Cat 5 speaker cable

[Bas Horneman]

Stuart, I don't know. All I know is that I've not felt anything if 475VDC runs through it. (The teflon coated cat5 cable). Not really an answer but I guess it's safe for your average < 600v projects.

[sreten]

Originally posted by Puffin
Thanks guys for all your replies. In the U.K I can get Cat5 cable from Maplin Electronics.
However there are lots to chose from. Whihc one shoudl I start with http://www.maplin.co.uk/search.aspx?...enu=y&doy=23m2

Hi,

I used the purple unshielded solid core stuff - VB20W.

Don't strip the cables, simply plait 3 of them together.

Then one of each twisted pair to positive and negative.

You will have 12 100 ohm pairs in parallel = an 8.3 ohm cable.

/sreten.

[quickshift]

The LS0H - PTFE / teflon insulated solid core unshielded is the stuff to have by all accounts.

Maplin are asking £90 for a 1000 foot drum! Look elsewhere - you should be paying about £40 ish as a MOP

I haven't bothered stripping the outers either, I've used 3 or 5 cables braided together simply with the inner pairs seperated into + and -, heatshrinked and ends soldered - loads less bother than some of the methods I've seen and I'm happy enough with the resulting cables.

The easiest way to get the inner insulation off each wire is hold it over a lighter for a sec and pull it off

[Scottmoose]

Indeed. But just don't do what I did & hold it that bit too long. Result: the insulation caught fire. Large flame. Which muggins here decided to blow out. Molten / still burning plastic welds to hand. Much pain and cursing for next hour.

[Puffin]

Sreten. I bought VB22Y, which seems very similar to VB20W.

I am not following how you made up your cables. The cable has four twisted pairs inside the sheath Gr/Wh Bl/Wh Br/Wh & Or/Wh The cable has a mylar shield and drain wire.

If I plait 3 lengths of cable together, are you saying that I join say the Or/Wh & Bl/Wh for + and Gr/Wh & Br/Wh for the - on all three lengths ? This would give me 12 conductors for + & 12 for -.

[AndrewT]

Hi,
I thought all cat5 was UTP.
I see Maplin show vb20w as 5e UTP, but they show vb22y as 5e FTP.

What's happening?

[quickshift]

CAT5 is also available as shielded. I haven't seen it used much, even where it should be although that's probably because it used to be more expensive...

@ scottmoose - OUCH!

[Puffin]

I bought the shielded type and have left the outer sheath and screen in place and just plaited 3 lengths for each speaker and I have 12 conductors for + & -. How long does this stuff take to burn in ?

[quickshift]

Maybe you could experiment with grounding the shields to something to see if that has any beneficial effect?

I didn't notice any change in the sound of my system over time after I'd installed the CAT5 speaker cables.

[twitchie]

I braided several pairs of the 27-pair venhaus recipe (I can make a pair of cables in less than 8 hours) and I find that they can be really harsh, break up terribly in the highs and even sound like a loose connection at first.

To be honest, I don't know if it's any better than the home depot 14-ga (orange) extension cord I currently use, but I do know that my chipamps don't like the high-capacitance of these cables (no snubber for me).

I used the Belden 1585a - teflon jacket cat 5E for my cables.

Stephen