Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions pics of my speaker wires

twoby, almost looks like a fetus in the womb. those wires must add a comfort factor to the music.

I've finished the speaker cables. They were a pain to put together, mainly because I know jack about heatshrink cable. I'll post pics later. Needless to say, it went a lot faster after I started using a butane lighter instead of a hair dryer...

Sweet, can't wait to see them. Butane lighter?! Damn, you must be impatient. I had no problem with my dryer going quickly.

Actually, I probably won't be posting those pics. It didn't work out so well... I didn't cut the outer casing low enough, so it was putting a lot pressure on the jacks on my receiver. I had to cut them down and remove all of the heatshrink this morning. If I fix it, I'll post pictures of that.

I'm not that impatient. It took 30 minutes to get the black stuff to partially shrink with the hairdryer. The lighter only took a few seconds. Lit a bit of it on fire, but hey...

I told you ya had to be careful not to scorch it!

I don't know what height you had the flame on the lighter set too, but it should be set very low. It'll still get the job done. Start with the flame a good distance away from the shrink, and slowly move it closer until you see some shrinkage taking place. You want the HEAT from the flame, not the flame itself, to cause the shrinkage. When you see that shrinkage begin, slowly (or rapidly, depending on how fast the shrink is shrinking) rotate the wire between your thumb and finger so you apply the heat evenly to the shrink wrap. If you don't, you end up with an uneven shrink (which, of course, can be very damaging to the psyche {double entendre intended}). Learning can be such a painful process. Good on ya for doing it yourself, Ken.

Wow. And all along I thought the best way to achieve shrinkage was to jump into cold water.

Well, I think I'm going to give it another shot with my other banana plugs, after I get some longer heatshrink. Radio Shack has it, right? (too impatient to wait for the web, and I just can't stand the shipping prices Parts Express charges...) This may be necessary for the M22/M50 comparison anyway, unless someone knows how to set up the 525 for easy (and I emphasize easy) A/B speaker selection. I know I could use the multiroom stuff, but it seems horrifically complicated to use, and to adjust the volume, I'd have to get another remote receiver, etc, etc.

In any case, the speaker wires sound fine, and I think they look pretty cool if you ignore the ends!

Yeah, they have a couple to choose from. I got a variety pack. One note - I had to use some electrical tape to build up the diameter of some spots, as the wrap doesn't shrink that much.

Thanks for the tip!

Go to a local elecronics shop for heat shrink tubing. They will have several kinds with different properties. I found that the shrink wrap that looks dull, like rubber, shrinks more with less heat than the shiny plastic looking stuff.