Good but Inexpensive tri/bi-wire

B

BroonsBane

Audioholic Intern
Hi all. My wife and I just purchased a pair of Energy Veritas 2.8's. They are tri-wireable and have been looking around for good quality but not stupidly expensive speaker cable for them. Looked at bettercables etc already. Any other good places on the net to search? We can't buy this stuff locally as we live in the backwoods so to speak.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
 
U

Unregistered

Guest
Get some heavy gauge 12 awg (or larger) extension cord or power cable from the hardware store, cut it to length and terminate with your choice connector. If you want it tolook real pretty, get some braided sheath and heat shrink tubing from Parts Express.
 
B

BroonsBane

Audioholic Intern
Well, if we had DIY ability we probably would go that route...but since we don't we are looking elsewhere for our cables. Found some reasonably priced Ultrlink cable but that is about it so far.
 
W

WhipperSnapper

Guest
BroonsBane said:
Well, if we had DIY ability we probably would go that route...but since we don't we are looking elsewhere for our cables. Found some reasonably priced Ultrlink cable but that is about it so far.
Some people forget that not all audio enthusiasts have the patience to assemble cables themselves, in fact, most would rather have a ready made cable and do not mind spending a little in exchange for convenience, aesthetics and quality. In this regard, you may want to check the following cables:

QED Silver Anniversary
http://www.everestaudio.com/price-pages/qed-prices.html

Signal Cable
http://www.signalcable.com/speaker_cables.html

River Cable (10% off for Audioholics readers and free S&H for 1st time customers but u just missed their special pricing)
http://www.rivercable.com/flexygy.html

DH Labs
http://silversonic.com/docs/prod/

JPS Labs
http://www.jpslabs.com/ultraconductor.shtml

Analysis-Plus
http://www.analysis-plus.com/Pages/speakercables.htm

Synergistic Research
http://www.synergisticresearch.com/viewer/cablealpha.htm

Alpha-Core
http://www.alphacore.com/mispeaker.html

You may want to read this article by Cobalt Cable company about bi-wiring.
http://www.cobaltcable.com/product/pair_speaker_cable.htm

Don't know what criteria you are looking for in a speaker wire but I don't think I would spend more than $200 for a 2m or 6ft. pair (tax & s&H included). Let us know what you decided to purchase and Good Luck!
 
Mudcat

Mudcat

Senior Audioholic
My apologies, ( I posted as unregistered earlier) about the DIY stuff, but in all honesty, you do not require any ability to do it. If I had to purchase all of the speaker cable and interconnects I need for my systems, I would have spent well close to $2K for even mid priced stuff. See my post in the phat systems area (My What A Nice Rack) and you see what I mean. Then see Dan B's article on DIY speaker cable - no soldering, just holding a screw driver. A lot of folks think they need to be certified electricians to even touch wire - just common sense. If one of my speaker cable cost more than $40 for me to make I would be surprised, and that is all dressed up (Braided wrap, heat shrink, locking bananna posts, etc..). $200 (and up) for six feet of wire is ludicrous.
 
B

BroonsBane

Audioholic Intern
Hello and thanks for the replies.
I've seen the article you mentioned but how would the steps involved apply for a biwire configuration? I've seen shrink wrap etc in an electronics store but have NO idea how to use it. Are my DIY inadequencies becoming evident yet? ;)

Nice looking little setup you have there btw.
 
Mudcat

Mudcat

Senior Audioholic
The shrink wrap and braided sleeve are as I mentioned, options to make the cable look pretty. That being said, those items also require a degree of DIY ability. However, what requires no ability, only the confidence that you can wield a steak knife (wire stripppers work best, but I'm assuming you have no tools).

I do not want to try an get you to do anything you are not comfortable doing, and maybe if I get my act in gear, I can submit something for posting which details the steps and breaks down the cost of building a nice looking speaker cable out of heavy gauge cable readily available at most hardware stores. ( And add some touches like the shrink wrap and braided sleeving, etc.).

The only advantage of these cables is their cost. The ones I've made so far have capacitances between 24 (at 10000 Hz) and 38 pF/foot (at 100 Hz). Inductance is reasonable at about 0.25 uH per foot. Rs varies from 0.003 at 100 Hz to 0.018 at 10000 Hz. Not much better, and probably worse than 10 gauge zip wire. But they are big and thick, and will impress the neighbors (if they see them).

The other situation I see is that I made my cable using a 10/4 cable were each 10 awg conductor was made of 658 strands of 38 awg wire. This type of stuff is not readily available, and the best you may find for any gauge is a conductor made of strands of 30 awg wire (much larger and stiffer). and I'm just rambling now and have no idea where I'm going with this, so I'll sign off. Hope I didn't muddy things up too badly?
 
Rob Babcock

Rob Babcock

Moderator
You can even buy shrink tube that can be shrunk with a hair dryer instead of a heat gun. I've used it & it works well. Try Parts Express.
 
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