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RE: CAT5 Speaker Cables

Posted by Jon Risch (B) on April 17, 2012 at 21:14:27

In Reply to: Speaker cable posted by Zene on April 17, 2012 at 17:11:37:

They work fine for most amps and for shorter runs, but can become a potential danger to the amp or receiver with longer runs due to the capacitance.

25 foot long CAT5 speaker cables can certainly cause a significant capacitive load on the amp.

You might want to look into some form of coax speaker cable ala the
Belden 8213
http://www.AudioAsylum.com/audio/cables/messages/7637.html

OR try looking through various cable catalogs for coax with the proper criteria:
All bare copper (no tin or silver plate, no steel center)
No foil layers
Decent insulation (foamed PE or better)

These can have quite low capacitance and yet decently low inductance, and good overall performance.

The main thing is that the center conductor of the coax be a decently large size to provide an effective gauge for the total round trip that is workable for the long runs to have a low DCR. Note that the coax braid often provides a MUCH lower resistance, and so a coax with a 20 ga center wire actually comes off looking like an 18 ga speaker cable for the round trip resistance.


Jon Risch

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