Speaker cable/wire/interconnects

[bullpeters]

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

[Scottmoose]

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.

[Spec]

Bit off topic
Are you in Australia?

If so where did you get the flat packs from and how much did they cost you too get?

Thanks!

[bullpeters]

Originally Posted by Spec

Bit off topic
Are you in Australia?

If so where did you get the flat packs from and how much did they cost you too get?

Thanks!

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!

[bullpeters]

Scottmoose:
Thanks for very detailed reply
10 amp extension chord, more copper, more surface area
Cat5 less copper, solid core
Ur choice? Between these two because its a/b for me
Solder the connections or reply on mechanical?
Ever grateful for the wealth of advice I get from here
Mick

[bullpeters]

Btw they wire has no other things to achieve. Concerning capacitance, inductance et al

[Spec]

Cheers mate!

How coastal are you? I'm down in Wollongong

[bullpeters]

Batemans bay
If you are down this way, give me a shout and check them out. Maybe take a couple of days to get the drivers in them.

[chris661]

Unless you're going to solder wires directly from your amplifier to your speaker driver, use speakOn connectors. Once they're wired up (a little fiddly, I'll admit), each contact can pass 30A continuous, and they're rated for 250v use.

There's a reason they're used in PA systems world-wide.

[zman01]

Originally Posted by bullpeters

Maybe take a couple of days to get the drivers in them.

Have you got some hours of break in on the Alp 7.3 drivers?