I think I'm ready to start my first DIY project

[Sparhawk]

I haven't used heliax, but I've used LMR-400, LMR-600, etc... I wonder if they would make good speaker cables? 😀

Corn-picker: here is yet another popular DIY speaker cable design to consider:

http://www.geocities.com/jonrisch/s1.htm

 

[Corn-Picker]

Corn-picker,

I agree with Bruce; there probably won't be an audible difference. So, here's an idea for you:

Build some short, braided CAT5 cables, and put a nice fabric or plastic braided cover over them, with some gold-plated spade lugs and some heat-shrink tubing. Use these for L-C-R. They look really good, but they are only practical to build in short lengths.

Then use some 25-pair phone cable, as suggested, for the surrounds. It will achieve the same effect, with much less effort, and it doesn't matter what it looks like since it will likely be concealed.

I think I may do this, try both methods for ****s and giggles and see what happens.

I auditioned over a dozen speakers today, and you guys were right on the money with the Paradigm Reference reccomendations. I was auditioning bookshelf and floorstanding speakers in the $400 to $1200 range. The Studio/20s and Studio/40s sounded a lot better than anything else I heard today.

Now all I need to do is eat Ramen Noodles for the next three months so I can afford a good receiver and CD/SACD/DVD-A player Then after I have all that stuff to finish it off I'd really need a nice Panasonic HDTV Why is it I always spend five times as much as I originally intend to?

 

[annex666]

Floorstanders

...if you haven't already auditioned floorstanders from B&W why not try some 603-S3's, I've got these in my home system for music and HT and they're great for both.

Hope this helps.

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😉

 

[Sparhawk]

Corn-Picker,

I didn't realize you were looking at the Reference series; I guess your budget has grown a little? 😉 They are excellent speakers, for sure. You might want to look at the Klipsch reference series as well for an interesting comparison. I've always been a big Paradigm fan, but I ended up buying a pair of Klipsch RF-3 over a pair of Studio/60. I can't really say that one sounds better than the other, just different. The Klipsch are maybe a little more "in your face", while the Paradigms are perhaps slightly laid back. What I really like about the Klipsch is the very wide soundstage I get, and the fact that they are so efficient - a perfect match for a small class A amp, ie. Pass Zen or Aleph.

 

[Lligior]

I have made cables from both phone and cat-5
the phone based ones had 12 conductors + and another 12 -. I took the conductors out of the sheath and braided the in three groups of four. They seemed to sound a little better than the AWG12 cable i was using. Then ofter having a good amount of cat-5 left over form an apartment wiring project i decided to try again. This time out of lazyness i decided to just braid three sheathed sections together, this being must faster than taking the conductors out of the sheath. These cables sounded much better than AWG12 and some better than the phone based set. But the cat-5 based ones had 24 conductors each direction. I then made sets for friends. The shortest set was probably 10 ft long and the longest was over 15 ft. These cables were used and kenwood, regular pioneer, and rotel amps with no problems at all. My experience says go ahead. Good luck and get ready for lots of raw fingers and hand muscle cramps.