Good quality, Unfancy Speaker Cable ?

[simplex]

Ok, the thread appears to be well-aged ... anyway: I'll add my personal recipe here because I consider it very flexible and adequately unfancy - as requested.

• Basic material: enameled wire with an additional insulation, in my case ETFE, because I did not find PTFE. If you stay below 0.5 or 0.6 mm diameter, any skin effect should be no issue.
• Cut to lenght as many sections as needed for your required application, add some 10 - 15 % extra length.
• Divide into 4 equal bundles and tie these together.
• Combine those 4 bundles to a tight braid.
• 4 bundles give you free choice whether to biwire or not.
• Apply bananas or whatever of your choice and finalise with an unfancy cable sleeve (as requested ).

Thats it - just add as many wire lenghts per bundle as you think is appropriate for your planned cross section.
There's a spare reel left? Don't forget the internal wiring of your speakers - might worth a try. My Tannoys benefitted a lot.
BTW: for some odd reason I prefer pure copper, not tinned or silvered.

 

[Drugolf]

Gonna try summadat tasty Kool-Aid!

Okay Redboy, where we at with this?
I just finally hooked mine up and will let them burn for a few days.

 

[MrEd]

Okay Redboy, where we at with this?
I just finally hooked mine up and will let them burn for a few days.

Oh yeah... how bout some info you slackers

 

[1tumbleweed]

Four years and seven pages, and no one mentioned Audioquest Type 4? Jeez, I must be obsolete. Or is it NLA?

 

[RPMac]

She even uttered every redneck's famous last words, "Hey, watch this"

I must correct this, it’s “Hey, hold my beer and watch this“....often, last words

 

[Redboy]

Okay Redboy, where we at with this?
I just finally hooked mine up and will let them burn for a few days.

Heh. I've had mine in for a couple of months... but have not listened much in that time. Initial impressions are favorable, though.

 

[Audionut]

Right!

Hey... waitaminute... does this have anything to do with noodling?

Impressive...put a ring on it!

 

[old_borg]

Impressive...put a ring on it!

My extended family knows how to noodle and won't take me along for the ride. I really feel like I'm missing out on something essential.

 

[Audionut]

My extended family knows how to noodle and won't take me along for the ride. I really feel like I'm missing out on something essential.

It seems to me that this would be a right of passage type thing? I’d give it a go if I had the opportunity.

 

[MrEd]

Okay Redboy, where we at with this?
I just finally hooked mine up and will let them burn for a few days.

I just ordered 100 feet of this...
Can't wait for the aromatic goodness 😊

 

[Drugolf]

I just ordered 100 feet of this...
Can't wait for the aromatic goodness 😊

I finally have mine hooked up between a Stomberg Carlson ASR-444 and some custom Stephens FR120. Will let them burn in for a while but so far so good.

 

[MrEd]

I finally have mine hooked up between a Stomberg Carlson ASR-444 and some custom Stephens FR120. Will let them burn in for a while but so far so good.

I was wondering if you had any time with it.

 

[mhardy6647]

burn, baby, burn!

 

[Zen Cafe]

Speltz Anti-cable by the foot unterminated is a good deal on great cable but it is solid and stiff.

 

[Andy]

I'm a near-field freak, rather mid-fi, and play mostly older music, with plenty of bass, reduced treble. Over the years I've added and subtracted various components as we all do. The other day the ever-faithful old Denon DVD player I'd used for well over a decade (heavy daily play) started getting a bit 'intermittent' every now and then — then more often. Consulted my very honest hifi repair guy who said it wasn't worth the bother of trying to fix it, parts being unavailable, not worth the ultimate cost, etc. Anyway, to get back onto topic I got a new player and in the process decided to replace all the speaker wiring, cutting it to minimal lengths and renewing the ends. Even though I used rather ordinary low-cost cabling, the difference was amazing, even to the point of being a bit unsettling until I got used to it and the slightly different attack of the new (JVC) disc player. But with a slight tweak to the sub, I was back in business. It's probably wishful thinking but I'm revelling in what I feel is greater clarity, depth and presence. My takeout here is that medium quality cable will do the job; there's a bit to be said for the mechanics of replacing the cabling and making sure the connections are nice and clean. (Given the 30s/40s/50s I mostly listen to, the magic of super-duper cabling eludes me somewhat — but that said, to each their own — and I guess the better your gear the more apparent differences will be.)

 

[Audio Refugee]

and renewing the ends.

I'm not familiar with that term. Is that the same as tinning the ends?

 

[Andy]

Hi Audio Refugee, aplogies if that ended up sounding a bit exaggerated. All I did was cut off the ends of the cables (which had been squeezed into their connections and flattened) then stripped the first half inch of each cable end to expose a new set of wire strands, twisted them to make a new, clean, neat end to go into the connections: some screwed tight, others clamped (those on the 5.1 amp). Had also given the connections a brush-over with a small fine-bristled copper bristled brush (the size of a tiny toothbrush), then a wipe with isopropyl to ensure a fresh clean corrosion-free connection. All pretty amateurish I admit but unless I'm kidding myself the music sounds a little fresher and brighter.

 

[thin_ice]

Sky High Car Audio 14 Gauge Twisted OFC Speaker Wire. About $23/50 ft.

 

[corrado891]

Romex??

 

[Zen Cafe]

@Mortsnets you just blew my mind mentioning Woods extension cord! I'm still a fan of the no longer available HD14 cable at Home Depot but tried the Woods extension cable and it was excellent..I didn't think anyone else remembered!

@prime minister if you ever wanted to try the Woods or HD14 cables you could get in touch..also Speltz Anti-Cable can be had off the roll at a reasonable price and is excellent without connector. The only problem is Speltz is a solid cable...still excellent especially in the mids as it does not have a dialectic..it's varnished some way. I absolutely love the Analysis Plus cable but its expensive. Finally, Albert Von Schweikert (RIP) gave me a formula for a cable made of Belden CAT 5 cables... I could go back and look if you are interested.

PS DH labs T14...excellent and affordable.