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Anyone have experience rewiring speakers?

post #1 of 9
1/30/09 at 3:20pm
Thread Starter 
Yesterday, while trying out some new speaker cable, I noticed that one of my binding posts was loose. So, I unscrewed binding post thingy and tightened it on the other side (inside the speaker). I noticed that the speaker cable inside the box (connecting the binding posts to the speaker drivers) was kind of cheap and skinny. The connections were nice and seemed to be gold plated. However, I couldn't help but think of how cool it would be to rewire the cable within the speaker to something nice.

Has anyone hear done this and if so, is it hard to do. I would love to hear some people's experiences in this endeavor.
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post #2 of 9
1/30/09 at 4:38pm
Re-wire with the thickest copper you can afford. You can get some nice 12ga. stranded wire for not much money at Lowe's or Home Despot.
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post #3 of 9
1/30/09 at 4:43pm
I've done it for a few people. Mostly upgraded to something like 16awg to 18awg from wires as small as 22awg. One guy even had me replace his woofers dust caps. His kids had gone and pushed them all in.
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post #4 of 9
1/30/09 at 5:19pm
Thread Starter 
I have an extra pair of Kimber 8tc. Has anyone wired the inside of their speaker with Kimbers or any other "fancy" speaker wire?
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post #5 of 9
1/31/09 at 12:48am
It's been a few years, but I've rewired several sets of speakers in my life. Usually when I've had to replace blown drivers and figured I might as well re-wire. Only once have I done it to try and upgrade the sound with a pair of Celestion SL6 monitors.

I've used what was considered audiophile cable at the time: Angstrom, Audioquest Midnight, XLO, and JPS Labs (which was a PITA to work with, so stiff). The only time the improvements were dramatic was with an old pair of Tangent TM1's, which also had the crappiest wire. With the others the changes were subtle at best. I'm a believer in cables, but the priority of re-wiring speakers would be low on my list.

If you are going to do it, you should have decent soldering skills and a real good iron bcause the thick wire in speaker cables takes a lot of heat. I de-soldered the voice coil wires from a woofer once due to the heat required. Fortunately it was easy to fix.
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post #6 of 9
2/2/09 at 2:38am
Audioquest Midnight - now that was a sweet wire! I would still love to get my hands on 12 or 15 feet of it. Sigh.....
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post #7 of 9
2/4/09 at 12:42pm
If possible, solder the wiring to replace the usually cheap snap-on thingies. Somehow the soldering will further improve whatever upgraded wiring you decide to use. I had experience with a few pairs and it was worthwhile to me. Even on a cheap pair of surround speakers, I heard noticeable clarity, tighter imaging and better impact.

Good luck,

Kenobi
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post #8 of 9
2/4/09 at 1:06pm
Sure, it's easy. If you're going to replace the cable, you might as well upgrade the resistors and caps, too. You can get much better resistors for $2-$5 each and better caps for $10-$20 each. If you haven't done anything like this before, post some photos of the crossover in the DIY Forum and we'll walk you through it.
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post #9 of 9
2/7/09 at 1:35am
I did so on a pair of JBL L-16's many years ago. I had one woofer reconed, installed non-JBL tweeters, and later, rewired the innards with heavier wire, and soldered everything. I think I even bypassed the terminals, and ran the speaker wire directly into the cabinet and soldered it to the crossover. I was amazed at how much the rewiring improved things. If you do it, solder it, push-on connectors are only for ease of assembly at the factory.
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