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DIY speaker cable made from cat 5 type cable

I am looking to make my own speaker cables according to Jon Risch's notes that I found at: www.geocities.com/jonrisch/s2.htm?200611.
I am having difficuilty finding a source of cable other than having to buy a 1000 ft spool or buy premade computer cables with the wrong type insulation. i would also prefer more that 4 twisted pairs per cable. Anyone have a solution or left over cable they would want to sell?
Thanks
cford
brooks
55 posts
 
some Radio Shacks and Home Depot both sell it by the foot.
cford OP
66 posts
 
I found the cat 5 cable at Home Depot @ $0.41 per foot. It is stuff made by General Cable. I tried to look it up on their web site but could not find it. The only cat 5 I found was all pvc insulation or 3 pairs w/ FEP insulation and 1 pair with some sort of poly... type insulation. I e-mailed to ask about the type at Home Depot and hopefully they will respond.
cford OP
66 posts
 
I heard back from General Cable very quickly. It has the following constuction for the Home Depot cable:

CONSTRUCTION:
Conductor 24 AWG solid bare annealed copper
Insulation 3 pairs FEP / 1 pair Polyolefin
Pairing Varying short pair lay
Color Code Bandmarked, 4 pair Color Code
RipCord Polyester, Applied under Jacket
Jacket PVC

As can be seen the 4th pair does not have FEP insulation. Won't this degrade performance or is this OK? I'm looking at making bi-wire cables using 4 of these cables per speaker, 2 for the woofer and 2 for the mid/tweeter of my VR4jrs.
cford OP
66 posts
 
I have also checked and the Belden 1585A from Radio Shack (their # 910-1603) is no longer avaliable and the replacement cat 5 cable doesn't use FEP insulation.

Jea48, do you have enough to make cables as described in my previous comments?
Thanks
jea48
4,733 posts
 
I have some of the Plenum rated cat5e, Belden 4 pair you can have. Send me an email with your address and how many feet you want.
Jim
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