Suggestions for internal speaker wiring.

[twelvebears]

Has anyone got and suggestions for a good source of wire to do the internal binding post/crossover/driver connections?

Probably need about 4m max and was really looking for a silver coated OFC, ideally a multi solid core rather than fine stranded.

Any suggestions of good experiences would be much appreciated.

[TeTsuo36]

Hi,

http://www.hificollective.co.uk/components/wire.html

They sell some good stuff in there and not all of it is extortionate (although some of it is!).

Regards,

Mark.

[twelvebears]

Cheers Mark. Had looked there but was slightly bewildered as to which one to choose!

[DSJR]

ALL multi strand is multi-solid core sir... But I know what you mean..

Being an anti-foo cable kind of guy these days, I'd suggest the van-Damme 2.5 or 4mm cables, although the 4mm will ba a pain to solder and possibly overkill in very short runs (tweeters have very fragile terminals that can't take heat IMO. My personal experiences of silver plated wire is that they can give a disjointed feel to the music, enhancing one area over another - just my opinion obviously.

HiFi Collective seem a good bunch, so as a compromise I'd take the advice above and take a look there...

I still haven't done it, but a very cheap option for me is the 50strand instrument cables from Maplin. It's very similar if not identical to the stuff that Epos fitted to the early ES14's, is fairly flexible and better than the string more often fitted.

[TeTsuo36]

Hi,

i thought the PTFE silver plated copper wire 19/0.45 seemed to fit the bill.
19 strands, relatively thick at 0.45mm per strand, ok price £5.45+VAT+P&P.

I had good result wiring a Tripath amp with the HGC solid silver, 1mm diameter, but i only needed 1m in total. Like most DIY projects i didn't rewire the amp with 3 different wires to decide upon the best. I just chose something that seemed good quality and good value.

Mainly i can be testament to Hificollective being very well respected and stocking high quality products.


Mark.

[The Grand Wazoo]

Theory: The best internal speaker cable is more of your external speaker cable.

Discuss.

[Marco]

Or vice-versa, Chris (providing that the cable is a 'known' brand), the process of which I would agree with wholeheartedly!

For example, a lot of Tannoys (and other speakers) use Van Den Hul internal wiring, therefore it makes sense for the incoming cable 'loom' to be of the same type

I've just changed my speaker cable to VDH 'The Wind' Hybrid II (shown below), with excellent results. It seems to form a really synergistic match with my Monitor Reds

http://www.futureshop.co.uk/van-den-...-m-p-1811.html

As for internal wiring, once I decide whether to keep the Reds or go for Golds, I'll hard-wire the drive units to the crossovers, and crossovers to the binding posts with one of these:

http://www.vandenhul.com/c_Internal%20Wiring.aspx

Which one yet I don't know! If anyone has any suggestions I would be most appreciated.

Marco.

[twelvebears]

Hi Chris.

Yes I had that line of thinking too, but as I'm *probably* going to upgrade my speaker cable at some point (or make up my own), I wasn't sure.

As it happens I've got a set of Chord bi-wire jumpers (I'm not a fan/believer in bi-wiring personally) made out of their signature cable, which should be just long enough to link the binding posts to the crossover input.

Will probably go for the 19/0.45 stuff from Hi-Fi Collective for the rest of the wiring.

Shouldn't have any issues with the tweeter, it's a Morel MDT33 and pretty beefy. Also I've a pair of spring-loaded long-nose pliers which I always clamp to the top of the terminal to sink some of the heat away before it enters the case if the driver.

Have had right fun getting the layout of the hardwired crossovers right, but I'm now a big fan of the hot-melt glue gun. As an instant, if slightly messy way of getting things to stay where you want them (especially if they're a weird shape without flat surfaces), it's dead handy.

S.

[twelvebears]

Hi Marco.

Have always had pretty good results with VDH cables, and I've tried a few over the years. Everything from Kimber Select interconnects and Bi-Focal XL (yes, this was a stupid more-money-than-sense period), which were good but just not worth the money of the hype, through awful Audioquest multi-solid core (i.e. muti-solid cores in a spaced construction) stuff to the Chord that I use now.

Do fancy having a go at playing around with cables made up out of bunches of braided network cabling though.....

[DSJR]

VDH was nicknamed Bland-N-Dull back in the day. The carbon hybrids being very suspicious in their handling of transient info I found.

The "Wind" was an excellent if expensive wire though for Krells and big Sonus Fabers I remember. I'm sure an equally sturdy copper cable would be fine too - it's only a few metres and remember the many metres of wiring in a valve output transformer, as well as the many metres of fine wire in crossover coils and drive unit coils too.

Makes a very good argument for going active I think....