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 - that's great to hear - awsome!

RE:...
One thing that I keep thinking about in regards to the signal.. if it was one run of cable, wouldn’t the worries over noise be the same?

Or would that not be an issue because it’s full signal, and the jumpers would only be susceptible​ to induction?
Paragraph 1: Having two wires carrying different frequencies and current there raises the possibility the two signal wires would contaminate each other - this is not possible with a single cable.

Paragraph 2: On my speakers the jumpers are totally separate pieces of wire, so induction is not possible- they are only 4" long.

Over the next few hours the brittleness should arrive and then abate after a couple of days.

The depth of the bass may drop off a little around this point also

Around 15-20 hours there will be a little confusion in the image - focus will drop off and instruments may appear further forward or back and some distortion may appear in the extreme upper end e.g. the violins upper register.

After around 18-24 hours that will settle down and the image will gain pinpoint precision both left to right and front to back

Between 30-40 hours the bass will develop into a fuller, deeper, more "rounded" sound, but will not lose it's detail and control - it just develops more 3D "flavour"

I now have about 60 hours on my Audio cables they are sounding superb.

The A/V cables are a little shorter so they may take less time to burn-in. I am not paying as much attention with them - certain things like the brittle sound is easily discernible, but the bass not so much because I have a sub on that system. Imaging is also not as noticeable unless I play my test tracks, but even so, the environment does not make it as easy to discern spacial correctness, so I don't bother.

Having said that, I did play music for around 4 hours yesterday on the A/V system and for the few moments I actually stopped to listen it was sounding extremely good  :-)

The extended clarity you hear on the top-mid end is due to the silver plated conductor you are using. I don't think I will be trying the solid silver because  it sounds pretty amazing as it is.

Your dynamic performance should also be much better e.g. the very crisp snap on percussion instruments...
- drums always have snap but instruments such as glockenspiels, triangles and bongos are so much more life like - on well recorded tracks you can actually hear the hammer strike the plates or the hand striking the skin.  

Anyhow as far as ...
 
Help me build speaker cables please!
I guess my job is done :-)
AND - YOU did all the work! LOL

Posting this stuff on my site has always been about helping others and hoping others would try new approaches and wire combinations based on my designs.

Keep the posts coming as you notice changes

And post your pics on the system page - If it's OK with you I will copy what you post and append the "Bad-Ass Speaker Helix" on my Helix Speaker page as an addendum

Just to confirm your construction  method...
- SIGNAL WIRES: 
- kinky signals from 12/14 gauge with counter rotating spirals made form silver plated wire
- NEUTRAL WIRES: 
- counter rotating Helix neutrals
- WHAT WIRE TYPE AND GAUGE DID YOU USE ????

Cheers
Just looked at the pics you posted - that’s great - to loose helix you’ve used will prevent any noise interference and the counter rotation looks as though it will prevent contamination between the neutrals very well 

I think they look great and should sound amazing !!! - great job!

Just think - if we hadn't shared this experience I would still be using the gZero6's

SO - I guess you  "Helped ME build speaker cables"  also - LOL

Regards...

@williewonka out of curiosity, do you keep detailed notes on break in behavior? It would make sense, given your blog posts, I’m just curious. I have noticed system anomalies before, after new cables, but chalked it up to my mood.

With regards to my cable details:
Signal - 1x12awg 1x14 awg kinky ’helix’ in opposite directions, both are silver plated copper in ptfe from take five audio.
Neutral - 2x12awg silver plated copper in ptfe inner helix, 2x14 awg silver plated copper in ptfe outer counter rotating helix

It seemed to work better with the thinner neutral wire on the outside since, once I created the helix with the fiberglass rod, I had to wrap it by hand around the inner helix, one twist at a time. The thinner wire was easier to manipulate and even out. That truly was the most difficult part: getting the outer helix evenly spaced. Using teflon insulated wire definitely helped, since the inner and outer helix are able to slide a bit more easily over one another. Now that they’re built, though, everything is solid.

And feel free to use my photos. If you want more, just ask. Also, I couldn’t get all 4 neutrals at the amp end into the BFAs, so I put a few strands between the outside of the BFA but inside the copper crimp sleeves I use. I crimped these as well. I think solder looks better, but I feel like the crimp connections are sturdier. But that’s just my preference..

@toddverrone ....

RE: Audition notes - at first I tended to write everything in my blog as I heard them, but now I just make lists of things that I hear and at  how many hours. Then I flesh it out with details

It took me about 4-5 reviews to get a style worked out, but the first reviews went through a lot of "wordsmithing" based on feedback made by Keith Louie Eichman once he read them.

After so many reviews in a relatively short amount of time you also develop an ear for it. I have about 50 classical tracks and 55 more modern tracks that I am now extremely familiar with, so when I think I hear something I'll go to a specific track to verift an improvement (or otherwise'
e.g.
Is this Love - bob marley
- the image is huge in all directions with lots of space around musicians
Norah Jones - Not too Late
- very little in the way of reverb voice treatment so it's like a personal concert
Higher Love - Stevie Windwood
- superb dynamics - best drums I've heard
Peter Gabriel - So
- superb textures in the bass line
Classical tracks (live recordings)
- I use these to establish how well the image is reproduced

The photos you have will be perfect for what I have in mind

Thanks for the wire details - perfect

I'll post a link here once I get it on my site

BTW - I would like to refer to you on my site as - Audiogon member Toddverrone - it maintains your anonymity, but allow people to contact you via Audiogon should they wish to verify what has been typed

- unless you prefer to remain anonymous ???

I'd also like to "quote" a couple of sentences from your posts here pertaining to your observations if that's OK?
e.g. 
So far, they did superb! The same black background as the single helix with cat 5, but more clarity from top to bottom. There's not more bass, it's just a bit tighter and clean. The mids and highs have greater clarity and come further out from the background, with a better separation of sounds.

RE: your Interconnect
- what is the white stuff under the neutral - some sort of tube?
- what wire did you used for signal and neutral

I think I'll update that page as well :-)

Cheers