I use a 9 volt battery to test phase, just a quick tap to the terminals will move the cone. Do not apply DC voltage to long to it as it will heat ans could cause voice coil damage.

Peavey uses blue (negative) and yellow (positive ) wires for speaker hookup. Usually black is common (negative) and red or white are the positive.

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www.phelpscountychoppers.com/steelguitar

Phasing, though, is completely unimportant unless you run more than one speaker or amp with your guitar. Then you have to make sure the phasing is the same (using the battery test) or else you will suffer from "phase cancellation" and lose a bunch of frequencies. It often sounds like the guitar just "goes away".

Zip cord does have grooves in one side of the insulation, although I need bifocals and good light to see it. The 16 gauge works great for moderate lengths.

Those cheap Wal-Mart 16 gauge extension cords make good speaker wire.

The Monster and other "boutique" cables' benefits can be detected by dogs in blind A/B tests.

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The Monster and other "boutique" cables' benefits can be detected by dogs in blind A/B tests.

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positive = (forward) movement of the cone

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----Monster and other high end companies make speaker wire and all sorts of other specialty stuff besides guitar cables.

[This message was edited by Jon Light on 26 November 2005 at 09:08 AM.]

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I use a 9 volt battery to test phase.

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Ken,
I believe a 1.5 battery will,also,work as well,with less danger to the v.c.

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  ~ ~
  ©¿©  It don't mean a thang,   
  mm   if it ain't got that twang.
       www.ntsga.com

Ray, positive polarity in a loudspeaker cone is when the cone moves toward the listener and away from the magnet when the positive terminal of a DC source such as a 9V battery, is connected to the positive terminal of the loudspeaker. The only time polarity matters is when there are two loudspeakers being used at the same time with a common signal. If two speakers are connected out of polarity, depending on the distance between them, they will be out of phase at certain frequencies and in phase at others. If they are close together, all of the lower frequencies will be out of phase and will be reduced in level by cancellation. If they are connected in polarity, all of the lower frequencies will be in phase and will increase in level because they add. At higher frequencies, regardless of the polarity, they will add at some frequencies and cancel at others.

So an easy way to tell if your speakers are in polarity is to listen to your rig with just one speaker, play a low note, connect the second speaker, play a low note again. If you hear more lows, the two speakers are in polarity. If you hear a reduced amount of lows, the two speakers are out of polarity.

For the technically oriented, phase is frequency dependent and is measured in degrees. Polarity is either positive or negative and negative is always 180 degrees out of phase with positive.

What I read about them in an article several years ago, is that the high frequency response of Monster speaker cables is extended to nearly 400,000 Hz, which might be important to dogs (since dogs can hear higher frequencies than people).

The article went on to say that people could not hear the difference in blind A/B tests.

Since I have never bought boutique cables and my hearing is damaged from years of gigging, the information I offer here is "hearsay".

[This message was edited by David Spangler on 26 November 2005 at 03:21 PM.]

Generally, price is an indicator of quality but with the "boutique" cables it's not always the case.

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www.phelpscountychoppers.com/steelguitar

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As has been mentioned, 18 or 16 gauge works well in most cases

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The damping factor of an amplifier - the ratio between the amplifier's own output impedance and the load (speaker) impedance it faces - can often be doubled or better simply by increasing gauge of the wire inside the amp that connects the output devices to the speaker jacks - this carries over to wire used for the longer distance from the jack to the speaker itself. Since the damping factor represents an amp's ability to "grab" a voice coil effectively and control its travel - combating the cone's own inertia, which would happily go its own way given the opportunity - the increase in clarity at power by using 14, 12 or even 10 gauge wire is well worth the trouble, if not the high-priced hype spouted by Monster, et al.

Of course, if you already like what you already have, PLEASE don't go changin' just because science says it works better - one man's "better" is another man's "hogwash" after all....

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Dave Grafe - email: dg@pdxaudio.com
Production
Pickin', etc.

1978 ShoBud Pro I E9, Randall Steel Man 500, 1963 Precision Bass, 1954 Gibson LGO, 1897 Washburn Hawaiian Steel Conversion

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"Of course, if you already like what you already have, PLEASE don't go changin' just because science says it works better - one man's "better" is another man's "hogwash" after all...."

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Dave, you are a wise man. It is the system that works for you or against you, and speaker wire is just one part of that system. I might be the only one who remembers this but a while back, it was all the rage with British audiophiles to use "skinny wire" for amp to speaker interface on their super high-end expensive stereo systems. It was something like 22 ga. I really think hypnosis is a big part of the listening experience.
TC

[This message was edited by T. C. Furlong on 28 November 2005 at 09:28 AM.]

Jack, it is quite true that the smaller wire over that short run "will suffice" and won't change the actual electrical power transmitted much at all, but the damping factor (and the resulting clarity at high power) WILL be affected by a significant amount. At 200 watts or more this is going to be audible to much more than just canine ears. With a reduction in damping factor you don't lose volume (sometimes it even seems louder in fact, due to speaker cone resonance and reactance), you lose fidelity - for some this is an issue, for some it is not.

[This message was edited by Dave Grafe on 28 November 2005 at 03:12 PM.]