Upgrading time

[crankedup]

Some will know from my previous thread that I am re-visiting the confusing world of Hi-Fi, albiet at the more budget end.
I have the speakers decided on :Tannoy Mercury V4.

Then thought my existing cables and plugs are also around 28 years old and perhaps its a good idea to replace these. After 28 years now the re-visit is making me feel distinctly wobbly. The prices for cable/plugs has took me by surprise to say the least. After reading reviews and subject to my budget I thought a set of CHORD CRIMSON PLUS interconnects for amp to c.d. player would be fine.

This brings me to the question of cable/plugs for the speakers to amp.?

Advise/comments appreciated

ps music I like to listen to is wide ranging from Jazz to Glasvegas to Elbow.

[FlossyThePig]

Don't worry too much. I use 13 amp mains cable.

Maplin sell a 20m roll of 15 amp speaker cable for £17.00, their 18 amp 79 strand super cable is £26

[davek_964]

Speaker cable does make a difference. A month or so back, I was trying to cure some sibilance in my system. The audio shop suspected the cause was speaker cable, coupled with the fact that my speakers have metal dome tweeters. They gave me some cheap copper cable - which would not be a final solution, but would hopefully prove that the problem could be cured by changing the cable.

It actually didn't make much difference to the sibilance, but it removed a huge amount of detail from the music.

I think my speaker cable is chord - can't remember what but nothing vastly expensive (something like £20 a metre I think from memory).

[crankedup]

Thanks Davik, reading some reviews strongly suggest that decent cable and plugs is a good investment. The price differences have shocked me though, in the absence of any further advise I think I will go for the Chord.

[FlossyThePig]

If you have time for an in depth read about speaker wires

[Roadster25]

Another vote for Chord. I use their Silverscreen in one system and Rumour in the other. Happy with both, but the Silverscreen is a bit chunky.

[crankedup]

Ended up not with the Tannoy V4 Speakers but a pair of Quad 21L, used good condition and at just seven years old just warmed in. Eagerly awaiting delivery now. Maybe in the New Year I will be ready to replace my Marantz CD player.
Thanks to the death of my Tannoy Gold MK2 speakers my interest in Hi-Fi has been re-awakened, my wife is so pleased

[JimbobVFR]

FlossyThePig said:

If you have time for an in depth read about speaker wires

^^^ This is worth a read

Personally I use 2.5mm Twin and Earth cable for my speakers, you could push the boat out and go 4.0mm if you want

[crankedup]

JimbobVFR said:

FlossyThePig said:

If you have time for an in depth read about speaker wires

^^^ This is worth a read

Personally I use 2.5mm Twin and Earth cable for my speakers, you could push the boat out and go 4.0mm if you want

It was a good link to a very confusing issue! I still am unsure of the actual benefits of very very expensive leads as opposed to much much cheaper leads. Guess its a matter of personal preference.

ps my lad re-trained to become a sparky, been fully qualified for a few years now and never looked back. Good luck, you should always be busy working when you have your papers.

[JimbobVFR]

For me Expensive leads do nothing other than look nice and costs lots of money that would be better spent on kit or more music.

I remember an interesting story about (I believe it was Quad funnily enough) an equipment manufacturer at a hi-fi show getting lots of queries about what speaker cable they were using to connect the demo kit on the stand. It was a chunky orange colour that turned out to be an outside extension cable they'd bought from a local DIY store after forgetting to pack some speaker cable.

Also from the Quad Wikipedia page
"Quad have always had a very straightforward engineering view of their products, and insisted that all amplifiers of adequate quality sounded the same when used within their capabilities, and that speaker cable had no sound at all, unless ludicrously long and thin wire is used."

If thats what Quad themselves say who am I to argue. get some T&E from your lad and jobs done regarding speaker cable. It is quite stiff mind being solid conducters.

P.S. Cheers for that, hopefully the sparky business will be good to me, its nice to be doing something I want to do as opposed to the last 15 years in IT support sat at a desk talking to idiots (especially my previous companies management)

[crankedup]

JimbobVFR said:

For me Expensive leads do nothing other than look nice and costs lots of money that would be better spent on kit or more music.

I remember an interesting story about (I believe it was Quad funnily enough) an equipment manufacturer at a hi-fi show getting lots of queries about what speaker cable they were using to connect the demo kit on the stand. It was a chunky orange colour that turned out to be an outside extension cable they'd bought from a local DIY store after forgetting to pack some speaker cable.

Also from the Quad Wikipedia page
"Quad have always had a very straightforward engineering view of their products, and insisted that all amplifiers of adequate quality sounded the same when used within their capabilities, and that speaker cable had no sound at all, unless ludicrously long and thin wire is used."

If thats what Quad themselves say who am I to argue. get some T&E from your lad and jobs done regarding speaker cable. It is quite stiff mind being solid conducters.

P.S. Cheers for that, hopefully the sparky business will be good to me, its nice to be doing something I want to do as opposed to the last 15 years in IT support sat at a desk talking to idiots (especially my previous companies management)

Jimbobvfr, I still have and use the original leads which I purchased back in the mid eighties, the speaker leads are quite chunky multi-strand copper. Perhaps I will see how it all goes with that stuff before I think about replacing it. As you say if its good enough for Quad!
As for my lads work, he was going to be self employed starting up a business in the new 'Green' energy. Meanwhile he went on the books with a Employment agency and they offered six months work at Babcocks, they took him on full time permanent. So many different paths that can be taken as an sparky, he changed career for same reason as yourself and really enjoys his work. His into motorbikes as well, only on the race circuits though not on the road, he said thats to dodgy.