Here is an idea I am getting ready to use ...

There are two ideas behind most exotic speaker cable: reduce overall resistance, reduce reactive effects. Without going into all the reasons, the solution is to provide good quality conductors sufficiently separated, and not have a current conducted continously down the center of the current pathway. My choice is as follows:

I'm putting in pairs of Belden 8281 video cable for each speaker. The resistance of the sheilded braid is on the order of 1.1 ohms per 1000 feet. That means that a fifty foot speaker run would use 100 feet of cable, there and back. Cable resistance becomes about 0.1 ohms between amplifier and speaker. I am not using the center conducter of the video cable. That way, back EMF concentrated in the center conductor has no where to go and will not 'fight' with the desired current.

The problems introduced are physical ones. The cable will not flex as easily as normal speaker cable. The ends must be stripped back, the sheild pulled back and the center conductor cut off, then protected with small diameter heat shrink. Then the shield braid, without the center conductor and its insulation, is too thick to be used in some banana plug connectors or amplifier/speaker posts. I'll use banana connectors that can accept large cable. To restore insulation and appearance, I plan to use heat shrink on the modified ends right up to the banana connector.

While some effort will be required to make the cables 'speaker ready,' it is much less effort than braiding foot after foot of CAT-5 cable for long speaker cable runs.

What do you think, people?


[This message has been edited by bestbang4thebuck (edited March 22, 2003).]