speaker wire (1 Viewer)

[JessyMcK]

Has anyone heard of using RG-6 for inwall speaker wire instead of speaker wire? I went to a home audio/video instal speacialist and they told me they use RG-6 for all their installs. Curios i went home and hooked up one speaker with 12ga moster and 1 with RG-6. The RG-6 one sounded much better. so far I've ran about 300 feet of RG-6 for speakers and was wondering if it weas a bad idea before I seal off the ceilings.

 

[John Garcia]

I don't see how RG-6 is going to work... Are you using the shield for the - or are you using one each for + and -?. If you are using one each, then you just did the equivalent of using solid wire; there should be nothing wrong with that. Personally, I don't think it's the best idea, and I've never seen it done before. For a SUB, yes, but as speaker wire, no.

Make sure you LABEL them before you close off the walls, or you will be spending a lot more time figuring out which wire is which.

 

[Chu Gai]

Not my favorite choice either. When you look at the center conductor, is it just one color or does the middle of it look grayish, like steel?

 

[ScottHH]

What do you mean by "sounded much better".

The center conductor of RG-6 is 18 guage, that's a pretty small wire for a long run.

Exactly what RG-6 did you use and how did you use it? There is a great variation in the materials used to make coaxial cables.

There is a pretty sizable following that likes the speaker cable design on the first two links of this link. Note that the designer is very specific about the cable he recommends using in this design. The recommended cable has a pure copper center conductor (not copper coverved steel or tinned copper) and teflon insulation (which is a more coveted material than PVC). I personally don't know what to make of the cross-connected design, other than it seems a lot easier to impliment than this design. Note, however, that you need two strands of the cable to make each speaker cable, and it is at least $1.50/foot, so the finished product is not inexpensive.

I was hoping there was a source for pure copper conductors with teflon insulation. Until I can find that, I'm thinking the Belden 5T00UP, which is 10 guage PVC covered copper, and costs about 25 cents a foot in bulk from electric suppliers (do a google search for 5T00UP), is the way to go in wall.

 

[JessyMcK]

You only nee one strand of cable, you use the outer wire as - and the inner wire as youtr +. Coaxial is only $50-$60 for 500ft, the stuff you are talking about is $130 for 500 ft.

 

[ScottHH]

Jessy,

The general consensus is that you want a copper conductor (that's why Chu was asking about the color of the center conductor). I have never seen a speaker cable solution where the + and - signals were sent along anything other than 2 identical paths (that's what John was asking about). Also that you want thicker cable, 14, 12 or even 10 gauge. I agree that 10 gauge speaker I mentioned is more than most people need.

At 10 cents a foot, you probably have a copper-covered steel center conductor (not recommended) and maybe an aluminum braid (I don't think having your + and - signals running along different materials one a solid conductor, one a woven braid is recommended). RG-6 is 18 gauge (so it's smaller than recommended too).

But since you say it sounds good, do you have the exact manufacturer and model of the coax you're using. At 10 cents a foot it's worth listening too. Just make absolutely sure that the braid doesn't touch the center conductor.

 

[Allan Jayne]

The RG6 is perfect for the line level signal to a powered sub, but the center conductor is too thin for ordinary speaker wiring. Expensive overkill exists in the form of taking one RG6 cable for the plus and another RG6 cable for the minus for each speaker, tying together both the shield and the center conductor at both ends. I'm not sure what the equivalent gauge of this is, it is probably close to 14g copper if not 12g copper.

Video hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/video.htm

 

[John Garcia]

There is, we used it all the time in one of my previous company's products - Semiconductor chemical benches, so the wire had to be teflon to keep from being destroyed by fumes or splashes of extremely caustic chemicals. It's been around for many years, but I don't think it comes in larger AWG like 14.

Audioquest also makes a large variety of solid, ultra pure wire, though I believe the lower ones use PVC jackets. I'm using this in my 2ch system and it sounds nice, but isn't a night and day improvement for $3/ft.