Saturday, October 20, 2012

Speaker wire comparison

Our group is to hold a meeting where we will do blind comparisons between different materials and typologies of speaker wire. See the following link.


I have had trouble finding 64 feet of barbed wire without buying a huge roll of the stuff so I have decided to go the DIY route and create my own out of galvanized steel wire. A 100' roll of 17 gauge cost under $3.


The popsicle sticks come from Dollar Tree and a $1 pack is way more than enough. I simply drilled two small holes about three inches apart and then used hot glue to get the popsicle sticks to stay roughly in place. I am just going to leave the wire un-terminated. I don't want the sonic purity of the steel contaminated by gold, silver banana plugs etc. The wire is not insulated except for the popsicle sticks and glue.


I am putting barbs on one set of the cables. This should raise the cables above the floor and we can do a comparison on barbed versus the un-barbed which will lie on the floor.


You don't see too many speaker wires like this.

I haven't tried them yet but I will hook them up prior to the meet and bask in their sonic splendor.