I'm a fool!

[liltommyg]

To get back to the question.
Speaker cables are impedenced matched to give the best transfer of power from the power amp to the speaker.
Ideally all three should have the same Z.
I.e. 2 ohm output impedence from amp through 2 ohm cable to 2 ohm speaker delivers all of the power that the amp is outputting.
any mismatch will result in loss of power.
If the cable has a lower Z than the power amp there is still the impedence of the speaker in the circuit.It is only if the combined impedence of the cable and the speaker are less than the power amp rating you can have a problem with burning out the amp.

 

[metalmariachi]

Actually the big hubbub was about the capacitance and current-voltage handling of an instrument cable not the resistance.
Of course there are those who also go nuts about blowing up your amp if you add an extension cabinet. They’d probably have a stroke if they saw all the daisy chaining with whatever cable was handy back in the late ‘60s.
Any way if it were a real problem just about every band in the ‘60s and ‘70s would have gone through 100s of amps. Ok some did and we don’t count The Who’s obvious abuses.

MM

 

[CBBass123]

Its been a while since i heard the term "buttmunch"...

 

[BassIan]

To get back to the question.
Speaker cables are impedenced matched to give the best transfer of power from the power amp to the speaker.
Ideally all three should have the same Z.
I.e. 2 ohm output impedence from amp through 2 ohm cable to 2 ohm speaker delivers all of the power that the amp is outputting.
any mismatch will result in loss of power.
If the cable has a lower Z than the power amp there is still the impedence of the speaker in the circuit.It is only if the combined impedence of the cable and the speaker are less than the power amp rating you can have a problem with burning out the amp.

If your cable has impedance that is significant relative to the impedance of the actual load (the speakers), it is not the right cable for the job. It should not be even close!

Instrument cables, as clearly stated above, were not designed for:

1) The higher voltage signal present at the output of an amplifier. The conductors are spaced too closely and can actually short through their thin insulation. The minimum distance between conductors required for shorting is increased as voltage increases. This is a short across the output of your amplifier.

2) The signal contains a lot of power. In a very short run of good instrument cable, the cable will not be dissipating much power, but where the instrument cable is long or very slender (higher gauge), its impedance becomes significant and the cable heats up. It can melt its insulation/shielding and mechanically short.

For these reasons, it was much less of a problem in the days of lower powered amplifiers. Now, with cheap 1-2 kilowatt power amplifiers and speakers that dissipate that much heat effectively, this is a significant issue!

 

[lug]

I'm going to run two coat hangers wrapped in electrical tape from my amp to my speakerbox.