Freebie Stereo

[bazzathemammoth 37]

I most certainly hope that you use cable elevators made of unobtainium when using such cheap cables. Otherwise the hand placed cotton snake oil impregnated dielectric will compress on one side and you will totally loose your entire 3d sound stage. Also, I will be most disappointed if your not using cryogenicaly treated interconnect and speaker leads which are specifically burnt in for the latitude you reside at, and that you have observed the magnetic anomalies in your residence when choosing the appropriate routing of the cables.

 

 

I actually have some pretty high end audio gear here - right up to 6' tall Focal speakers. But, for some reason, I find that home made power leads costing about $8 per meter ( VSD cable ) work very nicely and my speaker cable is simply 4.2mm2 cable which cost me $5 per meter. I tried a $20K nordost cable setup and also a $10K kimber cable setup and found that I woulr rather spend the money on something which actually made an improvement....

Bahahaha

 

Yea my setups not too bad. Ive also never been able to justify the crazy money they ask for speaker cables. VSD cables are a good idea, they have some awesome sheilding.

 

My speaker cables are 40pr twisted and braided cat 5e. Had them made for ~100 and cant tell the difference between them and my stepdads 3k cables, so im happy

[too_tall 15]

:razz:

 

I'm scared to ask what's the best for my speaker cables now

Assuming your not doing runs of more than, say, 5 meters, cheap stuff that is at least 2.5mm2 for the main speakers and probably 4mm2 for the subwoofer. You don't want any voltage drop as that is wasted power. You could go to 4mm2 for the main speakers if your getting longer runs and 6mm2 for the subwoofer. trinned cable would be a good choice of course.... 

[too_tall 15]

Bahahaha

 

Yea my setups not too bad. Ive also never been able to justify the crazy money they ask for speaker cables. VSD cables are a good idea, they have some awesome sheilding.

 

My speaker cables are 40pr twisted and braided cat 5e. Had them made for ~100 and cant tell the difference between them and my stepdads 3k cables, so im happy

Plenty of people use the cat 5e cables. To good effect.

Cables have no need to cost the earth. An audiophool and his ( never met a female audiophool ) money are easily parted. 

[wheels 543]

But, for some reason, I find that home made power leads costing about $8 per meter ( VSD cable ) work very nicely and my speaker cable is simply 4.2mm2 cable which cost me $5 per meter. I tried a $20K nordost cable setup and also a $10K kimber cable setup and found that I woulr rather spend the money on something which actually made an improvement....

 

I am glad someone in HiFi world is using their Brains instead of their Wallet for once.

Unless one is living right under a powerful AM transmitter Antennae, Shielded speaker cable is bollocks. You can't induce RF onto speaker cable and hear it in the speaker, unless in an extreme situation like living under a Radio transmitter. But I would be more worried about my underwear not being a Faraday shield rather than what was coming out of my speakers. In fact shielding  can be detrimental in respects to producing too much capacitance in the cable and because the cable has a resistance, a capacitor and Resistor is a High freq filter and a filter shifts phase alignment.

       Saying that, we did once have an AM radio transmitter right in the heart of the Town and it wreaked havoc with Phones and some local Cafes and Clubs Sound Systems.

 

[wheels 543]

KM, you could use left over Carbon fibre and be the first to say they have carbon fibre speaker cables. In fact to save weight, you could resin the fibre into the Hull and have the benefit of added strength.

[wheels 543]

It depends. The normal stuff like you have used, not so much. But that in itself can be used to an advantage. Because it has a resistance, a current passed across it creates heat and does so very evenly along it's length. So it s now being sown into fabrics like Motorbike jackets for heating. Now who do I know that knows all about heated Motorbike jackets.
There are special Carbon fibre conductors, but tend to be made from Nano tubes. They can be more conductive than copper, but a fibre from Nano tubes costs moon beams.
Be aware that Carbon composite, Alluminium or SST need to be kept isolated. They don't play nice together.

[ballystick 72]

Have you seen those magnetic or vibration speakers (Jaycar sell them $16) that just have to mounted to a surface (inside of cockpit) and it turns the surface into a speaker. I have fitted them to my boat as I didn't want to cut holes in the cockpit area, they can be fitted in multiples for good surround effect. I'm pretty happy with them except they don't have any bass but the human voice comes through clearly. 

Those could be fitted for an effective, reasonably priced and stealthy addition to a boat sound system such as KM's.