Fixing your cable problems forever.


Gang, out of a deep desire for camaraderie I have deleted a discussion I had about cable issues because I did so ignorant of how the first three words fit into history. My apologies if anyone could have misconstrued or been offended by it. My ONLY point was to wish everyone well for the holidays and talk DIY.

Please continue discussing here.

As I was saying, making your own speakers and DIYing your own cables is a permanent fix to the cable merry go round.


erik_squires
Rats. There was some good info on that thread. 

Let me ask a couple of questions about cable making:

Do you start with raw, exposed copper or is there always some insulation on it to begin with?

I've soldered connectors for a different type of cable so I've got experience there.

So if it is a matter of adding connectors, additional insulation, shrink wrap, etc I could do that.

Again the question of cost. Is it possible to do it for less than what you'd otherwise pay for?
Here's an example of what I'm talking about: 
https://www.partsconnexion.com/connex-interconnect-wire-cable.html
BUT!

Some people like to make their IC's nearly naked. They use solid bare copper and wrap it in cotton sleeves. So long as your voltages are low, this is fine, but you won't get the same noise rejection.

It's quite a trend.
Here were my other sources related to speaker building:
Parts Express
Madisound
AudioHobby.EU
Meniscus
Solen.CA
Great Plains
So, I watched some videos about cable making. Most of it looks very simple. A lot of it just looks like typical copper speaker wire dressed up a bit. Anyway, that’s something I think I could do if I was so inclined.

Have also done a little research on DIY speaker making. Some of the kits I saw were quite expensive even without cabinet material. Others like Parts Express have fairly inexpensive kits.

But I still haven’t seen what I’d be interested in: pre-made crossovers matched to drivers plus hardware like posts and stuff along with cabinet plans. That’s all. I’ll keep looking. I’m sure that even if there isn’t a kit like that I could go to DIY forums and get recommendations for matched parts. The hardest part for me would be knowing which crossover for which drivers.

I think I would be most interested in making a small 3 way tower.
Have you checked out Meniscus? They have a broad range of kits, with/without cabinets and they include all the crossover components. It's really not that much soldering. :)

I really don't think that the kits are expensive at all compared to what a retail price might be, but if you are looking for a budget project then yeah, i can see Parts Express and Meniscus being better sources.

Although sometimes Madisound has some pretty cheap kits, like their single driver fostex mini monitors. :)