hey is an older 12gauge speaker wire as good as a newer one...i dont know exactly how old the wire is it could be 10-15 years old i dont have a clue....but if it is that old would it still give the same sound as a new one....or are the older wires made with differnt stuff as 2days wires....i ask this cuz someone in a local newspaper wants to sell a 100ft 12gauge wire for $25 canadian...in canada thats a good deal ..we pay almost $2 a foot here for 12 gauge wires....i cant rememeber the brand of the wire but the guy told me it was some 'audiofile referance' kind...pleas help
Jay, the old speaker wire should be fine if it has not oxidized. If it has a clear jacket look at the copper inside, if it has not turned green or has started to it should be fine. If the insulation is not clear and you cannot see the condition of the copper then don't use it and buy some new wire. $25 Canadian(about $50 USD) for 100' of 12AWG is rather expensive. I can get a 250' spool of 12AWG at my local Lowes for $50.
unless for some odd reason they use a different kind of copper i wouldnt think any difference would be present. like sated before, check for oxidation and possible shorts and it should be good to go.
One question guys. How would I know if my QED Silver Anniversarys have oxidised - without cutting them! If anyone has seen these QEDs you'll know that the covering isn't transparent but a pearly white!
Silver Anniversary's jacket should not be white. It should be just off clear. In other words, although it's not completely clear you should still be able to see the strands through the jacket. It's difficult to tell if Silver Anniversary has oxidised since it's silver plated copper and all it does is go a bit dull. IF it's dark, then it has oxidised quite a bit (silver goes black). It's extremely unlikely to go green.
jay,
There is more variation in new wires than you would get 2 decades ago. Some use silver plated copper, some are solid silver (megabucks!) and some use just copper, often sold as high purity or 'oxygen free'. Some are multistrand and some are single strand (aka solid core).
Construction varies too. There are more wires nowadays that have both positive and negative runs separated by a plastic section (making wider cables), which has an effect on the capacitance of the cable. However, twisted pair cables still abound. In the 'old' days, there was very little silver plated copper and almost none of the copper ones made claims to high purity copper, which is where a lot of work was being carried out in the 80s and 90s.
At the higher (lunatic fringe?) end of the market (Siltech, Nordost, Chord Co) the cables that are being used come from esoteric applications such as medical (Nordost) or microwave transmission (Chord Co and Acoustic Precision). These cables have quite specific attributes for those applications, but there's little to no evidence to show they should have a benefit in the HiFi arena.
My personal take is that they all make a difference and should be given the same consideration as any part of the system. That said, I accept that the effect of cables becomes more acute the further up the HiFi scale you go. It's almost as if the details start to count more as you improve the main components, which makes sense I guess.
At $2 a foot, you're at the entry levl of the audiophile brands. Chord Co Carnival and QED Original are examples in that price bracket.