[crackerkorean]

I just got done making an 8' speaker cable by braiding 3 runs of cat 5. Using one of the three for + the other for - and the middle one split between the two.

Here is my set up ( its not the greatest I know )
Amp - Aiwa mini system ( 12 years old i think it sounds much better than the newer ones)
Source - My computer
Speakers - Boston Acoustics A100

I was using just cheap speaker cable and it was ok with it. I put one of the speaker cables I made on one speaker and went back and fourth. It seemms that the cat5 cable brings the lower frquences to the front and some what muts the higher ones.

My question.
Will how the cable is braided and howo its broken out between + and - between the pairs make a difference?

Should I do 4 runs and not split one?

 

[HiGHFLYiN9]

It couldn't hurt, CAT5 conductors are fairly small gauge and it takes a number of them to be the equivalent of a larger gauge speaker cable. For instance if there are 8 28ga conductors in each cable, the total aggregate gauge for that cable would be a single 19ga conductor, if you ran two cat5 cables to each speaker you'd have the equivalent of a 19 gauge zip cord.

 

[beamrider]

How are you figuring aggregate gauge, is there a formula for that, I assume? Just curious for my own reference........

 

[flecom]

CAT5 is usually 24 AWG

 

[BradJudy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by beamrider How are you figuring aggregate gauge, is there a formula for that, I assume? Just curious for my own reference........

Two wires of the same gauge combine to one wire 3 gauges higher. e.g. two 16AWG wires equals one 13AWG wire. I don't know the formula for combining dissimilar gauges.

In hf's example, 8x 28AWG equals 4x 25AWG equals 2x 22AWG equals 1x 19AWG.

 

[Budgie]

Helpful-
http://www.epanorama.net/documents/w...esistance.html