Cat 5 FFRC speaker cable

Stereo Steve

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Anyone tried Cat 5 as speaker cables? I currently use QED Silver but I'm moving and will need some longer lenghs (4-5 metres) as the amp is going on a side wall, not between the speakers. So, faced with that, I'm looking into making some from Cat 5. Looking on the TNT site, he seems to think they sound fantastic. I have found the correct Cat 5 cable from Maplin and it works out a great deal cheaper than half decent cables.

So, is it any good? I'm considering bi-amping so I'm wondering if I should do 2 lengths of 2 cables to each speaker (ie. a cat5 cable per speaker terminal) or just bi-wire as he does in the description. Alternatively I could use 3 cat5 cables per amp (6 per speaker) but this is getting a bit silly.

Any thoughts?
 
I think it improved my system. It replaced Ecosse 2.3 cable. All my opinion of course!!

Cheers Steve
 
I ditched my Linn cable in favour of CAT 5. Much more open sound with greater presence and better control of base. I think the Linn cable was about £15/m.
 
So you reckon 1 cat5 cable per speaker terminal would be OK in a bi-wire system? Or, should I use more. The guy recommends 3, one each for the bass terminals and split the last one for the tweeter terminals. I ugess I would actually be over speccing in this case so it should be OK.

I'm keen to try it anyway, reckon it should be better than Silver Anniversary.
 
im using 3 cat5 cables atm,stripped of outer sheath and braided, just gotten some smaller speakers (celestion f10's) and will be changing to 2xbraid as this seems to give a better sound stage on the smaller speakers (but sacrifices some bass) , start with 2 braids and just change to 3 if you dont have much low feq and split them 6+6 ,6-6

edit* oh yeah try and rob the wifes marigolds for your hands when stripping/braiding ,my fingers were a mess of open blisters after braiding 2x5mtr lengths , you may look like olive from 'on the buses ' for awhile but you will thank me for it latr.:laugh:

you can gett 100m of cat5e solid from http://www.scan.co.uk/products/ for £11.69+p+p
 
I ran a section of Cat 5 cable for a while as a temporary measure in my system. It quickly got replaced by some Chord Odyssey bi-wire (£34/m), and that has subsequently been replaced with a run of Van Damme Pro Studio Bi-wire cable.

I wasn't ever impessed with the Cat 5 option, always sounded a bit 'odd'. I've also been running a nice set of Airloc terminated chord Carnival leads. They sound good, between an Arcam P75 and my JM Labs 710's.
 

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