Using twisted pair as speaker cable?

[blueroomelectronics]

I recall seeing an article once on someone using CAT-5 Ethernet as speaker wire by combining it into two pairs of 4 conductor cable. It's for my surround speakers and I have tonns of the stuff.
Opinions?

 

[Henry T]

Hmm, I would think it would work, the only concern would be what kind of power could it handle?
And you could even make the signals differential, even less noise, but i think (s)TP is enough no?

 

[blueroomelectronics]

I was wondering that. Ganging the pairs or running the solids / stripes. Probably makes no real difference. Surround speakers rarely get a workout and it's solid core cable.

 

[audioguru]

Aren't the wires in CAT5 cables #24 gauge? Then parallel all 4 pairs for use as medium power speaker wires.

An amplifier has an output impedance of about 0.04 ohms for good damping of the resonances of speakers and you want the speaker wire resistance to be as low as that.

 

[Speakerguy]

If it has an equivalent wire gauge of 18 or better it will be OK. Personally I would use real wire 16ga or better. Actually, in my own theater, it would all be 12ga.

 

[Dean Huster]

In MY own home theater, I'd only use oxygen-free, double-twist, reverse-osmosis, beryllium-plated cable with solid gold end connectors with iron plating on those -- but only if it costs $300 or more per foot so that I know that it'll do the system good.

Geez. I've used telephone wire, 300-ohm twinlead, lamp cord, RG-58, RG-59 and RG-174 coaxial cable and heaven knows what else for speaker cable -- short distances and 50-foot runs. I'd challenge anyone to a double-blind test on speaker cable with medium-scale speakers if the cable is at least 24 gauge for a short (less than 20 feet) run and be able to tell the difference between types of cable. If you're running massive power to the speakers, then the gauge can become an issue just so power gets to the speaker and the damping factor isn't buggered up too badly. If it's a 200-foot run, the gauge can figure in. But a room? Nah! The CAT-5 cable should do nicely, even for the front speakers and the subwoofer.

My only concern would be if you have a house with all different kinds of cables running throughout: speakers all over the place, intercom systems, whole-house vacuum system, TV RF cables, thermostats, telephones, computer network, etc. Then it might be nice to save the CAT-5 for the network, telephone wire for the telephone, zip cord for the speakers, RG-6 for the RF, thermostat wire for the thermostats and vacuum system, etc. just so you can tell one system's wiring from the other at a glance. For example, using 12-2 with ground Romex for all your various types of wiring would be confusing and dangerous.

Dean

 

[audioguru]

18 gauge lamp cord works well for short low power speaker cables.

 

[blueroomelectronics]

well the main speakers are on 8' of 10guage zillion strand wire. The sub is self powered it's the 4 surrounds that get the cheap stuff.
I've already wired the house network lines and 1000' of cat5 is $59

 

[Boncuk]

Hi Bill,

having tons of twisted pair cable and using it for speakers you could use all four wires for one speaker connection and another four for the second connection.

That way even medium power speakers should work well.

Hans

 

[blueroomelectronics]

Thank you all, I've got enough CAT-5 that it'll cost nothing to try it. I can always make it Ethernet cable if it doesn't work
Now the question is do I combine all the Green / Orange pairs for + and all the Blue / Brown for -
Or Stripes & solids... Probably makes zero difference.

 

[audioguru]

Twisted pairs have a fairly high capacitance that might mess up your amplifier.
So use two paralleled twisted pairs as one wire and use two more paralleled twisted pairs as the other wire to feed a speaker.

 

[whiz115]

i had a pair of speakers connected with cat5 some years now... (i think 5)
and the wires were paired for (+) and for (-).

few weeks ago we had to paint my room and the cable ended up to the garbage...

it was a nice red network cable...

that's all i had to say

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

It will work, though it's not very thick cable - but for surround speakers it doesn't really matter.

 

[audioguru]

I think the wire should be blue or green for good sound. Red wire adds TIM distortion.

 

[blueroomelectronics]

LOL, well I had to get parts from Sayal today and they had 100' 14guage Philips speaker wire for $15 too good to pass up.

 

[audioguru]

Look carefully at the Philips label. If it is spelled Filips or Phillips then don't buy it.

 

[blueroomelectronics]

Looks real enough
Philips Magnavox
PM62122
CL/CL2 rated
PN #75005

and in French is says "100 pies"

 

[mister_e]

woohoo 100 pies

I recall another translation like
Made in Turkey / Fait en Dinde

Where "dinde" in French is the animal, not the country

 

[blueroomelectronics]

The best are always the Chinese translated manuals.
But here's some funny ones
Translation Funnies