Using telco phone cable for speaker wire???

[couchpotato]

Hi, could I use telco wire which is tinned copper as an alternative to Cat5 or is it not suitable

[couchpotato]

I know there are some real experts out there. The reason I ask is years ago Pioneer made an amplifier that received rave reviews at the time ( the A400 ). I remember Pioneer making a big deal about the tin plated inputs that they believed contributed to the sound quality. I don't know if tin plating the copper, or any sort of plating come to that is a fairly new method, I would have thought more costly, in just pure time terms if anything. There must be a reason for tin plating the phone cable (if anyone knows) and being used in the telecommunication industry must validate it as a tried and tested means of carrying a signal intact over long distances. The cheapness, due to being mass produced would surely equate to a price at least tenfold if it was in short demand and produced on a small scale.

[andye2004]

Jon Risch, one of the "guru's" of DIY speaker cable strongly advises against plating of any kind for speaker cable and describes it as a contaminant. See http://www.geocities.com/jonrisch/s1.htm for details, his speaker cable #3 is the cat 5 version.

On the basis of this I would say no to the tinned copper. I'm sure there are as many arguments for why plating is a good idea. Try it and see is my advice.

[couchpotato]

Thanks for the input Andy, I see tinned copper rates above silver plated copper, maybe tin does have some audiophilic (is that a word!!) after all.

[couchpotato]

Should have read audiophilic properties

[couchpotato]

Well I have tried this cable in place of my Audio Note AN-B. Twisted the 8 pairs together and used one cable for each of the plus and minus terminals. Just trying a stereo pair at the moment driving a pair of M&K K7's accompanied by a sunfire sub. My impressions are much less sibilance, more projected vocals and much darker silences. I would say more roll off at the high extremeties, still seems a very detailed presentation. Overall very pleased for an upgrade that cost me next to nothing. Am going to try two runs per terminal to see if it brings about any benefit.