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Help me build speaker cables please!

Howdy!
I’m looking for input on some home brewed speaker cables. I’m currently using cables I made from braiding 8 lengths of CAT 5 plenum cable together. They’re terminated in silver plated BFA bananas and set up as a biwire configuration at the speaker end. I love their sound, but think I’m ready to try something made from higher grade metal. I’ve been doing a lot with silver in my system and have loved the change in sound almost every time I’ve gone from Cu to Ag. The only place I like Cu better is in the PCs for my amps. That said, I’m leaning heavily towards making a set of solid silver speaker cables, using .999 silver wire from Rio grande. I’ll insulated them with teflon spaghetti tubing and possibly terminate them with silver plated BFAs.

Where I’d love some input is here: do I do one run of 10awg, or biwire 12awg to the woofers, 14awg to the tweeters and mids? I’m using a dared tube preamp and monoblock Ghent audio class D amps (500w into 4 ohm) which drive floor standing RBH 1266 SE/R speakers. They are 4 ohm and have side firing 12" speakers. They like a lot of juice and sound their best when given what they want, hence my desire for large diameter cables.

Cost wise, it’s only $50 more expensive to biwire. I liked the change in sound when I first biwired, but I also went from blue jeans twisted pair 12 awg to my braided CAT 5, which has a combined 9 awg. So I’m not sure if it was the biwiring or all the other differences that improved the sound.

Also, any other ideas for superb sounding DIY SCs are welcome.

Danke!
128x128toddverrone
toddverrone's avatar
toddverrone OP
840 posts
 
Just took another look at signal cables.. they actually look like very good cables, especially for the money. I'm sure you've seen that their silver cables are half stranded silver and half stranded copper, I believe the idea is to help keep the sound relaxed versus having all silver conductors, which can be bright from what I've heard. They're 10awg, which for me, is great. But I'm about to experiment and see whether a large signal cable is best or if it's just the fatness of the neutral that matters. 

I have heard great things about signal cables, and, if you're not OCD like me and aren't into DIY, they seem like a great solution for speaker cables.
williewonka
3,082 posts
 
@JRUNR I've only tried Signal's Silver Revolution power cables, but I was impressed, i.e. for a commercially available product.

I've heard good things from other members about their silver IC's, so I would have to believe their speaker cables would right up there.

I do know a lot about KLE Innovations (KLEI) products, which are extremely good - the best I've ever auditioned/reviewed. I would highly recommend those - but they are a little more expensive than the Signal Cables products.

KLEI are not as big as the likes of Kimber, Cardas, etc, but are seriously better and they are gaining momentum, following some very positive  reviews by some serious audiophiles.

Take a look at their web site and click on the reviews link...
https://kleinnovations.com/

I do actually have their gZero2 and gZero6 speaker cables (both 3 meters) which I plan on selling very soon if you are interested.

I've just finished building speaker cables of my own design, which will be replacing both sets of gZero's in my A/V and two channel systems 

Regards...
toddverrone's avatar
toddverrone OP
840 posts
 
@williewonka you like them enough to get rid of the gZero?! Man, I need to build mine! The neutral came in the mail yesterday.
williewonka
3,082 posts
 
@toddverrone - you know what it's like in this hobby - one past glory funds the next adventure :-)

I didn't want to "colour" your own assessment of your cables by stating what I thought about my own DIY Helix cables, but suffice to say, they surpassed the gZero6's by a considerable margin and from what I recall they also outperformed their TOTL zPURITY8 speaker cables

I still really like KLEI products and will continue to promote them to people not of the DIY mindset - I just found that my DIY's are better.

So yes - I'm selling both sets - gZero2 and gZero6 speaker cables to recoup some of their expense.

BTW - you could have knocked me over with a feather when I heard them

I hope you experience the same level of performance :-)

Cheers
toddverrone's avatar
toddverrone OP
840 posts
 
@williewonka I bought the materials to make some silver helix ICs. Pure Harmony and solid silver with the OCC copper that @steakster posted for the neutral. I'm excited!

Did you open up the helix at all after you wound it on the fiberglass dowel? I just made one double 12awg helix and it is surely not open enough to have 1/2" of space all around the signal. I think I'm fine with the spacing as it is, I'm just curious what you did.
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