Covering silver wire for use as a speaker cable

Ozzy, so, you were referring to the quality of the wire (although 26 AWG isn't exactly heavy;-) The problem with silver is it tarnishes rapidly when exposed to air; and if you want to bundle/twist several together strands together, they need to make good contact, which they won't if they begin to tarnish. So it's essential to either coat each strand with some kind of high temperature polymer ike Paul Speltz's Anti-Cable (not generally a DIY operation) or enclose the wire(s) in an airtight jacket of some kind.

I think you could probably do the latter using 4 foot lengths of shrink tubing (clear would be nice ;-) and then covering the joints with another short length of shrink tubing. An inexpensive heat gun makes shrinking the tubing pretty easy. I'd also recommend you make the cable in two separate runs for each speaker. That way you virtually eliminate the capacitance and inductance problems of 2 conductor single jacket cable.

If the wire is bare, pass it through polyurethane and let it dry & cure hanging overnight. Then snake each strand through a long 2mm cotton sleeve and make a loose litz braid of all strands. Soak a 1" band of ERS cloth in Goop cement and wrap around both ends. Remove urethane from ends with an exacto knife, twist and terminate wire bare.

Nsgarch, Thanks for the suggestion. Where can I buy 4 foot lenghts of shrinkable tubing? And how do I fish the wire through the tubing?

Dgarretson , Where can I buy the cotton sleeve, and wont this be also very difficult to snake the wire through?

Reference Audio Mods has it. Bend back the tip to make a tight curve with a smooth point and snake it through. If you want to send several strands together through a single sleeve, wrap the tips tightly in teflon tape. Be forewarned that jewelers silver may not sound as good as silver made specifically for audio.

Shink tubing is available at electronic parts stores (B+M or online.) It comes standard in 4 foot (or maybe it's 5 foot) lengths. I suggested it because you can get it large enough (in diameter) to easily snake the wire through, and then it will heat shrink to 50% of its original diameter.

It is made of polyolefin which I have to assume has great dielectric properties since it's used to insulate wire ;-)
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