Survey of color wire used for projects including speaker etc.…

[embrown057]

Survey of color wire used for projects including speaker etc.…

It came to my attention today after receiving an order of Cardas chassis wire that there may be some problems with different colors of the wire. I called the supplier and was informed that the new spool they received is not as white as the roll they had left in stock. The white was more like a nude/flesh color. That was not as disturbing as being informed that Cardas will no longer be producing any colors other than red and black. I decided to call Cardas to get the facts before deciding whether to start using another brand of hookup wire. I was told by Cardas that historically they sold far less colors other than red and black and somewhere in between white. My question to all is what color wires are you using in your projects, designs and custom builds. I also would like to include our speaker and crossover builders. Even if you’re using another brand of wire other than Cardas please let us know so we can pass on this information to Cardas next week.

[nigelwright7557]

For my power supply I use 3 core mains wire brown, blue and gree/yellow.
Brown is B+, blue is B- and green/yellow is ground.

After that I just use the same colour hook up wire.

[planet10]

The CAT5 i use for wiring speakers comes in blue, green, orange, and brown. I use stripes for negative. I always use the same colour in any pair of speakers.

I haven't done any electrical stuff for a while.

I avoid black as it often uses carbon to make the insulation black.

dave

[jkuetemann]

My persnal guide is as follows (mind you I live in Canada, so these are the standard single phase mains colours):

Mains Wiring (single phase):
Black=Hot, White=Neutral, Green=Ground

Supply Wiring:
Orange=+V, Blue=-V, Green=Ground

Input / Output Wiring:
Red=Right 'Hot', White=Left 'Hot', Green=Ground

Everything Else:
Whatever is fashionable

My personal rules suggest 'warm' colours are generally positive with respect to system ground and 'cool' colours are negative. If I have regulated and unregulated together in the chassis I use different colours to identify them. All my conductors operating at ground potential will be green. My $0.02, and that's exactly what it's worth!

[embrown057]

It’s nice that I was able to get some of our experienced builders to replay. I was really hoping for quite a bit more to vote on this by Monday or Tuesday to pass on to Cardas. This may be a trend to produce only two or three color wire not only from Cardas but other like VH, Belden and others. So if we don’t want to end up using zip cord brown in a few years everyone needs to speak up and be heard. I’m not saying it’s going to happen but if the DIY community does not make their voice heard then manufactures will assume we do not care.

[simon7000]

Black is pretty much used by everyone for negative. Brown is used for filament voltage. Red is, duh, positive. Orange is often used for a higher voltage rail than the main rail. Yellow is used for the feedback loop to identify it among noise producing paths. Green should be used for safety ground. Blue is rarely used, but should be going to the output transformer. Violet is used for a negative grid bias. Gray is often used on the AC feed to the power transformer. White can be used for the input or interstage wiring. Now we get to stripes! The base color determines the multiplier the strip follows the base colors.

In the days of hand wire chassis it was not uncommon to stock almost a hundred colors in 18 to 20 gauge and fewer in thicker gauges.

[mickeymoose]

Planet10: "I avoid black as it often uses carbon to make the insulation black". Never heard/read of that. Any referenes? E