Making a speaker cable- What makes it good?

So there are many different speaker cables around, but im going to make my own. What makes a speaker cable better than another? I see some have multiple strands with a solid copper core to "carry the bass frequencies"

But im not sure what to believe, as there is a lot of false facts on this.

I was thinking of using 12 conductor cat3 cable (for stereo), each conductor is 24awg.
Would there be any benifits at all to using a 12awg copper core? And would that matter if its solid or stranded?

 

I've seen a couple speaker cable reviews with expensive cables and at the end if it most just recommend getting stranded 12 awg monoprice speaker wire. $25 or so for a 50 foot roll.

 

Conductivity. Enough of it. Some insulation is good too. But I hear tell that capacitance can be a killer. That I leave to the experts to explain...

 

Capacitance?
Isn't that only found in like, capacitors?

 

Actually, I'm on the "it's all about capacitance" bandwagon for speaker cable. When I built my home cinema a few years back, I did the research and there was enough to persuade me that capacitance would potentially have been an issue in my room (there was around 200ft of speaker cable in there). Anyway, I ended up getting a reel of cheap and chunky (not unlike the Muscles from Brussels himself in fact) Van Damme cable. I do seem to recall that for reasonably short lengths it's pretty much a non-issue though.

 

Like I say, I'll leave this one for the experts, but the answer to speaker cables can't make a difference is... unless, of course, they blow up your amplifier.

I believe it was called Cobra? And that the issue was... capacitance?

 

Capacitance is going to be an issue if you have ground and phase (or + and -) close together, like twisted pair on the same cable. Make separate wires for both polarities.
Pure copper litz wire has sounded the best to my ears as hp cable. Cat5 as second best. Either should be great for speakers as well.

 

Solid-core 2.5-sq-mm mains cable*.

ok-ok-ok I'll come clean... I've never tried it. The last time I bought any speaker cable I was too much an audio snob to believe in such things. Now I would. I know some people who did. And I had a reel left over from house wiring, so it sucks that I didn't use/keep it.

I know a guy on another forum who, having listened to some expensive cables to go with his new expensive speakers, came to the conclusion that mains cable sounded the best. (I did get to hear the final setup, but not the comparison). I don't know the spec of the cable: it was what is sold here in India as pump cable. It has to carry fairly substantial current to motors that may be some way away, and may be down bore wells. Whether the insulation against water (actually quite a specialist aspect of cable types) has any audio implication, I have no clue. I suspect that that old capacitance thing can actually explain a lot of stuff that looks mysterious.



*The stuff sold for UK house ring mains is flat, three core, with the [intended to be] earth in the middle. Are there any implications of that geometry in electronics relevant to speaker cable?

 

Would cat3 work instead of cat5?

 

These guys http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/diycables.html have a lot of good info on building DIY CAT-5 cables. I suspect that Cat-3 may be similar to Cat-5 at audio frequencies, but have no actual experience to back that up. The Cat-5 is higher-spec'ed for ethernet communications compliance. As usual, people will find subtle difference in everything. @spwath, I'm sure you could use the Cat-3 cable as a "proof of concept" as it seems you've scored a lot of it for cheap.

 

Yah, I have 900ft, so might as well try.
It has 12 conductors in it, so it's multiple cat3

 

Well I'll use cat3 Because I have 900ft.

 

How did nobody notice pedalhead's amazing home theater setup?

 

CAT-whatever... Guys, it's metal: it conducts electricity.

OK,OK,OK... There is more to it. I have to confess that after years of really believing that using network cables for audio (they are finely and precisely engineered for an entirely different application, right?) was pure audiophool fad, that I have a large pile of words to eat. It seems that the twist geometry can be good at preventing crosstalk and rejecting noise in audio.

This in the context of long runs of balanced cable. The Strange World of Cat 5e and Cat 6.

I doubt that this relates to domestic speaker cables --- but hey, I like the taste of words!