On Sat, 2 Feb 2008 15:03:30 -0800, GeneK wrote
(in article <TC6pj.986$lU5.52@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>):
>
> "Sonnova" <sonnova@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote...
>
>> I'm talking about terminating one's speaker cables with decent quality
>> connectors; you know, spade lugs, banana plugs pins for 5-way binding
>> posts,
>> etc. AFAIC, good quality, air-tight connections that don't break all
the
>> time coupled with color-coded sleeves over the ends of the wire are the
>> only
>> thing that commercially made speaker cables bring to the party. What I
was
>> saying is that even then, if one is competent with the required tools
(such
>> as a soldering iron), one can still roll one's own, but if not, the
>> lower-priced cables from people like Monster, Audioquest, etc, might be
a
>> good buy - but certainly NOT for any sound advantage over heavy zip
cord.
>
> I know what you mean. If I had more than one piece of equipment
> with old-fa****oned screw terminals or changed things around a lot
> I might think about tinning my wire ends or dropping a couple of
> bucks for a bag of lugs.
>
>
Recently, a friend who had just bought a new Tube amplifier asked me about
speaker cables. I told him to come over on Saturday ane we'd make some.
Saturday morning, we went over to a local large hardware outlet and we
bought
two 25 lengths of 2-conductor round extension cord. This cord has two
14-AWG
copper conductors in a sheath that is colored either orange or black. They
were $10 each. We then went to a local electronics supply outlet and we
bought eight large gold plated spade lugs and a couple of lengths of red
and
black shrink tubing. One size fit the overall cable, the smaller size fit
over the individual conductors. When we got back to my place, I cut the AC
connectros off of each end of the extension cords and cut each to my
buddy's
desired length (15 Ft). Then I stripped-back the outer jacket of each on
each
end and slipped a red piece of shrink tubing over each end of the orange
cable, and a black piece over each end of the black cable. I broke out the
two conductors and slipped the smaller tubing over each individual wire;
black on the black on the black wire and red on the white wire. I soldered
the spade lugs to each bared end and slipped the small shrink tubing over
each solder connection. Then I shrank the tubing on the small wires and
pulled the larger tubing over the the the cable jacket and down onto the
conductors sticking out the end of the jacket. I shrank those down and
shot
some hot-glue down into the void between the two conductors and the shrink
tubing over the jacket, making a strain relief. The finished cables looked
as
good and was at least as well made as a pair of modestly priced Monster or
AudioQuest cables:
Cable: $20.
Connectors: $4.00 (50 cents each)
Shrink tubing: $ 7.00
Time to build: less than an hour
Total cost: $31 or about $1/ft.
Results, excellent. Good mechanical contact on each end, strain relief for
the soldered conncetions. Should last indefinitely.
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