DIY speaker internal wiring recs

[zobsky]

Hi,

need some info on deciding on what (DIY) cable to use as internal wiring in a speaker that a friend and i recently built.

speaker type: rear loaded full range backhorn
driver: fostex ff165K 6.5" fullrange

this being a high efficiency system, cable power handling is not of the utmost importance.

i'm not looking for a discussion on capacitance and inductance (there are plenty other threads on that), ...rather, i'm looking for info/discussion on tried and true alternatives that have worked.

from this form and others, i have narrowed it down to

1. ubyte speaker cable - seems simple although many say they cannot find the appropriate cable in the USA)

2. cat5 cable, ..several variants available, seems like torture on the fingers though

3. thin magnet wire from radioshack etc ... - i personally use this is small guage for my interconnects, ..but for speaker cable ???

4. telephone wire, .. need info on construction ??



thanks all

 

[octopus]

In case you don't know...

Cat5 has 8 conductors and Telephone wire has 6.

TNT say you should use 3 (24 conductors - 12 per side), for Cat5 cable. Essentially that means 4 runs of telephone cable...provided its solid core type.

As I've read, you just twist the 12 conductors together, tin them or add plugs. But it takes a lot of effort

 

[Rarkov]

I bought 20m of Silver plated copper for £7 (~$10 US) (19 strands of 0.125mm apparently) and twisted 5 strands together to make my internal speaker cable. It is absolutly superb! And cheap too...

Gaz

 

[zobsky]

when you say "twist" wires together, ..do you mean a litz braid or something else?

thanks

 

[Rarkov]

I mean a drill at one end and a clamp at the other. Another choice is Kimber Kable. I've heard of that put to good use. Here are some prices of Kimber Kable per mono meter:

4PR = £5
8PR = £9

4VS = £9
8VS = £18

4TC = £22
8TC = £39

8TC is their top of the range before getting into their "Select" range where you can pay nearly £7000 for a 2.4m pair! Saying that, I have just read an article about some siltech cables that cost £30000 !!!!!

Gaz

 

[manners]

Gaz where did you get the silver plated copper wire from?

 

[Rarkov]

A great place called Wires.co.uk. It is PTFE coated 19x0.125mm wire. They often can't find it - but they do stock it!

Cya
Gaz

 

[manners]

Thanks Gaz they've got lots of interesting bits. Gold over copper, gold over silver, copper, silver over copper of varying gauges which could make for interesting internal wiring for your speakers zobsky.

 

[Peter Daniel]

What about copper foil? I use it for speaker cables and like the results a lot: http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17631&highlight=copper+foil

Comes cheap as well

 

[zobsky]

i have some 22Ga radioshack magnet wire lying around at home so i'm going to try those this evening or thereabouts if i can.
i will report back on how it compares to the generic home-depot stuff (this is for internal speaker cabling).

unfortunately, the main speaker cabling is still radioshack 14ga (a legacy from my student days) so i don't know if that will turn out to be the bottleneck.

i may try the flat cables next

thanks, and keep the posts coming

 

[zobsky]

update, ...

i tried using some 22Ga magnet wire on one speaker and used the stock home-depot type wire on the other speaker.

i did notice a difference, ...i can't really talk about soundstaging etc .... becuase i only connected one speaker, ..but an improvement in clarity and maybe bass definition was observed. ..if can get hold on an inductor, i might try the foil cable next ...