@dragon_vibe that's what I'd be worried about. If I bought silver speaker cables and didn't like them, I could at least sell them. DIY silver cables would be way cheaper but nigh on impossible to sell.. out of curiosity, what equipment were you using? Were there other silver cables in the mix?
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!
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!
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- 103 posts total
Todd - I have not "dismantled" either gzero2 or 6 cables, but the visible part of the gZero6 leads has two conductors twisted tightly together for the neutral - the signal conductors looked identical. The individual neutral conductors may have bee a slightly large gauge also Very early on I purchased Stager Silver solids, which were a tightly twisted pair. From what I have read, twisting conductors tightly disrupts the effectiveness of RFI/EMI - hence a screen is not necessary. I have never made my own speaker cables simply because tightly twisting a 10 ft conductors would prove extremely difficult. However, I did find this wire the other day - it might be useful for a neutral conductor https://www.takefiveaudio.com/products/1683-belden-9497-cryo-treated/ The two 16 gauge conductors used as a single wire would be 13 gauge - Using two of them would give you a 10 gauge - used with a 12 gauge signal/live would probably work well I think the fact they are "tinned" would be OK for the neutral, but I would not use them for the signal If I did construct some speaker cables I'd probably try this cable together with the MilSpec 18 or 16 gauge running through this teflon tube https://www.takefiveaudio.com/categories/118-convoluted-teflon-tubing-flexes-without-kinking (from above) Sorry I could not provide better info. Regards - Steve |
Todd - take a look at these conductors from DH Labs http://www.silversonic.com/docs/products/hookup.html I like DH Labs wire a lot, as you know - best bang for the buck in my books BTW the pricing on the AG- wires is incorrect - the price on their web site is for silver plated copper and not solid silver BTW - I just ordered the twisted Beldon wire above and the 16 gauge silver plated mil-spec. Figured I'd give it a whirl :-) I also have some Vanden Hull CS-122 that I can use in place of the 16 gauge Mil Spec to see if there is any difference from a gauge perspective Regards... |
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- 103 posts total