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theory

Posted by Lew (A) on March 17, 2001 at 09:27:00

In Reply to: Still waiting for Ralph to weigh in on this... posted by Vince on March 16, 2001 at 14:36:54:

Vince: The theoretical reason why the Goertz outperformed the XLO in my system, may relate to a difference in characteristic impedance between the two wires. "Characteristic impedance" is a parameter that is independent of wire length and is related to the ratio of inductance to capacitance. Since Goertz wires by design have relatively high capacitance, they conversely have very low characteristic Z, on the order of 4 to 6 ohms, depending upon the particular spkr wire. Many other commercial spkr wires have a relatively high characteristic impedance (e.g.,>100 ohms), because they are designed to be low capacitance. XLO wire may be an example, but I don't know. It would be useful information. In a phone conversation, Ralph once suggested to me that his amps "like" wires with low characteristic Z. I emphasize that this is theory as far as I am concerned, because I never conducted any valid experiments to prove the point, except the empiric one that I reported, and except for my experiences reported below. If characterisitic Z is indeed an important factor, other wires that could mate well with our amps include Transparent (the little box adds capacitance) and NBS (the wires are wound to introduce a controlled amount of capacitance). I can also report that the worst-sounding spkr wire EVER in my system was Nordost Blue Heaven, which has characteristic Z of 110 ohms. (That's more data in support.) Having convinced myself of the importance of low characteristic Z, my previous spkr wire, when I needed 25 foot lengths and didn't want to pay for Goertz silver, was Nordost Super Flatline. I cut the twin leads apart down the middle with a razor blade, then taped the two separated leads on top of one another, like a sandwich a la Goertz topology, to create some additional capacitance. It may be my imagination, but this seemed to make a dramatic improvement in sonics vs stock Super Flatline and was way, way better than the Blue Heaven. (A priori, I rated the unmodified Super Flatline as superior to the Blue Heaven.)

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