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Help me build speaker cables please!

Howdy!
I’m looking for input on some home brewed speaker cables. I’m currently using cables I made from braiding 8 lengths of CAT 5 plenum cable together. They’re terminated in silver plated BFA bananas and set up as a biwire configuration at the speaker end. I love their sound, but think I’m ready to try something made from higher grade metal. I’ve been doing a lot with silver in my system and have loved the change in sound almost every time I’ve gone from Cu to Ag. The only place I like Cu better is in the PCs for my amps. That said, I’m leaning heavily towards making a set of solid silver speaker cables, using .999 silver wire from Rio grande. I’ll insulated them with teflon spaghetti tubing and possibly terminate them with silver plated BFAs.

Where I’d love some input is here: do I do one run of 10awg, or biwire 12awg to the woofers, 14awg to the tweeters and mids? I’m using a dared tube preamp and monoblock Ghent audio class D amps (500w into 4 ohm) which drive floor standing RBH 1266 SE/R speakers. They are 4 ohm and have side firing 12" speakers. They like a lot of juice and sound their best when given what they want, hence my desire for large diameter cables.

Cost wise, it’s only $50 more expensive to biwire. I liked the change in sound when I first biwired, but I also went from blue jeans twisted pair 12 awg to my braided CAT 5, which has a combined 9 awg. So I’m not sure if it was the biwiring or all the other differences that improved the sound.

Also, any other ideas for superb sounding DIY SCs are welcome.

Danke!
128x128toddverrone
williewonka
3,065 posts
 
Todd - me again :-)

From what I understand, one method of construction that appears to work
- only the signal/live wire needs to be silver - stranded will be better for longevity (more flexible)
- you can get away with a single 18-20 gauge conductor for the signal/Live
- the neutral only need to be made from good quality OCC copper
- the neutral should be 2-4 times the gauge of the signal
- the neutral can be made from 2-3 seperate conductors tiwsted tightly together
- the neutral should be loosely wound around the signal - not tight like the Helix Cables - one wind every 2-3 inches
- add 2-3 layers of expandable nylon sleeve over the signal to separate the two conductors.

I have tried the helix design on a short cable and it works very well
- I use conductors from Kimber cables - great quality copper and easy to separate the braids

Hope that helps
czarivey
5,666 posts
 

I've done quite a number of experiments with wires and best result I heard when I had 2mm solid core runs directly connected (clamped or twisted) to amp and speaker terminals.


toddverrone's avatar
toddverrone OP
840 posts
 
Thanks gentlemen. @williewonka I’m sceptical of using such a small signal conductor.. but I was thinking about a helix type design to save the cost of a silver return conductor.
@czarivey was there any particular solid conductor wire you found better than any other? Or are you not that bothered with endless messing about and just want to listen to the damned music already? :-)
czarivey
5,666 posts
 

Well, when there was time I was really willing to experiment, but definitely not now when I prefer just to listen to the damned or divine music depending on the mood or desire.

By that time I didn't have much choices or brands, but can assure that I used uninsulated bare copper wire shaped so they don't 'kiss' each other literally clamping that bare wire onto each terminal speaker and amp.


williewonka
3,065 posts
 
Todd - conventional wisdom says use larger gauge wire.

I was using 10 gauge silver plated wire from Van Den hul.

Then I received a pair of KLE Innovations gZero2 speaker cables - I wondered how could these skinny little cables better my 10 gauge?

Well - they trounced the Van den Hul.

They use a smaller gauge signal and a heavier gauge neutral.

Many power cvables are using 18 gauge wire and this application is for speakers, which carry a lot less power at normal listening levels.

I would try it first with some cat6 first a single strand and then a double strand to see what the differences are. Then you could move up to silver once you’ve found the correct gauge formula.

You could try the conductor from  Vanden Hul IC cable - its great copper and silver plated. Or to start with try the conductors from DH Labs BL-1 IC cable - it's a lot cheaper

Hope that helps
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