[Wile E Coyote]

All right! I give in! I’m going to make my own speaker cables from Cat5!
One question before I start though…
All 5 of my Linn Komponents (FR, FL, RR, RL & centre) have 4 drive units in each speaker, with separate terminals for each unit, 8 total, 4 positive & 4 negative. The units are described as lower bass, bass, mid & tweeter.
If I go up to 4 x Cat5 from the more usual 3 to quad-wire the speakers, how do I split the 16 (each + & -)?
Would a straight 4 each be enough for the bass units or should I go 5, 5, 3, 3 or even 6, 6, 2. 2? If the latter, would the 2s be enough for the mid & tweeter?
All donations (and variations) gratefully received.

[Mr Incredible]

If you're not bi(quad)-amping and just quad-wiring, I wouldn't bother with splitting anything out at all. I'd run 4 cables to the bass driver and then make up some "jumper" cables of the same size to bridge across to the other drivers.

I know some people say bi-wiring helps to keep the back EMFs isolated from each driver, but personally I'm not convinced if all the cabling goes back to the same amp terminals. Others believe that there is less interaction between the drivers as the frequencies and current draw for each driver will be different. But even then as most bi-amping is passive bi-amping, all the frequencies get amplified at the amplifier end anyway.

So, if it was me and I was determined to give this a go, I'd go 5,5 and 6 and bridge the mid and tweeter drivers. I personally don't think you can ever have too much copper on bass drivers!

EDIT: Welcome to the forums!

[reevesy]

mr incredible.....just regarding alternative ways of knocking up speaker cable.......
...was i imagining things i did i see an old post from yourself about achieving good results using normal 2 core copper electric cable?

[Mr Incredible]

I may have referred to other people using electric cable, but for the sort of csa I'd like (2.5 sq mm on the fronts), it's far too stiff. Some people report good results, but if you go to TNT-Audio site and read about why he believes multi-stranded individually shielded cable is the best (i.e cat5 cable), you'll gain an insight into why I made my own cat5 cables.

[reevesy]

i was thinking along the lines of long lengths.....which obviously get a bit pricey with dedicated speaker cable.......might be moving soon and have started thinking about cables to run while the missus worries about bathrooms and curtains.
....will have to delve about in this section of the forum.

[CJROSS]

Spot on advice from Mr. Inc, I would simply run a combined set of CAT5 cables to the speakers and then “cable jump” from the bass terminals to the tweeters (with 100-200mm lengths of single CAT5). FWIW depending on cable lengths, you can safely use 3-6 cables of CAT5, ie 1-5m say 3CAT5 (FFRC or CC Mode), 5-10m 6CAT5 (TNTs Twisted Twin recipe for example), up to you, personally think that 4CAT5 cables would cover all eventualities from. CAT5 is an excellent cunductor cable for making your own DIY recipes, T+E as Mr. I says is a PITA once above 2.5mm2 due to its soild core conductors. Finally, there are very cheap (£1.25-£3/m) speaker cables these days from the likes of Van Damme Blue / Speakerflex 150/250/400 with conductors from 2 x 1.5mm2-4.0mm2, you can also easily increase conductor area by say tripling 2x1.5mm2 cables – you sometime see 1.5mm2 cores going very cheaply (I once bought a load of Van Damme 1.5mm2 quite cheaply then tripled cores to play around with – ie buy a load then double or triple pairs. The 2x2.5mm2 VD Blue is an excellent all round cable and sounds as good as the CAT5 cables (ie very good) to my ears.

[Mr Incredible]

Also look at this I posted in the bargain section
belkin Speaker cable

based on a post in this forum. In my opinion copper is copper is copper, and anything else is just snake oil. 2.6 sqmm of Belkin Pure AV speaker cable for 43.5p per meter HAS to be a bargain!

[Wile E Coyote]

Thanks to both Mr Incredible and CJROSS.
Looks like the answer to my question is -

1) Make the cables
2) Try the variations and pick the one you prefer

Simple really...

[CJROSS]

Originally Posted by Wile E Coyote

Thanks to both Mr Incredible and CJROSS.
Looks like the answer to my question is -

1) Make the cables
2) Try the variations and pick the one you prefer

Simple really...

No worries WCoyote, as you say have a play around and see what you like. FWIW Mr. Inc posted to a fantastic offer to cpc farnell 4mm banana plugs (mines arrived yesterday cheers Mr. I) cheap as chips I have bought loads in the past at double the price, they are excellent to screw onto large dia.core like multi CAT5 being side entry with a gnurled end screw.

http://cpc.farnell.com/jsp/Cable,+Wi...equestid=35288
http://cpc.farnell.com/jsp/Cable,+Wi...equestid=35288

[Wile E Coyote]

Already on the way to my post office box (a.k.a. my Mother's house).
Thanks