will
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Badwolf. With my Toriis, when changing speaker cable gauge (within a sort of normal range) there is a shift in the balance and power of the presentation. With relatively neutral wires, most noticeable here is bass power, the mids and highs being more or less focussed too, but less obvious. I guess bass waves being tricky in most rooms present a narrower balance for the best sound.
Different wires sound pretty different to me too, but with a given wire, smaller gauge here shifts the balance toward less intensity and bass, and bigger gauge, more, eventually saturating bass. At some point it goes from tighter and big, toward thickness and muddled. So if your bass needs leaning/tightening, or to be less dominant in the overall balance, a smaller gauge silver ribbon might well help. I wonder if this may be part of the difficulty in hearing the difference in your mini/camino system. If the bass dominates in the balance too much, it could be masking mids and highs.
The last time I made speaker cables I ended up using 4 different wire types to get the sound I wanted. I was trying NOS WE 16 gauge stranded/tinned copper. Trying just one 16 gauge WE wire shifted the system/room balance I had way toward lean, though it had a seductive upper mid quality. Adding another WE per connection, bass came up, but also the WE upper mid sweetness began to sizzle. 3 WE wires made the bass pretty good, but the mids even more focussed, sounding hard and unnatural.
Keeping the overall gauge close, I changed one WE wire at a time. 1st was a solid/soft silver, and the 2nd, solid copper (both in oversized teflon). Both changes were quite obvious and the sound became really good with one WE balanced with the silver and copper.
May be a blessing in disguise that the ribbon, a very transparent and revealing cable conceptually, and as evidenced in your other system, was hard to hear in Mini/Camino system. Could well be some other issue like absorption as you suggest, but even though crossovers can be heard, I would think the Caminos should have plenty of innate clarity for your silver ribbon to show pretty clearly compared to many cables. Makes me guess gauge or something else might be bigger player(s)???
LR,
My 944s were made with only a cap going to the tweeter, no inductor. The cap was mounted on the inside of the binding post cover. I think Bob started using coils at some point. If yours have inductors, not sure where Bob would put it, but when I tried the ones he sent me, I mounted them by pulling the front driver...if I recall correctly, the bottom one, in front of the binding post cover giving wire access (???). The speakers were more controlled sounding with the inductor if I recall, but I seemed to prefer the speed and punch I was used to without. Cap changes were fun.
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