kyser wrote:

I'm embroiled in a discussion on aus.hifi with a poster who recommends the
use of RG58C/U as speaker cable (with alleged sonic improvements over
standard figure-8 type flex).

Wouldn't the combined inductance/capacitance of this stuff constitute an LC
filter causing signal attenuation or, worse, amp output stage instability
over anything but a short run?

Patrick Turner? Anyone?

TIA

The typical inductance of a 3 metre speaker cable is perhaps 2 uH,
and the roll off is well above 20 kHz, as the pole formed by the
LR filter is at 637 kHz..
The capacitance between the pair of cables used may only be
200 pF, causing a pole at some RF frequency.
the L&C components would form an LC filter, which would display resonances
at some RF, but generally, the L and C components of speaker cables
are utterly negligible and have SFA effect on the engineering measurements.

But I will not be one to say that ppl hear changes to the sound when they
change cables.
I won't say that arguments rage over bits of wire.
I won't say that cable sales are greased and oiled with Oille De La Reptile
Products&Promoters.

What you hear is your truth for you, but in all my experience,
once the DCR is below 1/100 of the speaker Z there is SFA
change to the measurements with different cables within the audio band.

There is no reason why RG58 would not be a suitable speaker
cable, where power is low, say normal listening,
when the current may only be 0.25 amps average in a domestic lounge.
Cat 5 cables used in various ways is also great,
as is lamp flex from a hardware store.
Clean tight connectors are probably more important.

There has been a prize offered by the Worldwide Society of Skeptics
of $100,000 offered to the first person/company to demonstrate in a double
blind AB test that one cable sounds different to another.
The prize seems safe, its never been awarded over the last 30 years.

Bell wire, that really thin figure 8 twin flex is awful stuff,
but over 3M it still manages to be OK.
Some dudes say really thin solid enamelled wire, or strips of foil
work well, or "sound better"

Every would be guru has his own idea.

Patrick Turner.