Cat 5 cable for audio?


Has anyone tried using shielded Cat 5 cable in an audio application? I am thinking about using short (12 inches or less) runs of Cat 5 as jumpers between the XO and panels of my Magnepan MGIIIa. Given the bandwidth capabilities of certified Cat 5....
slipknot1
As for the wire. No ,its just after building many pairs with different condctor counts that the 16 pair allways sounded the best. Chris design is good but overkill.
I don't think that Art "quit" the magazine. Not anymore so than someone running into you full steam, knocking you over and then explaining that you "fell down". I used that analogy as i think that such a situation is what it felt like to Art i.e. he was probably both bowled over and unaware that such an event was going to take place right then and there.

Personally, i've built a few sets of Cat 5 cables. 12 pair versions ( 24 conductors ) sound fast and lean. 27 pair ( Chris' design ) sounds very powerful on the bottom end. I think that somewhere in between those two figures probably offers a good balance. The cool thing about this design is that one can literally pick and choose what tonal balance they want by adding / subtracting conductors.

I do have one question for you though: How did you evenly braid 16 pairs of wires ? One can't do that and have an even amount of conductors in each bundle. Sean
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Natalie, your last post contradicts your previous post and makes this even harder to understand. You stated "16 pairs" previously, which to me equates to 32 conductors total for each speaker run. Now you state 8 pairs per side, which equates to 16 conductors per speaker run. Which one is it and how did you configure the cables that you did use ?

Were they two runs of Cat 5 simply twisted around each other ?

Did you run them side by side in parallel using one leg of the run for positive and one for negative or did you take one conductor out of each twisted pair for each polarity ?

When making this cable, did you leave the outer jacket on or remove it ?

Are the wires that you are using Teflon jacketed or standard commercial grade PVC ?

There are SO many variables to this type of project that you can't really make "blind" statements such as you did in terms of declaring one design superior to the other without clarifying exactly what design you are talking about. Sean
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Sean remidial math is availble or anal retentive coures also are available at your loval community college.