I want to try using 25 pair cat 5 cable for speaker cable. Can you say...garden hose?
Questions:
1) is this a reasonable idea? It certainly would be tidy.
2) how shouild I wire it? Primary colors for pos. and secondary colors for neg. <<or>> half of the twisted pairs together for pos and the other half for neg?
Thanx in advance for any suggestions..
Questions:
1) is this a reasonable idea? It certainly would be tidy.
2) how shouild I wire it? Primary colors for pos. and secondary colors for neg. <<or>> half of the twisted pairs together for pos and the other half for neg?
Thanx in advance for any suggestions..
should I strip and braid?? These things I don't know! I was thinking run it as is . What is the reason for braiding? I had thought the cable would be pretty optimal as is..but like I said, these things I do not know!..
I do have plans to biamp so there certainly would be room for the future. Am I better off just using 4 pair? Quantity of either is no problem.
I do have plans to biamp so there certainly would be room for the future. Am I better off just using 4 pair? Quantity of either is no problem.
My apologies, I was really just having some fun with you.
I think that may be an unecessary amount of cable. Mind you there are such varying opinions on this that perhaps I should have answered more seriously. I am a believer that if you are going to that kind of effort, make sure the rest of your equipment is deserving. IMHO there's no point in putting gold plated wheels on a Chevy.
For short runs I use 14ga. lamp cord. For long runs I use 10 ga.
I just can't make sense of boutique cables. I feel the monies can be better used on things like the drivers, XO and box. One mistake in the XO renders any advantage the boutique cable has useless. If you have done everything you can think of to improve your system, then it's time to invest you time and/or money into the cables. But, I've seen people go buy Monster or other cable before they even change the position of the speakers. I just shake my head.
I would suggest you try for yourself and use one strand each channel and compare it with 25 pairs in an A/B test. You might also want to try stripping a few and braiding them and use this in your test as well. If you notice a difference, come back and tell us. If not, consider yourself lucky, you just saved some wire.
I think that may be an unecessary amount of cable. Mind you there are such varying opinions on this that perhaps I should have answered more seriously. I am a believer that if you are going to that kind of effort, make sure the rest of your equipment is deserving. IMHO there's no point in putting gold plated wheels on a Chevy.
For short runs I use 14ga. lamp cord. For long runs I use 10 ga.
I just can't make sense of boutique cables. I feel the monies can be better used on things like the drivers, XO and box. One mistake in the XO renders any advantage the boutique cable has useless. If you have done everything you can think of to improve your system, then it's time to invest you time and/or money into the cables. But, I've seen people go buy Monster or other cable before they even change the position of the speakers. I just shake my head.
I would suggest you try for yourself and use one strand each channel and compare it with 25 pairs in an A/B test. You might also want to try stripping a few and braiding them and use this in your test as well. If you notice a difference, come back and tell us. If not, consider yourself lucky, you just saved some wire.
Thanks all...
The cable is all free and at hand to me. I was trying to gain the 'benefit' of cat 5 without the effort and pain in the rear of braiding etc. The 25 pair stuff is surprisingly thin and neatly arrainged internally. I'll give it a try sometime and post back in comparison to my lamp cord
The cable is all free and at hand to me. I was trying to gain the 'benefit' of cat 5 without the effort and pain in the rear of braiding etc. The 25 pair stuff is surprisingly thin and neatly arrainged internally. I'll give it a try sometime and post back in comparison to my lamp cord
I agree with Cal.
But just for fun. 25 cables x 8 leads of 0.2 qmm=40 qmm. That's 20 qmm, or 4 AWG, for plus and minus respective.
Regardless of how many you parallel (I can see no use for more than three), you should run them "Primary colors for pos. and secondary colors for neg." Cross-talk is the whole purpose of using the Cat 5 cable.
But just for fun. 25 cables x 8 leads of 0.2 qmm=40 qmm. That's 20 qmm, or 4 AWG, for plus and minus respective.
Regardless of how many you parallel (I can see no use for more than three), you should run them "Primary colors for pos. and secondary colors for neg." Cross-talk is the whole purpose of using the Cat 5 cable.
4 guage, he he..I never thought of it that way
I made a pair of these once, just for fun.
27 pairs of plenum-grade (FT6) CAT5E. The plenum-grade has Teflon insulation, which is prefefable.
You definitely want to use the solid colours for one side of the connection and the stripes for the other, as the whole point is to take advantage of the twisted pairs to achieve a very low inductance. But, as has already been pointed out, the trade-off for low inductance is high capacitance, which can cause oscillation problems. Especially with a 27-pair cable.
I don't think I would make another pair. They're a huge pain in the @$# to make, and the capacitance can be problematic. But they sure do look spiffy.
And I have to admit, I'm rather skeptical of the whole speaker cable sound thing... I think there are much better areas to tweak, that make differences that are orders of magnitude greater. Like room acoustics, for instance.
27 pairs of plenum-grade (FT6) CAT5E. The plenum-grade has Teflon insulation, which is prefefable.
You definitely want to use the solid colours for one side of the connection and the stripes for the other, as the whole point is to take advantage of the twisted pairs to achieve a very low inductance. But, as has already been pointed out, the trade-off for low inductance is high capacitance, which can cause oscillation problems. Especially with a 27-pair cable.
I don't think I would make another pair. They're a huge pain in the @$# to make, and the capacitance can be problematic. But they sure do look spiffy.
And I have to admit, I'm rather skeptical of the whole speaker cable sound thing... I think there are much better areas to tweak, that make differences that are orders of magnitude greater. Like room acoustics, for instance.
Hi,
I would try and suggest you do, 4pair (0.8sqmm) for treble driver, 8pair (1.6sqmm) for mid driver and 12pair (2.4sqmm) for bass driver to get advantage of bi-wiring or tri-wiring.
As usual keep the cables as short as possible.
Check your amp is stable with capacitive cabling.
ps. 25pair is not 20sqmm but is 4.9sqmm.
I would try and suggest you do, 4pair (0.8sqmm) for treble driver, 8pair (1.6sqmm) for mid driver and 12pair (2.4sqmm) for bass driver to get advantage of bi-wiring or tri-wiring.
As usual keep the cables as short as possible.
Check your amp is stable with capacitive cabling.
ps. 25pair is not 20sqmm but is 4.9sqmm.
??Hi,
my suggestion uses 24pair.
Choose to leave the 25th pair unconnected or try using it to augment the other used cables.
I would not bother with the screened, but if you feel like experimenting, I will let you go ahead on condition you come back and tell us of your successes and failures!!
It could save us all a lot of time.
my suggestion uses 24pair.
Choose to leave the 25th pair unconnected or try using it to augment the other used cables.
I would not bother with the screened, but if you feel like experimenting, I will let you go ahead on condition you come back and tell us of your successes and failures!!
It could save us all a lot of time.
More on the subject here:
http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/ffrc_e.html
The tnt-audio site has more pages about speaker cables than the on about the FFRC cable, look here
http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/diycables.html
http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/ffrc_e.html
The tnt-audio site has more pages about speaker cables than the on about the FFRC cable, look here
http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/diycables.html
It is unfortunate indeed, that such erroneous physics harpings are so easily available for all on the web.
Lest you assume the wrong thing, I have not stated that physics proves all cables sound the same. I have stated that the large part of the technical information you have linked to is in error.
Hugely so.
Cheers, John
Lest you assume the wrong thing, I have not stated that physics proves all cables sound the same. I have stated that the large part of the technical information you have linked to is in error.
Hugely so.
Cheers, John
I'm not going to spend any money. I've got the cat 5 waisting away in a shed. I'm going to try the braided variety. If it makes a difference, it will be interesting. If it makes NO difference, then at least I will have satisfied my own curiosity.
The only test equipment that counts is MY ears.
The only test equipment that counts is MY ears.
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