Would I benefit from Cat5 upgrade?

fangface666 · 27-07-2008, 6:48 PM

Hello all

Here is my question
I have a Yamaha DSP A5 amp connected to a Yamaha NSP 300 speaker package using Radioshack AWG14 Flat speaker cable (replaced the standard bell wire stuff that came with it, but dont buy into the whole expensive cable scene)
Would I benefit from upgrading the Radioshack speaker cable with homemade Cat5 cables?
And If I did would it be worth doing all of them or just the main left and right

cant seem to find any info on this on the forum

Any advice appreciated

Mr Incredible · 27-07-2008, 7:39 PM

Although not Radioshak "quality", but nonetheless of that ilk, my son had used some 2.5sq mm flat Sharkwire cable on his B&W 602S3's and had doubled them up for bi-wiring. So notwithstanding the fact that IMO bi-wiring is a waste of time, the only thing one can say about it is that there was alot of copper between the amp (NAD) and the speakers.

When I had bought some cables to test on my system it liberated some Cat5 cables I had made and was using on my kit. So he swapped out the Sharkwire cable for the CAt5. OMG! What a difference, the highs were cleaner but the bass just came to life. It was a huge change.

When I compared (blind A-b switching) the Cat5 to the cables I bought (the Sterling Mamba), on most materials I could not hear any difference. So cat5 does work if you're prepared to have a go at DIY.

EDIT
As an after thought, much depends on your speakers as well. If they're small/lifestyle/satellite type, then Cat5 would be an overkill TBH, as would 14AWG of anything!

Johnny.A · 27-07-2008, 10:18 PM

[QUOTE=Mr Incredible;7439102]
When I had bought some cables to test on my system it liberated some Cat5 cables I had made and was using on my kit. So he swapped out the Sharkwire cable for the CAt5. OMG! What a difference, the highs were cleaner but the bass just came to life. It was a huge change.
QUOTE]

I noticed the same build some last week and the difference WOW!!!!! do it on all if you got the patients im doing all mine now not going back to normal cable again cat5 ftw.

fangface666 · 28-07-2008, 1:39 PM

Cheers for the replies,

Johnny what type of cable did you replace with the cat5?
was it the supplied "bell wire" stuff or something thicker?
The cable I'm currently (sic) using is fairly thick AWG 14 or about 2 mm square.

Also are your speakers Bi-wired? as mine cannot be wired this way and all the posts seem to be from people with Bi-wired speakers listening to music, not normally wired watching films.

As my set up is only modest,without the ability to bi wire, and used primarily for watching tv and dvds, I am just curious as to whether Cat5 will give a noticeable improvement over the awg14 cable I'm using at the moment?

Yamaha DSP A5 amp (£350 8 years ago) and a set of Yamaha NSP 300 speakers (£150) with the usual Sky+, dvd players and PS3 scources.

Mr Incredible · 28-07-2008, 1:49 PM

Bi-wiring aside on my son's set up, he must have had the equivalent of 11 AWG on his speakers. He replaced that with the Cat5 (+/- 13 AWG) and the Cat5 blew the away the flat cable. It's cheap and easy to do, so give it a go: even without bi-wiring, just wire up 3 x lengths as per the instructions.

Johnny.A · 28-07-2008, 8:13 PM

Qed silver anniversary ive tried alot of cables and cat5 is so good! for the cost i build a 5M stereo pair with banana plugs for £18 i even took it in to audio t and they were very impressed with it you will notice the difference on what ever you put it on and for the cost of crap cable you cant go wrong!