[rkw]

I'd rather they concentrate on the half-width Vidar and the upcoming turntable.

Did I miss something? Vidar already has what many would consider to be a half width chassis. Jason has written about considering a desk top amp and didn't think it was commercially viable.

It is all about speaker cable length and capacitance. In Mono mode, driving a 4Ohm load, I am guessing you need at least 15 feet.

Schiit doesn't say anything about minimum cable length. The company Bryston recommends speaker cables to be as short as possible: http://bryston.com/pages/faq.html (scroll down to "How does the length and resistance of your loud-speaker cables effect your audio system?").

 

[DigitalFrontEnd]

Did I miss something? Vidar already has what many would consider to be a half width chassis. Jason has written about considering a desk top amp and didn't think it was commercially viable.

Schiit doesn't say anything about minimum cable length. The company Bryston recommends speaker cables to be as short as possible: http://bryston.com/pages/faq.html (scroll down to "How does the length and resistance of your loud-speaker cables effect your audio system?").[/QUOT.[/QUOTE

Bryston? A totally different amplifier design....

 

[mtkupp]

I am almost certain this might be user set up incompetence.

It is all about speaker cable length and capacitance. In Mono mode, driving a 4Ohm load, I am guessing you need at least 15 feet.

It seems the cables that cause the amp to shut down, in mono mode, were 8 foot pairs. How long was the Monster cable?

Interesting. I've never seen an amplifier specify a minimum length for speaker cables before, and the only time I've seen capacitance brought up was for phono cables. Luckily my Vidar cables are 15 ft.

 

[Brubacca]

Interesting. I've never seen an amplifier specify a minimum length for speaker cables before, and the only time I've seen capacitance brought up was for phono cables. Luckily my Vidar cables are 15 ft.

Olded Naim amplifiers required you to use a pair of their own speaker cable and I beleive the min length was either 3.5 meter or 5 meter. Forget if it was a high or low capacitance cable. Other cables of the wrong type could cause their amps to go unstable. Something about the capacitance of the cable being part of the design of the amp.

I also remember a few years ago there was a diy cable recipe that either used cat 5 wire or called for braiding cable like a cat 5. This resulted in some amps going unstable.

 

[Timster]

Olded Naim amplifiers required you to use a pair of their own speaker cable and I beleive the min length was either 3.5 meter or 5 meter. Forget if it was a high or low capacitance cable. Other cables of the wrong type could cause their amps to go unstable. Something about the capacitance of the cable being part of the design of the amp.

I also remember a few years ago there was a diy cable recipe that either used cat 5 wire or called for braiding cable like a cat 5. This resulted in some amps going unstable.

I'd like for Jason to weigh in on this, as I have never heard of this before. Is it really "a thing"? Can't see how with my admittedly poor knowledge of these matters, but I have had a number of amps and speaker combos over the years, and never given a backward glance to speaker cable capacitance or such things

 

[FLTWS]

I'd like for Jason to weigh in on this, as I have never heard of this before. Is it really "a thing"? Can't see how with my admittedly poor knowledge of these matters, but I have had a number of amps and speaker combos over the years, and never given a backward glance to speaker cable capacitance or such things

Ditto.
While different speaker cables "may" exhibit different subtle sonic characteristics (or not) with different designs and lengths I've never run into an issue over 50 years using dynamics, electrostatics, or ribbon speakers.
Maybe specific to balanced configurations versus SE?
Curious to know myself.

 

[jimmers]

Olded Naim amplifiers required you to use a pair of their own speaker cable and I beleive the min length was either 3.5 meter or 5 meter. Forget if it was a high or low capacitance cable. Other cables of the wrong type could cause their amps to go unstable. Something about the capacitance of the cable being part of the design of the amp....

They needed low capacitance cables but with higher inductance, they did not have output inductors (unlike Vidar) and needed > 3.5M long cables of the specified type to supply the inductance required for stability. (or so I heard).

 

[JoeWhip]

Off the Vidar stuff for a bit, I installed the USB 5 board in my Yggy last night and listened to some tracks I was very familiar with this morning. This is a significant upgrade over the prior board. The improved clarity was impressive. Instruments had more weight and a more three dimensional sound with better separation and depth. As always the case with noise, you don't what you have until it is gone. Superb job Mike.

 

[schneller]

Can anyone please confirm or deny that a black Eitr is in the works? Come on, people. Sitting here with my credit card but it can't be silver!!!

 

[DigitalFrontEnd]

Interesting. I've never seen an amplifier specify a minimum length for speaker cables before, and the only time I've seen capacitance brought up was for phono cables. Luckily my Vidar cables are 15 ft.

Again, it is not just about cable length, it has to do with the speaker load/amp interaction.

 

[DigitalFrontEnd]

I'd like for Jason to weigh in on this, as I have never heard of this before. Is it really "a thing"? Can't see how with my admittedly poor knowledge of these matters, but I have had a number of amps and speaker combos over the years, and never given a backward glance to speaker cable capacitance or such things

It all has to do with the way the amp delivers current, and the speaker load.

99.9% chance if CA had used a stereo Vidar, he would have had no issues.

 

[yonson]

I am almost certain this might be user set up incompetence.

It is all about speaker cable length and capacitance. In Mono mode, driving a 4Ohm load, I am guessing you need at least 15 feet.

It seems the cables that cause the amp to shut down, in mono mode, were 8 foot pairs. How long was the Monster cable?

This is interesting... I'm running my Vidar 4 ohm mono through a 1 meter (dual 10 gauge) cable and I haven't had any issues at all...

 

[DigitalFrontEnd]

This is interesting... I'm running my Vidar 4 ohm mono through a 1 meter (dual 10 gauge) cable and I haven't had any issues at all...

Speaker? Specs?

CA was using TADs and Focal, Both difficult loads.

 

[Ableza]

In my opinion, any amplifier manufacturer that "requires" a particular cable for its products must also be selling expensive cable. If the amplifier is so sensitive to load that the small additional impedance from a cable makes any significant difference to anything other than power, then what is it going to do when the dynamic loudspeaker attached to it swings from 1 ohm to 60 ohms depending on frequency? Freak out? Give me a break, please.

 

[yonson]

Speaker? Specs?

CA was using TADs and Focal, Both difficult loads.

Dynaudio Evidence centre

Sensitivity: 90dB (2,83V / 1m)
IEC Power Handling: 350W
Impedance: 4 Ohms
Frequency Response (± 3 dB): 38Hz – 23kHz
Box Principle: Bass Reflex Rear Ported
Crossover: 3 (4) way
Crossover Frequencies Hz: 500, 2300, (5500)
Crossover Topology: 1st order