I am building my frugal horn flat paks. There is some cat5 cable very thoughtfully included with my flat paks. I am using 10 amp extension cord from my amp to my speakers.
Without getting into to much BS, what are most sensible people using for their speaker cable? I am not much interested in expensive, and I am very suspicious of complicated weaves of cat5, or silver wire suspended in an air dialectric. Just what gives good performance at a reasonable cost
Without getting into to much BS, what are most sensible people using for their speaker cable? I am not much interested in expensive, and I am very suspicious of complicated weaves of cat5, or silver wire suspended in an air dialectric. Just what gives good performance at a reasonable cost
Whatever it is that achieves the intended goals.
Assuming you want the wire to do nothing (viz. its LCR properties do not significantly / audibly affect the behaviour of the components it links), then you need to ensure your wire has sufficiently low resistance to minimise voltage drop, and inductance and capacitance are both kept within sane levels, i.e. you don't try to minimise one which naturally tends to significantly raise the other.
It's worth having solid core, if only because gauge for gauge there's usually slightly more conductive material present, and long term, since there's less surface area, you reduce the potentential for oxidation increasing resistance slightly. If you can't get it, I wouldn't get worked up over it though.
Make sure the connections are minimised, and as good as possible -they've caused more problems than wire ever has. Ignore waffle about skin-effect -it's effects are utterly minimal at audio frequencies (with 10ft of 12AWG into a 2ohm load for e.g, you'd get about 0.2dB loss at 20KHz. If you can hear that, you're doing pretty well, particularly as the speakers themselves are almost guaranteed to have more variation than that, assuming they can even get that high). Ditto for most of the other nonsense the wire companies regularly haul out, sometimes with pseudoscience or misapplied science to 'support' them, or claims that science does not explain xyz.
Assuming you want the wire to do nothing (viz. its LCR properties do not significantly / audibly affect the behaviour of the components it links), then you need to ensure your wire has sufficiently low resistance to minimise voltage drop, and inductance and capacitance are both kept within sane levels, i.e. you don't try to minimise one which naturally tends to significantly raise the other.
It's worth having solid core, if only because gauge for gauge there's usually slightly more conductive material present, and long term, since there's less surface area, you reduce the potentential for oxidation increasing resistance slightly. If you can't get it, I wouldn't get worked up over it though.
Make sure the connections are minimised, and as good as possible -they've caused more problems than wire ever has. Ignore waffle about skin-effect -it's effects are utterly minimal at audio frequencies (with 10ft of 12AWG into a 2ohm load for e.g, you'd get about 0.2dB loss at 20KHz. If you can hear that, you're doing pretty well, particularly as the speakers themselves are almost guaranteed to have more variation than that, assuming they can even get that high). Ditto for most of the other nonsense the wire companies regularly haul out, sometimes with pseudoscience or misapplied science to 'support' them, or claims that science does not explain xyz.
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So happy to reply to this. I got them from Ben at Sound with Style, he only has a few left, so jump on. they came in a 3/4 inch coffin of particle board with "treat like eggs" labeled on top.
Thank god I didn't try to cut them myself, I am very happy with what I got, a good trade off skills and money. He has a big CNC machine (I guess) I have a tiny table saw and little spare time and kids
Around $319 including delivery, from memory, I live coastal outside major cities, took 5 working days, lots of follow up from Ben. I am very very impressed with the service and wouldn't hesitate to recommend and we are not related
Just plain good service!
Not a problem.
Solder is probably the easiest to achieve at home.
As for one or the other, we'd need more details of how much wire (total gauge, length etc.), the amplifier and drive units you'd be using to say. Personally, I'd say 'whatever you feel like. Life is too short to get hung up over wire.'
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bullpeters:
FWIW, I long ago jumped of that carousel and have be more than satisfied with single strand of #24 solid (CAT5 or better ) per polarity for both speaker connections and DIY line level interconnects; embarrassingly cheap - the most costly part is the time required to strip the jacket and untwist the 4 pairs. For the class of wide-band drivers and power levels at which of us here operate, this is more than sufficient.
Some guys go even further with enameled bare "magnet" wire - as small as #32 - much too hair shirt for me.
Solder at driver and your choice of input terminals - because I tend to move things around and demo a variety of enclosures, I prefer Pomona dual banana plugs and 5-way binding posts for speed/convenience
if you wanna obsess over the "ultimate" wire / connection better be prepared to sign over the deed to your house, and sell one of your kidneys - as Scott says there are far more important things to worry about
FWIW, I long ago jumped of that carousel and have be more than satisfied with single strand of #24 solid (CAT5 or better ) per polarity for both speaker connections and DIY line level interconnects; embarrassingly cheap - the most costly part is the time required to strip the jacket and untwist the 4 pairs. For the class of wide-band drivers and power levels at which of us here operate, this is more than sufficient.
Some guys go even further with enameled bare "magnet" wire - as small as #32 - much too hair shirt for me.
Solder at driver and your choice of input terminals - because I tend to move things around and demo a variety of enclosures, I prefer Pomona dual banana plugs and 5-way binding posts for speed/convenience
if you wanna obsess over the "ultimate" wire / connection better be prepared to sign over the deed to your house, and sell one of your kidneys - as Scott says there are far more important things to worry about
I agree that the ultimate connection is no connection or to minimise connections eg a regular loudspeaker can easily have over 4 connections/interfaces per polarity. Mechanical connections have given me so much grief in the past I now try to solder where ever possible. Ifyou can live without binding posts then cable direct
Here is the best binding post going around.
Buy Cable Glands Cable,gland,round top,nickel plated brass,IP68,M12 RS 52103000+53112000 online from RS for next day delivery.
ie No binding post. By using a cable gland you remove at the very least 2 connections per polarity and possibly up to 4 connections per polarity
You can probably tell I hate connections. I have had so many problems with bad connections with lab equipment I try to eliminate them where ever possible.
Buy Cable Glands Cable,gland,round top,nickel plated brass,IP68,M12 RS 52103000+53112000 online from RS for next day delivery.
ie No binding post. By using a cable gland you remove at the very least 2 connections per polarity and possibly up to 4 connections per polarity
You can probably tell I hate connections. I have had so many problems with bad connections with lab equipment I try to eliminate them where ever possible.
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