damonrpayne Posted September 3, 2003 Share Posted September 3, 2003 I have heard tales that regular old ethernet cable can make some awesome speaker wire. Kimber, for example, makes their speaker wire with several strands of unshielded wire woven together. I'd like to try this as its likely to be a lot cheaper. Has anyone tried this? Worth the trouble? Got links? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnA Posted September 3, 2003 Share Posted September 3, 2003 I did it! Sore Fingers. Use teflon insulated cable. Six runs is about equal to 11 ga. I twisted 2 runs and braided 3 of those. The solids become + and the dashed become -. Be careful so you don't short out the amp. These wires have excellent measured HF response, but I can't hear any difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
damonrpayne Posted September 3, 2003 Author Share Posted September 3, 2003 I found this link, does this look similar to what you did? DIY instructions Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j-malotky Posted September 3, 2003 Share Posted September 3, 2003 Damon Read your link over lunch. Holy crap. 27 wires to make a 9GA cable. A lot of work. Could'nt you take 3 cat5 cables (thats 24 wires) for each to make it a bit easier. What gauge wire would that be. Looks interesting though. I may try this also over the winter. I wonder if you really need to braid them. For a long run could'nt you brade enough to get a nice solder then leave the majority of the runs in there PVC jackets. As long as you mark your pos and neg so you are not out of phase. What do you think?? JM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnA Posted September 3, 2003 Share Posted September 3, 2003 The Cat5 I used had 4 pair per run, so that's 6 x 4 = 24 wires per "phase" (11 ga?). The braiding/twisting is to follow the theory that the intertwining cancels the EM Fields to reduce inductance. You could certainly try only braiding the last 3 feet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
damonrpayne Posted September 4, 2003 Author Share Posted September 4, 2003 I will have some spare time on my hands later this month to try it. Its only an experiment and I don't think my other equipment is good enough to hear an audible difference based on cable quality so I'd be happy to lend them out once I'm done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
g3dahl Posted September 4, 2003 Share Posted September 4, 2003 I have put some time into working with DIY CAT5 cables. My suggestion: keep it simple and compact. For example, use a single CAT5 (teflon, like Belden 1585A or equivalent) for a speaker wire from one amp channel to its speaker. There are four twisted pairs inside, each pair made of one solid-color strand and one striped strand. You can either connect all of the solids to red and all of the stripes to black for minimum inductance (split pairs), or use two twisted pairs going to red and the other two going to black. Most people using CAT5 have used large numbers of strands in various braiding configurations. It is quite easy to build up to a very large capacitance while doing so, especially with split pairs. This capacitance is parasitic, and results in HF losses. With high-sensitivity speakers such as Klipsch, it doesn't take a big heavy speaker cable to do the job. If you don't believe me, open up a CAT5 and replace your speaker wires with just one twisted pair (2 x 24g!) and have a listen. See what I mean? Of course, repeating the experiment with low-sensitivity speakers will bring about different results. If you go to the effort of building a big cable out of many runs of CAT5, you might even be very pleased with the results; many folks swear by the stuff. But you might have fun trying some smaller configurations first. They're cheaper, easier to build, and will give you a feel for how the stuff behaves in your system. Good luck! Gary Dahl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klipsch Employees Trey Cannon Posted September 8, 2003 Klipsch Employees Share Posted September 8, 2003 -Buy Zipp cord, its cheeper and easier to work with...thats what PWK did.... ...The ABX test does not lie.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vavoline Posted September 8, 2003 Share Posted September 8, 2003 You tell 'em, Trey! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnA Posted September 10, 2003 Share Posted September 10, 2003 Yeah, I failed the ABX test. I NEVER knew which wire was "playing". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Hardy Posted September 19, 2003 Share Posted September 19, 2003 I use quick 'n' dirty speaker cables made from doubled runs of CAT5 twisted together. The 8 conductors of one cable are all twisted together as the "+" wire, and the other cable is the "-" wire. I added some heatshrink over the twisted bits for esthetics and crimped spade lugs on to each end. I use these between 1974 Cornwalls and Bottlehead Paramour 2A3 SET amps to very good effect. Bass extension and definition were improved relative to 16-ga zip cord (and I don't "believe" in cables). Best part: The CAT5 was all leftovers from network wiring at work salvaged from the trash, so cost was virtually zero! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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