making your own speaker cables
|
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 18
frequent flier
|
OP
frequent flier
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 18 |
Does anyone else here make their own speaker cables just for the hell of it? Was uploading some pics tonight, and thought I'd share these. A little blown out, but man, I love shrink wrap and soldering irons... http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v642/groundfloor711/cable/
|
|
|
Re: making your own speaker cables
|
Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 6,833
axiomite
|
axiomite
Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 6,833 |
The link doesn’t allow access to the pics.
Rick
"A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity." Sigmund Freud
|
|
|
Re: making your own speaker cables
|
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 13,840 Likes: 13
shareholder in the making
|
shareholder in the making
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 13,840 Likes: 13 |
As Rick mentioned, it says it is private and asking for a password. You might just place the image (img) tags in this post for the pictures.
Not something I would take the time to accomplish, but interested anyway.
M80s VP180 4xM22ow 4xM3ic EP600 2xEP350 AnthemAVM60 Outlaw7700 EmoA500 Epson5040UB FluanceRT85
|
|
|
Re: making your own speaker cables
|
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 43
buff
|
buff
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 43 |
I made my cables. Here's a blurry pic of the end result. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=77476They consist of Axiom bulk wire,GLS locking banana plugs,braided sleeving,shrink tube and cable pants. It was a fun and rewarding project. I have no delussion that they are any better than clamping the bare wire down in the jack. But they look nice and I really like the braided sleeving over the wire.
M22's
M60's
VP150
QS8's
EP350
Yamaha RX-V2700
Yamaha YP-D71
|
|
|
Re: making your own speaker cables
|
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 16,441
shareholder in the making
|
shareholder in the making
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 16,441 |
Those look really nice, Ohmen. You could probably sell them for $25/ft on eBay.
|
|
|
Re: making your own speaker cables
|
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 18
frequent flier
|
OP
frequent flier
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 18 |
Dooh! I forgot about that... Now you should be able to see them. Thanks... Ohmen, those look good. I used the same cables and banana plug style for my surround speakers. Did you get those splitter sleeves from Parts Express? And, do the cables have a round insulator? The bulk cable I got from Axiom has the two cables side by side, so it lays flat... I wish I could have got round cable...
ps - I also do not think these sound any better/worse than regular cables... I just like making them. Next I want to make some power cables and maybe some balanced cables.
Last edited by kee_ho; 05/24/07 06:49 PM.
|
|
|
Re: making your own speaker cables
|
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 18,044
shareholder in the making
|
shareholder in the making
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 18,044 |
I kind of made cables, but I'm incompetent when it comes to these things. I didn't get enough heatshrink, and it didn't exactly work, either. Oh well. The cables function.
I am the Doctor, and THIS... is my SPOON!
|
|
|
Re: making your own speaker cables
|
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 915
aficionado
|
aficionado
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 915 |
Well, I've made my own and I'm using them now. However, I don't recommend making the kind I made which are like this. It was time consuming, painful to the fingers, and generally a big pain in the a**. However, I did notice a *slight* improvement over the 12 gauge wire I was previously using (these cables are 10 gauge). Still, it was not enough to justify ever repeating the process again. Plus, they are big, heavy, and ugly regardless of the mesh covering I have on them. I don't know why I made them in the first place. I guess it was the challenge and curiosity...or just simply boredom and too much time on my hands.
|
|
|
Re: making your own speaker cables
|
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 18
frequent flier
|
OP
frequent flier
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 18 |
Quote:
Well, I've made my own and I'm using them now. However, I don't recommend making the kind I made which are like this. It was time consuming, painful to the fingers, and generally a big pain in the a**. However, I did notice a *slight* improvement over the 12 gauge wire I was previously using (these cables are 10 gauge). Still, it was not enough to justify ever repeating the process again. Plus, they are big, heavy, and ugly regardless of the mesh covering I have on them. I don't know why I made them in the first place. I guess it was the challenge and curiosity...or just simply boredom and too much time on my hands.
Holy crap! Those are big. How did you do the braiding? And how long do they run? How do you like the spade clips? I thought about getting those too, but they were spendy...
|
|
|
Re: making your own speaker cables
|
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 43
buff
|
buff
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 43 |
Quote:
Dooh! I forgot about that... Now you should be able to see them. Thanks... Ohmen, those look good. I used the same cables and banana plug style for my surround speakers. Did you get those splitter sleeves from Parts Express? And, do the cables have a round insulator? The bulk cable I got from Axiom has the two cables side by side, so it lays flat... I wish I could have got round cable...
ps - I also do not think these sound any better/worse than regular cables... I just like making them. Next I want to make some power cables and maybe some balanced cables.
Yep, parts express. I actually bought 3 different sizes because I couldn't figure out what I needed. The wire does have round insulation. The wire was tough to get into the cable pants due to the pants being rubber and the Axiom wire has a very rubbery insulation material. The rubber against rubber just wouldn't slide together no matter what I tried to lube it with.
M22's
M60's
VP150
QS8's
EP350
Yamaha RX-V2700
Yamaha YP-D71
|
|
|
Re: making your own speaker cables
|
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 915
aficionado
|
aficionado
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 915 |
Quote:
Holy crap! Those are big. How did you do the braiding? And how long do they run? How do you like the spade clips? I thought about getting those too, but they were spendy...
Actually, I used banana clips. I made mine 10 ft. Here's the exact instructions that I followed. As you can see, there's LOTS & LOTS of braiding!
M60s VP150 QS8s Marantz SR6003 Samsung LN52B550 Oppo DV-980H Insignia NS-WBRDVD
|
|
|
Re: making your own speaker cables
|
Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 6,833
axiomite
|
axiomite
Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 6,833 |
Nice job, I really like the mini to mini cable. I could use one like that from my Creative Zen to my portable headphone amp.
Rick
"A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity." Sigmund Freud
|
|
|
Re: making your own speaker cables
|
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 1,488
connoisseur
|
connoisseur
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 1,488 |
Quote:
Well, I've made my own and I'm using them now. However, I don't recommend making the kind I made which are like this. It was time consuming, painful to the fingers, and generally a big pain in the a**. However, I did notice a *slight* improvement over the 12 gauge wire I was previously using (these cables are 10 gauge). Still, it was not enough to justify ever repeating the process again. Plus, they are big, heavy, and ugly regardless of the mesh covering I have on them. I don't know why I made them in the first place. I guess it was the challenge and curiosity...or just simply boredom and too much time on my hands.
I made a set of these too, I did have quite a bit of time on my hands and it was something i had been wanting to try for a while so when i was able to score enough free cat5 to make these i jumped on it. It definetly takes a bit of time to seperate out the strands, braid them, braid them again, braid them again, and when i was done they were about 2 foot shorter than i was planning on so what i ended up with was a 6' pair. I solderd some radioshack spades onto them and called it a day.
The bad part is theyre too short to use in my setup anyway
|
|
|
Re: making your own speaker cables
|
Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 34
enthusiast
|
enthusiast
Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 34 |
As a recent newcomer to real equipment, I made mine too. I used bulk Axiom wire and banana connectors from Blue Jeans and shrink wrapped the ends. It was actually fun and while it probably makes no difference over premade, it makes me feel like I did something to personalize my fledgling system.
Outlaw 970/7075, M60's, LFM-2,Oppo 980
|
|
|
Re: making your own speaker cables
|
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 1,189
connoisseur
|
connoisseur
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 1,189 |
Quote:
...it makes me feel like I did something to personalize my fledgling system.
There's a lot to be said about that. I agree with this 100% (although I didn't make mine, just using bare wire).
|
|
|
Re: making your own speaker cables
|
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 626
aficionado
|
aficionado
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 626 |
Quote:
(although I didn't make mine, just using bare wire).
Best way to go in my opinion, but it's murder on your fingers with those bloody posts being as close as they are.
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics24,940
Posts442,457
Members15,616
|
Most Online2,082 Jan 22nd, 2020
|
|
0 members (),
563
guests, and
1
robot. |
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|