Can one use assymetric wire gauge for speaker cable construction?

@audio_phool  - About 15 years ago, or so, there was an article in The Absolute Sound, where the reviewer made a pair of speaker cables using a 3 wire, 14-gauge outdoor extension cord from The Home Depot. He used 2 of the 3 wires for the + side and the remaining 1 of the 3 wires for the - side. It caused quite a stir back in the day. I built a pair and used them regularly for temporary use in my system. I never terminated them, just used the bare copper ends, so they were not as convenient as my purpose built speaker cables with BFA style low-mass banana plugs.

Yes, you can build an asymmetric cable and it will sound fine. Of course, you could use the same type of extension cord and just use 2 of the 3 conductors and have a symmetric cable.

Thank you guys for your input. I will let you know once I am done with building cable.

audio_phool OP

14 posts

11-22-2021 9:23am

The for using assymetric gauge came from the idea that can I use power cables as speaker cables. Ignoring the fact that these are heavier and inflexible compared to speaker wires, shielding on these is much better than ordinary wires & gauge is also pretty thick. So if one can use asymmetic gauge then power cables can be very interesting choice for speaker cables.

@audio_phool

Jmho, a power cord, cable, would be a bad choice. Especially if the power cord is UL Listed. If UL Listed as a rule the insulation, dielectric, covering the conductors is rubber or PVC... Not good for carrying audio signals.

Also as @oldhvymec pointed out shielding is not a good idea. It can suck the air from the music.

.

DIY itself is not a good idea. Let the guy screw around with his extension cords and figure that out for himself. Eventually. Maybe.