My new Cat-5's

gshisme · July 2003

To satisfy my curiosity as to the sound of cat-5 cable for speaker connections I decided on assembling some for the LSi15 mains and the LSiC center with the Rotel powering them. Gidrah braided them for me and I stripped and terminated them using Rat-Shack crimp-on gold plated bananas (# 278-321), solderless ring terminals, the Gold Series (# 278-334) and heat shrink tubing from Lowes (sizes 3/4x4 and 3/8x4). All connections were soldered..first couple being a little ugly but got the hang of it after a little practice. Rat-Shack didn't have spades in stock so I cut the ends off the ring terminals to use as spades. Used the bananas on the speaker ends and because of the bi-wire configuration the amp ends were quite large in diameter and thus limited me to the ring terminals. I would have preferred bananas.
Just thought I'd share my first creative endeavor at assembling cable.

I'll wait for some burn-in before doing a sound comparison to the Monster and Transparent speaker cables. Mark informs me this could take a little while since these things are so thick. Based on a short listen I must say they are missing some of the natural sound I'm used to hearing..especially in the middle to lower end and sibilance is evident. But to make it fair I'll give them some time.
Here is a pic:

pjdami · July 2003

Those look cool dude. Nice job. It's cool to hear the difference between transparent and other types of wire. I'm still amazed at the differences that wire can make on the same equipment (if your equipment is revealing enough to hear it at least; I would say that Rotel and LSi are revealing enough for sure). With the laid-backness of the LSi and the slightly forward sound of Rotel, wires can either accentuate the forwardness or open up the laid-backness without sounding bright or sibilant at the same time.

PJ

RuSsMaN · July 2003

Wow, Mark actually sent you some? I was *supposed* to have mine a couple months ago!

Looks like a good job, how many individual cables are in the braid?

Cheers,
Russ

MxStYlEpOlKmAn · July 2003

Threads like this make me want to change my wire on my rig. Then, I turn it on, and say HEY! It sunds good enough for me!!! BTW === Nice wire dude! Bet they sound awesome after they break in! Blue.............................

gshisme · July 2003

Originally posted by pjdami
With the laid-backness of the LSi and the slightly forward sound of Rotel, wires can open up the laid-backness without sounding bright or sibilant at the same time.

pjdami,

I think the Transparents do a great job of this. Again let me say I got to give the cats a fair shake with break-in since the Trans are already well broken in.

Russman,

lots and lots and lots! My fingers will attest to that. Not really sure how many really. Wish I had some extra lying around to let you know. Someone on the forum should know.

Greg

dorokusai · July 2003

G - Those look pretty neat. I'd be interested to hear about them.

Russ - Was I suppossed to send you some? Holy shite man, I am sorry if I forgot. How much did you need?

RuSsMaN · July 2003

He said 'Gidrah' braided them, that was the Mark I was referring to. I don't think you and I ever talked about it, but I guess we could eh?

Cheers,
Russ

dorokusai · July 2003

Oh ok, yea I can hook you up homeslice, let me know.

Mark is a cooler name than Russ apparently,

polkatese · July 2003

Greg,
lookin' good! do let us know how it sounds once broken in.

burdette · July 2003

This link looks promising for those interested.
http://www.duxcw.com/digest/Howto/network/cable/

Each wire has 4 separate twisted pairs, correct? How many of those sets of 4 do you use for a speaker wire??

Why Cat-5 cables/wires?

TonyPTX · July 2003

Originally posted by burdette
Each wire has 4 separate twisted pairs, correct?

Correct! Standard Cat 5 has 4 pairs of twisted cable in each blue jacket.

How many of those sets of 4 do you use for a speaker wire??

From the looks, I would say 6 wires for each run. (3 pairs for the braiding)

Why Cat-5 cables/wires?

Firstly, its pretty inexpensive, widely available, twisted pair construction is designed for reduced signal loss (back EMF), small conductors reduce (eddie current signal flow), and each individual conductor of plendem grade CAT5e is insulated w/teflon reducing crosstalk, and uneven signal flow due to uneven contact.

gshisme good looking stuff. I lost interest in my CAT5 project w/ the amount of time needed to put into it. I went as far as to rip the blue jacket off and braid individual twisted pairs. My fingers couldn't take it. That plus to braid 3 9' pairs took about an hour each...maybe if I can get some slave labor...

mantis · July 2003

It's the right Idea with the wrong wire.Cat5E is what it is,it's not speaker wire boys.....I hope it was fun and cool,the wires look nice........very nice.I'm intrested in how you guys actually think they sound.

Review please.
Dan

dcarlson · July 2003

I've read that it's a cheap way to get some good sound if you're willing to put the effort in. I'm interested in reading a review. Never heard the stuff myself.

gidrah · July 2003

Greg - You're probably lucky the RS spades were out of stock. I got some of the biggest ones I could find and they were too small. Lucky for somebody they are just crimped on.

I look forward to a good comparison between the 3. These definately are not the end all wire for every system and taste, but they will trounce anything close in price.

gshisme · July 2003

Mark,

The ring terminals worked perfectly. Fit around the cables like a glove. Just took a few minutes of snipping and filing to convert to spades.

Had a "basement" musician friend of mine over tonight to listen to a couple of cuts he mixed from his band and it sounded great. These guys are damn good..The mixes sounded better than a lot of store bought CD's I have in the rack.

Greg

My new Cat-5's

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