Do speaker cables HAVE to be twisted?

[briansmith]

I am using a 4 conductor speaker cable. I am combing two of the leads to make a standard left/right speaker cable (non-biwire).

I have stripped about 6 inches of PVC from each end. Do the cables have to be twisted together on the ends? The reason I ask is because when I twist the cable it makes it difficult to terminate. If the run the ends side by side instead of twisting the ends will performance be impacted. Why are 99% of ends twisted together?

Here is an example of how I would like to terminate the ends:

http://www.ramelectronics.net/assets/images/audiovideo/HSWS-06.jpg

I realize this is an odd question. Thanks in advance for any help and/or thoughts.

-Brian

 

[briansmith]

Here is an example of twisted ends:

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue14/images/Speaker Cable Std Bananas-02.jpg

 

[Haoleb]

No.

With your speaker cables it will not matter. Its mainly for looks and neatness.

With something like say, Cat5 its a whole different ballgame. The twisting is used for noise rejection. Each pair is twisted at a different tightness or "lay length" When terminating cat5 you do not want to untwist the pairs any longer than absolutely necessary. Most cable designs use different types geometry, including speaker and interconnect cables. The different twists and braids all serve a purpose but at the length's your talking about again, dont worry about it.