Help me with a speaker cable build, Ideas?

millercarbon2,772 posts01-30-2020 11:24pmI have yet to hear the DIY cable that sounded as good as what you could buy for much less with the money spent on parts alone. Nevermind the time and wasted experiments. Good luck. You'll need it.

Got any ideas on how to build a better NETWORK SPEAKER CABLE?

THIS IS NOT about, what a cable should do, BUT, about what a cable CAN DO.
I've found some interesting ideas and would like to share.

Thanks for the input, I guess I've been a little lucker than most. I've yet to find anything that couldn't have been done a little different, a little better, or BY ME. Cabling is not my profession, but troubleshooting and repairing them WAS for MANY years. The lack of trying has never stopped me from FINDING a cable issue.  Someone had to build the cable. I assure you ALL cables are DIY. Some in a basements, some in a store front location MOST in a sweatshop, in central ANYWHERE, (they all have their very own fans to stay cool), or who knows where.

A company in Germany use to make the cabling for very complicated
CANN bus style mobile drilling platforms. The bus had the job of tying
several different processor clusters (nodes and their analog sensors) together and WORK without a hitch, in some VERY VERY harsh conditions. There were 30 + looms with over 50 wires each, GPS, for drilling with NO variation over 100 meters VERTICAL. The MM had to find cable, transducer, sensor, RF, cross sign, and all types of issues that brought that digital system to a dead stop. Just as sensitive as the finest sound system but much harsher environment. And much more complicated than ANY I MEAN any, amp, preamp, speaker, XO, ALL of it combined EVER MADE. Scopes and swearing, and 30 guys standing WAITING, with a $20,000.00 per hour liquidated damage clause.. It's not subjective. It is not experimenting, its measurable, repeatable, and REPAIRABLE. Can't just try a different one, have to built those cables in the field. NO WHERE TO BUY a 100,000.00  dollar special, 6 week wait, CABLE.

The best are always the onesies and  twosies. Once upon a time, I was a least a threesie. LOL Productive input is much appreciated. If YOU can't do it, that ok, ask I'll help you out, that's all I can do. It will be as good or better, in workmanship and performance.
NO DOUBT ABOUT IT. Show me your stuff. What I'll do will be as good OR BETTER, if not I'll conceit, to the better builder.
COST
WORKMANSHIP
PERFORMANCE

What I'm looking for is ideas, and personal failures that weren't in vain.
Personal thing that JUST work. Not "It won't work" This DOG can hunt...
I'll commit to builds I can match, or better. If not, no need, to waste the finger power.

Regards

Get some Mogami 2477 Blue Neglex 14 guage OFC coax. Strip the ends and add your favorite bananas/spades and you will have a speaker cable as good as those costing big bucks! I had a pair connected to my KLH Nine ESL's for 20 years! Cost: $1 a foot (40 ft piece cut in half).

A lot of the cabling we used was silver clad, open ends, tinned with silver solder. 20-75 foot runs, sometimes. It was all reinstalled back in Enviro Armor. Can't have sparks down the hole, could wind up on the moon, if you hit a flammable or combustible pocket.

A lot of the really GOOD cable is made to German and Japanese DIN standards, VERY HIGH QUALITY cable in the industrial and Aerospace industries. CLOSE QC. no doubt.

I've used a lot of commercial wire, LOTS. I've never had speaker cable problems. EVER..

This is really a fishing expedition on NETWORK speaker cable builds.
I think I have 500.00 USD in all the cables in all the systems I use, XLRs, speaker, PC, wall sockets, conduit EVERYTHING. Some speaker builds I've used pure silver solid core #20-24, mids and depends copper sometimes in the tweet position. BUT NO CLADDING, too many problems.

Regards

Audio sensibility, Take 5 audio, parts connexion, Audiyo, VH labs, and many others, for high grade audio oriented cables, in bulk (by the foot).

This tends to be better money spent, when it comes to trying out making your own cables.

It is not unusual to try it yourself first, and to do it using anything but ’high end audio’ specific bulk cable.

But, in the end, the audio specific bulk cable designs, do turn out to be the best money spent in DIY speaker cables. And interconnects. Have fun along the way....

~~~~~~~~

Actually, in my experience, there is one other. One cable design to rule all the DIY cables. Copper foil from the stained glass industry, with stabilized physical geometry and insulation supplied by simple high grade paper based masking tape. It is the most DIY of all, but it has the highest value return.

The big trick, is, if one finds the copper foil cable as being deficient in some parameter.. it is generally not the fault of the copper foil - the fault lies elsewhere in the system. This can take some time to figure out.

It is like walking up a set of high end audio steps. The foil gets you one step up in the right direction, and then another leg has to move to a new spot. The foil is already correctly positioned to provide lift upward, via other or connected effort. The foil is not a misstep. In many systems, it may not be likened to a misstep or 'the weakest link' for quite some time, in the realm of sequentially attempting those upward steps.

teo_audio

Very interesting COPPER FOIL. I've seen craftsmen work with gold and silver clad (type foil) in the inlay process of fine jewelry, ornamental armor, wood. You name it. I've done a few pieces through the years.

The cable you mention is out there? I just need to hunt it down? OR I need to make it so it's not deficient in some of the sonic pearls, it can offer up.

The tape you speak of, could you elaborate. Some type of paper?
I never thought of it. But the material could vary from customary  wood product, to HIGH quality rice, silk, cotton, and hemp. ULTRA thin super strong designs. 

Paper in general, is slightly on the acidic side, rice, hemp, silk, cotton, and I'm sure quit a few more, are closer to neutral.

I know that different jackets and the material between jacket and conductor can REALLY vary. The different  materials surely have different sonic signatures right? 

Thanks for the input..

Go to Tempo Electric site. They sell cable, insulation, etc. I bought two pair of Big Twist 12 gauge solid core silver in Teflon tubing, and love them. They sound great.

Retired old heavy equipment operator,
Dan