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Will I hear a difference with these cables?

I'm almost finished making my own Cat5 based speaker cables. They will be between 6 and 7 feet long and will have four runs of Cat 5 per speaker. I left all of the shielding in place for the majority of the run and simply put some 15mm heat shrink on them to keep the four cables together. I am using some monoprice.com banana connectors to terminate the 16 strands of solid core 24 AWG wire. I've grouped the colors and white together to maintain the advantage of the twisted pairs. One of the two is complete other than the final heat shrink covering the ends to make sure nothing touches that shouldn't.

My current speaker wires are the basic original Monster Cable with some angled pin connectors on the receiver end and bare wire at the speaker.

I don't really have an expectation one way or the other, just an experiment and something to do for entertainment.

Anyone care to make a prediction of what I'll hear, if anything?
mceljo
mceljo OP
1,357 posts
 
The second of the cables is complete other than some additional heat shrink that I'll put on tomorrow after I purchase a heat gun. I thought my wife's hair dryer would do the trick, but it doesn't seem to generate enough heat. I'm actually surprised at how nice they are turning out.
tom6897's avatar
tom6897
1,484 posts
 
I think you will be pleasantly suprised and proud of your work. I would have tinned the wire with the best Silver solder you could find and use them in the nude form. Short of that the best copper spade on -neg and silver spade on+ that you could find. Report back with your findings. The nude recommendation is the best and least expensive IMO/E.
mceljo OP
1,357 posts
 
It would be difficult to get 70 feet of starting Cat5 for less than free. A co-worker of mine has a stash of several hundred feet of scrap under his desk. By nude are you suggesting that I should have used the twisted pairs alone or that I should use bare wire?
mceljo OP
1,357 posts
 
My initial impression is postive, but my setup is really difficult to swap cables easily so I know part of what I'm hearing is simply coming home to my system after several days at the in-laws over Christmas. There are a few aspects to some of the songs I've listened to so far that I can imagine that I'm hearing something different, maybe better, than with the Monster cables.

One things for sure, I learned a few things making these cables that would allow me to make another set look cosmetically a bit better, but the four inches of each that I can see woudldn't really change at all. I'll post some pictures later today with my system.

My plan is to leave the new cables in for a while and then have my second set of ears come over for a comparison.
tpreaves's avatar
tpreaves
2,686 posts
 
My plan is to leave the new cables in for a while and then have my second set of ears come over for a comparison.

Why do you feel a need for a "second set of ears"? Are you going to discard them if they don't approve? Just curious.
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