Made My own speaker Cables

specd_out

I used some how-tos and made my own cables. I got so tired of ugly looking wires running behind my tv stand and out to my speakers, and what made matters worse was that I bi-amp my mains. So i upgraded. I purchased some 12/4 stranded wire, techflex, heat shrink, cable pants, and some new nanner plugs. I dunno if the sound improved over the 12 awg i was using before but these look so much more professional, the look alone was worth the effort.

I used the Namakachi plugs from ebay and I was very impressed with the quality for the price. The clamp down tight on the wire and dont let go and they lock into the speakers very nicely too. They also look pretty slick IMO. I like them alot more then the monoprice ones i had. I took heat shrink and covered the set screws so that they wont back out. I figure it cant hurt.

Oldfatdogs

Nice.

EndersShadow

Really nice!

Syndil

Nice job, and good call on the Nakamichi plugs. I prefer them over the Monoprice too. If I may make one suggestion, it would be to put some heat-shrink around the base of the banana plugs to seal them to the rest of the cable, like this:



The more air and moisture you can keep away from the copper, the longer it will last before it corrodes.

EndersShadow

Syndil wrote: »

The more air and moisture you can keep away from the copper, the longer it will last before it corrodes.

Yup or if your handy you could always tin the ends of the wire like this:

thetawave2

Funny what a little techflex and a bit of heatshrink can do. Those are some handsome cables! Great job

Just out of curiosity, where did you get your wire? Mine is Canare 4x14AWG and I'm very happy with it, especially for the price.

steveinaz

Nice workmanship!

rebuy

What kind of wire is that? Is that speaker wire or house wire? Those other companies that sell wire that is 12/4 and the like, what are they selling as speaker wire? I've never seen "speaker wire" come as 12/4 yet I see people buying this wire and talking about how good it is.

EndersShadow

rebuy wrote: »

What kind of wire is that? Is that speaker wire or house wire? Those other companies that sell wire that is 12/4 and the like, what are they selling as speaker wire? I've never seen "speaker wire" come as 12/4 yet I see people buying this wire and talking about how good it is.

14/4 is normally in wall rated wire. If your a Monoprice guy they sell it. The 14/4 it stands for 4 strand 14 guage. Normally it also is listed as CL2 (which lets you know its certified for use in walls)

Personally I got mine (Audioquest FLX 14/4 CL2) from a local hi-fi store and 3 11 foot cables were under 50 bucks.

Here is the Monoprice version. You can also use the Canare wire as well that many (myself included) would recommend over the monoprice stuff all day.

rebuy

Yes I understand some of what you are saying but to me, it looks like this is just generic house wire that people are using for speaker wire some of it rated for in wall some not. It looks like wire you can go to Home Depot and buy and make your own speaker wire. Am I wrong?

EndersShadow

rebuy wrote: »

Yes I understand some of what you are saying but to me, it looks like this is just generic house wire that people are using for speaker wire some of it rated for in wall some not. It looks like wire you can go to Home Depot and buy and make your own speaker wire. Am I wrong?

Can you link to a product your talking about? What I linked to above is speaker wire, not wiring for electrical, thought it may look similar.

There are more than enough threads here and on AVSFORUM about making your own speaker wire and what parts you need that you should find what your looking for if you do a search for it.

rebuy

Considering I do a lot of reading here and observe things carefully, it still appears to be wiring from major cable makers and maybe not made specifically for speakers until the middle man buys them, alters them and calls it speaker wire. Sure some of it looks similar and probably performs the same way. I usually buy "speaker wire" cause it is what it is, on the other hand, right size, right materials, might do the same thing in a different configuration, just not called the same thing.

specd_out

I did alot of research reading reviews and tests done on cables. and came to the conclusion, that generic high strand count power cable from home depot will fit my needs. In my budget range I dont think there is much of a difference between 12awg speaker wire and 12 awg generic stranded cable. I have been using the same stuff for a few years just not in a sleeve. It sounds the same as my previous cable. The main reason I did this was for the simple clean look and I needed to replace my worn monoprice nanner clips. They had lost tension and would wobble around in the terminals.

specd_out

BTW thanks for all the compliments. I really enjoyed doing it

specd_out

Syndil wrote: »

Nice job, and good call on the Nakamichi plugs. I prefer them over the Monoprice too. If I may make one suggestion, it would be to put some heat-shrink around the base of the banana plugs to seal them to the rest of the cable, like this:



The more air and moisture you can keep away from the copper, the longer it will last before it corrodes.

I like the way that looks I may end up doing that

Spiffyfast

Great work, I need to replace my wires shortly

seabeerob213

nice job, beautiful construction, way better than mine

seabeerob213

ordered my heatshrink, techflex and pants, see if i can dress mine up anywhere close to being as nice as yours

jon s

From what I understand, the new theory is that it is best to use small gauge wire (~28awg) that are individually insulated (like magnet wire), bundle a lot of them together. This prevents cross signal jumping from wire to wire and also prevents phasing issues that large gauge has. I have ordered a spool of 30AWG magnet wire (3200ft/one lb spool) to try it out and see if that's true.

Morrow Audio cables follow this philosophy and sounds great. The more expensive cables have more strands, the cheapest cable has only 12 strands and the most expensive cable has 144 strands. That's going to be a LOT of wire stripping and use 2880 ft of cable if I use 144 strands. Will let you know when I am finished with this...

Spiffyfast

jon s wrote: »

From what I understand, the new theory is that it is best to use small gauge wire (~28awg) that are individually insulated (like magnet wire), bundle a lot of them together. This prevents cross signal jumping from wire to wire and also prevents phasing issues that large gauge has. I have ordered a spool of 30AWG magnet wire (3200ft/one lb spool) to try it out and see if that's true.

Morrow Audio cables follow this philosophy and sounds great. The more expensive cables have more strands, the cheapest cable has only 12 strands and the most expensive cable has 144 strands. That's going to be a LOT of wire stripping and use 2880 ft of cable if I use 144 strands. Will let you know when I am finished with this...

Whew, sounds like a serious build.

Spiffyfast

You'll have to track the progress on that one

dorokusai

They look fantastic, great work.

Mark

seabeerob213

jon s wrote: »

From what I understand, the new theory is that it is best to use small gauge wire (~28awg) that are individually insulated (like magnet wire), bundle a lot of them together. This prevents cross signal jumping from wire to wire and also prevents phasing issues that large gauge has. I have ordered a spool of 30AWG magnet wire (3200ft/one lb spool) to try it out and see if that's true.

Morrow Audio cables follow this philosophy and sounds great. The more expensive cables have more strands, the cheapest cable has only 12 strands and the most expensive cable has 144 strands. That's going to be a LOT of wire stripping and use 2880 ft of cable if I use 144 strands. Will let you know when I am finished with this...

from what i've heard CAT 5 wire works the best

BigGilles

this is just wonderful

nice job

keep-up

specd_out

Thanks guys. They are still holding up. The Nanners are still locking nicely even after numerous unplugs. Best part of them IMO is the look. They look so nice behind the speakers

Upstatemax

Wires look great!

I'm too lazy, so I let Frank @ Signal build mine.

Geoff4rfc

Those look awesome, way better than my attempt. I even tried getting fancy with homemade jumpers which didn't last too long, just went back to using 12awg wire for my jumpers. Heres a few shots of my measley effort.

specd_out

Those look Good IMO

jaf09

Great work, i might try it in the near future i just hope the end result is something close!:cheesygrin: