Fun Project- Homemade Speaker Cables

stangman67

I just finished up my first set of homemade speaker cables for my Monitor 70's. Turned out pretty nice for a first time I think. I didn't want to spend big money on audioquest or anything like that but I wanted that "custom " look. So I did it myself.

Products used

Belden 10 gauge speaker cable from Blue Jeans
7/16 ID Vinyl tubing (makes for a cleaner round look IMO)
Feruz/Viablue braided sleeving
Blue Jeans Cable Bananas
1/8 black/red techflex for individual wires
Shrink wrap and electrical tape

Results!





I am working on the center channel cable as I type this.

EndersShadow

stangman67 wrote: »

I just finished up my first set of homemade speaker cables for my Monitor 70's. Turned out pretty nice for a first time I think. I didn't want to spend big money on audioquest or anything like that but I wanted that "custom " look. So I did it myself.

Looks good but the dates off on your camera

Also Audioquest wire can be had for cheap. I got 33 feet of their FLX 14/4 CL2 wire (which is like the Canare S411 everyone recommends) for 33 bucks. I got 3 runs of 11 for my front three.

My locking GLS Audio Bananna's cost me more than the wire lol....

However they do have some super expensive wires.

stangman67

Touche good sir, I never paid much attention to the date. I was speaking more about the already built up audioquest cables which would have been at least 200ish for the front three. This complete project cost me about 80 bucks and it will sound and look just as good IMO. I actually had a real good time building these up, DIYing always leaves me with a sense of satisfaction.

Ern Dog

These home-brew cables look sharp. How do they sound?

stangman67

I haven't hooked these particular cables up yet but I used bare 10 gauge Belden in my last setup (HK AVR-235, Polk RT800 mains) and they sounded great. I haven't used anything high end to compare them to but I feel these are right on the point of diminishing returns for me, especially using a budget speaker

EndersShadow

stangman67 wrote: »

I was speaking more about the already built up audioquest cables which would have been at least 200ish for the front three. This complete project cost me about 80 bucks and it will sound and look just as good IMO. I actually had a real good time building these up, DIYing always leaves me with a sense of satisfaction.

Yup, I figured, but wanted to point out they do have very good budget wire too....

Heck Face (I think) is running that wire to all his speakers for his entire HT and highly recommends it. And when a audio installer uses and recommends a product I follow suit

stangman67

EndersShadow wrote: »

Yup, I figured, but wanted to point out they do have very good budget wire too....

Heck Face (I think) is running that wire to all his speakers for his entire HT and highly recommends it. And when a audio installer uses and recommends a product I follow suit

Good to know. I like Blue Jeans stuff a lot, partially because they are located about 5 miles from my apartment. I can just run down there and grab whatever I need at unbeatable prices pretty much.

Gatecrasher

Those cables look great man!

I was going to use the same covering on mine but opted for black instead.

I just made 5 new bi-amp cables up a couple weeks ago. Here's one of the front "fat" pair before I terminated the ends.



I used a pair of 15 ft. 1.4s bi-wire cables that I got from my brother in law (you know what brand) lol, and cut the merged end off to split the 4 cables. Then I installed black PET braided covering and heat-shrinked it in place to make them look cool like yours stangman67. They power the RT3000p satellites.

Then I bought a roll of Canare 4S11 Star Quad for the CS1000p center and f/x1000 surrounds and gave them the same treatment including the split boots. Have less than $300 invested in all five.

I looked around trying to find heat-shrink tubing with "high" and "low" markings but didn't find any so I just wrote it on the split boots with a sharpie permanent marker.

stangman67

Ditto to yours. I love the understated plain black look! Your shrink wrap looks way better as well, I didn't have a heat gun so I had to use a R/C plane covering iron so it kind of messed up the wrap.

On other news, I just finished up the center. I got lazy and took a break. I am more than happy with the end results.

Gatecrasher

Those Blue Jean wires look pretty-awesome. The Canares aren't bad but I wish I would have checked the Blue Jeans out too before I made the final decision on what to buy for the rest of my system. I probably would have went with the Blue Jeans. I had never even heard of them until I started seeing posts on here talking about them (that's why this forum is great).

Does Blue Jeans make a quad bi-wire cable?

stangman67

Blue Jeans doesn't make their own speaker wire, it is made for them by other companies. For example they have Belden make them a 12 and 10 gauge with white insulation to blend better with carpet. They carry the Canare as their 4 element wire. They do make custom cables though, IE will pretty much make anything you can dream up, I went down there and hung out for a bit last year. Pretty cool watching them do their thing. I have a set of stereo audio cables I used to connect my old AVR-235 to an audiosource amp300, super high quality work.

Gatecrasher

Oh yeah, I just re-read your 1st post again. Somehow I thought you said they were Blue jeans but I understand now (especially since you made them yourself).

I have bananas on one end of mine and angled spades on the other. I use the bananas on the AVR and spades on my Polks.

stangman67

Gatecrasher wrote: »

Oh yeah, I just re-read your 1st post again. Somehow I thought you said they were Blue jeans but I understand now (especially since you made them yourself).

I have bananas on one end of mine and angled spades on the other. I use the bananas on the AVR and spades on my Polks.

Ya i might switch to spades

Gatecrasher

I didn't really select my ends based on performance or anything. It was purely for fit.

With my Polks, the bananas made the cable point upwards due the the angle the posts are at. It seemd like a lot lot of weight and leverage on the posts and I was afraid of possibly applying too much stress to them and breaking one off. The cables are pretty heavy. That and the fact the cable protruded out the back further towards the wall that way. I decided to go with angled spades rather than straight because the RT3000p upper satellites are pushed forward on top of the subwoofers and there is a large recess at the back while it's sitting. This seemed to put the cable at the angle with the least amount of force on the posts.



The bananas fit better on my AVR due to the tight post spacing. They stick out further towards the back though but I have enough rear clearance in my cabinet. I like the "M Series" screw-on pins because it allows you to easily switch around and try different connector attachments without having to unsolder them.

I use an M-1000 subwoofer cable to the subs below. It also has black braided PET covering that matches the bi-amp wires and the black Polks.

I might shorten the two low pass wires at the speakers one of these days because at the angle the cable hangs, the lower two are just a tad too long and need to be a bit shorter than the upper two at that angle. You can see how they are slightly bunched-up compared to the upper ones.

Demiurge

I know the braided sleeving is Viablue, but what company did you buy it from?

stangman67

Demiurge wrote: »

I know the braided sleeving is Viablue, but what company did you buy it from?

The sleeving I have is made by Furez, and I bought it right here http://www.av-outlet.com/en-us/dept_442.html


Real quality stuff. And thanks for the compliment Keiko, they sound pretty darn good too

breal74

Very nice stangman! I was in the same boat about not wanting to spend a decent amount of change for me on a nice set of cables, so I went the DIY route. Congrats and enjoy!