Your Speaker Cables...

[jleaman]

I'm using 'pure' silver wires, in a teflon tube without connectors.
Diameter is 0.4 mm.
This is an old picture, currently I use 2 strands in parallel for each side (so 4 strands per speaker) and have built my own gain clone clone to which the wires are soldered directly.
The teflon & silver are about €6 per meter, which makes it about €25 for stereo

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THis is exactly what im going to do BUT im going to do a little more to the wires and arangment to make it a little nicer and hopefully better : O ) ANy one care to know what im going to do ?

 

[Bill Fitzpatrick]

ANy one care to know what im going to do ?

I can't speak for others but I don't give a hoot.

 

[audio-kraut]

I am using canare star quad cables 4S11. Nice neutral in grey

 

[squadra]

THis is exactly what im going to do BUT im going to do a little more to the wires and arangment to make it a little nicer and hopefully better : O ) ANy one care to know what im going to do ?

I don't know what you're going to do to the wires, but you could try it "my" way first.
Otherwise there is no way of knowing if your way is better

 

[ChrisN]

I am using canare star quad cables 4S11. Nice neutral in grey

Yep, for get about silver maty. canare star quad cables 4S11 cheap, no wow effect but just very natural and well balance sound with good two end extension.

 

[Andy G]

Braided Cat5e cables to the line arrays from the Dynacos. Spades at the Dynaco end (not done when pic taken), bananas at speaker end.

Some reasonably thick OFC copper for the bass units.

and yes, there is (imo) a difference in sound between the QED silver I used to have and the Cat5e cables.

 

[gfinlayson]

Mine are good old Belden 1810A bi-wire. As my speakers have series crossovers and only one pair of binding posts, I just doubled up, so I have two 14AWG wires going to each binding post. For neatness (OK, maybe some pose value as well ), the cables are sleeved in expandable braided with red and black heatshrink on the ends.

Connectors are filed out Ixos spades (binding posts are massive) at the speaker , and Neutrik Speakon at the amp.

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An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.

 

[Mutley666]

gfinlayson, where did you get the braided sleeving from? Looks alot better than the stuff I've been able to locate so far (really nasty pastic rubbish!)

 

[wilco]

You could try this site for you braided sleeving

 

[gfinlayson]

I got the sleeving from RS Components , stock number 419-8527. It's made by Hellermann Tyton and comes in a few different sizes.

 

[jleaman]

Partsexpress.com also sells tech-Flex that is where i buy mine from. They have a huge assortment of colors too.!

 

[jleaman]

What do people normaly like to use. Spades OR Bannana Jacks ?

 

[Curmudgeon]

Spades. Large contact area, higher, more consistent pressure. Michael Percy sells a nice selection, and gives the post diameter that the lug will fit; usually 0.25" or 9 mm.

Locking banana plugs seem like a good idea at first; however I read Nelson Pass' comments about the plating being scraped off when they are twisted. The next weekend I looked at a friend's locking bananas, and indeed the bare brass was exposed. Friend had commented on how often he needed to clean his systems' connections....

FWIW, I like Rhodium plate. Gold ranges from thin flash over copper (which diffuses through the gold quickly) to heavy gold over nickel or other barrier metal. I'm never sure of exactly what I'm getting with gold, and the rhodium seems to not require frequent cleaning.

 

[jleaman]

I'm going to be using these on all my cable's. Yet another 200$ us spent on silver wire

 

[phn]

Rhodium is much harder and wear-resistant than nickel. It's used by the military in critical areas. It's kind of strange that it's not standard in the harshest, most inhospitable environment known to man--the recording studio.

How the plating is applied I don't know.

 

[jleaman]

Rhodium is much harder and wear-resistant than nickel. It's used by the military in critical areas. It's kind of strange that it's not standard in the harshest, most inhospitable environment known to man--the recording studio.

How the plating is applied I don't know.

I get all my silver /teflon wire from the military base in the us

 

[The Paulinator]

I'm going to be using these on all my cable's. Yet another 200$ us spent on silver wire

If you're spending that kind of money on Silver Speaker wire, I've got some specialized lamp cord from my local hardware store that will sound just as good. And I'll even sweeten the deal with some incredible interconnects that came with my DVD player.

 

[jleaman]

If you're spending that kind of money on Silver Speaker wire, I've got some specialized lamp cord from my local hardware store that will sound just as good. And I'll even sweeten the deal with some incredible interconnects that came with my DVD player.

Funny you say that.. Lamp cord is really not that good for audio.

 

[phn]

Paulinator, if somebody is happy to spend $200, more power to him.

Having that said, never forget: we are into DIY in order to make things smarter, not more expensive.

Yeah, military surplus is our friend. I use Russian military-grade caps as often as possible. Big, heavy and built to last.

 

[Nuuk]

f you're spending that kind of money on Silver Speaker wire, I've got some specialized lamp cord from my local hardware store that will sound just as good. And I'll even sweeten the deal with some incredible interconnects that came with my DVD player.

Yes, a valid point for DIY! But, taking into consideration who started this thread, perhaps we should establish if the information requested is for DIY or commercial use! As a cable supplier, you can't really advertise 'audio-grade lamp cord', can you?