speaker cable from PC network wire

[Hugo Rodriguez]

In number 6 of 1996, John Day wrote an article in "Speaker Builder" saying that is possible to make a good (and cheap) speaker cable from PC network cables.

He says that 4 pairs of 24-gauge wires in one "category 5 Plenum-rated digital trunk line" can be soldered to make the 2 pairs required in a speaker system, with 8 ohms of characteristic impedance and giving something close to the "dream cable".

But John tell us that Teflon insulated wires cable exists and I tried to find it at the Belden's e-catalog and found that IEC 11801 cable resembles too much to that described by him, but not one of the different cables offered under this category is "Teflon insulated".

Probably he believed that FEP (flourinated-ethylene-propylene) was Teflon or PTFE (poly-tetra-fluoro-ethilene). Or perhaps I couldn't find the right one.

Does someone knows if this cable (under this category), really exists?.

If the answer is yes, please let me know their brand and model.

Kind Regards

Hugo

[planet10]

I always just call the Teflon jacketed stuff "plenum grade Category 5"

dave

[Hugo Rodriguez]

Hi Dave:

Thanks for the comment.

At Belden web pages, plenum is used not regarding if insulation is Teflon or not. Examples of this are the following cable numbers:

1501A and 1533P that are FEP insulated or 1585 A that is FRPO/FEP, none of them has Teflon.

I am confirming that John assumed the adjetive "Plenum" means "Teflon insulated" but this could not exists.

[Hugo Rodriguez]

I mean: "plenum category 5" not intrinsecally means "Teflon insulated". This also applies to the examples given above, that have such an adjetive.

[leadbelly]

http://bwcecom.belden.com/college/prodfaq/faqpplnm.htm

Plenum Rated Materials
There are many materials which can meet plenum specifications. The most common is TeflonTM by DuPont, which comes in many forms: FEP, TFE, PTFE, all of which are used in cables.