Cat5 speaker cables [Archive]

arcastro

12-13-2006, 02:24 PM

Has anyone actually tried to use cat5 wire as speaker cables? I have read some reviews on the internet stating this is better than high end speaker cables.

arcastro

12-13-2006, 02:28 PM

Forgot to post the article.

http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/setup/interconnects/DIYSpeakerCablesp1.html

bobman1235

12-13-2006, 02:36 PM

A large part of the effectiveness of speaker cables is the amount and composition of the materials. I'm pretty sure cat5 is just copper, and certainly not very thick, so it doesn't make much sense that it would be a good speaker wire.

danger boy

12-13-2006, 02:42 PM

if Cat5 was any good.. we'd all be using it. show of hands who's using cat5 for speaker cables? ;)

zombie boy 2000

12-13-2006, 02:50 PM

I believe MrBigBlueLight is using Cat5 for reasons only known to him:D

bobman1235

12-13-2006, 03:05 PM

Yup, the one thing I have more coils of in my house than speaker wire would be Cat5 cable. :)

univera

12-13-2006, 06:28 PM

I haven't actually demoed them, but I have a pair (if I can find them) that I got as part of a deal. They are pretty long and nicely wound if you'd like to give them a rip. $25.00 for the pair. It would take one a good while to coil these...

SLOCOOKN

12-13-2006, 06:47 PM

If a lambo was battery powered and could go only 5 miles some people would still buy it. However to really enjoy a Lambo it must preform like a Lambo should.
Numbers are great to look at but what is the sound that is comming out of them.
This is the preformance not shown here. I am aware that this is your question to this post, yet it seems to be a simple answer..The testing was weighted to numbers and cost. All in all it's subjective once sound is produced anyway.. Good luck in your "QUEST"....lol

sucks2beme

12-14-2006, 12:11 AM

I was going to try this, have the boxes of cable laying around. I just couldn't work up enough energy to spend that much time weaving it.
It's supposed to work well with some amps, and like crap with others.
It has some odd capacitance and inductive values when you do it right.
It will change your sound. The question is, for the better?
This is an extreme.

gidrah

12-18-2006, 02:17 AM

I use it for my rears and have woven 6 strands together for front use. They had a strong bass and decent midrange but were lacking on the higher freqs. They might have sweetened with time but I never gave them the chance.

Deadof_knight

12-20-2006, 10:32 AM

Thats where the higher quality wire shows its stuff to me the higher frequencies are crisper more detailed. It all sounds better I pick up on the Higher very quick though. If cat 5 is good (IMHO yea right) Im glad ive got like 500 yards of it and it also means I can have speakers in every room now SWEET!