Selection of the internal cabling
Once it was established that Bill was open to the revision and article, I contacted the owners of one of the most beautiful sounding cable brands I have encountered, Chris and Melissa Owen of Clarity Cable. Time and again the unpretentious looking Clarity Cable has lined up against very heavy hitters. Clarity Cable was the brand which convinced me that I did not need passive networks to achieve ultimate sound systems. It was tried against all comers in my room, and I am still largely using Clarity Cables to build audio systems. To date, the only cable to best it in every respect is the recently reviewed Silent Source The Music Reference line, which costs multiples more than Clarity Cables. Very few people can justify an approximately $25-20K expense for wiring a rig with Silent Source. For those who can afford it, I strongly recommend that cable. A far larger number of fans can swing $4-6K for a cable loom, which is one reason I use Clarity Cables as a reference for serious system builders. Thankfully, Chris Owen of Clarity Cable didn’t need much convincing of the validity of the project. He and his wife Melissa have judged numerous car audio competitions nationally and know importance of good cabling. Chris shared my enthusiasm that the wire upgrade would be efficacious. In fact, he was so intense about the project that he had discussions with Bill about how the terminations would be done. Chris had found a particular silver solder to sound the best and he did not want an alternative connection to alter the sound of his wires.
As Chris and Bill collaborated on the build out they resolved potential issues, as can be seen by Bill’s discussion of internal connections with a large diameter conductor and fine connection points on some drivers:
“The effect of increasing wire diameter was beneficial in providing a more ideal conduit for current flow. Damping improved in the bass section and the mids benefitted from more back to front depth in the stereo effort. The part that had concerned me regarding the transition to the ribbons was handily overcome by the fine job Melissa did terminating the wires to accommodate our tweeter lugs. The high pass filter Q changed a bit allowing me to go to slightly small high pass capacitors on the ribbon circuit (again due to improved damping).”
Notice that Bill is discussing damping, a measurable parameter of speaker performance. The effect of changing the wiring altered the sound as well as the high pass filter Q. I consider this a prime piece of evidence supporting the argument that cabling makes a measureable and audible difference in systems.
My confidence in the quality of Clarity Cables was reinforced further as Bill looked into them literally. He took apart as well as measured a sample and discovered a very high grade conductor:
“I find that easily 25% of the high end cables offered are inferior to simple highly stranded OFC cables. Some create rather bizarre ultrasonic behavior due to capacitive reactance, others may have a rolled off inductive top end. There is an abundance of pseudo-science tolerated in this sector of the industry. It is also why customers with exotics amps can experience overheating from frequencies that are out of the range of audibility. The Clarity cables are separately insulated strands of very high quality copper. This construction type minimizes both skin and proximity effect. It is solid science. The isolated conductors require more effort to terminate and the cost to manufacture is significantly higher. But Chris Owens puts the cost in the conductor, not in a glitzy poly filled jacket.”
One can see in Bill’s discussion that he respects the nature of the materials and measured performance of Clarity Cables. I had made the selection based on use, and Bill confirmed it by technical examination. I appreciate the fervency and thoughtfulness of these manufacturers as it convinced me the project would be carried out with the utmost attention to ultimate performance.
More than I bargained for
The scope of the rework expanded unexpectedly such that during the time the speakers were in Bill’s possession two additional improvements manifested themselves: a capacitor upgrade and a new Legacy AMT (Air Motion Tweeter) driver set. Bill had been quietly working on some new models, the most recent being the Aeris. The challenge of upgrading the wiring of the Whisper led to new discoveries which impacted the development of the Aeris.
Over the past several years Legacy has been adding speakers to what Bill has termed the Masters Series, tweaked designs worthy of being called Legacy’s ultimate products. One of these is the Focus SE and another is the Aeris, but the one quietly being developed which in turn impacted the Aeris was the Clarity Whisper. Here is an excerpt from my interview with Bill, in which I asked him about the impact of the rewiring:
D.S: Is it fair to say that you were convinced by this experiment that the internal wiring of a speaker system is critical to its optimum performance? What take away insights did you gain from this project in terms of the cabling and Legacy speakers?
B.D. I think the Aeris speaker was greatly influenced by this project, particularly in that it is the first product that we put on visible display the crossover components and internal wiring within the design.
Did you catch Bill’s pride in the materials and workmanship of the wiring and crossover? Legacy audio was so impressed by the wiring and crossover rework that they decided to show the world the circuit responsible for the improved sound!
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I just read how much Jeff Day spent(over $10,000 if my memory is correct) to upgrade Durland capacitors in the crossover on his Tannoys. Now as I read how much it cost to upgrade the wire here and you haven’t even approached adding Durland capacitors that would surely push the price pass $30,000; I’m so thankful to own single driver speakers. There is no wire or caps to upgrade. Just use the best speaker wire you can get straight to the driver. Oh, for simple pleasures. Well, I’ll have to admit that my speaker cables do cost nearly $10,000
Jack,
The Joy of God to you,
It’s a good thing there is so much variety available nowadays to the audiophile. I think I would struggle mightily if the only technology available to me was a single driver speaker with considerable limitations on dynamics and frequency extension. I am quick to point out there are things they do incredibly well such as coherency, but I need my big floor standing speakers (at least until I get old enough that I can’t move them around).
Looks like the Tannoy upgrade was in line cost-wise with my project, at about 25% of speaker MSRP. For the performance boost on a beloved design I consider that a pretty good deal. Whether the Dueland would be worth it; well, a listening comparison would be in order. I am elated that Legacy and Clarity Cable joined forces so the finished product is aesthetically identical to the standard speaker, as opposed to having external crossovers, etc.
To me the total package price of cables is at $25K for your setup, but considering a tri-wired truly full range speaker, the three sets of cables and the internally upgraded Whisper Clarity Edition is all told $34K, not radically more for what I would suggest is a radically different performance set. Remember, too, that it includes the new set of AMT drivers, which is a game changer, imo, on the high end versus the previous version.
I don’t think I’m sold on the idea that the complex pleasures are less value than the simple ones! 🙂
Blessings, and happy listening!
Douglas Schroeder
I love the Whisper speakers but I take issue with the claim you can hear the difference in speaker cables. Quite simply, it’s marketing bullshit from high-end audio manufacturers. Unless you’re doing 100′ cable runs I challenge anyone to a blind test. In fact, it’s already been done …..
http://gizmodo.com/363154/audiophile-deathmatch-monster-cables-vs-a-coat-hanger
What’s funny is you are citing one of the biggest BS comparison tests imagineable. Monster Cables that they are using aren’t high end cables. They might be high end for a Best Buy (Not Magnolias), but they aren’t high end cables. Nor are these little ABX tests. The problem with most ABX tests is that you have to have enough time with the cables in your own environment with familiar listening material (that’s not processed recordings) and you have to listen to these with consideration of volume levels. What happens in short term listening tests, humans automatically gravitate to what’s the loudest, but the differences in cables is a lot more subtle than that and it takes time getting used to listening to a wide variety of music to hear what, if any, differences there are. But from a scientific standpoint, cables act like a filter and depending on the cable design, materials, construction, etc. etc., the filter curve can change. But comparing a Monster Cable to a coat hanger and just categorically making a sweeping generalization that ALL cables sound equal is VERY naive and ignorant in the art of listening.
Could you please correct the frequencies in your review on page 5? I doubt that ANY tweeter is capable (or would even claim) frequency responses of “5kHz – 1,250kHz”. Just in case I’m not making my point, the high end there is 1.25 MHz!!! Even 125 kHz (125,000 Hz) would be a real stretch. It really made it difficult to understand exactly what performance the speakers actually have.