I made a set of speaker cables the other weekend. I used a pair from the music direct catalog as sort of a template. I also did a good amount of research as to what to use ie; strands vs. solids. All brands seem to vary on this point. I lucked out and actually found the cable manufacturer that provides pre-made cable for one of the more expensive brands. They're using a magentically shielded 4 conductor wire, much like you would find on a dryer cord. One brand is using a 6 conductor wire with the inner wires at 20 gauge. I settled on the 4 conductor wire with 16 gauge inner solid copper wires.
Materials for 10' pair:
Spool of 4 conductor 16guage inner cables (manufacturer from above, I bought a 100' spool)
(2)Sets of 4 gold plated banana terminals (ebay, company in Japan, very nice hand made)
Spool of heat resistant expandable 1/2" diameter braided wire cover, black with gray print (different manufacturer, comes in multiple colors and designs)
Pack of random color 1/4" inner, 6" in length shrink tubing
Pack of black 1/2" inner, 6" lenth, shrink tubing
Heat Gun
Method:
I cut the cables to (2) 10' lengths.
Cut off the outer casing of the wire on each end 6" exposing the 4 wires.
Cut the expandable braided cable cover to (2) 9' lengths and slid it onto the cable.
Cut the 1/2" inner shrink tubing to 1" in length and slid onto the top of the braided cover on each end.
Took two of exposed wires and twisted them making a tight spiral pattern, then slid a 6" length of 1/4" tubing over the wires.
Add a banana connector to the end and crimped them together. Slight dab of solder to each end of the crimp.
Made sure the wires were still perfectly twisted (spiral), shrink the tubing over the crimped area to the end of the exposed cable. Repeat for all other exposed wires.
(Had to cut the shrink tubing slightly to cover the crimped area but not the plug itself).
Once exposed wires are complete, lined up the 1/2" shrink tubing on each end to be half over the braided cover and half over the 2 sets of exposed wires and sealed with heat. Repeat on both ends.
Results:
Wow, they look awesome and sound incredible. We did some A/B testing using a NAD 3150, a pair of Tannoy 6.5 bookshelf speakers, and a Ipod as the source. We used as comparison some crappy 18 gauge wire from Radio Shack vs. our newly created wire. What a difference!
Of course like a dumbass I didn't take pictures and my buddy who helped is testing them out at the moment. We're going to try some other materials and do some further testing, etc... I'll have another pair or two to bring to the shop after the holidays.
