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Cat 5 v. 10 GA Speaker wire (1 Viewer)

Chris-E-S

Auditioning
Joined
Dec 4, 2003
Messages
12
I have been reading alot about speaker wire recently and have found alot of information saying Cat 5 braided DIY wire makes a great speaker wire. What are the benefits of it over say some 10 or 12 GA soundking wire from PartsExpress? Thanks.
-Svence
 

Michael Hartwig

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Sep 18, 2002
Messages
56
The only benifit I can see in the CAT5 is that you will develop strong fingers when constructing it. I'm not a big believer in the average person hearing any differences in speaker cables. The most important thing is that the gauge is adequate for the length of run. I currently use 18 gauge solid core wire for a 7' run.
But if you beieve you can hear the difference, give both of them try and decide on which sounds the best to you. The cost of the materials is very minor.
Happy braiding.
 

Dave Nibeck

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Feb 23, 2000
Messages
152
Ditto what Michael said. I built some fancy bi-wire cables spinning 8 lengths of 16g wire into 4 cables for each front speaker. I flexwrapped each cable and carefully terminated the ends.

After swapping with my HD 12g, I could not detect any noticable change in sound characteristics. They look damn cool though!
 

TimForman

Supporting Actor
Joined
Dec 4, 2002
Messages
847
Chances are, in HT applications and short runs you wouldn't hear the difference and I don't even want to get into skin-effect or any of the esoteric stuff. If we're talking flea power to highly-sensitive extended bandwidth drivers then...
damn, I'd better quit now.
 

Chris-E-S

Auditioning
Joined
Dec 4, 2003
Messages
12
Thanks guys for all the quick responses...I guess I will just save myself some tired fingers and buy some 10 or 12 GA from partsexpress.

-Svence
 

Chu Gai

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2001
Messages
7,270
Cat 5 makes great speaker wire. So does lamp cord, so does conventional speaker wire, so does Amphenol ribbon cable, so do a set of jumper cables. It's a lot of work for something that doesn't sound any different however if you've got a stack of it lying around and don't want to spring for
 

Tom Rosback

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Jun 7, 2000
Messages
119
Cat 5 is 8 strands of 24 gauge solid copper, making it equivalent in resistance to 18 ga zip cord.
 

Michael R Price

Screenwriter
Joined
Jul 22, 2001
Messages
1,591
I am using short lengths of 9-pair braided wires using Teflon Cat5 (15 awg) and I think it sounds a little better than 16 gauge copper wire. It was worth a couple hours of work. I previously had large cables (9 awg?) made from non-plenum rated wire, which caused some kind of minor distortion in the treble.
 

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