Diy "recepies" for speaker wire anyone?


...anybody tried such a project, that end result rivals some of those pricier cables manufactured by companies?
eldragon

Showing 1 response by r_schwartz

There's at least one good website with DIY info for cables, but I can't find the URL at the moment. My reply may generate a few arguments, but here are the basics. If you assume the speakers sound best connected directly to the amp, then you want to minimize resistance (R), series inductance (L), and parallel capacitance (C). Lowest R is from big wires, but if you try house wire the L will change (it goes up) with frequency (that's bad.) Lowest L is from wires right next to each other, but that gives highest C (bad.) Lowest C is from wires a few inches away from each other, but that gives highest L (also bad.) The trick is to find the best tradeoff. The ones I've tried are with lots of small wires close together. I've tried ribbon cable, twisted and untwisted, and braiding fine wires together. Haven't tried parallel runs of coax or copper strip yet, they're on the list. My costs are much lower than even cheap cables. I'm pleased with the performance. Do they rival expensive cables? I'd be happy to borrow good cables for a few months to compare.