, during the Monster Cables heyday, I measured the response of Some $400 speaker cables VS a 12 gauge twisted pair. I used a $36,000 network analyzer. The two responses were exactly the same, except the $400 cables had less phase shift at 20 kHz. I calculated the phase difference could cause the sound stage to shift about a millimeter at 20 kHz. If you can hear that, you are better than me.

  7

• HO

  @hotchihuahua1546 · 1 month ago

  After 55 years of stereo &nbsp;purchases and listening pleasure much of what is said here is true ! <br> More money will not always buy you better sound ! <br> If you are just starting off learn from what is said and you can safe a whole lot of money !

  6

• GO

  @Govinnu · 1 month ago

  The last point is more important point....if you want to set up a home theatre, try to get a dedicated room for that, with Walls covered with sound absorption materials, and the roof woth sound absorption panels....even a low quality audio equipment will sound great in the proper theatre room. <br> If you look at the company sponsored demo rooms, you can see the sound absorption panels as Wall.

• RO

  @Robert-r4s4c · 1 month ago

  The size of the listening room determines how low the bass can go. For example one complete cycle of a 20 HZ note is about 56 feet long

• AL

  @Allan-d4e8m · 4 weeks ago

  Wattage doesn&apos;t affect my choice. I go for sensitivity in playback. Since my main love is multi- channel dvd audio- sacd- DTS and the variations of DTS that offer absolutely clean sound. No hiss, no noise, no scratches . Years engineers tried to get recordings clean. &nbsp;Now near perfect. You are there. At the studio when recording and I&apos;m happy to have spent my money on this gear.

• JO

  @JohnGeddes-d6y · 6 days ago

  I had a hi Fi dealer (DEETS SOUND ROOM ) recommend I get away from silver cables between my musical fidelity CD PLAYER and paramount halo integrated because the high end was too sharp for me and that fixed it. &nbsp; Probably $50 dollars or close ! &nbsp;Fixed the issue

• SC

  @Schmeddley · 1 month ago (edited)

  DIRAC changed my music listening expirience! For normal home setups, 14 AWG or 12 AWG is the thickest truly functional size needed; anything thicker than 10 AWG offers no audible electrical benefit for standard home audio.

  1

• SE

  @senglee9501 · 3 weeks ago

  Yep! Amazon basic speaker wires are excellent, Walmart Brand Onn TV&apos;s and surround sound are also excellent!

• NI

  @NickP333 · 1 month ago (edited)

  Matching the amp’s impedance to the speaker’s impedance needs to be paid attention too, as does a well designed crossover using quality parts.

• RD

  @rd1992-l3j · 1 month ago (edited)

  Thank you for this discussion! &nbsp;Buying a huge, powerful amplifier with the intention of getting high SPLs out of low efficiency loudspeakers is a fool&apos;s errand. I have a pair of Infinity Quantum 4 speakers rated at 84 db for 1 watt input, and they have an amplifier punishing impedance that drops below 2 ohms at certain frequencies. Using a powerful high current amplifier, I can achieve adequate loudness levels with good low bass but must be careful to avoid clipping. The Infinity speakers are protected by 2 amp, slow blow fuses and I&apos;ve never popped them. If I want very loud listening levels, switching to much more efficient speakers is mandatory.

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• PH

  @PhilHewkin · 1 month ago

  I bough monster cable. I ran a 28 watt Sony strv28 receiver with audiosphere research monitor 18”s. Matching spkr to amp makes for great sound.