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Mains cable for Loudspeakers

@andyr I keep meaning the make some ubyte-2 cables. Was thinking 3 jackets total pet speaker, two pairs (as you describe, with 8 striped wires plus 8 non-striped wires bundled as conductor pairs) for bass, with a single run (4 + 4) for the mid plus tweet, as I was intrigued by this construction when I came across it about 2-3 years ago now. How would you describe the sound compared to say solid core cables?
Cheers,
AP
 
a.palfreyman said:
@andyr I keep meaning the make some ubyte-2 cables. Was thinking 3 jackets total pet speaker, two pairs (as you describe, with 8 striped wires plus 8 non-striped wires bundled as conductor pairs) for bass, with a single run (4 + 4) for the mid plus tweet, as I was intrigued by this construction when I came across it about 2-3 years ago now.
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Hi AP,

Ubyte cables are made from coax - not twisted pairs.

I would think that "two pairs (as you describe, with 8 striped wires plus 8 non-striped wires bundled as conductor pairs) for bass, with a single run (4 + 4) for the mid plus tweet" ... will work very well - that's exactly what I've done for one of my spkr sets. šŸ‘

But you need to make sure you get Cat5/5e/6 cable which is solid-core (used for inside walls & ceilings) - rather than stranded (which is used for patch leads.)

a.palfreyman said:
How would you describe the sound compared to say solid core cables?
Cheers,
AP
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The way I see it ... spkr cables made from tps are "solid-core" - as each individual wire is insulated! šŸ˜® You will find they are very revealing.
 
Ooops,
You are right @andyr , it's the FFRC cable I was thinking of, not the ubyte 2. Couldn't understand the construction of that TBH despite reading through it twice. I'll get some cat5e and some z-connectors: cost Ā£30.
My current cables are silver plated OFC copper, 4-conductors in one sheath, bi-wired. Cost about Ā£100 thirty years ago now...
 
a.palfreyman said:
Ooops,
You are right @andyr , it's the FFRC cable I was thinking of, not the ubyte 2. Couldn't understand the construction of that TBH despite reading through it twice. I'll get some cat5e and some z-connectors: cost Ā£30.
Click to expand...

See if you can get hold of Belden 1585A - as the individual wires are insulated with a teflon-like material ... not PVC. (So it doesn't melt when you apply the soldering iron.) I strip trip off the PVC jacket, too - and enclose all the tps in a black woven sheath.

a.palfreyman said:
My current cables are silver plated OFC copper, 4-conductors in one sheath, bi-wired. Cost about Ā£100 thirty years ago now...
Click to expand...

Love to hear the results of your comparing the two, when you've built the new cables. :)
 
a.palfreyman said:
Ah, bought this stuff:
30m off ebay @Ā£15 so dirt cheap.
Should essentially be the same as the Maplin stuff mentioned on the TNT article as it's LSOH jacket with HDPE insulation.
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Yeah, looks very similar to the Belden 1585A that I use. šŸ‘

But I would suggest stripping off the jacket and enclosing the tps in a woven sheath; getting rid of PVC is always a good thing and it makes the spkr cable look good! :)
 
....sounds like hard work to me. Is that cos I'm a lazy old git (that's the wife's assessment anyway)...
And I rather like the purple jacket....which should be polyolefin rather than PVC if my research is correct...
;)
 
mjkelshaw said:
In the '70's & 80's I used white flexible 2 core mains cable (2.5mm, 25 Amp) between my Quad 303 and different iterations of B & W DM70 speakers.
I read later, that Peter Walker (Quad) had arrived at a demonstration to find that there weren't any specific 'loudspeaker' cables available, and had therefore sent someone out to buy something suitable, which turned out to be the 'orange' 2 core cable normally used for 'lawnmowers'.
Regards
Mike K.
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Somebody once asked Peter Walker which speaker cable he used.
His answer was, ā€œOnes long enough to reach between the amplifier and the speakers, young man !ā€
 
Martyn Miles said:
Somebody once asked Peter Walker which speaker cable he used.
His answer was, ā€œOnes long enough to reach between the amplifier and the speakers, young man !ā€
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Was Peter Walker really so patronising? IME his original ESLs were exceptional but he thought that the Spendor BC1s were just as good. His 33 was excellent with the cancel engaged but back in the day there was no mention that it was not suitable for CD players. I was suckered and did not think to using the tape button for god's sake!
 
I donā€™t know about patronising, but he didnā€™t suffer fools gladly.
As you say, his speakers were exceptional along with his electronics
Re. CD, fortunately my 34 control unit has a dedicated button.
 
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