Are there any issues with connecting speaker wire in this manner?


I'm considering purchasing some 14 awg solid core wire to use as speaker cable.  I will be doubling this up to make 11 awg speaker cable. My amplifiers, Red Dragon S-500, have binding posts which DO NOT have a hole drilled in the center of the shaft for inserting wire (they are hollowed out for banana plugs but that's not what I am referring to here nor do I need).  I'll be connecting the speaker wire without attachments, no spades, bananas, nor pins.  To get a good connection, it would be ideal if I could take the wire and, at the half way point, wrap it around the amplifier binding post, then run the two ends out to the speakers.  Will this work or will connecting the wire in this manner be problematic?  Do I need to cut the wire into 2 runs?  Thanks!

lcherepkai

@lcherepkai Indeed using 8 ga will certainly make the resistance very low.  I'm not saying that it won't work, just suggesting to start with the lower cost metals.  Send me the metal and lenth you want to use first and I'll calculate the resistance for 8 awg wire and compare to copper.  

And I'm sure you saw the suggestions to lightly twist the 2 wires together.  You don't want a loop that will pick up induced voltages.

Jerry

On Certain Circuits, especially Xovers, clamping in place of soldering is seen to be a upgrade for the Signal Path. 

I have not done this myself, but have clamped Speaker Wire, both Solid and Stranded to the binding posts., as a termination for Cable and Jump Wires. 

I have no wish to return to using additional connectors, that typically don't match as a metal the qualities the Wire has. 

 

Long ago I tried solid core wire under the floor in the crawl space for the rear surround and sub, figuring, long runs, ... Waste of time, didn’t sound that good, and who cares for rear surround and sub perfection anyway.

The wire is very stiff, and tightening a loop of two pieces of 14 awg solid will be difficult, and you can break the post if trying for a very tight connection. I suggest you hammer the ends together ’flat’ to get good contact and snug connections without too much stress on the binding post.

You could buy short run from Home Depot (they sell by the foot), try making the connection.

There is the issue of ’skin effect’ whereby frequencies on the outside of solid core are not perfectly time aligned with frequencies on the inner part of the solid core. Eh, at our lengths, a real issue?

https://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm

Multi-Strand, many small gauge, individually insulated is the ’concept’ I chose to ’believe. 1st try was 8 conductor telephone wire.

I now use cat 5 or cat six, oxygen free copper, each pair foil wrapped, SFTP. Here is Cat 8, OFC, SFTP, 24 awg. The other day I found 23 awg. 8 x 23 awg is equal to 14 awg

https://www.wirebarn.com/Combined-Wire-Gauge-Calculator_ep_42.html

 

cut the connectors off, and use WBT type bananas or spades

 

 

I twisted about 4 feet, taped, twisted other direction 4 feet, tape ... keeps you from having to flip the wire over for each twist.

I used two colors, red and black, so + and - were obvious at both ends.

wire stripper and crimper

Thanks for all the responses.  It's good to have a wealth of knowledge to draw upon but let me clarify this, I'm not doing this in an effort to save money.  I want to hear what titanium, molybdenum, and niobium offer as speaker cables.  As slugs, the titanium and moly destroyed the copper in every way important to me.  I also have solid silver slugs, which are very good and also leagues better than the copper.  However, I find the titanium to be quite obviously more detailed than the silver and the images are so clearly delineated, it makes the other metals seem somewhat indistinct.  Titanium tracks sounds better as well, moving across the soundfield.  Pink Floyd tracks are a joy to listen to with titanium.  And the moly sounds like the best of silver but smoother and sweeter.  As far as I know, no one is making cables with these metals.  A few have used tungsten, and the reviews are generally quite favorable.  I read that the niobium resistors are top notch so why not experiment with the wire and see where it goes?  

So, I'm not interested in copper wire, either Home Depot or the best Furutech/Neotech have to offer, which I'm sure sound incredible.  I really want to hear what these other metals offer as speaker cables and even though the convenience of spades/bananas are undeniable, I feel they would likely compromise the sound.  How could they improve the sound?  Less is more!  I just want to make sure I didn't wire the system up in a way that could cause probelems

Jerry---will be trying titanium and niobium for sure, probably molybdenum too if neither of those are the sound I'm looking for as the moly adds a bit of body without losing too much detail.  It is less precise however, so hopefully won't need to use it.  I'll be getting them in 14 awg with the length being 9' from amp to speaker and will be getting them in 18' sections to bend in half/doubling them up.  I could use 2 18' sections, folded in half and lightly twisted as per suggestions here.