Outlaw Audio home shop products hideout news support about
Page 1 of 2 1 2 >
Topic Options
#23431 - 11/01/04 09:09 PM DIY Speaker Cable
curegeorg Offline
Desperado

Registered: 11/15/03
Posts: 1012
Loc: Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
I just recently completed my center channel set of solid core silver speaker wires.
I have yet to integrate them into my system, as I want to set up a little before and after testing using my auto-calibration.
Hopefully, I can get some pics up on my webspace to link into a post here... I will give some more details here pretty soon.

Not that anyone is interested in what I have to say, considering my 3.7 member rating. LOL.
_________________________
This post has been brought to you by curegeorg, thanks for reading.

Top
#23432 - 11/06/04 01:18 PM Re: DIY Speaker Cable
Inertia4u Offline
Gunslinger

Registered: 10/04/04
Posts: 65
Loc: Wichita, KS, USA (Near Incogni...
I'm looking forward to the info and pics!
_________________________
Nert's Home Theater---
Mostly electrically driven box-shaped things (with dials and buttons) connected by wires and cables of various colors, diameters and lengths.

Top
#23433 - 11/11/04 12:07 PM Re: DIY Speaker Cable
curegeorg Offline
Desperado

Registered: 11/15/03
Posts: 1012
Loc: Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
Well for the center I used 8 pieces of 5' long 20ga solid fine silver wire. These pieces are wrapped in 20ga (ID) ptfe spaghetti tubing. Audioquest crimp on solid silver bananas on the tips.

I will be running (still no time, stupid new car!) four pieces to the positive and negative high input, respectively. seeing as my center channel has builtin subwoofers, i have the woofers fed using an ic from my center channel output. 20x4=14awg for the highs.

the front speakers will be getting 8 (4 pos, 4 neg) 17ga for the low input and 8 (same config) 20 ga for the high input. 17x4=11awg lows, 20x4=14awg highs, which yields a total awg of 9 for each positive and negative side.

so, as you can see my mains will be bi-wired through the speaker cables, and the center is bi-wired from speaker cable/ic.

the fine silver wire was purchased from Hoover&Strong.
ptfe spaghetti tubing from McMaster-Carr.
audioquest silver bananas from the cheapest place i found (forget where).

(ill put up some prices once i find the paperwork)

you will also need a crimper and a lot of patience.

my center speaker cables are spaced apart using 1/4in tile solutions tile spacers (rubber x shaped piece in which i drilled a hole in each leg to space the wires apart). looks kind of funny i admit, but i suppose it beats them flopping about freely. i dont know that this idea will work on the mains seeing as on the one end there will be 8 wires and the other end will have 2 sets of 4.

this assembly could obviously modified, but i went for the highest quality setup without any decorative frills. i.e. stretch mesh tubing over the entire setup would have looked nice, but why waste the money on that... there are other things to dress up the wires, that i neglected to use as well.

i will have to say that threading the wire through the tubing is insanely tedious (20ga is all I have done so far at 5' length). there are also bad parts in the tubing in places, which required cutting and restarting. you can buy wire that is preinsulated, but it is way more expensive... also, the finished lengths will be slightly shorter than the cut lengths if you space the wires...

the reason that i chose 20ga for the highs is that "skin effect" does not exist in wires of this gauge or higher (according to audioquest) and only influences high range sound.

i am not sure how using two different gauges for the two different frequencies on the mains will pan out.

hopefully i can post some pictures soon and find the prices, etc. oh yeah and complete the other two sets...
_________________________
This post has been brought to you by curegeorg, thanks for reading.

Top
#23434 - 11/11/04 12:30 PM Re: DIY Speaker Cable
bestbang4thebuck Offline
Desperado

Registered: 03/20/03
Posts: 668
Loc: Maryland
Despite some of the tediousness involved, I hope you’re enjoying the ‘journey’ of experimentation you've undertaken! Any plans for an A/B comparison between your innovative creation and a more ordinary wire solution?

Top
#23435 - 11/11/04 02:11 PM Re: DIY Speaker Cable
curegeorg Offline
Desperado

Registered: 11/15/03
Posts: 1012
Loc: Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
besides subjective, i am going to use my receiver's auto-eq and see if there are any differences between my 12ga monster and this new wire. i cant think of any other way to test it with stuff that i already have. any ideas? seeing as wire "sound" is MOSTLY subjective anyway, i just want to see if the sound is different at all.

yes it is fun, and hopefully worthwhile!
_________________________
This post has been brought to you by curegeorg, thanks for reading.

Top
#23436 - 11/12/04 01:32 AM Re: DIY Speaker Cable
Tony S Offline
Deputy Gunslinger

Registered: 05/27/04
Posts: 9
Loc: Montclair, NJ , Essex
Quote:
Originally posted by curegeorg:
... i cant think of any other way to test it with stuff that i already have. any ideas? ... i just want to see if the sound is different at all.
Yeah. Make sure you pull the wire real tight so the sound at the tomato cans is as loud as it can be. Sometimes, if you pull the wire around a nail or something, you can hear a real difference.

Top
#23437 - 11/12/04 12:06 PM Re: DIY Speaker Cable
curegeorg Offline
Desperado

Registered: 11/15/03
Posts: 1012
Loc: Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
where can i find some tomato cans? man, i hadnt thought of that. youre a genius, tony!

the nail idea just wouldnt work for me.
_________________________
This post has been brought to you by curegeorg, thanks for reading.

Top
#23438 - 11/20/04 02:42 PM Re: DIY Speaker Cable
curegeorg Offline
Desperado

Registered: 11/15/03
Posts: 1012
Loc: Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
Got some pics up for you guys, check them out here.

http://home.nc.rr.com/curegeorg/

Yes, I know the site is primitive, but I dont have a clue how to do anything cooler.

The pics for the speaker wire (although a little blurry...) are towards the end of that slideshow.
_________________________
This post has been brought to you by curegeorg, thanks for reading.

Top
#23439 - 11/20/04 02:48 PM Re: DIY Speaker Cable
curegeorg Offline
Desperado

Registered: 11/15/03
Posts: 1012
Loc: Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
testing this new link in my sig...
_________________________
This post has been brought to you by curegeorg, thanks for reading.

Top
#23440 - 11/20/04 02:49 PM Re: DIY Speaker Cable
curegeorg Offline
Desperado

Registered: 11/15/03
Posts: 1012
Loc: Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
muhaha. i will put up some pics of my ht, in the my ht link as soon as i get a chance...
_________________________
This post has been brought to you by curegeorg, thanks for reading.

Top
Page 1 of 2 1 2 >

Who's Online
0 registered (), 117 Guests and 3 Spiders online.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Newest Members
Hedoboy, naowro, BeBop, workarounder, robpar
8705 Registered Users
Top Posters (30 Days)
patm1198 1
Helson 1
Forum Stats
8,705 Registered Members
88 Forums
11,326 Topics
98,691 Posts

Most users ever online: 476 @ 12/28/22 08:54 PM