Glad you made it another day 😁
Please assure me I'm not going to burn my house down.
I recently bought some new mono class D amps to replace a stereo class D. I had a pair of identical diy power cords connected to the stereo amp and my preamp.
Well, with monos I was obviously going to use the identical power cords. So I needed a new PC for my pre, as the older diy version I had laying around just used thhn wire from Lowe’s and didn’t sound great. So, after some thought and research, I decided to make a PC out of cat 5 plenum cable. I kept it in its blue sleeve (containing 4 twisted pairs) and then I braided 3 lengths together for each conductor. I then took those three braids and braided them. What I have sounds incredible and I’m fairly confident that it is safe electrically.
Please reassure me. Or tell me I forgot about x, and that I should cease and desist. Or laugh at how cheap I am...
But really, I’m not going to start a fire here, am I? 8 conductors per length x 3 lengths for each conductor equals 24 strands of 24awg. Which equals 10awg for each conductor...
Well, with monos I was obviously going to use the identical power cords. So I needed a new PC for my pre, as the older diy version I had laying around just used thhn wire from Lowe’s and didn’t sound great. So, after some thought and research, I decided to make a PC out of cat 5 plenum cable. I kept it in its blue sleeve (containing 4 twisted pairs) and then I braided 3 lengths together for each conductor. I then took those three braids and braided them. What I have sounds incredible and I’m fairly confident that it is safe electrically.
Please reassure me. Or tell me I forgot about x, and that I should cease and desist. Or laugh at how cheap I am...
But really, I’m not going to start a fire here, am I? 8 conductors per length x 3 lengths for each conductor equals 24 strands of 24awg. Which equals 10awg for each conductor...
- ...
- 50 posts total
| Post removed |
The actual insulation around the wire itself is Teflon... I think the blue outer sleeve is PVC. @jea48 that was a beautiful post. Points taken. I have the twisted pairs still in the blue outer sleeve and all 4 twisted pairs are used in parallel, I’m not running hot and neutral or ground in the same blue outer sleeve. The three lengths of cat5 for ground are all still in their outer sleeve, then braided. Likewise for live and neutral. It’s rather rugged. There’s no chance they’ll short.. The only thing I could see happen would be if it was flexed a lot and very acutely. Then, if a few wires broke, the remaining wires on that pole could get hot and cause problems. That said, this was just meant to be an experiment to see what I think about multiple solid gauge conductors, separately insulated and braided together to form larger conductors. I’ll probably do something similar out of 20 or 18 gauge 600v wire. Any recommendations? OCC or the like would be nice. |
Todd - I buy the Mil-Spec wire form my power cables from Take Five Audio... https://www.takefiveaudio.com/categories/100-deep-cryo-treated-cablewire Email Take Five to ensure the insulation is up to code Here's the design for my power cables... http://image99.net/blog/files/be8de0c383c5434907610d6b55049e69-75.html Regards - Steve |
- 50 posts total