Quality Bulk Speaker Wire

Discussion in 'Speakers' started by Lou Casadonte, Mar 24, 2018.

  1. Lou Casadonte

    Lou Casadonte Friend

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    I was thinking of making my own speaker wire and was interested in trying to get my hands on some high end cable and terminators. Thanks,
     
  2. fraggler

    fraggler A Happy & Busy Life

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    There is a cable building thread with a lot of info on recommended wires for all cable types. Marv also talked about some of his preferences in his Cable Rolling Adventures thread.
     
  3. AllanMarcus

    AllanMarcus Friend

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    monoprice 12AWG OFC is great. Just add some good looking spades from eBay or ali, and some really thick tech flex, and you have speaker wire that rivals the best! You may have to layer to the tech flex to get it thick enough to really look like you paid a bundle.
     
  4. 9suns

    9suns [insert unearned title here]

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    Oyaide, Furutech and Neotech are good brands for bulk cables, and not horribly expensive (compared to other high end cable stuff)
     
  5. Lou Casadonte

    Lou Casadonte Friend

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    Thanks Allan I was hoping you would chime in as I've gone through your signature and DIY references. What solder would you use? Thanks,
     
  6. Lou Casadonte

    Lou Casadonte Friend

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    I can't find a place that sells them in bulk economically.
     
  7. aamefford

    aamefford Nothing like chamberpot coffee

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    I git some stuff from Blue Jeans 4 or 5 years ago that sounds fine. It think I covered it in tech flex or the soft version of tech flex so it wouldn’t look like Romex.

    I’m pretty sure it was the bjc 12 white here https://www.bluejeanscable.com/store/speaker/index.htm

    With some of their spades or bananas or pins. You have to scroll down a bit to see the pricing and ordering stuff. It’s a bit stiff, it sounds fine.
     
  8. AllanMarcus

    AllanMarcus Friend

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    Any old 60/40 solder. I'd wager a dollar no one can tell the difference between solders.

    If you want to really impress your friends. Get 12AWG or 14AWG lamp wire (zip cord) from your local hardware store. Put it inside a thin garden hose, put tech flex over the garden hose. It will sound the same as any $5000/m cable. The garden hose is optional.

    The main thing about speaker wire is the length of the run. Here's a good table for run length and recommended AWG.
    https://www.audioholics.com/audio-video-cables/speaker-cable-gauge

    I'd probably use the 4ohm load recommendation for AWG, even for 8ohm, just to be on the conservative side. Also, just because I have some and it's thicker and looks more audiophile, I use 12AWG even for my short runs.

    At the albuquerque meet, our host, a serious high end audiophile and amp/preamp builder (Exit Level Audio) uses something like 20AWG.

    I use spades on the speaker side since that seems to provide the most secure connection. I use soldered bananas plug on the other side, since I seem to need to disconnect them to organize wires too often. Some think banana plugs don't profile the best connection and are more for convenience than anything else. I concur, but I'd wager no one could hear the difference between banana plugs and spades.

    Why buy the mono price stuff over the lamp wire? well, "speaker wire" is often more flexible.

    All kidding aside, cables illicit religious wars in the audiophile community. No one, that I'm aware of, has ever shown any scientific evidence backed by actual DBT that any speaker wire is better then lamp cord. Anything else is just audio jewelry, which we all love.
     
  9. Lou Casadonte

    Lou Casadonte Friend

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    Thats what i did to begin with and I had some issues with the pin connectors and the length for one side needs to be longer so i need to buy/build another set that are 5 ft longer.
     
  10. AllanMarcus

    AllanMarcus Friend

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    The bluejeans "raw" stuff looks reasonably priced for the stuff being sold. Once just has to determine if even their cheapest recommend wire, the Belden 5000UE at .64/foot is any better (audibly better) than monoprice OFC at .33/foot. Sure, many would just say f**k it, especially if just needing a small quantity (say 20 feet). The spades and banana plugs look good, and getting the stuff from BJ supports a small business with great values.
     
  11. skem

    skem Friend

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  12. msommers

    msommers High on Epipens

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    I've really enjoyed the Dueland stuff but thinking about trying Neotech or Oyaide just to hear differences
     
  13. Lou Casadonte

    Lou Casadonte Friend

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    Where can you buy the dueland cable though? I can't find a reasonable place to buy dueland, neotech or oyaide cable. Thanks,
     
  14. shabta

    shabta Facebook Friend

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  15. bixby

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    VH Audio Star Quad listed under AC Wire on his site. A bit more than years ago. It replaced $800 cables I used to use.
     
  16. AllanMarcus

    AllanMarcus Friend

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    I just read this HF and it makes great sense.

    "The best sounding solder will invariably be the one that you find easiest to flow into solid, perfect joints. No amount of silver/palladium/voodoo will make a cold joint work better than a shiny, well-flowed connection. " Lot of folks seem to think Cardas flow the best, and that may be relevant. To me 60/40 flows the best, and thus is most likely to make the best joint.

    Now, that said, many would say that your better connection are made with crimping, not soldering. That all depends on how you terminate your cable. I like the spade with heat shrink over where the cable connects to spade, Theoretically this might reduce the amount of the actual wire exposed to air, thus preserving the wire better.
     
  17. Lou Casadonte

    Lou Casadonte Friend

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    Crimping or screws?
     
  18. dBel84

    dBel84 Friend

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  19. AllanMarcus

    AllanMarcus Friend

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    Kind of a personal question, I think. :)

    this is a little out of my knowledge-base. but I can probably say a bad solder joint is worse than a good crimp. A bad crimp is worse that a good screw. And (you can guess where I'm going) a bad screw is worse that a good solder joint.

    The actual wire is probably not as important as the connector and the connection between the wire and the connector.
     
  20. Lou Casadonte

    Lou Casadonte Friend

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    Thanks for the site. A lot of good things on the site.
     

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