It doesn’t matter what you have, a basic system, an all in one unit, a home cinema or a cost no object hi-fi, you need speaker cable. Whatever you are connecting speakers to, the cable you use is going to have a big influence on the way your system sounds. We reckon around 70% of hi-fi and home cinema owners don’t come close to experiencing the real potential of their system. All because of poor quality speaker cable.
The problem is that whilst even the cheapest, thinnest speaker cables out there will work (in the loosest possible terms). A better quality speaker cable will improve everything you listen to.
Yes, even the most basic speaker cables will carry an electrical current between the amplifier and speakers. But what it is really carrying is an extremely complex audio signal and this is where the design and the quality of the materials used really start to matter.
In our experience the musical elements that speaker cable can have a really big effect on are dynamics, detail, tonality or timbre and perhaps most critically of all, musical coherence or timing. Timing is fundamental to the proper enjoyment and understanding of almost all types of music. Without it music is just beautiful noise. With it, it’s an involving, immersive, emotional and thrilling experience. This is what a good quality speaker cable can bring to the music you love.
So have a look at the cable that connects your amplifier to speakers. If it’s basic copper and PVC then you are almost certainly not getting the best from your system and more importantly, you are not experiencing your music in the way you should.
Home cinema amplifiers are somewhat different and the set up process for the typical home cinema processor means that there is no issue with different lengths of speaker cable. In fact, keeping the cables in the home cinema system to the length they need to be for each speaker, means less mess and probably better sound quality..
Fitting home cinema speaker cables can suddenly start to look like an expensive proposition, but there are ways around this. Many people select a higher performance cable on the front left, right and centre loudspeakers and a more cost-effective version for the side/rear units. Quite often the amplifier is sitting between the speakers anyway so the length of cables are not too long and as the front speakers are where a lot of the action takes place, a good cable really improves the experience.
In an ideal world you might want to wire the rear speakers with the same cable but this can turn into a very expensive exercise. Luckily, we produce a range of inter-compatible, discreet speaker cables to suit any such application (and budget) – all designed to work well over the longer runs typically needed for rear speakers.
Another cost-effective way of improving a home cinema system (if you have 7 channels of amplification and only 5 speakers?) is to bi-amp your front left and right (bi-wireable) speakers with the two spare channels of amplification. All this requires is a second set of speaker cable for the front left and right speakers and the result is better detail, better definition, better dynamics and all round improved sound quality.
It is worth thinking about how to connect speakers to amplifiers. A good quality speaker cable is a very good place to start but what about the connectors on the end of the cable? Most hi-fi and home cinema equipment will give you a choice of connections. On the back of the equipment you will find a set of colour coded binding posts.
The binding posts have a central 4mm hole (sometimes covered with an easily removable plastic cap) that you can connect a standard 4mm banana plug to. This is probably the most popular and straightforward method of connecting amplifier to speakers. This is our preferred method and we fit high quality gold or silver-plated banana plugs to all the terminated speaker cables we produce. We like this connection because it provides a point of extremely high pressure contact between the plug and the socket and we think this produces the best sound quality.
The other commonly used connection is the spade connector. The colour coded casings of the binding posts on the amplifier and speakers can be unscrewed. A spade connector slipped over the post and the casings tightened back down to hold the spade connectors firmly in place. If you choose this method it is important to periodically check the tightness of the binding posts. They are subject to vibration and over a period of time could work loose, degrading sound quality.
Some amplifiers are fitted with a BFA Camcon connector. Amplifiers with this connector will require a set of speaker cable fitted with Camcon plugs. These are available to order and can be fitted to all Chord speaker cables.
Binding posts are used on the majority of hi-fi and home cinema equipment and speakers. However, on some smaller amplifiers you may find a colour coded spring clip connector. These can only be used with unterminated speaker cable. The spring clip is lifted; the bare wire slipped into the socket and then the spring clip is lowered to hold the speaker cable firmly in place. There are disadvantages to this type of connector. Firstly, you will be limited as to the size of speaker cable that can be fitted and secondly, the speaker cable will be subject to oxidisation which can increase resistance and affect sound quality. Interestingly, although silver oxidises, the oxides have far less effect on sound quality than would be the case with a copper cable. Finally, be certain that the speaker cable is connected correctly. It is far easier to wire speaker cable out of phase with spring clip connections.
