DIY cable information wanted


I just tried making my own speaker cables at the advice of Martin DeWulf from Bound for Sound. I bought 6 awg multi strand wire from Home Depot and some silver and gold spades (that was all the store had, one pair of each to fit the 6 awg wire). Loosely twisted the cables by running the pos and neg in opposite directions (best I know how from looking at the cable jackets) and put them in my system. Not so bad, lots of detail, clairity, lost some of the black background (the echo/reverb did not seem as deep or thick) but they have only been on for 30 minutes. Mid-range was very clear. Keep in mind that I only have a 20 year old pair of Monster speaker cable for a spool.

Would like to get some more advise on DIY spekaer cables.

This was the best $40 I spent on my system to date. Give it a try. I have some AZ Hologram mono runs and Audience speaker cables coming to me next week so I can do some comparisions.

All comments and suggestions are very much welcome.

Peter
bigkidz
Some folks have claimed that they can hear a difference in their speaker wires after breaking them in by using them in an AC load for 100 uninterrupted hours. I haven't tried this yet, but I am planning to when I do my wires.

I did a comparison using a single pair of #10 AWG wires going to one speaker, and an 8 pair twisted #18 AWG shielded Belden cable for the other, and there was a significant difference noticed with the multi pair cable. I tied all of the black wires from each pair together, and all of the white wires from each pair. Everybody who listened could tell the difference when the left and right channels were selected seperately.
Simplest path to GREAT cables for cheap is to buy Canare S11 for under $1/ft from Markertek, etc. This superior Pro Quad Cable is indeed a Pro favorite, and is overwrapped and resold for $$$ by several snake-oil companies!
I use it in my HT, and indeed it's no SPM (or even Blue Heaven), but at 11AWG composite it's beefy, biwirable (2x14AWG), and very eaxy to handle. And stupidly cheap.
Have fun.
Check out Audioasylum.com, their cable section. Do a search for (John) Risch--he has tons of diy ideas. I havent done the speaker stuff, but his interconnects are great ideas. Maybe you already know this, but in case you don't.