Hi Justin, The capacitance of speaker cables, if considered by itself, doesn't really = attenuate the high frequencies. The output impedance of your typical amplif= ier is quite low due to it basically being a powerful opamp, and it will ma= intain its output under almost any load. In the amplifier there's a small i= nductor in series but it's typically only about 1 uH. Since all cable also = has inductance, together with the capacitance the cable will have a charact= eristic impedance. But at audio frequencies it's all pretty much not going = to have much effect. With widely spaced conductors the inductance potential= ly could attenuate the high frequencies. In practice, using speaker cable, = the inductance is quite low. But if one or both of the conductors is vibrating due to electromagnetism, = there are going to be (frictional) losses at low and middle frequencies and= that is the effect I was curious about. Friendly regards, Bob ________________________________________ From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu on behalf of Justin= Richards=20 Sent: Friday, April 6, 2018 8:10 AM To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public. Subject: Re: [EE] impedance of unsecured parallel wires Mike, I assumed the closer the cables the more capacitance which would attenuate the higher frequencies more. To clarify, are you saying closer together is better for audio performance as it gives more coupling which is better as it lowers the inductance. Whereas cables spread apart gives less coupling and increases the inductive reactance which would attenuate the upper audio freq range more. Justin On 6 April 2018 at 16:09, Mike wrote: > On 05/04/2018 23:57, Bob Blick wrote: > > A very long time ago I needed to wire some loudspeakers and used two > strands of some salvaged single conductor insulated solid wire, fairly > heavy gauge. When I later replaced it with regular speaker cable of simil= ar > gauge, the system sounded better. I wonder now if the wires vibrated enou= gh > because of the electromagnetic effect that it caused resonances. My ears > were pretty good back then. > > > > Perhaps I should do some testing and see if I can measure the effect. > > > > Bob > > > > The closer the pair of wires, the better the coupling and the lower the > inductance. If your speaker cable was e.g. 3 meters long (~10ft) then > they could be adding around 1 Ohm inductive reactance at the upper end > of the audio frequency range, if the wires were spaced apart. > > Mike > -- --=20 http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .