DIY Speaker Cable

NotALamer
NotALamer Posts: 4
edited October 2005 in DIY, Mods & Tweaks
I'm planning on making a Full Frequency Range Cable and I was thinking I might be able to make it more compact by removing the jackets on the individual cat5 cables. I don't see any reason this would affect the performance of the cable, and removing the jackets would make it much less bulky. Does this make any sense? I don't know a whole lot about speaker cables so let me know if I'm way off base here.
Post edited by NotALamer on
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  • thehaens@cox.net
    thehaens@cox.net Posts: 1,012
    edited October 2005
    Check out this link , I got the same idea and made one years ago from this link and made one. I used 3 15 foot strands (after braiding it was about 12 feet long) and braided it. The cable isn't aesthetically pleasing to the eye, but if you have a few hours to kill try it out....

    BTW - I didn't notice any sonic difference from the cable I am currently using (Monster Z3) so I ended up tossing the CAT-5.....

    If you do a google search CAT-5 Speaker Cable you'll see a lot of instructions on this..

    scott
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  • steveinaz
    steveinaz Posts: 19,538
    edited October 2005
    NotALamer wrote:
    I'm planning on making a Full Frequency Range Cable and I was thinking I might be able to make it more compact by removing the jackets on the individual cat5 cables. I don't see any reason this would affect the performance of the cable, and removing the jackets would make it much less bulky. Does this make any sense? I don't know a whole lot about speaker cables so let me know if I'm way off base here.

    I wouldn't recommend that. The idea of leaving the strands insulated is to reduce "strand jumping." A type of Hyperlitz array so to speak.
    Source: Bluesound Node 2i - Preamp/DAC: Benchmark DAC2 DX - Amp: Parasound Halo A21 - Speakers: MartinLogan Motion 60XTi - Shop Rig: Yamaha A-S501 Integrated - Shop Spkrs: Elac Debut 2.0 B5.2
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  • mantis
    mantis Posts: 17,200
    edited October 2005
    I wouldn't waste my time trying to build something that has already been perfected at a good price.

    If this kind of thinking goes into your speaker wire, look no further then Kimber Kable 4pr or 8pr. Excellent quality wire at a great price. You can buy it in bulk or buy it terminated. Forget the cat5 speaker wire. It's been done in 1979.

    Dan
    Dan
    My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time.
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  • steveinaz
    steveinaz Posts: 19,538
    edited October 2005
    Dan's right, unless you just want to DIY for the enjoyment/satisfaction factor.
    Source: Bluesound Node 2i - Preamp/DAC: Benchmark DAC2 DX - Amp: Parasound Halo A21 - Speakers: MartinLogan Motion 60XTi - Shop Rig: Yamaha A-S501 Integrated - Shop Spkrs: Elac Debut 2.0 B5.2
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  • NotALamer
    NotALamer Posts: 4
    edited October 2005
    I'm building it because I like to DIY and it's a pretty simple project, not because I think I can drastically improve the cat5 speaker cable design or anything like that.

    When I said remove the jackets I didn't mean the insulation around the individual wires. There are three lengths of cat5 per speaker cable and each one has four twisted pairs with a jacket around it. If I remove the three jackets the individual wires will still be insulated, so it is still a Litz wire.
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  • gidrah
    gidrah Posts: 3,049
    edited October 2005
    I built a couple of pairs of these and was pretty impressed. Not the best I've heard, but it was pretty inexpensive and kinda fun.
    Make it Funky! :)
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