Help me build speaker cables please!

Interesting indeed. My industrial electronics buddy thinks reversing the wires loaded a capacitor in the reverse direction, causing the amp to go a bit crazy until it discharged.. the problems I had sound like extreme versions of what you were describing: the bass dropped out and the highs were a distorted mess..

As for digital cables, i have nothing yet. I have an old AA Dac in a box, but that’s optical in and RCA out. Though I probably will rebuild those cables as helix. However, I do have an AA DTI, kind of like a reclocker, that needs a new power supply. Once I have that, I’ll need a digital cable, as the DTI only has a digital out. So I’ll keep that in mind.

With regards to the speaker cables, I tried Romex, but it was such a pain in my butt that I decided to not even bother. After some thought, I just ordered some of the silver plated copper from take 5. It’s enroute as of now. If I find the sound to be too brittle, as we say, even after prolonged burn in, I’ll then have to decide if I want to go solid silver or back to copper, but higher quality than cat 5. Though I still think cat 5 has some nice copper in it.

We’re leaving to Europe for a month at the end of July, so I want to get these done before I go.

I decided to go with a biwire design, 2x12awg and 2x14awg for the neutrals and a 12awg and 14awg for the signal. I’ll twist the signals together. The neutrals should pretty much cover the whole signal cable!

@toddverrone - re...

I’ll twist the signals together

I am assuming you are twisting the two bi-wire signal conductors - one 12 gauge (for LF) and one 14 gauge (for HF) and then wrapping two sets of neutral conductors around the twisted signals?

Personally - i would not do that. I would  make two separate cables - its easier

Why you ask?
 - even though the signal being applied to the two signal conductors is the same - the current being drawn down each conductor is vastly different - you may get emi/ri polution across the two, making matters a whole lot worse
- same goes for the neutrals and you would have to keep them evenly spaced to prevent EMI/RFI
  
However - It might be more successful if you...
- Wind the signal conductors in opposite directions and then straighten them out - leaving slight kinks in the conductors and put each one in a piece of expandable sleeve.
- this would prevent the conductors from becoming "alligned" and prevent EMI/RFI pollution
- For the neutrals you could wind each neutral in opposite directions around both signal conductors - this would prevent EMI/RFI between the neutrals
- make sure you use the EXACT same formula for L/R cables
- i.e. the LF neutral is the outter winding and the HF is the inner winding 

Its a little more tricky, but I think that would at least minimize RFI/EMI pollution across conductors and produce a single bi-wire speaker cable

The "Kinky Conductors" has been in the back of my mind to try for the signal in the IC's for some time, but never had the opportunity.

I hope that I interpreted your thoughts correctly?

Regards...
 

Spot on. And your explanation is very clear.. I'll have to think a bit while I wait for the take five box. 

Thanks for all your input!

I'm leaning towards two separate cables, but I'm also drawn to the epicness of the kinky signals with the counter rotating helixes. That just sounds so bad@ss. 

@toddverrone - "Bad-Ass" - I likes it! Maybe I’ll post a new cable on my blog - "The Bad-Ass Helix" (LOL)

If it were me, the decision would be down to - bi-wiring or bi-amp-ing?

For the former...

- I would elect for the simple approach and forget about bi-wire cables, since I never found they provide any benefit once you get a good pair of conductors to jumper the bi-wire terminals.

- I did bi-wire my Tannoy’s, but as I said - once I replaced the brass jumpers I found two cables provided no benefit. It was wasted money - I used identical wires.

- and to quote you...

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.

I think it was due to the differences between the two cables (i.e. copper quality, gauge and geometry) - rather than the effect of a bi-wire approach that accounts for the improvements.

- you could reduce the "bad-ass" design to have one neutral and split it at both ends - makes it much simpler to implement.

For the latter...

- I would still opt for separate cables - mainly because I do not know what the combined cable will do to the sound.

I agree - it would be interesting to try the "bad-ass" cables - just to see if there is any advantage - but without verification the only advantage right now is - you would only have one cable per speaker as opposed to two.

You can still implement the kinked signal conductor, since it is pretty easy to do and has minimal impact on the length of the signal conductor, but again, without verification, who knows if it is worth the additional effort.

I just wish I had the time and funds to try all of this stuff out - you don’t know of any audio benefactors do you :-)

BTW - on my A/V system, the brittleness has now subsided and getting smoother by the day :-) It’s as though someone turned on a light switch - you notice it instantly one day you turn the system on, then a couple of days later - it’s gone - very weird!

As always - keep me posted - cos I’m really enjoying the exchange of thoughts - it keeps my mind agile :-)

Cheers