DIY loudspeaker cable

[Adam Bernau]

Hi guys,
I have some interesting experience wit DIY loudspeaker cable made from two RG 213 cables, and the cable was very interesting and in terms of subjective listening and blind tests the result was comparable to some very expensive ones. Now i am searching for some more decent, smaller diameter DIY cable for my small speakers (preferably smaller diameter than the garden hose of the previous). I have read about using some phone cables but i have difficulties to find any DIY speaker cable on this pages.

So i have decided to ask you, DIY colleagues for help, or "insider tip".
Any recomendations will be welcomed, thank you and merry Christmas !

[soongsc]

not phone cables, cat 5e/cat 6

[LAJ]

I use heavy duty zip cord. Its probably 14 gauge. Its worked very well for me.

[JBCobra]

Whipped these up. Seem to sound pretty good

[sdclc126]

I don't mean to rain on your parade, but DIY cable IMHO is only for the satisfaction of having made it yourself, not for sound improvement.

This is a subject hot for debate, but cables don't distort signals, therefore they don't affect what you hear. One of the greatest rip-offs of audio is boutique cables - ones costing hundreds to thousands of dollars, and to my knowledge there has never been any scientific evidence that they improve sound. In order for cable A to sound better than cable B, cable A must be audibly distorting the signal, and cable B less so. I have never seen any data to support this.

Thick cables look cool, which is fine, but that's about it. Building your own may be fun, but to me it's time, work and effort better spent on the speakers.

BTW - Car amplifier cable is about the best value, dollar per foot, and getting up to something like 8 AWG definitely affords some visual impact to your system, if you want to go that route.

[Pit Hinder]

Cheapest solid core is better than any megabuck nonsense - but your Country Club buddies will say "so you haven´t yet sold your Porsche to get better sound?"

[JBCobra]

All they are is nice looking Canare /Star Quad and cost me next to nothing

[a.wayne]

Are you saying cables don't alter the sound or are you saying there is no good, better, best ?

Different cables do have different sound IMO , not necessarily good, better, best and you can measure them, their electrical properties (RLC) and phase angle tells the tale.

[AndrewT]

Hi,
different cables/interconnect have different combinations of L+C+R due to the different physical geometry and to a lesser extent different dielectric.

Both amplifiers and speakers are affected by what is attached to the outputs and inputs respectively.

Any differences in sound output by changing cables is an indication of how sensitive your amplifier and speaker are to reactive loading. It not the copper that changes the sound. It is the spacing between the copper conductors that can change the amplifier's and can change the speaker's reproduction abilities.

[jrenkin]

I like this stuff. Could be cheaper though.

AR Pro II Microflat Speaker Wire 18 AWG 30 ft. | Parts-Express.com