I made a pair, with the Rigid brand extention cord. They worked fine, I for one have never been able to "hear" a difference between speaker cables once I got away from "rca zip cord" and cheap monster cable.
The third wire should be clipped back as far as you can in the covering, the cognicetti "in the know" about the differences of speaker cable say it then acts as a diletric, transducer what ever...:) |
I use it for my outdoor speakers. It is waterproof and works fine there. I just snip the third wire at each end and ignore it.
But I wouldn't think of using it inside, not when there's relatively inexpensive alternatives that make sense. Like Speltz cables and such. (I DIY my own stuff, which sometimes can end up more expensive than buying.)
But try it, and if you don't like it just throw them away. Not much lost.
Enjoy,
Bob |
Tried it, liked it, it's reasonably neutral and clean. Eventually like any good audiouphile I tried other cables, finally purchased and kept the Audio Art speaker and IC cables which made a very nice and very noticable positive difference in my system. I am currently using the Home Depot in my Home Theatre set up, where it sounds great.
So, for me, it was nice, not terribly "refined", and teh Audio Art was much more "musical", and not very expensive.
Try them - they have a return policy, but I bet you won't return them.
But Bob is right - try teh Home Depot too - for 10-12 bucks, whatchoo got to lose?
Enjoy!
James |
I have a pair that I sometime use. Mine are "Commercial Electric" branded from Home Depot. It is the orange cable with thick black line running the length of the cable.
I connected the black and green wires on both ends together and use it for the (-) side. I use the single white run as the (+) side. It sounds pretty good and only cost about $15 for the experiment.
Enjoy,
TIC |
I played around with several variations of this "Halloween" cable before settling on one that I'm still enjoying after more than a year. I use the stuff shotgunned -- all three conductors in the forward/+/red direction and another three in the reverse/-/black direction, terminated in serious spades at the amp end and Eichmann bananas at the speaker end. I've encased the cables in black Techflex so they doesn't scare the children. And I'm using two more identical pairs into the bottom (subwoofer) connections on my Gallo Ref 3s.
Works for me, and replaced some pretty pricy cables. One of my friends found that they sounded substantially better than the $1200 cables (which will be unnamed but starts with "V") he was using at the time. Another friend thought they sounded like hell in his system. So it's a system-dependent crapshoot, but what's to lose -- for 20 bucks you can make up 4 8-foot links and have some to spare, and see what you think.
BTW, the bananas on mine are so I can switch polarity easily (well, comparatively easily). |
The third wire could be combined with your Negative cable, it then has a thicker gauge to ground.. Will it make a huge impact on sound, probably not, but you can at least use the copper on hand.. It will not hurt it. I have actually opened many speakers up that use a thicker gauge wire to the negative terminals for a path of lesser resistance, the positive can stay thinner.. Again not saying it is necessary, but you can at least use the wire. |
I tried the variation Undetow recommended, liked it better than the "original" two wire version, but not nearly as well as the separate ones I ended up with. |
Thanks everyone for your responses. Can anyone speculate on the difference I would hear, if any, between the HD and my current Monster wire? Thanks,
Bill |
Mac tube gear deserves better than HD DIY cable or Monster for that matter. That's like putting ketchup on a good steak. You would be better off spending $ on tube upgrades or better wire. |
Steuspeed, have you heard them? When it costs less than 20 bucks to try them, why not? Paul Seydor in The Absolute Sound review found that they sounded every bit as good as the $400-500 cables he was testing at the time, and he was using a simple two-wire version. |
I use them in my system and they sound wnderful - every bit as good as the high priced spread. I have and all Ayre system into Vandersteen 5A's |
I agree with Steuspeed. You spent how much on your gear and you wish to fine tune it using HD wire?
I have used the HD wire, it is OK, not great. Give it a try though, as mentioned it is a cheap DIY project and is fun. If you don't have enough cash at the moment for better cables, this will hold you over. When you get ready to experiment with other cables, give the Cable Company a call and borrow cables to try from them.
Regards, |
I made a set of cables using the "commercial electric" branded ext cord. I used the 12 guage (yellow jacket) cord due to the distances I was running, and clipped the green wire. I think it cost me $50 for the set (ie for a 100ft cord), plus bananas.
I would go this route over Monster cable any day, but I'm not sure I would replace existing cables with it. I needed a new set because the Monster cable I had didn't fit the confuration of my room.
That said, I was very satisfied with the sound quality - I think is was an improvement over the Monster cables (though this was not a controlled/scientific comparison), but clearly not as good as my PS Audio Statements, nor my Totem bi-wires. |
I may try the HD wire just for the fun of it. However, what recommendations do you have for a reasonably priced speaker cable that would be a significant improvement over the HD wire? I know everyone probably has their favorite, but I'm curious if there is any consensus on quality lower priced cables. The upper price limit is about $200., preferable less. Thanks again,
Bill |
Alpha Core Goertz MI-2 Veracity should be in your price range and has a 30 day trial period. |
I used some of the orange HD's for a rear set of HT speakers cause I had to run them under the house through the crawl space (it's a long story). They sound fine in that position though I did not compare them to anything else. |
