DCC Archive I finished constructing my new speaker cables...

I decided to follow Jon Risch's Cross-connected Beldon #89259 coaxial cable recipe. I ordered 100ft of the wire and several other odds & ends (heatshrink, spades, plumber's teflon tape, etc.). I started work early Thursday morning and finished by 5PM. I did a lot of research on Audio Asylum (Cable & Tweak forums very helpful) and decided to the cross-connection without soldering (a proccess by pulling the core out from the braid and pushing through the other one being very careful with insulating) to keep the copper pure. The whole process is pretty simple to follow and construct. Anyway, how the new cables sound so far? They sound very fab (they still need time to break-in). I can hear a lot more detail so far and a better sense of depth. I'm going to make some interconnects out of the additional 40ft I still have. I'm really looking forward to what this is going to sound like once they fully break-in...

Todd

John Risch Recipes

 

Congratulations, Todd! Jon told me that he felt the 8259 cables had virtually no break-in time, but I felt that it took several days on my system. I really enjoyed those cables, they were a noticable improvement over the Radio Shack Megacables I started with. I later built the cat 5 cables using Chris VH's recipe and those are what are in my system now.

 

I've used the Cat5 cable recipe and had great results with tubes. Hey, that's just me tho!

I was rewiring my basement with the solid copper 12g strand of AC wire. First thing I thought of was "Hmmm, speaker cable??"

Anyway, I'm 1/2 wasy done with a serious Cat5 deal. I've used that receipe halved for interconnects and I'm very pleased.

 

Gary, if you're looking to control bass through wire the 89259 might be the way to go. That recipe is incredibly easy to build and in my system I felt tightened the bass very much. One comment some people make is that they feel they lose bass with 89259. I believe you're getting all the LF info, it's just more focused. I also felt the bass went deeper using 89259. A tweak that made a huge difference for me in tightening the bass (and helping the whole sound in general) was making some rollerbearing devices that went under the CD transport.

Chris VH also has a design for strips of flat silver in teflon that is supposed to be awesome, if expensive (expensive being compared to the cat 5, but still much cheaper than a commercial product with the same build).

Sckott, those cat 5 wires are tedious to weave, but the sound is worth it. If you've been to Chris VH's site those are my cat 5 cables that are shown on the cat 5 page.

 

These cables were really simple to make. It just took several hours to complete (being careful to measure everything correctly, strip the wires without breaking the copper strands, twisting, etc.). I was seriously considering going with ChrisVH's recipe but I couldn't imagine myself at this time doing all the braiding required and also my amp is a Dynaco ST-70 and it's higher capacitance may have been risky with my 13 foot cable runs. I ordered the 100ft Belden spool at a local Anxiter dealer (96 cents/ft). I made a pair of interconnects today (I hate soldering) and they sound fantastic too. I'm sure these cables will keep improving with a bit of break-in time. The project was a lot of fun and I highly recommend it!

Todd

 

I've been playing around with this stuff lately, too. I ordered 300' of Belden 1585A @ $0.08/ft. MECI kindly sent me 315' of 1701A, which would work fine, except the twisted pairs are bonded together. I played around with splitting them, and decided it was too scary, so I sent it back. Just today, I got my replacement 1585A. I wasn't real pleased with paying return shipping costs on their mistake.

Todd, what are you using to terminate your speaker cables? And, for your ICs, are you using the Dayton Audio WBT knockoffs? I bought some of those, and had a hell of a time trying to solder some Belden 89207 (that's twinax) on one end. I'm going to build an unbalanced IC, so the shield is soldered to ground at one end. That means four soldered connections inside that one rather small lug.

The price Anixter quoted you is much better than what they quoted me: $1.25/ft for less than 100' and I think $1.10 for 100 ft or $1.05 for 1000'. It also looks like there will be another reaming on shipping that stuff. They quoted $10 for shipping 30 ft of 89259 and 4' of 1506A (for a digital IC).

In my spare time, I'll be building a pair of transmission line speakers.

I guess unemployment has its privileges.

 

Patrick,

I'm sorry to hear about your shipping troubles. I felt a bit ripped-off from Anxiter because they charged me $15 shipping for the 100ft spool (less than 4 pounds).

I've had some problems with Partsexpress so far. Last week before I made the cables I received half my order. I got all the correct packages of heatshrink and the spades (Phoenix Gold Pro 404/good size for Dynaco ST-70's terminal screws/I used Monster M-series spades for the speaker end that I got a while ago locally) yet they screwed up on the RCA plugs (they sent me Zenith ones/just kidding). They sent me several packages of the "non-locking" Dayton RCA plugs (they don't use teflon/smaller barrel/I wanted the clones...) and they also sent out another package (which should be here in a few days) with four Neutrik NYS352G plugs (they fit the Dynaco inputs with out making love to each other) instead of two (that makes sense?). In other words, I have to send back several of these items to be corrected (shipping I shouldn't have to pay for but I bet they won't refund the cost returning the stuff/ya know, the principle of the matter). The interconnects I made today were with the Beldon cable but with some old AR gold RCA plugs (I insulated them with a bit of teflon tape). I gave each wire a few extra inches and will replace the plugs with the proper Daytons (WBT clones) when I get them (Lord knows when).

I called several Anxiter dealers in the East coast area and got strange differing quotes on the Beldon wire. Ranges from 92 cents to $1.46 per foot (for 100 feet). Some of the higher price places were pretty rude (hanging out with wires too long instead of people) and seemed to hold it against me that I wasn't an "official" company but an individual buyer (shame on me). I attempted to order from the cheapest dealer but they said I had to order from a NY one (or else they would be shot). Thankfully, they said they would honor the price (but they got me with the tax/shipping). They got the package out pretty quickly (shipped from Chicago warehouse).

I learned a lot from this project and I'm enjoying the results...

Todd

 

Patrick,

One other thing. Go to Audio Asylum in the Cables forum. Do a search for a post from Shawn (I think that's his name) about his technique with soldering the Dayton RCA plugs...

Todd

 

Patrick,

I found it...

Sean's Dayton RCA tips...

Todd

 

I made an error on my previous post (3 up). The cheapest price (and what I paid) for the Beldon wire was 96 cents. Forgive my lapse in memory, I'm tired...

Todd