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My DIY spiffy looking speaker cable guide..

gotchaforce said:
7)-heat shrink 3:1: 1x 3/4, 1x 1/2, and 3x 3/8.
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Awesome write up! I'm following it step by step, thank you!!!! The order, measurements for stuff and lengths are the goldmine here!

Was just curious where the 1x1/2 heat shrink comes in to play?

I'll be using the nylon multifillament from Techflex and will post pics once I have it done.

Btw, I don't own a heat gun and found a hair dryer isn't hot enough. I use the stove or toaster for the heat shrink tubing. I use an oven safe mitt or heat shield foil (leftover from protecting the ignition coils on my cars engine) wrapped around the cable to lessen the chance of melting the techflex.

Here is my first attempt at cables... Let's see how the new ones come out.

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I found a cheaper alternative to speaker wire or lamp cord ! "LOW VOLTAGE OUTDOOR LIGHTING WIRE " :D 100' -----$26.00 :D
It has imprinting on it , one pole is a lot more pronounced than the other , so if you are not completely blind ,you can tell them apart :smoke:
Much better than the 16 gauge speaker wire ! what I got today was 14 gauge :D A little stiff , but great value :thmbsp:
 
My Canare 4S11 cable arrived today from Blue Jeans. Good company, fast shipping. I see why people like the cable. For $1.35 a foot it is a well made solid high quality cable. Much better than the Carol cable I got from Home Depot. The insulation and even the cotton is just a joy to work with and very, very solid.

I also got the Nylon Multifilament (NM) Techflex off of eBay. I found a seller who had some of the harder to find copper color. $10 for 25ft, fast ship with tracking number. 3/8 inch fits the Canare snugly.


Still waiting on the Vampire Spades, Cardas Solder and Heat Shrink Tubing to finish up the project.




By the way, this is my first time with Techflex and the Canare so thought I'd share some observations.


First, I used a pair of scissors to start the outline for the cut to help make it "straight around" as possible, then used a razor blade delicately to finish it up.


I cut too deep and nicked one of the red wires. Electrical tape to the rescue.


As I was feeding the NM Techflex through, I noticed that it would still snag on the exposed copper wires, so I took some electrical tape to taper the end off. This helped to feed the techflex over the cable with less snags and tearing.

I found the best way to feed it was to grab some on the tip of it and scrunch it down a few times/inches, then stroke that small amount down the length of the cable a couple times. Repeated this till done.


I put some of the copper NM Techflex on my old Carol single run cables (first foray from my previous post). Doesn't look too bad at all!
 
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Very nice speaker cables. You have got me thinking about this project. What about those of us with vintage gear that don't have the Banana jacks on the back of our amplifiers we have the cheapish spring clips? is the smaller gauage pin type fitting a good choice?

I have an older Sansui AU-717 and newer Polk Audio RTI-10 speakers. Was thinking of making the bi-wire cables for them with banana jacks for the speakers and then something for the amplifiers spring clips.
 
Benfield said:
Very nice speaker cables. You have got me thinking about this project. What about those of us with vintage gear that don't have the Banana jacks on the back of our amplifiers we have the cheapish spring clips? is the smaller gauage pin type fitting a good choice?

I have an older Sansui AU-717 and newer Polk Audio RTI-10 speakers. Was thinking of making the bi-wire cables for them with banana jacks for the speakers and then something for the amplifiers spring clips.
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Thanks!

I got my copper spade connectors directly from Vampire in FL. Shipping was a bit expensive and took two weeks, but they are best solid heavy copper spades for the price (even with shipping).

I also got 2 pair of these for old spring clip amps, just in case. Great feeling and very heavy for their small size. Solid connection. Haven't found any others quite like them, anywhere. One of the best finds for me in a long time really.
http://www.vampirewire.com/pc-88-27-pin-1.aspx

PIN-1.jpg
 
More Spiffy Cables

Gotchaforce: Thank you for a great tutorial. I finally got my materials together and made some cables last weekend. Nice project very nice cables. Thanks
 

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Considering how speaker cables are reputed to color sound in different ways, then it would follow that you would make them as short as physically possible? Does a 6 foot speaker wire sound better than say, a 14 foot one? Throw that one at the guys that sell 5000$ speaker cables.
 
There are lots of arguments about how length can or cannot affect sound. In my mind the shortest electrical path is always the best. In any situation for any application. Does it sound better? I can't say for sure. At least it is cheap for a given set of retail cables.

That is why DIY cables are a great option, you have more flexibility in creating your custom lengths.

As an afterthought, a good question to also ask is: is it better to have shorter interconnects or shorter speaker cables? Especially in a dual mono amp config. Which, I haven't been able to afford quite yet!
 
Echosphere said:
There are lots of arguments about how length can or cannot affect sound. In my mind the shortest electrical path is always the best. In any situation for any application. Does it sound better? I can't say for sure. At least it is cheap for a given set of retail cables.

That is why DIY cables are a great option, you have more flexibility in creating your custom lengths.

As an afterthought, a good question to also ask is: is it better to have shorter interconnects or shorter speaker cables? Especially in a dual mono amp config. Which, I haven't been able to afford quite yet!
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I have a friend that has experimented with this for years and he has tried things that I've never seen anyone else do. But at the end of the day, he arrived at what he felt was the best solution. He had a triamped system with Bryston Monoblocks, so he built an amp stand that allowed each amplifier to be placed back to back with each respective speaker section at about 2 inchs. He then used some ordinary 12 AWG wire to hook it up. He's repeatedly told me, and others, that price is no object, even if it's only 69 cents. The only improvement I can imagine would to hardwire the amp and speaker together and avoid any contamination involving the terminals themselves.

Best Regards,
TerryO
 
TerryO said:
I have a friend that has experimented with this for years and he has tried things that I've never seen anyone else do. But at the end of the day, he arrived at what he felt was the best solution. He had a triamped system with Bryston Monoblocks, so he built an amp stand that allowed each amplifier to be placed back to back with each respective speaker section at about 2 inchs. He then used some ordinary 12 AWG wire to hook it up. He's repeatedly told me, and others, that price is no object, even if it's only 69 cents. The only improvement I can imagine would to hardwire the amp and speaker together and avoid any contamination involving the terminals themselves.

Best Regards,
TerryO
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I like the "cost is no object even if it is 69 cents" quote a lot. I think my final amp setup might be a pair of monoblock Carver's at some point. The ones with the little round meters.
 
Made some of these cables.

Thanks for posting this thread. Attached is a photo of the cables I made using the thread. Used Bluejens Cable Locking Bannanas well as Canare StarQuad 4S11 cable. I used a more cloth like outer sleeve. I made a 8' pair for the mains, and a 3' single for the center. I've been using these cables for about 3 months, and they should be cooked in by now. I'm happy with the sound I'm getting with them, and have had them hooked up to three different sets of speakers (Polk Audio SDS SRS II, Polk Audio SDA 2Btl, and Polk audio SDA 2A. The center is a Polk Audio CSiA6.) Your thread was very helpful. Thanks :)
Doug
 

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Is it okay to use 2:1 3/8's heat shrink tubing in place of 3:1 ratio heat shrink? 3:1 ratio, 3/8ths (.375) tubing isn't listed as one of the products parts-express offers on their website. .
 
Excellent DIY cable thread! I made some out of the Canare Star Quad cable and another version using the Cat5 solid core cable. Still need to A/B them and see what the outcome is. The solid core do sound very impressive thus far!
 
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