tillmbil Posted December 15, 2003 Share Posted December 15, 2003 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tillmbil Posted December 15, 2003 Author Share Posted December 15, 2003 Ok here goes. I read a post where someone used Cat 5 wiring to make speaker wires. So this weekend I took one run of cat5, heated the ends to strip the casing, twisted the 8 wires together and then crimped a gold end to eash end. I then repeated this for the negative ground. Then took the two lines and twisted them together using tape about every 10". I took these to the Cornwalls and attached to one speaker for a trial. Sounded flat and weak on highs, however the bass seemed a little deeper. I thought maybe now I am noticing a speaker problem, so I switched the wire to the other speaker and got the same bad sound. Qeustion; Do you think I did not get the speaker wire ends properly attached and am therefor missing treble, or does the cat5 wiring idea just bite. I tell you there is an incredible difference between the old wires and the new. Like night and day. So either speaker wire makes a difference or I just did a poor job on my homemade wires. I was thinking maybe I would use only 1 cat5 strand and separate the 8 wires to 4ea and try that. Any thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LarryC Posted December 15, 2003 Share Posted December 15, 2003 Bill, Do you hear anything at all from the tweeter and/or MR when you put your ear up next to the horn mouths? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Istari Posted December 15, 2003 Share Posted December 15, 2003 I believe that you have to "weave" the cat 5 cables together to make the speaker cable correctly. Several on this forum have done this. I'm sure someone will pop up and tell you how it's done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tillmbil Posted December 15, 2003 Author Share Posted December 15, 2003 Yes it had treble, but just really falt sounding. I could really hear guitar strings being plucked on the odl wire setup but it was no where near the sound level with the new wire. Hey Larry, how are the KHorns? I have that record list complete, but really shortened the title's on the Orchestra albums. They were just way to long and I was tired the night I did it. I have it at home and will have to e-mail it to you or maybe post on the forum as an attachement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LarryC Posted December 15, 2003 Share Posted December 15, 2003 ---------------- On 12/15/2003 1:08:57 PM tillmbil wrote: Yes it had treble, but just really falt sounding. I could really hear guitar strings being plucked on the odl wire setup but it was no where near the sound level with the new wire. Hey Larry, how are the KHorns? I have that record list complete, but really shortened the title's on the Orchestra albums. They were just way to long and I was tired the night I did it. I have it at home and will have to e-mail it to you or maybe post on the forum as an attachement. ---------------- How about the mid-range? Check outputs from both your horns. If you get sounds from both tweeter and MR, others would know better how to solve it. Maybe your mid-range is out. They're just fine -- there's MORE than enough detail in the thread "A Question for Dean"! Your list will be really interesting. Gary and I can pick from it for listening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyp Posted December 15, 2003 Share Posted December 15, 2003 "...So this weekend I took one run of cat5, heated the ends to strip the casing..." This is not the correct procedure to strip Cat5 wire. When you heated it, you created excess copper oxidation as well as contaminated the copper with nasty burning plastic fumes. I don't even heat enameled magnet wire to strip it. You have to strip wire the old-fashioned way, except for litz wire. I've never tried CAT5 for speaker wire so even if you terminate it correctly you still might not like it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tillmbil Posted December 15, 2003 Author Share Posted December 15, 2003 Thanks for the inpuy, I will retry the ends just to see since I have went this far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbflash Posted December 16, 2003 Share Posted December 16, 2003 check out this site. http://www.venhaus1.com/diycatfivecables.html it should answer all your cat5 questions. danny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krispykoilz Posted December 16, 2003 Share Posted December 16, 2003 It has been my experience that going to heavier gauge wire does appear to cut the brightness out of the speaker. I have not tried the cat5 but did make 8 gauge wires. I found the same thing as you're hearing. Flat, as if the highs were rolled off. When I purchased the Bryston a friend stopped by and wanted to hear my system pinned to the max. He was blown away but later I realized that the cd player hadn't skipped like it had earlier. I checked the wire and I had the 12 gauge on. I swapped it with my 9 gauge and there was enough bass to make the cd skip again. I don't know how to explain it technically but larger wire does allow more low end to flow. I didn't care for the sound with the 8 gauge. I guess you have to let your ears tell you when you've gone to far. Cat5 is supposed to be braided, I think that's to cancel out electomagnetic field. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tillmbil Posted December 17, 2003 Author Share Posted December 17, 2003 Nice article, a weekend to do the right way. Not for me, I have more fun things to do with my time. Oh whell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minn_male42 Posted December 22, 2003 Share Posted December 22, 2003 the cat 5 braided speaker cables work well with some amplifiers.... and not so well with other amps..... there is an issue of capacitance and the load that the amp sees.... i believe it is dicussed on the website mentioned above.... i tried this cable..... it did change the sound..... was it better?.... not really..... i've gone back to 14 gauge stranded wire .... hooked up in a biwire setup for my KLF-30's...(i got a good price on the 14/4 wire).... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gunman45 Posted December 22, 2003 Share Posted December 22, 2003 Minn - You've got mail! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnA Posted December 23, 2003 Share Posted December 23, 2003 tillmbil, It sounds like you made them incorrectly. Each twisted pair should make a + & - wire; i.e. all the solids are + and all the dashes are -. Then, each plenum of 4 pair should be braided into a cable. You should use teflon insulated wire to minimize capacitance. I did not hear a difference when I switched from Monster Cable to 11 ga. equivalent CAT-5. I have seen measurements that showed CAT-5 to be better than common stranded wire, but well above my limit of hearing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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