Getting wire to make my own speaker wire (1 Viewer)

[Eddie Peavey]

I have been looking around on this subject of making speaker wire, a lot of ppl seem to have coax cable or something weird like cat 5 wire. I was also checking out audioquests site since I have a digital coax cable that I got when I bought my receiver at my local high end shop and I know of them. But anyways I was looking at some of the cables and their designs. I was thinking of buying some just to play around with untill I found it on-line and the one I was looking at was only $48 a foot, EEEK! So, I started thinking, this is not too complex. I have talked to some EE students, EE grads and they said just to copy the design best I can. The big problem is, I was woundering where the heck to get some of this stuff, I have not been able to find much. I basiclly need some solid core copper wire in 16, 18, 19, and 21 awg. I would like to get some braid type stuff to finish off the cable on the out side, and I don't know if you can get this, but some teflon to put over groups of wire in side of the cable. Other wise I know where to get connectors and shrink tubing. I would prefere to get it locally, but I do not know of any major chain stores that if you knew of one, I could find here, but I would love to get it localy instead of the internet.

 

[Julian Data]

Check the Audio Asylum
I built my wires/interconnects using Jon Risch's receipes.
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[Eddie Peavey]

Yeah I have seen those, but I am gonna play with some other stuff. I got one of the EEs at work kind of interested so it looks like he is going to help me. I was just woundering if there was a place to get those kind of wires, don't know if I can have the engineers or even the electrician at work get this stuff. I need a back up in case I can't.

 

[Brian_J]

Electrical supply stores. Home Depot also sells more than you might expect. There are some places on line that sell the braid but I cannot remember. If you search "DIY speaker cables" on the web you should find some sites that tell you where to get the aesthetic stuff, belden cable, etc.
By the way, I made mine with Cat 5 cable. Works splendidly. You can often get the stuff free by going to office buildings under construction or being renovated. What I used was Plenum rated cable, its coated with teflon.
You can tell its the stuff because it has a neon blue jacket.
Brian
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Zed's Dead Baby...

 

[Eddie Peavey]

Thanks, may have to check out HD, was thinking about that, but just never went. I can get cat 5 any day from work of from a buddy. I work in IS and know the people that run the cable so I can get half used boxes of the stuff, needless t say, I already have a spider web of cat 5 running threw my house