Hello,
I am looking for high voltage electrical wire for ESL.
I did find some which is cheap but rather big: diameter of about 6.6mm.
This kind is wire is normally used for neon lights and is rated for 10kV.
I would like to find some much thinner (between 2.7 and 3.4mm), for wiring the tweeters of ESL57 thus capable of withstanding only 1.5kV. I would use it as well for internal wiring of bass panel.
Nexans produces such cable (HT 306) but I do not need 100m of cable (Farnell sells it).
Where can I find such wire ?
I am looking for high voltage electrical wire for ESL.
I did find some which is cheap but rather big: diameter of about 6.6mm.
This kind is wire is normally used for neon lights and is rated for 10kV.
I would like to find some much thinner (between 2.7 and 3.4mm), for wiring the tweeters of ESL57 thus capable of withstanding only 1.5kV. I would use it as well for internal wiring of bass panel.
Nexans produces such cable (HT 306) but I do not need 100m of cable (Farnell sells it).
Where can I find such wire ?
1.5KV should be pretty easy. Maybe some ordinary Teflon hook up wire with an added piece of Teflon tubing? Not sure where to get it, but there's also test probe wire rated for that, as well as the wire used on the HV terminal of CRTs.
Hi,
double insulated litz wires or silicone insulated litz wires used for measurement purposes are ok. The thickness of the insulation is more than 1mm which is good for much higher voltage than specified. Diameters range from ~2.5mm to ~4mm.
jauu
Calvin
double insulated litz wires or silicone insulated litz wires used for measurement purposes are ok. The thickness of the insulation is more than 1mm which is good for much higher voltage than specified. Diameters range from ~2.5mm to ~4mm.
jauu
Calvin
Stereophile did an article on rebuilding Quads back in 06. It has several sources listed for parts, including one for wire. I use them in two rebuilds I did and they worked well.
This one looks great ! 3.65mm for diameter if I compute well.
Thanks everybody for your answers: not sure I find the one above in
my neighbourhood thus I will explore other suggestions as well.
Especially if they are made of high resistance thread wound around or totally encapsulated into ferrite impregnated plastic core , thus having 10-50k Ohm per meter as well as substantial inductance.
Alex
Really old ones with copper conductors will do...
Hi, I must admit that when I built my ESL@s I used what I had of cables.
Bias-voltage is run through thin (0,25mm) tefloncoated hookup wire, and signal before and after stepup trafo is normal speaker cable.
I have a bias voltage adjustable between 0 - 7200v normally running at 5500vdc and signal voltage is max 6000v.
I have not had any problems, flashovers etc.
Regards,
Bent
Bias-voltage is run through thin (0,25mm) tefloncoated hookup wire, and signal before and after stepup trafo is normal speaker cable.
I have a bias voltage adjustable between 0 - 7200v normally running at 5500vdc and signal voltage is max 6000v.
I have not had any problems, flashovers etc.
Regards,
Bent
One trick is to go buy some PVC tubing at Lowes or Home Depot etc, and slide a standard piece of wire inside it. It's not elegant, but particularly for prototyping it's hard to beat the ease and price.
Sheldon
Sheldon
This is indeed what is applied by OneThingAudio, at least on a (bass) panel I have at home and that was re-done by them.
In general wire insulation is very conservatively rated. But we are talking about lots of Volts.
You might try test lead wire. Or you might be able to pull the insulated center conductor out of some co-ax cables.
One day at work we tested some intercom wire (sort of like CAT3) and it handled 1500V.
You might try test lead wire. Or you might be able to pull the insulated center conductor out of some co-ax cables.
One day at work we tested some intercom wire (sort of like CAT3) and it handled 1500V.
Stripped RG59.
If you prefer thinner ones: small diameter coax like RG174.
Just one more notice: @ 20 or even 5 kHz distance is as important as breakdown voltage.
If you prefer thinner ones: small diameter coax like RG174.
Just one more notice: @ 20 or even 5 kHz distance is as important as breakdown voltage.
For information, "alpha wire" makes very thin high performance HT wire like this one: ALPHA WIRE|39X2215 WH005|WIRE, SILICONE, 15KV, 22AWG, 30 | Farnell United Kingdom
Apart from the price, it looks like an ideal cable (in my opinion). But really too expensive.
Thus, as suggested, I will certainly use standard test lead wire like this one: MC (MULTI CONTACT)|61.7605-22|WIRE, SILICON, RED, 0.50MM, 5M | Farnell United Kingdom
and add some tubing around it like this one: SILIKON ISOLIERSCHLAUCH 3 MM bei Mercateo günstig kaufen
Without tubing, it should be perfect for 1.5kV (treble panel of ESL57)
POMONA certainly makes good wires but hard to find in my country.
Apart from the price, it looks like an ideal cable (in my opinion). But really too expensive.
Thus, as suggested, I will certainly use standard test lead wire like this one: MC (MULTI CONTACT)|61.7605-22|WIRE, SILICON, RED, 0.50MM, 5M | Farnell United Kingdom
and add some tubing around it like this one: SILIKON ISOLIERSCHLAUCH 3 MM bei Mercateo günstig kaufen
Without tubing, it should be perfect for 1.5kV (treble panel of ESL57)
POMONA certainly makes good wires but hard to find in my country.
I run each of my tweeters with about 25 feet of "mains" power extension cord. Kind of like a garden extension cord, 16 gauge, 3 wire.... you can use the nice green wire for bias (about 1200 v, in my case). The insulation is pretty thick. Black rubber. Maybe 7/16 diameter. Bought a big hunk of it at a rummage sale 25 years ago.
My sound level meter says the tweets play as loud as they ought to (and my spectrum analyzer says they play clear as could be) for an octave beyond my hearing.
I hope that puts things in perspective and provides a reality check.
My sound level meter says the tweets play as loud as they ought to (and my spectrum analyzer says they play clear as could be) for an octave beyond my hearing.
I hope that puts things in perspective and provides a reality check.
Last edited:
This is really the one I should find: no compromise on performance, not too thick (<4mm for Quad 57 bass panel internal wiring) and affordable.
But whatever my efforts, I could not find any seller that ships to Europe (excl. UK) ! Anyone knows one ?
I've got one: I just ordered the pomona wire from Mouser Electronics.
Thanks everyone for your suggestions.
I received my order from Mouser. I confirm this wire is an excellent choice.
- Status
- Not open for further replies.