DIY speaker: braid vs twist vs straight

Cdc, this is a highly system-dependent decision.If it were just simple resistance, or just skin-effect, the decision would be simple. But the capacitance and inductance of the cables interact with the characteristics of your components and speakers. This is why different people swear by very different cables as being the best. They may be the best, but maybe only on their system. If you are doing DIY, it may be of benefit to try some low-inductance configurations and some high-inductance ones. Also, do the same with capacitance. When you hear the difference between these designs, you can determine which way to move toward your final design. It is much easier to do this with DIY, than to buy 25 different cables to test and see which ones you like. From my experience on interconnects, if you don't have RF problems, stay away from shielding. Sound is better without it. With speaker wires, bare wire terminations are generally better than using termination lugs. I use 30ga solid-core copper wire with no shield for my 1 meter interconnects, and 22ga solid-core copper wire for the 3 meter speaker cables. Single conductor run for each. No twists, braids or anything. I keep them well separated along the entire runs. Teflon tube insulators. I use tube gear, and it is quite fine sounding.

CDC: Pick up a spool of solid core copper magnet wire @ Radio Shack ($3.99). The spool contains three gauges (30, 26 and either 24 or 22, I forget). Try the two larger gauges (26 and the other one) in single runs (do not twist them). Twisting is for larger gauge wire (from my personal experience) and completely ruins the sound of 24 gauge, on up, solid core wire when it is used as speaker cable (this is assuming that the cables will not exceed 8'-10' in length).

You can remove the lacquer (@ the ends) with 600 sandpaper, or better yet burnishing cloth. If you like the sound then high quality magnet wire is available for very little money (Michael Percy @ percyaudio.com carries it).

I have been using 26 gauge solid core copper/Teflon speaker cable (single runs) for a year and a half in my main rig and have used the magnet wire (also ended up with 26 gauge for the balance that I like) in bedroom systems.

Never tried 22 gauge, but 22-26 gauge seems like a reasonable span to experiment with.

The sonic benefits of such simple designs (smaller gauge and single runs w/o spades, etc.) are reduced smearing and a much more open sound (the sound is more in the room than obviously coming from the speakers).

Imaging on the otherhand is not as precise as some of the more complex designs (I find slightly fuzzy imaging to sound more realistic), but do not confuse my description of the imaging with fuzzy overall sound as the detail of these simple designs can be quite startling (my description is lacking, not the sound:-).

The sound, during break in, of these small gauge/simple cables can be very, very, very odd, but from my experience it only takes 50-100 hours for them to stabilize. For more info on this run a search of "OTA" and read the thread about the 47 Labs OTA cable (it is 26 gauge solid core wire used in single runs).

Anyway, it should be a fun project for under $5 and if you like the sound then you may be able to make very nice DIY cables (both IC's and speaker) for your entire system for very little money, if you stick with copper instead of silver wire.

I would not worry about the the small gauge in regard to amp power as I once used 26 gauge with a Musical Fidelity X-A1 amp (50 watts) and others have used considerably more power than this with like cable (again take a look @ the OTA thread which contains a great deal of info on the matter).

Thanks for the help and link. I can get 600 ft) 18 gauge magnet wire for $15.45 from www.mcmaster.com. The 26 gauge is $15.52 for 3,000 ft.
Teflon tubing is .14/ft for .034 I.D. (AWG 22 is .028") and .09/ft for .022" I.D. (AWG 26 is .018"). So it will be a slightly loose fit. I guess this is okay.
I have heard wires should not be allowed to vibrate hence the heat shrink tube idea but if it's just a single run of wire then just sliding it through the teflon should be okay I hope.

CDC, if you don't have some room in the tubing you will never get the wire through it. You will be very frustrated with the trouble you are going to have as it is. Do not "kink" the wire by pushing too hard on it. If you do, the kink will make it even harder to push the wire through from that point on. The best way I found is to stretch out the tubing totally straight, and clamp the end, so there are no bends or curls. Then carefully push the wire through. When you get to the end, then unclamp the tip of the tubing and push the last inch of wire through it, or cut last bit of the tubing off and grab the tip of the wire with a needle nose plier. It's not as easy as you think. Definitely straighten out the tubing and hold it straight!

CDC: 18 gauge may involve using a more complex design in order to get it to sound good (it will also never sound like, or as realistic, IMO, as the smaller gauge wire, when used as speaker cable, which is what I was attempting to coax you to try:-).

TWL is "right on" about feeding wire through Teflon tubing (it is not an easy task).

Yes, vibration is a concern when using oversized tubing in longer runs, but such tubing is not required with magnet wire. Magnet wire is coated with lacquer which serves the same purpose as the Teflon tubing and which also has similar (favorable) dialectic characteristics.

The best insulation is "air" and what I try to achieve in cable design is the next best thing (@ a reasonable cost) which is either lacquer or Teflon.

The good thing about the RS spool of magnet wire is that you get two useable gauges to experiment with (in regard to speaker cable), plus the 30 gauge can make decent IC's. The M-C wire may be of the same quality as the RS stuff (which is not HQ cable), but you don't need nearly that much, plus you should be experimenting with various gauges. Once the gauge is determined, then purchase high quality magnet wire from a source such as Michael Percy. HQ magnet wire (with a boutique "name") can run as much as $8/ft from other sources, but Percy (and I assume other sources as well) carry HQ oxygen free magnet wire for "much" less than $1/ft in the 22-26 gauge range.

End of rant.