Hook Up Wire Suggestions?

[Tom D]

I'm going to be hooking up some new RCA chassis-mount jacks on an amplifier that I'm working on.

Can anyone suggest some good quality hook-up wire that would go from the jacks into the circuit board?

Is there any particular Gauge, Solid vs. Stranded that is recommended?

Thanks. Tom

[jackinnj]

CAT5 cable is usually very high quality and pretty inexpensive -- there are 8 color coded conductors -- it solders up very -- the only adverse thing I can say is that it seems to snap if you nick it with your diagonal wire snips.

[analog_sa]

CAt 5 is not that bad. If the insulation is not teflon i'd rather strip it. Kimber hookup is very cheap and much better.

[Peter Daniel]

And Cardas is even better, but you need solder pot to terminate it.

I like to work with Kimber wire as it's very user friendly, but in some critical locations, recently, I started to enjoy Cardas much more.

[tiroth]

Peter, you are referring to the Cardas hookup wire? (so many suppliers seem to sell Cardas wire under various names, and Cardas' site doesn't seem to identify all of the wire-only variants)

What about a hefty (100W) iron? I usually just burn the enamel off of magnet wire...

[sam9]

Since these are low level input leads, you may want to consider something a little different for them, namely comekind on shielded wire.. Because they are low level, they are particularly suseptable to picking up unwanted signals such as humm from the power supply, x-talk from the other channel's input. They can even interact with the output from the same channel and induce oscillation.

None of these are inevitable. In fact layout can avoid most of this (a few inches or air cost nothing and isolates fairly well). Still it is a precautionary measure that does no harm.

I don't think the kind of shielded wire is all that critical. I've found a few inches cut from a spare interconnect cable works fine. RG59 coax is probly good to but nuch stiffer.

[Peter Daniel]

Originally posted by tiroth
Peter, you are referring to the Cardas hookup wire? (so many suppliers seem to sell Cardas wire under various names, and Cardas' site doesn't seem to identify all of the wire-only variants)

What about a hefty (100W) iron? I usually just burn the enamel off of magnet wire...

I buy the wire from local Cardas rep, but Partsconnexion and Michel Percy sell them under cardas name. I use 20 (or 19) ga. It could be probably possible to use high power iron, but the pot is much more convenient.

My comparison between Kimber and Cardas is that Kimber is more laid back and lacking space, while Cardas is more lively with bigger soundstage (and maybe coloration?). I used Kimber silver wire (same type as TSS) and it's really good, especially in interconnects like Silver Streak.

[planet10]

Originally posted by Peter Daniel
I buy the wire from local Cardas rep, but Partsconnexion and Michel Percy sell them under cardas name. I use 20 (or 19) ga. It could be probably possible to use high power iron, but the pot is much more convenient.

19/20 g seems awefully thick for internal wiring -- Have you tried anything skinnier? I use 30 g wire wrap wire or similar guage magnet wire -- you need the trick wire strippers to deal with the WWW so you don't nick it (it works well with the Cat 5 wire too).

dave

[PhopsonNY]

I have used this and was quite happy.

Not too expensive either


http://www.referenceaudiomods.com/Me...gory_Code=WIRE