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Transparent HP14-2 speaker cable

62vauxhall

62vauxhall

Addicted Member
Not looking for an opinion about it's merits or lack thereof, just a "why is it made this way" question.

I bought what turned out to be a 47' length of the stuff for $5 and at the time did not know of the brand - Transparent. It was obviously speaker cable - that was even imprinted on the outer jacket as were arrows indication directionality. At first glance, I thought there were 4 conductors inside, two thick and two thinner ones but there were only two. The thick ones were the wire and the two thinner ones, solid strands of "insulation".

Since I could not find any explanation of the purpose for those strands of insulation (even on the Transparent company's website) I thought I'd ask here.

The only benefit that comes to my mind is to "fill in the gap" on both sides of the conductors so the outer jacket maintains an evenly round cross section.

Does that sound reasonable or is there some electrical property going on here that escapes me?

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62vauxhall said:
is there some electrical property going on here that escapes me?
Click to expand...
None. The spacing of conductors affects inductance and capacitance, but the arrangement shown would have the same inductance and capacitance without the insulating strands.

It appears to be intended to make the cable look fat, or perhaps be different for the sake of being different. Wires aren't directional, either, so any directional indicator is meaningless.
 
DaveVoorhis said:
None. The spacing of conductors affects inductance and capacitance, but the arrangement shown would have the same inductance and capacitance without the insulating strands.

It appears to be intended to make the cable look fat, or perhaps be different for the sake of being different. Wires aren't directional, either, so any directional indicator is meaningless.
Click to expand...

Thought so - and thanks.
 
Let me get this straight ......

You got 47' (that's feet!!) of Transparent cable for $5 ???




You done real good.
 
Yes, 47 feet.

The store it came from sells mostly re-cycled reno material (doors, cabinets, fixtures), unwanted furniture, various kinds of hardware, tools, etc. The shop's owner will though, take pretty much anything someone wants carted away. There is sometimes the odd bit of electronics such a Sony WM-D6 Walkman ($2.50), a pair of Boston Acoustic A70 speakers ($2.00), a pair of homemade solid hardwood speaker stands ($2.00). I stop in once a week or so to rummage around and see what I can find.

I had the impression that particular Transparent wire was intended or promoted for custom in-wall speaker wiring and this 47' was an overage. Transparent's website kind of implies that. Still, another website I visited advertises selling pre-cut lengths of the same wire (terminations optional and nearly as expensive as the wire) for what works out to $2 and change per foot. So, $100 or so worth of wire for $5 was a bit of a bargain.
 
Just about any round cable has filler pieces in it. Heck, a 4 conductor 3 phase 10GA cable has about 5 filler pieces. I think it also adds tensile strength to the cable if it is pulled hard. I'm a tech and work with cables of all sizes and what you have there doesn't look like anything special.
My favorite cable is Igus Chainflex, made in Germany, made for robotics. Fine strand multi-conductor available in almost any configuration with a urethane outer jacket. Not cheap though.

BillWojo
 
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