Polk Cobra cables as IC's?

organ

I still have my Polk Cobra speaker cables. They need to be re-terminated and I'm thinking about cutting about 1/2m to try out as an interconnect cable. I haven't heard that many speaker cables, but the Cobra is my favorite.

I'm scared I may damage something. Afterall, this is the cable that's been known to kill some amplifiers.

For those who have experimented with this cable, what do you think?

mmadden28

Have any pics of them?

What was it about them that 'killed' amps?

nadams

I believe they were highly capacitive? Also, they had a sensitive ceramic insulation that could be more easily broken than others, and made for shorting out an amp. There's other threads on here that can lend some insight.

nadams

Here's an old old post on them (including the legendary nascarmann (RIP)) - http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-4171.html

Face

I doubt it would sound very good as an I/C.

megasat16

If what people have said is true about the Cobra being capacitive, you don't want to use it as an IC if you prefer wires without color. Normally, very thick cables and several parallel wire design such as Cobra could be high capacitance in nature and it's best to avoid them as I/C.

madmax

I'd do it in a heartbeat to see what it sounds like.
madmax

heiney9

Don't ruin a good pair of rare Polk Cobra cables for that. Most decent I/C's have a shield and a drain. They are not simply speaker cabling with an RCA on the end.

It would be a waste and not sound very good IMO.

H9

organ

Thanks for the input guys.

Megasat,
I forgot to post this, but I'm not running multiple sets in parallel, just a single run. People run multiple sets for a bigger ga. I think a single run is only 16 or 18ga. Mine goes to very sensitive speakers and not a long run, so one set is good enough.
What do you think about a single run?

Madmax,
I swear man, I think I got these from you. Do you remember? I think I got them from you or HBomb.

Heiney,
Oh no, I would never ruin them. The pair I have are a little longer than what I need. So I would only be cutting about 3ft from about each 17-18ft run.

Maybe I'll PM Ken S. I'll let you know guys know what he says.
I'm afraid something might go poof if I decide to do it.

kawizx9r

organ wrote: »

People run multiple sets for a bigger ga. I think a single run is only 16 or 18ga.

Thought people ran several pairs because of the high-capacitance. They wanted to reduce it overall by running multiple wires.

organ

Interesting. Last I heard it was to increase wire size. Ok, I'll PM Ken now.

megasat16

I think the Cobra cables is composed of multiple wires run in parallel inside one big thick cable? I have never seen it so if you have pic of it, it would be real helpful for informational purposes.

After you cut the Cobra to the length you want and you found multi-wires inside the thick speaker wire, you may as well use one wire (if there is an insulation / jacket on each wire) for the I/C and it should work fine. Just don't use the whole thick speaker wire as an I/C.

I also agree with H9 about normal wires using as I/C without proper shielding is not a good idea. You can buy shielding from the parts express, I think.

From digging the old threads around, I found this.

POLK (COBRA) SPEAKER CABLE (IN PARALLEL ONLY!)- This speaker wire (8 cables in parallel) has proven to be superior to every other cable that I have compared with it, at all prices points, for over 25 years now. It was even far superior to the $15,000, top-of-the-line Kimber at the Las Vegas CES show a few years ago.

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38160&highlight=cobra+speaker

http://www.high-endaudio.com/RC-SpkrCab.html

madmax

organ wrote: »

Madmax,
I swear man, I think I got these from you. Do you remember? I think I got them from you or HBomb.

Yeah, I think those are my old ones.

organ

Megasat,
Sorry, my bro took the camera. I'll post a pic when I get it from him. But the wire is pretty much exactly like you described. I have the flat version. They made a round and flat version.
Thanks a lot for the links. Very interesting reading. I will look for some insulation. Thanks again.




OK, I'm going to give this a shot. Here's my short conversation with Ken:

"Hi Ken,
I have a long run of Polk Cobra cables. If I cut a 3ft pair, can I use them as interconnect cables? I'm worried about the capacitive nature of the cable. It would be going between the tube output of my cd player and my tube integrated amp.

Thanks"

Ken's reply:
"Hello!
The output impedance of the CD player should be low enough that the relatively small capacitance of the cable shouldn't matter. Give it a try.
Ken"


Well, the guy who will be working on my Cobras is the same guy who built my cd player, so I'll have him check the impedance and take some measurements to make sure it's ok.

I will probably have this done in about a month or so. I'll let you guys know how it goes.

megasat16

Yeah, give it a shot. As long as you keep I/C to one wire (if it got it's own insulation jacket) for each channel, I think capacitance problem should not be an issue. 3' is a short length but I still think crosstalk between R and L channels and there is a high chance of noise and interference due to no copper foil shielding. But I don't see why not give it a try?

madmax

Don't forget that each strand is coated with insulation.