DIY speaker cables...What to use and where to buy?

MSkeezer

I want to make some inexpensive speaker cables just for the heck of it. I don't want anything fancy or exotic, just something that looks decent and sounds good. What's the best speaker wire to use? I was thinking about some 14 ga 4 conductor wire. Do Lowes or Home Depot carry it? And if so, for how much? Thanks.

Early B.

If you're gonna make speaker cable, there's no point getting cheap wire and making them yourself. It's probably more cost effective to buy them. If you're gonna DIY, the point in doing so is to make a higher quality product at a relatively lower price. I'd suggest ebay for long runs of brand name wire. Then go to partsconnexion.com or partsexpress.com and get some decent bananas or spades. Good brand names for cable are Audioquest, DH Labs and Cardas.

If you really want to stay in the supercheap realm, use Canare star quad 4S11 cable (4x14awg). At about $.75/ft. you can even use it for bi-wiring.

MSkeezer

What about the 14 ga in wall speaker wire from hometheaterdirect.com?

http://www.htd.com/speakercables.html

bmacker

In my limited experience...the more you pay for cable is not necessarily benificial to your system or your ear.

When I purchased my Marantz SR-870 reciever the HiFi shop offered me 3 different brands of cables to try..ranging in price from $10 (QED) to $90 (Naim) per metre to replace the $2 per metre DIY shop cable I was using.

The difference was staggering !! the Naim cable was terrible as my system didn't have the grunt to drive it properly, the QED Classic was perfect and so I bought the cable and banana plugs, and made them myself. The QED was so much better than the cheap cable I was using and I had never appreciated the difference that cables and interconnects could make until I was able to test a few myself.

If it is a home theatre setup then I would suggest you make the cables for the front & center speakers the same length.

If you can then it is worth while seeing if you can borrow some cables and try them out, throwing more money at it will not necessarily make it sound better...

PS: cable prices I have quoted are in New Zealand Dollars ;-)

MSkeezer

Thanks for the help, guys. I went to Home Depot tonight to get some supplies for work, and ended up buying 25 feet of 14ga/2 conductor wire for 40 cents/foot. (Lowes actually had the same kind of wire on clearance for 17 cents/foot but it was no longer in stock). It's this stuff here:

Carol

It's pretty nice looking and thick It actually looks like that Monster Z1 wire that they sell for over $2 a foot. And I'm sure it doesn't sound any different. Probably better.

I haven't decided yet, but I may end up getting some black Techflex sleeving...

Techflex

If I go that route, I'll be getting some 3.1 ratio heat shrink tubing, and some speaker cable pants:

pants

After that, I'll get some spades for the speaker ends and bananas for the receiver end. And that'll be it. I think the wire I bought will be pretty good for this project. The total cost should run me about $40, which I don't think is too bad at all. It sure beats spending $120 on the Monster wire.

doggie750

did you get your spades yet?..............where?.........pls.let me know.

MSkeezer

I haven't gotten them yet. I'm getting them from Parts Express, though. Here's the link:

Spades

doggie750

MSkeezer wrote:

I haven't gotten them yet. I'm getting them from Parts Express, though. Here's the link:

Spades

http://cablewholesale.com/catalog/audiovideoadaptors.htm
and CHECK THIS OUT

USE CAT5 cables as speaker cables...........heard good thing about it!!!!!!!!!!!
http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=286040
http://www.moochly.f2s.com/Stereo/Cat5.htm
http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10209&highlight=cat5