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2022 DIY Speaker Cables


Sansui77

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I’m pretty sure you can’t get your audiophile card until you’ve made yourself a set of Canare 4s8 or 4s11 cables and had a dark night of the soul thinking about how much you spent on you brand-name cables. If you haven’t yet, they’re worth a try for sure.

 

I keep getting tempted by the knock-off Nordost cables on AliExpress, even though I’m sure they’re a fast-track to disappointment. I have such fond memories of having the Freys in my system for a few months, I feel like if I could just get a taste of that…

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You can design and make whatever you want, anything from the low end using jaycar wire and connectors,  to using exotic high quality copper, silver or copper/gold or silver/gold wire with low mass copper or silver connectors.

 

Oh I forgot copper ribbon.

 

I haven't done DIY speaker cables for my system now as I got some Lenehan RibbonTek cable at a really good price used, have only DIYéd interconnects..

 

But I was considering making some using a mix of runs of Duelund 20awg copper and Duelund 26awg silver wire, two runs of each for each conductor.

Edited by muon*
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1 hour ago, Sansui77 said:

I'm interested in what DIY Speaker Cables members have made for their Audiophile systems?


If you liked the Chord company stuff you can buy the wire itself and terminate it how you like. 
Here are some easy Clearway ones I made a couple of years ago. 
I bought all the pieces from Klapp audio one afternoon. Except the heat shrink I already had 
 

956CA8EE-CAA4-4729-BD93-6CC3A2F59048.jpeg

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9 hours ago, RankStranger said:

I’m pretty sure you can’t get your audiophile card until you’ve made yourself a set of Canare 4s8 or 4s11 cables and had a dark night of the soul thinking about how much you spent on you brand-name cables. If you haven’t yet, they’re worth a try for sure.

 

I keep getting tempted by the knock-off Nordost cables on AliExpress, even though I’m sure they’re a fast-track to disappointment. I have such fond memories of having the Freys in my system for a few months, I feel like if I could just get a taste of that…

Made up a set of Canare 4S8's and I find they sound pretty good 👍

PXL_20221202_203004121.thumb.jpg.d6c7738bff2099aa93aceaf189418095.jpgPXL_20221206_065305697.thumb.jpg.b34f10720b5aa71723b6de1b0f81c215.jpg

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My first audiophile cable upgrade was using electrical flex to replace the bell wire I'd been using.  There was an unmistakable improvement in sound quality.  I recall not succeeding in convincing my friends to do the same upgrade.  These days there are a lot of choices of speaker cable that easily outshines electrical wire, like the Canare. 

 

However, what cable would be suitable for your system and the degree of improvement would depend on what level of "audiophile" your hifi is.  It might help if people knew your amp/speaker combination. 

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On 9/12/2022 at 7:49 AM, Sansui77 said:

Made up a set of Canare 4S8's and I find they sound pretty good 👍

PXL_20221202_203004121.thumb.jpg.d6c7738bff2099aa93aceaf189418095.jpgPXL_20221206_065305697.thumb.jpg.b34f10720b5aa71723b6de1b0f81c215.jpg

bloody good professional job!

 

 

 

So good that you can start selling them on stereonet to other members. (sorry, too soon to joke about that?)

 

 

 

 

I still can’t get over how cheap and good canare cable is. why did you choose the 4S8 over the 4S11?

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1 hour ago, Misternavi said:

bloody good professional job!

 

 

 

So good that you can start selling them on stereonet to other members. (sorry, too soon to joke about that?)

 

 

 

 

I still can’t get over how cheap and good canare cable is. why did you choose the 4S8 over the 4S11?

I have ordered the 4S11 in black and plan to build another set. Just need to work out what brand connectors.

 

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5 minutes ago, Sansui77 said:

I have ordered the 4S11 in black and plan to build another set. Just need to work out what brand connectors.

 

I'm a fan of these type of Banana plugs
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002996513053.html

 

There are cheaper version out there that are fine too. 

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They look pretty high mass to me, and I don't like those spring bits for the pressure connection when inserted, not very robust.

 

Edit: I prefer this type.

 

 

5137_ELECAUDIO_BA-30_BA-30G_BA-30R.jpg

Edited by muon*
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I make my own cables using materials I get from a guy in the States (he sells on eBay under the name 'navships') that has access to a lot of mil spec and surplus military cabling. He gives plenty of information on the cable material and construction and his prices are good given the high quality. I prefer silver plated copper cable with PTFE dielectric.

IMG_4175.jpg

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1 hour ago, lowpoke said:

I make my own cables using materials I get from a guy in the States (he sells on eBay under the name 'navships') that has access to a lot of mil spec and surplus military cabling. He gives plenty of information on the cable material and construction and his prices are good given the high quality. I prefer silver plated copper cable with PTFE dielectric.

IMG_4175.jpg

That looks like the stuff we used on the F-18's for data cabling. Twin shielded 26 guage one blue and one white conductors.

Similar to this stuff: https://www.gore.com/system/files/2021-11/ACS-0443-R1-DAT-US-MAY21.pdf

 

602467393_datacable.png.5a292e162fe9c761475da0bcb4eca38e.png

 

You don't want to know how much of that stuff I've thrown in the bin.. LOL

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2 hours ago, lowpoke said:


That’s likely where my guy got it from. The dumpster! 🤣

Don't get me wrong, it's good wire. But we got our wire supplied as pre-cut lengths, that were always between 1M and 2M over the required length for the job. And the company frowned on us raiding the scrap bins... :(

 

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