Splice cut speaker wire or re-run with new wire.

[mrceolla]

Hi all,

I was robbed a while back and instead of the robbers unhooking things they decided to grab a knife and just cut stuff. They have cut my rear speaker wires and I am wondering if it makes much difference if I use some identical, unused wire and solder it to what remains or if I should re-do the entire run.

The reason this is a question for me is that it will be a huge hassel to redo the whole run. The wire is in cable molds/tracks around my entire room and then fed through the middle of some bookshelf poles which would require disassembling to redo.

My existing wire, of which I have some left over, is Monster XPMS-50 MKII.

http://www.monstercable.com/productdisplay.asp?pin=4603

I just received some new speaker wire from Monoprice.

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10239&cs_id=1023903&p_id=2793&seq=1&format=2

Do these two speaker wires vary in quality in any noticable way?

If joining my existing Monster wire with some unused wire of the same type, would soldering be the way to go or would twisting and electrical tape be better?

What would you do?

Thanks.

 

[InTheIndustry]

Hi all,

I was robbed a while back and instead of the robbers unhooking things they decided to grab a knife and just cut stuff. They have cut my rear speaker wires and I am wondering if it makes much difference if I use some identical, unused wire and solder it to what remains or if I should re-do the entire run.

The reason this is a question for me is that it will be a huge hassel to redo the whole run. The wire is in cable molds/tracks around my entire room and then fed through the middle of some bookshelf poles which would require disassembling to redo.

My existing wire, of which I have some left over, is Monster XPMS-50 MKII.

http://www.monstercable.com/productdisplay.asp?pin=4603

I just received some new speaker wire from Monoprice.

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10239&cs_id=1023903&p_id=2793&seq=1&format=2

Do these two speaker wires vary in quality in any noticable way?

If joining my existing Monster wire with some unused wire of the same type, would soldering be the way to go or would twisting and electrical tape be better?

What would you do?

Thanks.

1st, let me say that I'm so sorry to hear what happened to you. That's awful!

2nd, use the mono price wire, it's fine. And don't bother soldering. Using hardware store everday wirenuts and some electrical tape to secure is perfectly fine.

Good luc to you!

 

[jcmccorm]

+1

I'd just use wire-nuts and splice them together.

Cary

 

[Alex2507]

I like the crimped butt connector solution offered here.

I'm not sure if Wayne mentions staggering the location of the connectors but I like that too.

Thanks Wayne!

 

[mrceolla]

Hi folks,

Thanks for your input. Staggering the splices will probably be a necessity since my current cable molds/tracks are rather thin. So much so that I'm almost 100% positive that I don't have enough room for wirenuts. However the insulated butt connectors shown in that links might do the trick!

Do these crimped butt connectors provide better performance than just twisting the wires together and covering them with electrical tape? Does solder add anything to this situation?

Thanks again.

 

[Alex2507]

Do these crimped butt connectors provide better performance than just twisting the wires together and covering them with electrical tape? Does solder add anything to this situation?

I would think those answers are in Wayne's write up:

"This method, twisting two wires together and wrapping with electrical tape for insulation against short circuits, is by far the easiest spice to accomplish. It’s also the most unreliable method and therefore generally not recommended. Even a moderate amount of tension on the wire will usually make the splice separate. "

... but you used the words 'better performance'. I doubt you could hear the difference from one method to the next. I think the main difference is strength of connection and solder would prevent conductor oxidization. I've spliced wires with the twist and tape method. I wasn't planning on pulling the ends in opposite directions. I've also soldered wires in the replacement of a power cord in a turntable. It was kind of a whatever I felt like doing at the time thing.

In your deal with everything being in wire molding some fancy staggered low profile twist with solder and heat shrink tubing might be the smallest form factor but definitely the most time consuming approach. I would go with the butt connectors and be done with it.

How about some pic's? We like pic's.

 

[PENG]

I like the crimped butt connector solution offered here.

I'm not sure if Wayne mentions staggering the location of the connectors but I like that too.

Thanks Wayne!

Yes, crimped butt connector solution is good.

 

[GO-NAD!]

I like the crimped butt connector solution offered here.

Trust you to come up with a "butt connector" solution. Can't you keep your hobbies separate!?

 

[Alex2507]

Trust you to come up with a "butt connector" solution. Can't you keep your hobbies separate!?

You should see my glue gun.

 

[GO-NAD!]

You should see my glue gun.

Ummmm...maybe not...

 

[mrceolla]

Thanks for your advice on this. I went with the butt connectors. Someone asked for pics so here they are. Sorry they're so crappy. They're from my phone. The robbers stole my crappy old digital camera which would've still taken better pics than these.

I double crimped each one just to make sure I got the wires.

 

[mrceolla]

One more. After this I installed a larger cable mold for the rest of the run to the receiver. My left front and sub cables will also go in there.

 

[jcmccorm]

Nice job! You're good to go!

The butt splices really look like the way to go there (I had earlier suggested the wire-nuts). Plus it fits in your channel where the wire-nuts would not have.

Cary

 

[Alex2507]

I went with the butt connectors. Someone asked for pics so here they are.

That would be me and thank you for taking the time. That looks great.
Sorry about your troubles and best of luck in the future with your system.