9
XA60.5 Owner’s Manual
should never occur in real life. This is a very rare occurrence, and
would indicate a serious problem.
Interconnects and Speaker Cables
We have a general recommendation about interconnects, and
speaker cables: They should cost less than the amplifier, and contain
at least some conductive material. We have tried a lot of products
and most work well, but as a practical matter we cannot make blanket
recommendations.
The amplifier is not sensitive to source interconnects. It is also not
sensitive to radio frequency pickup, which allows some flexibility in
choosing source interconnects without shields, though shields are
usually a very good idea. For long runs balanced cables are highly
recommended for their inherent rejection of noise.
We prefer speaker cables that are short and stout. Oxygen-free
copper and silver are the suggested materials. If you find any really
exceptional cable made of gold, please gift us a couple hundred feet.
Fortunately this amplifier is not sensitive to the capacitive/inductive
character of some of the specialty speaker cables, so feel free to
experiment.
We have found that about 90 per cent of bad sounding cables are
really bad sounding connections, and we recommend that attention
be paid to cleanliness of electrical contact surfaces and proper
connector fit.
Speaker cables should be firmly tightened down at the speaker
output terminals, but not with a wrench. Output terminals will not
withstand the levels of torque that may be easily applied by wrench.
Hand tightening without excessive force is plenty. Cleaning contact
surfaces with one of the commercially available electronic contact
cleaners should be part of your annual system maintenance.
Product Life
So how long will this hardware last? It is our experience that, barring
abuse or the odd failure of a component, the first things to go will be
the power supply capacitors, and from experience, they will last 15 to
30 years. Fortunately they die gracefully and are easily replaced by a
good technician.
After that, the longevity will depend upon the number of operating
