Another interesting read on speaker wire

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I thought after the recent goings on I would post this link . It may have been posted here before. Take from it what you will.

Thank you for the excellent article. I would like to add that conductors with a low oxygen content will oxidize at a much lower rate than "standard" conductors. 12 gauge, oxygen-free, polarity-marked, CSA-approved, heavily-stranded cable can be purchased at Rona for about $0.80/foot.

Great article. But I suppose he's just a cheap bastard.

This was a fun read. I especially liked the illustation and pricing of the audioquest wire.

That's a good post!!!

I think that John posts it every once in a while. It sort of sets the stage for truth.

All you "scientists" who believe in "facts" make me sick.

You sound like the instructor in the newborn care class I had this morning. Gaaaaaah....

Not dropping him is half the battle.

My wife said that our childbirth classes prepared her well for the real thing because they were long and painful. I swear, our instructor talked to us like we were 1st graders.

Quote:

12 gauge, oxygen-free, polarity-marked, CSA-approved, heavily-stranded cable can be purchased at Rona for about $0.80/foot.

What is "Rona"?

I am looking at some Belden 5000 speaker cables, any opinions? If I buy it as bulk, is it difficult to get it into banana plugs DIY without any advanced tools?

Re:What is "Rona"?
Home building supply store similar to Home Depot. I think that they used to be called Revy Building Centers. I believe that they are a Canadian company?

Skerdi, the 5000UE is fine, especially if you're going to be installing it behind the walls; that's what it's rated for. The outer jacket is there to reduce the amount of HCL gas and acid given off by the PVC covering on the wire in case of fire. If you're not going behind the walls, using the regular 16ga lampcord without the outer jacket is fine.

Unless the type of banana plugs you get require soldering, no tools are necessary to put the wire in.

Quote:

I am looking at some Belden 5000 speaker cables, any opinions? If I buy it as bulk, is it difficult to get it into banana plugs DIY without any advanced tools?

I just did exactly what you were describing and got my cable and connectors from Blue Jeans Cable. I decided to use the Canare 4S11 cable because I'm not planning to use the cables in-wall and because they are nice and thick and round which makes for an impressive looking cable. I also picked up some of the Locking Banana Plugs to terminate the wires. The plugs are of very nice quality and gold plated. Not like the garbage you can pick up at HD. I ran to my local Fry's to pick up some sleeving and heatshrink tubing. A couple hours later, this is what I came up with.

Since the Canare 4S11 cable has 4 conductors, and because I'm not a believer in bi-wiring, I opted to twist the two reds together and the two whites together to make for a nicer appearance once the heatshrink tubing was put on. The only tools I used were a utility knife, wire cutters, scissors, a small screwdriver, and a heat gun. I snagged the heat gun from my wife's craft closet (shhh...

) All told, I think these three cables cost me about $21 for the 5 foot cables and $28 for the 10 foot cable. A good value for 12 AWG cables with quality connectors and great eye appeal.

I'm new to this hobby, but diving in headfirst. I'm loving it so far and I haven't even ordered my speakers yet!! (Waiting for WAF on the speaker finish) Can someone tell DHL to hurry up with those samples?

Ken.

Looks nice! Now that you've got the sleeves and heatshrink tubing, you can turn around and sell those on eBay for $100 a foot!

You may want to tin the ends of your conductors with solder (so they don't fray) rather than using banana terminals. I haven't found any solder-free bananas for 12 gauge and solder-style bananas run about $6 a pair.

I misspoke on the wire gauge. The wire is 14 AWG, but I'm using two of those wires per connector, so not sure what that works out to be. With the bananas I used, I had no problem with fitting both wires, twisted together, into the connector and screwing down both of the set screws. I'm guessing these connectors would handle a 10 AWG wire, no problem. They are gold plated and were right around $5/pair from the Blue Jeans guys. They actually feel heavy like metal, compared to the super light plastic feeling ones I've seen elsewhere. I know heft doesn't always mean quality, but in this case it's probably a good thing.

Ken.

It comes out to 11 gauge. I have the same setup on my speakers, although your cables are far, far more attractive than mine.

The example of the speaker wire with clear insuation is the same stuff that Home Depot is currently selling. Anybody have experience using that and having it oxidize and turn green like the picture??

That is what I was planning on using. Good to know I can go smaller diameter. I was planning on using 14 ga, but can use thinner stuff for a 20 ft run to the surrounds

Yep, I had some of that speaker wire. Yep, it turned green. I was cleaning the garage last weekend and found some more that I hadn't thrown away. Yep, it had turned green.

A little commentary on the green wire. First, it isn't oxidation; when copper oxidizes it turns an increasingly dark shade of brown(e.g. an old penny). This results from contact with oxygen in the air; it has nothing to do with the minute amount of oxygen which is added to copper wire during the production process to improve its physical properties, and hype about "oxygen free" wire is meaningless. For example, when I cut some additional lampcord(which I'd bought 17 years ago)recently in connection with changes because of adding the EP500, the copper which had been covered by the jacket was still bright and had no oxidation.

The green color is the result of copper combining with chlorine apparently released from an inadequately stable batch of polyvinyl chloride(PVC)in the jacket. Although it looks unsightly(unless your favorite color is green, maybe), it doesn't affect transmission if the surface in actual contact with the terminals is cleaned.

JohnK,

A EP500, connected with 17 year old lamp cord?.......now, THAT'S funny!

Sorry, about that...."to each his own".........no,no, I've thought more about it and,.....it IS funny.

Larry (#'s 1 and 5)

It's not funny. Everyone knows you should use the low-level inputs on the sub if you can.

I agree, the wires SHOULD be even smaller, and older, than those.....my bad.

By low level, I mean coax cable with rca ends. Speaker wire is best for an amplified signal.

The lampcord was used to connect re-positioned surround speakers. The EP500 was connected with a coaxial cable from MonoPrice($4).

JohnK,

That makes sense.....I seem to have read your other post wrong,...sorry, and thank's for not hammering me.

Larry

JohnK lets the truth hammer do the damage for him

John: just for the heck of it, I cut into the cable at a couple of places and looked at the copper conductor. It appeared that there had been some significant damage to the copper like the chemical reaction destroyed some of the copper.

I don't know how long I had this cable. I really thought that I threw all of it out a long time ago.

Yeah Bernard, I suppose that over a period of years as the unstable PVC in that particular cord continued to decompose and release chlorine that the effect on the copper would spread farther inward from the surface. The wire would increasingly become cupric chloride compounds instead of pure copper. Fortunately the usual PVC jackets don't cause a problem and even decades-old cord still has bright copper when cut open.

I'm glad I have never bought any. I have some really old stuff 20+ years kicking around and it still looks good.