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DIY Cat 5 - No bass compared to my Kimber 8VS - ideas please?

165.247.98.6
Posted on July 9, 1999 at 14:34:06
Thom


 
I made up a 12' pair of Cat 5 (4 twisted pr. plenum) speaker cables ... double-run for the mid/highs and double-run for the bottom end to my Vandersteen 2Ce. For each double-run, wired all the colored together, and all the striped together, term. with bananas. Much improved image focus/stability and detail over my single run of aging KimberKable 8VS, but the mid bass down is all but gone. Phasing is correct. No opinion if improvement due to wire itself or bi-wiring, but I love it, except for the bass response!

The Kimber are about 9AWG. and each of the double-run of Cat 5 is maybe 18AWG? Is this the reason for loss on the low end, less copper? Should the low end be a quad (or more) run?

Geometry problems? Each double-run is twisted around each other about once per foot, as per DIY articles. I then twisted the two double-runs around each other the same, once per foot. Should the high-run and low-run be separated from each other?

Any ideas appreciated before I take it all apart and try again.

Thom

 

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Re: DIY Cat 5 - No bass compared to my Kimber 8VS - ideas please?, posted on July 9, 1999 at 17:20:25
Sean


 
From my experience, ALL of the solid wire twisted pair setups will have some deep bass loss to them. I have used many different combo's of wire (twisted pair, cat 5 type, telephone wire, star quad, etc) and they all exhibit LESS bass than heavy duty stranded zip cord. This has been regardless of gauge of wire used. I have never used any Kimber's, so i don't know. I do have some coming via UPS though, so i'll soon find out !!!

Most of these arrangements all have benefits in terms of high frequency extension, smoother sound with better balance and imaging, detail, etc... but lack the extreme bottom end. Most people are willing to live with the far better results everywhere else and give up the somewhat tubby sounding lower bass that the stranded zip cable offers.

Your situation may work out well. Use the cat 5 wires for the mids / highs and the Kimber for the bottom end. This should give you the best of both worlds (or close to it). According to the infamous Mr Risch, the hi / lo cables do need to be seperated for best results. Sean
>

 

Re: DIY Cat 5 - No bass compared to my Kimber 8VS - ideas please?, posted on July 9, 1999 at 17:29:43
Jon Risch


 
Many people do not realize that the insulation qualities will affect the bass so much. Teflon allows a very tight, well defined bass, so much so over PVC, that many do not like the loss of the PVC boom right away, they voiced the rest of the system around this bass bloat.

A double run of the 4 pair is equivalent to 15 gauge, and doubling up again, is better than 12 gauge, I would try that first for the woofer and see if that does it for you.

Yes, definitely separate the high and low wires for bi-wiring, even though the twisted pairs will tend to reject cross-cuopling to some extrent, it will still be much greater than if they were separated. With them separated, you should get even better clarity and depth.

Jon Risch

 

Re: DIY Cat 5 - No bass compared to my Kimber 8VS - ideas please?, posted on July 10, 1999 at 10:56:23
Thom


 
Thanks Jon and Sean for your replies. I'll be experimenting tonight with separating the wire runs and trying the Kimber back in the mix. I'll get some more footage of the plenum Cat 5 next week and add more to the bottom end and see how that goes too.

While I like the overall impact of the change in cables, my Vandersteens now remind of my LF challenged Quads. They certainly were listenable, but subwoofers made all the difference.

Thom

 

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