Results: Making my own speaker cable

[itschris]

I needed some nice looking cables since they'd be in plain view of my new setup. After some suggestion from some helpful members, I figured I save a few hundred bucks and make my own cables. I used 4 wire Canare and bananas from BlueJean cable and mesh jacketing and heatshrink from Wirecare.com. I used looking bananas for the speaker side for no other reason than that I thought they looked better. This first 12ft cable took me about an hour and half. The second about half that. I got 3 more to go but I'm burnt out. BlueJean suggests shrinkwrapping the wire and the connector together, but I thought this way looked better and the connection seems solid... hopefully there's not real important reason to do so. I guess the only thing left is to plug them in and see if they work!

 

[Midcow2]

yours looks good ....

shrink-wrapping is just another way to put an insulated cover on and some people think it looks aesthetically better. But hey, too each his own

 

[adk highlander]

Way to go Chris. I did mine this weekend as well but was just slow getting my pics up. Did you use the 4s11 cable. I did and I did not know how big that stuff is.

I did bananas on one end and I bi-wired with spades on the other. I know, I know it makes no difference in sound I just like the way it looks with the wire pants. The spades are nice and I got them from buy.com for a great price. They are made by AR. The only issue I had was not getting one size larger of the shrink tubing. For the 4s11 you really need 11mm to go over the techflex and the pants. (wire pants; sounds funny)

Here are my pics:
the spades and pants.

finished wire

connected to speakers

 

[itschris]

I did use the same wire... for the sole reason that it's big and gives a nice look. I like the look of the wire pants. I may redo mine. The red shrinkwrap looks a bit pinkish and the whole look it's quite what I was hoping for. I think the wire pants look better. Did you shrinkwrap the pants onto the cable or just slip it over? The wirepants don't shrink do they?

 

[adk highlander]

The pants do not shrink. They won't quite fit well over the wire and the techflex. I used some black tape to make a smoth transition to push it best I could over the techflex. I did not have a big enough shrink tube. When you get them get at least 11mm shrink tube and I think the pants are 9mm. Oh I was not able to use the non-biwire pants because I could not get both wires through a single tube. I think they may offer different diameters of those as well.

It was fun and I only have to do three because my rears will be in-walls.

 

[itschris]

How long did it take you? I spend a ridiculous amount of time on the first two... I'd say just over 2 hours. If you figure in your time and the cost of the material, you'd almost be better off just spending the $170 and getting the nice set of Calibrines.

 

[adk highlander]

I've done quite a bit of wiring so I would say all three took about 2hrs. I did not have a hot knife so I had to come up with a way to cut the techflex without fraying the ends. I put tape around it and cut through and it worked well. Pushing that stuff on took the longest.

I think I had about 85 bucks to total for all three wires (2 - 15ft and 1 - 10ft) and that is way under what just the pair would go for even on epray. I find this kind of stuff relaxing. I just went down to the room with a scotch, watched the NCAA tourney and put them together. Having decent tools always helps as well.

 

[itschris]

I should drink more. Perhaps a sipping on some tequila would have helped. I'm debting now whether or not go with the speaker pants. I'm gonna sleep on it. It seems I spend more time thinking about stuff and redoing stuff and never actually accomplish much!~

 

[upperq]

use headphone instead of speakers