DIY 10 AWG Speaker Cable

[ranjeetrain]

This weekend I found out something cool. I saw on shelf 5 square mm copper cable, which are actually intended for industrial usage but looked to me as if I could use them to build a very very cheap speaker cable around it. When I saw the cable and checked the price I did a quick calculation in my mind and felt it could be used to make cheap speaker cable. This is purely for fun. I don't have high expectations from this, merely a curiosity as to how good something so basic can sound.

Here is what I got. CCC Copper Cable in 5 sq mm cross section area. What is most interesting about the cable is that, its one single solid core. Yeah, that's right, one single solid core of 5 sqmm area. That translates to roughly 10 AWG. I took this photo to give a visual idea just how thick the cable core is. Look at the shaving razor in the background. The cable core diameter is roughly same as the green strip on Gillette shaving razor.

Now that the cable is here, here is the next list of stuff to get.

1. Pure aluminum foil to wrap around the cable for RF/EMI shielding
2. Connectors (Spades/Banans)
3. PVC tubing to finish the cable

Once everything is in place, it will be a matter of an hour to make the cable. My plan is to first individually wrap the cable in foil. Then twist them as much as possible. Though the cable is hard to even bend, forget twisting, due to the thickness of the core.

Like I said, it's just for fun. I want to see for myself what a thick single core solid copper wire would sound like.

I'll post more when I have something interesting to share.

 

[sam.666]

This weekend I found out something cool. I saw on shelf 5 square mm copper cable, which are actually intended for industrial usage but looked to me as if I could use them to build a very very cheap speaker cable around it.

I'll post more when I have something interesting to share.

Hi ranjeetrain,

That is certainly a very interesting thing that you are taking up as a fun project. If possible, please try and do an A-B listening comparison with your current cable, when you finish the project and list the differences. How much did you calculate the cost of the procedure to be?

Also, it would be of great help to have some step-by-step photos of the entire process for wannabe DIY-ers with no clue, such as yours truly , to know more.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[ranjeetrain]

Hi Sam,

Sure thing! I will definitely do that. To be honest, I am not sure what to expect from this cable. The shielding is bare minimum. So, that would be the major area of focus. How to make this cable carry my signals without picking up RF noise, EMI?

I have thought of two solutions: (1) Heavy shielding (2) RF rejection isolators. First is not so difficult to do. Second will need some looking around to find appropriate components.

Performance is something I myself am curious about. I am using 4N, 6N and 8N OFC cables from various brand names. Would certainly do comparison and post.

Cost entirely depends on the termination. There are a lot of them available, brand name ones, costing 10-20 USD to 100-200 USD a pair. I am hoping to find some good 4N OFC termination at sane prices. I want to find something good quality under 10 USD a pair. If termination doesn't cost much, it will turn out to be very cheap.

The cost of raw cable was Rs 120/meter. Shielding, tubing and termination no idea how much that is going to work out to be. I will try it on my system without termination to get a feel of how does it sound.

I will update the thread once I have got the next update on it.

 

[jls001]

I have thought of two solutions: (1) Heavy shielding (2) RF rejection isolators. First is not so difficult to do. Second will need some looking around to find appropriate components.

How about simple Litz braiding? By virtue of the braid geometry, it is supposed to be able to reject interferences and maintain phase integrity.

Cost entirely depends on the termination. There are a lot of them available, brand name ones, costing 10-20 USD to 100-200 USD a pair. I am hoping to find some good 4N OFC termination at sane prices. I want to find something good quality under 10 USD a pair. If termination doesn't cost much, it will turn out to be very cheap.

Try bare wire termination first. If you like the sound of the cable, then you can terminate it with something fancy.

BTW, lots of folks have tried twisting CAT5 cables into speaker as well as internconnect cables. Like this guy.

 

[ranjeetrain]

As I mentioned above, any kind of braiding is next to impossible, due to the thickness of the core. I would risk damaging the crystals. My effort would be to shield it as best as I can plus make it reject interference.

Of course that's my plan. The core being solid and so thick is an invitation to use it bare. It won't be fiddly like using multi-stranded copper wire. Besides, I prefer using bare wire so long as it's doable.

 

[haisaikat]

Good initiative ranjeet. The only difference w.r.t standard speaker cables will be that they are oxygen free and less reactive to atmosphere so that you do not have to change cables every year due to oxidisation

 

[ranjeetrain]

Good initiative ranjeet. The only difference w.r.t standard speaker cables will be that they are oxygen free and less reactive to atmosphere so that you do not have to change cables every year due to oxidisation

Multi-stranded wires suffer from a number of "technical" problems, if we were to believe the "education" speaker cables impart in their literature. They are mainstream cables only due to practical reasons. This cable will be a bit harder to use, but I just wanna try. There is no harm in trying, specifically because it doesn't cost a lot of money.

 

[prem]

Hi Ranjeetrain

When you use solid core, for power, ideally 20 AWG. For interconnects and speaker cable, 24-30AWG. No twisting. No foil for RF/EMI shielding. Strictly no PVC tubing. Ideally the solid core cable should be Teflon insulated and not PVC insulated. Better still will be cloth insulation which you can buy from Jupiter cables. The classic Western Electric wire which a lot of Japanese audiophiles use is solid core copper, silk or cotton insulated. For power they use enamelled copper with cotton insulation.
10 AWG wire will have a lot of skin effect problems.

 

[asliarun]

Multi-stranded wires suffer from a number of "technical" problems, if we were to believe the "education" speaker cables impart in their literature. They are mainstream cables only due to practical reasons. This cable will be a bit harder to use, but I just wanna try. There is no harm in trying, specifically because it doesn't cost a lot of money.

This is a great experiment, Ranjeet! You can also consider wrapping the wire with EMI shielding tape - i think it is basically foil backed tape - similar to what you are trying to do too. However, it might be easier to implement.

Personally, I'm not even sure how much EMI affects speaker wire - and how much of it goes through the plastic sheathing. I mean, even if so, isn't there far more scope for this to happen inside the source, preamp, and amp cabinets?

But yes, it would be really good to know how much of a difference awg makes, especially solid core copper. I would imagine a lot (better) even when compared to a more expensive but lower gauge cable.

 

[ranjeetrain]

Hi Prem, thanks for the tip on the wire-gauge.

Actually, I didn't think so much when I picked these. More like an impulse purchase. I didn't even know what AWG it will be when I was buying. It was only when I came back home and googled I figured I ended up with 10 AWG wires. But I do have the option of getting these cables in other thicknesses. They also had these wires in 4 sqmm, 2.5 sqmm etc, which would be higher gauges. Good thing you mentioned this. Gives me more ideas. May be I should go there coming weekend again and pick thinner wires that will be cheaper plus more manageable.

About the insulation. I did think of cotton insulation. I have also read that some cables use "air" for insulation. Cotton insulation won't be that hard to implement. Well, this is just the beginning. As we go ahead with this and as more ideas are thrown in, there will a lot more to choices to play with.

I will try to acquire Teflon tubing instead of PVC as you recommended. However, I am not aware of the reasoning behind the same. Any light on that?

 

[ranjeetrain]

This is a great experiment, Ranjeet! You can also consider wrapping the wire with EMI shielding tape - i think it is basically foil backed tape - similar to what you are trying to do too. However, it might be easier to implement.

Personally, I'm not even sure how much EMI affects speaker wire - and how much of it goes through the plastic sheathing. I mean, even if so, isn't there far more scope for this to happen inside the source, preamp, and amp cabinets?

But yes, it would be really good to know how much of a difference awg makes, especially solid core copper. I would imagine a lot (better) even when compared to a more expensive but lower gauge cable.

EMI Shielding tape is a great idea, Arun. Will try finding it.

With the encroachment of electronic devices there is a LOT of EMI everywhere these days. In fact, I read somewhere that at least in bedroom there should be no electronic devices. However, HOW MUCH does that affect the audio is really open to debate. We just play it safe by shielding our cables. Same way as we build airbags in the cars, despite that over 99% cars never need it. It's human nature to build safety measures. Many good amps "cage" the transformer (the biggest source of EMI) inside a cabinet.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. It contributes to the knowledge.

Solid core copper is my main area of interest. All the big buck cables I have used have all been multi-stranded so far. This will be a cheap way to get a "taste" of solid core conductor.

 

[jls001]

I will try to acquire Teflon tubing instead of PVC as you recommended. However, I am not aware of the reasoning behind the same. Any light on that?

The best dielectric is air but it is not practicable for obvious reasons. A practical solution is teflon as its properties are close to that of air. Hence the use of teflon tubing.

 

[prem]

Hi Ranjeetrain

Its all about the dielectric constant. Teflon has a much lower than one than PVC. Obviously air is ideal.

 

[arj]

Great going Ranjeetrain. i believe one of the Myths in audio is that thicker the cable better the bass.actually its the other way around. Thinner cables sound better for Bass and thicker are better from treble (in case you want to Biwire)
A combination of 2.5Sqmm for the bass and 4Sqmm for the treble might get you a very good speaker cable.
the 10Gauge OTOH might be good for power.... just use it for live and neutral. you can use any other cable for earth.

 

[santhosh]

Interesting Ranjeet, keep us posted on your findings as you experiment.

For my Altecs, I am using 14 gauge single core copper wire for the LF and 18 gauge single core copper wire for the HF. FM Rajiv recommended this and works very well in my system. Must mention, twisting the 14 gauge uniformly was quite a task.

 

[prem]

No Arj

The 10 gauge solid core does not sound good even for power. I have tried it. Seems to slow down things. Even for power thinner than 18 gauge starts sounding nice. On solid core i have tried 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20 gauge for a power cable. It was 6 month exercise. The connectors i used were Iego pure copper for this exercise. The solid core copper cable was purchased from Lamington Road in various gauges.

 

[keith_correa]

<snip>i believe one of the Myths in audio is that thicker the cable better the bass.actually its the other way around. Thinner cables sound better for Bass and thicker are better from treble (in case you want to Biwire)<snip>

Can you please point me to some sites explaining/stating this?

 

[keith_correa]

<snip>For interconnects and speaker cable, 24-30AWG.<snip>

A single strand of the 8 strands in a CAT5 cable is 24AWG. Agree for the IC's. Not too sure that this would be sufficient for speaker cables. For extremely short runs, sure...

 

[prem]

Hi Keith_Correa

I normally use 10 ft length speaker cable. Have not experienced any problems with my current ASI Liveline speaker cable. The cable is solid core and very very thin. Do not know the gauge though. In fact my earlier Rethm speaker cables were 40 ga solid core. It was a 12 ft run. Absolutely no issues.

 

[arj]

Can you please point me to some sites explaining/stating this?

Hi Keith_Correa, i remember this in one of the singapore forms (Echoloft) many years back while i was in singapore...
unfortunately no not remember much .
But it is relative..i now am not sure if 10 gauge is really a good size for speaker cables as thicker is definitely not always better !