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Join speaker cable

S

Stereoasishead

pfm Member
Had a bit of a disaster today. We had a carpenter in doing some work in our lounge. My speaker cable is buried under the wooden floor he was working on. I forgot to mention it...it’s been cut almost perfectly in the middle of an 8m run.

The cable is Naim Nac A5. Can I join it? If so what’s the best method? I’m not keen on replacing it as it’s all tracked between the wall and the floor...

Thanks,

Rob
 
Copper stranded is easy. Split the pairs a bit. Slide some heatshrink tubing over one set of cut ends and slide along several inches.Solder cut ends together and fit heatshrink over the joints and shrink it
 
NACA5 is not the easiest cable to solder, and I certainly wouldn’t attempt it unless you have an iron with plenty of power. If you’re not sure, best to get someone who is well practiced, although I realise this may be difficult if it has to be done in situ. At the very least, get hold of some offcuts and have a few practice runs before you wade in.
 
Yes, just solder it with a reasonably powerful (75W+) iron & ordinary solder - heatshrink & it's a good 'un. There will be no audible effect on sound quality.
 
I have had 2runs of NACA5 soldered together with no probs at all , no reduction in sq.

As mentioned you need a powerful soldering iron and a very competent person who can solder.The whole thing can be shrink wrapped.
 
Just remember to disconnect cable from amp and speakers before soldering.

Otherwise good chance of blowing your amp.
 
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Stereoasishead said:
Had a bit of a disaster today. We had a carpenter in doing some work in our lounge. My speaker cable is buried under the wooden floor he was working on. I forgot to mention it...it’s been cut almost perfectly in the middle of an 8m run.

The cable is Naim Nac A5. Can I join it? If so what’s the best method? I’m not keen on replacing it as it’s all tracked between the wall and the floor...

Thanks,

Rob
Click to expand...
You should'nt have to tell him, any good tradesman would have used a meter to check under the floorboards.when I was a plumber I would always check for hidden pipes and electrics, it's his fault, knock it off the bill.
 
Thanks,

Soldering won’t be a problem for me, plenty of experience there so I’ll go for that!

would be tricky to hide a chock block.

Rob
 
I had to extend my NAC A5 for my active Isobariks, as buying a new cable set was going to be rather expensive (though relatively cheap by today's prices). I cleaned about an inch of cable from each end, and sort of knitted them together. Got the whole lot warmed up with a hot air gun, then a 50W iron did the job, heat shrink over the join, and it was fine for many years... in fact the same cables are in use in Paris to this day...
 
Suffolk Tony said:
Yes, just solder it with a reasonably powerful (75W+) iron & ordinary solder - heatshrink & it's a good 'un. There will be no audible effect on sound quality.
Click to expand...

It's funny to observe that ,whilst people pontificate about the desirability of cables being constructed from single crystal 99.9999% oxygen free copper, a big lump of lead ( which is what solder is *** ) is seen as no problem at all in the signal chain. Don't get me wrong...I am in no way in the market for any foo...I just think that it is funny to observe.

*** I have long observed just how much common or garden lead there is in a signal chain ... the foo fans ignore the awkward questions there.
 
Joe said:
It's funny to observe that ,whilst people pontificate about the desirability of cables being constructed from single crystal 99.9999% oxygen free copper, a big lump of lead ( which is what solder is *** ) is seen as no problem at all in the signal chain. Don't get me wrong...I am in no way in the market for any foo...I just think that it is funny to observe.

*** I have long observed just how much common or garden lead there is in a signal chain ... the foo fans ignore the awkward questions there.
Click to expand...
I suppose you could justifiably argue that, given the copper strands are wrapped around each other before soldering, the amount of lead in comparison to the quantity in the whole cable's pretty minuscule, isn't it?
 
The presence of lead is of course important to provide some weight and solidity to the sound. The use of lead free solder in modern digital equipment is one reason why it always sounds so bright and edgy.
 
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