We produce speaker cable. Do-it-yourself twisted-pair speaker cable Twisted-pair cable by Nikitin
Twisted pair cable
There are so many different types of speaker cables you won’t find on the market today. A wide variety of products: copper cables, silver cables, thin and thick.
In a word, making a choice is not easy. At the same time, a branded cable is always expensive, because in this case the advantage is not only quality, but also a special “marketing feature”.
Twisted pair speaker cable can be used as consumables to create the right cable for the purest sound. How to make an acoustic cable from a twisted pair cable and much more will be presented in our article.
Twisted pair cable
A twisted pair cable is a wire intended for acoustics or other purposes. This same cable always consists of several pairs of wires, insulated from each other in a special way.
As for twisting wires, this is done for a special purpose, to increase the cable's noise immunity and reduce electromagnetic vibrations.
Exist different kinds twisted pair cables (more on this below). In cables of category 5 and above, pairs are twisted using different steps to prevent interference that may be associated with periodic proximity of conductors.
How to make a high-quality wire yourself using a twisted pair cable
Minimum investment Money(a good one is always very expensive, remember that!) and proper adherence to the instructions - that’s all you need.
As a result, we get the right speaker cable that will give excellent sound:
- We take a regular twisted pair cable.
- We remove the main insulation and in front of us are 8 thin wires.
Note. The wires must be made of copper and not of any other material. In this case, it is desirable that the copper be pure, without any special impurities.
- We remove the insulation from each wire, but do it extremely carefully.
- Now you need to get GOI paste (yes, the same one that is used for final sharpening of knives).
- We arm ourselves with a soft rag, apply a little paste to it and clean the copper wire. You need to ensure that the wire becomes mirror clean and very smooth.
Note. It is advisable to carry out this work wearing special fabric gloves to avoid copper oxidation.
Sterility in this case is the basis for a positive result. Otherwise, if it (sterility) is not ensured, the whole thing may go down the drain.
- After each of the wires is cleaned to a shine, you need to take a regular medical bandage, always sterile.
- We connect all the wires back and wrap them with a bandage, and on top with electrical tape.
What does it give
Note. You don’t need to be a genius to know that the cleaner and more reflective the wire, the better the high-frequency and midrange frequencies will pass through it. In other words, we will get these high and medium frequencies in the car interior clean and without artificial embellishments.
It is worth remembering that wrapping copper wires bandage should be given because this improves insulation. The fact is that cotton insulation has everything necessary for the rapid movement of current.
Plain paper has the same properties, which can also be used instead of a bandage. As for the surface electrical tape, which runs on top of the bandage, it only serves as protection, preventing the fabric from fraying over time.
Such wires always provide clear and high-quality sound. The bass is fast, and the highs and mids are simply super: not artificial and synthetic, as before, but smooth and clear.
What is a ready-made twisted pair speaker cable?
If you don’t have time to make the cable yourself, then let’s look at the twisted-pair speaker cable itself, which is sold ready-made on the market.
Note that there are many varieties of it. Let's look at the most common ones.
Note. How the cable conductors are intertwined with each other, in what configuration they are located, what kind of screen they are protected with, etc. determines how good the cable is and corresponds to the end result - providing good sound.
Cable types:
- UTP - this type of twisted pair cable does not have a screen. This cable is also called unshielded twisted pair.
- FTP or F/UTP is a twisted pair cable that has a common foil shield. This type of cable is also called a shielded pair, although in general this is not entirely true.
There is a screen in such cables, but in the simple sense of the word.
- SF/UTP is again an unshielded twisted pair cable with a double braid. Often such a cable is designated as F2TP or F2/UTP.
- STP is a shielded twisted pair cable, where each wire has its own independent shield. In addition, such cables also have a mesh.
- S/FTP or SFTP is already foiled and shielded twisted pair. Each pair in this type is in a special braid and has an external copper screen.
Categories of twisted pair cable
In addition to types, twisted pair cables are further divided into categories. They are numbered from 1 to 7 and the higher the category, the more efficient the frequency range transmitted by the cable.
In cable categories above 5th there are more pairs of wires and naturally more turns per unit length.
Note. For acoustic purposes, only cables of category 5 and higher are used.
Multi-core and single-core twisted pair cable
In addition, a twisted pair cable can be multi-core or single-core:
- If the cable is single-core, then under no circumstances should it be subjected to frequent bending. The conductors in such cables break easily. It is usually not used for acoustic purposes.
- Stranded cable, which consists of a bundle of thin copper wires, withstands constant bending and twisting much better. The braid of this cable is made of polyvinyl chloride or polyethylene.
Most of modern shells multi-core cable They are also covered with chalk, which increases the fragility of the shell. This is necessary so that the cable can be easily cut at the cut location.
Above was information regarding twisted pair cable for acoustics. Laying such a cable inside a car with your own hands to a subwoofer or car radio (see) is carried out strictly according to the instructions, which can be easily found on the Internet.
It wouldn’t hurt to study photo and video materials. The price of a twisted pair speaker cable varies and it all depends on the characteristics, materials and much more, as described above.
Let's consider the technique self-made acoustic cable oriented for use as part of the sound reproduction path high class. A cable made using the following method may well save you from the need to purchase high-quality and, accordingly, expensive cables industrial production. This cable was developed in accordance with numerous requests from enthusiasts who would like to have an acoustic cable as part of their tract, allowing them to fully appreciate the advantages of using an interconnect cable, the manufacture of which is described on the pages of this site. If you follow the recommendations of this technique, the cable you make will be comparable to its industrially manufactured counterparts, which cost $30-40 per meter and more.
Materials and tools
First we need to prepare and take care of the availability of the materials and equipment necessary to solve our problem. We will need:
wire cutters;
pliers;
sharp knife;
gas lighter;
industrial hair dryer or gas stove;
heat-shrinkable tube 6mm in two colors;
spool of strong thread;
utp/stp/ftp category 5e cable (more on this below).
Selecting conductor material
To make an acoustic cable, we need high-quality copper monocores with a diameter of 0.5 mm in polyethylene insulation, twisted into a twisted pair. Conductors of this type are traditionally used in utp/stp/ftp category 5e cables (category 5e twisted pair ‘unshielded or shielded’). This cable is used for installation and laying of cable connections of computer local area networks and, accordingly, is widely available in almost any company of the corresponding profile. The only pitfall in choosing the cable from which we will extract the twisted pair we need is the prevailing offer on the market of cables manufactured in the Asian region. These cables are typically made using recycled copper and are not suitable for our purposes. Practice shows that copper High Quality and purity is used mainly by manufacturing companies that have proven themselves in this market, mainly from Europe, the USA, and Australia. In the course of numerous experiments, from the samples of cables produced in these countries available to me, models or types of cables from various manufacturers were selected, the use of which is possible in the context of this article. I will give this list. The cables in it are arranged in descending order of the “sound quality” of the speaker cables made from them:
all cables are utp/stp cat. 5e produced by Draka NK Cables (Finland);
all cables are utp/stp cat. 5e made by Belden;
all cables are utp/stp/ftp cat. 5e manufactured by R&M (Reichle & De-Massari AG, Switzerland);
all cables are utp/stp cat. 5e manufactured by LAPP Kabel (Germany);
utp/stp cat cables. 5e manufactured by BICC Brand-REX (UK), utp/stp cat. 5e manufactured by Helukabel (Germany); utp/stp cat. 5e only made in Europe Alcatel (France), utp/stp cat. 5e is not made in China by Lucent (USA).
Required cable length
To make 1 m of speaker cable, 5 pieces of utp/stp/ftp cat cable are required. 5e 1.18m long. Those. for making 1m speaker cable for connecting two speaker systems you will need 5*1.18*2=11.8 meters of twisted pair. Simply put, the total amount of twisted pair cable required to connect a stereo pair of speakers is determined by the formula L=11.8*Lak, where Lak is the length of the speaker cable to connect one speaker.
Manufacturing procedure
The first thing we do is cut the utp cat cable. 5e into 10 segments of equal length. Using a sharp knife, cut the outer sheath of the cable and remove it. In the case of stp or ftp cable, a layer of metallized film is removed that wraps the twisted pair conductors. Inside the cable there are 8 pairs of twisted conductors, i.e. 4 twisted pairs. Of these, 2 pairs have one pitch of conductor twisting (blue and green), and the 2nd pair has another (orange and brown). To make an acoustic cable for connecting one speaker, we take 5 twisted pairs of blue and brown colors and five twisted pairs of green and orange color. The cable for connecting the corresponding terminals of the speaker and amplifier is made in the form of two independent cables. Let’s agree that at the manufacturing stage, blue-brown twisted pairs are intended to connect the “-” terminals, and green-orange pairs are intended to connect the “+” terminals.
Fundamental point. When removing all the twisted pairs from the cables and sorting them by color, be sure not to confuse their mutual “start-to-end” orientation. Let us agree to consider the beginning of the twisted pair to be its side located on the left, when looking at starting position twisted pairs before removing them from the utp cat cable. 5e, with utp cat. 5e is oriented according to the inscription on the cable sheath (the beginning of the inscription is the beginning of the cable).
Let's start making a cable for connecting the “-“ terminals. To do this, we take 5 pairs of blue and brown colors and from the side that we consider the beginning of the cable, we combine them into a bundle. We align the ends of the twisted pairs and tie them tightly at a distance of 8 cm from the beginning of the cable with several turns of thick thread. We unravel the conductors in twisted pairs from the beginning of the cable to the place where they are bundled with thread. We align each conductor. Next, all conductors are twisted tightly and evenly along their length clockwise when viewed from the beginning of the cable. A piece of thread is placed on the twisted conductors and pushed close to their twisting thread. heat shrink tube 3 cm long. Next, the thermal tube shrinks, after which the thread is removed as unnecessary. For each previously laid down cable bundle, we repeat this operation. Sections of heat-shrinkable tube of the same color (for example, blue) are installed on all four blanks; in the future, we will be able to determine the direction of the cable by the color of these tubes. After this, we have 4 blanks from which we will weave an acoustic cable.
Let us directly consider the process of weaving conductors in an acoustic cable. To begin with, let's take one of the blanks and distribute the conductors in it so that the conductors various colors alternated. This is clearly visible in the photographs demonstrating the cable braiding procedure.
Since it is quite difficult to verbally describe cable weaving in an accessible and understandable form, I will demonstrate it with a sequence of photographs that give a comprehensive idea of all stages this process. For simplicity, the photographs show an example of weaving using 6 twisted pairs, in our case there are 10 of them.
Braiding the cable continues until the length of the shortest unbraided cable is 8 cm. At this point the weaving stops. The remaining unwoven twisted pairs are collected into a bundle and tightly tied with a thread. Next, we unravel the conductors in twisted pairs from the end of the cable to the place where they are tied with thread. We align each conductor. We twist all conductors tightly and evenly along their length clockwise when viewed from the end of the cable. A piece of heat-shrinkable tubing 3 cm long is placed on the twisted conductors and pushed close to their twisted thread. Next, the thermal tube shrinks, after which the thread is removed as unnecessary. At the “end” of the braided cable, a piece of heat-shrinkable tubing is installed in a color different from the tube at the beginning of the “cable” (for example, black). Next, we trim off the excess length of individual conductors, aligning them with the shortest one.
We repeat this procedure for the remaining 3 blanks.
Now all that remains is to strip the insulation from the conductors on each cable. The length of the surface cleared of insulation is determined by the way the cable is connected to the speaker and amplifier terminals, as well as the need or lack thereof for installing bananas/spatulas. In any case, it is necessary to twist the bare copper conductors evenly along their length very tightly (but carefully), first with your hands, and then with pliers. I categorically do not recommend using solder this twist in the future, including when installing bananas and spades on the cable.
That's all. But there remains an equally important procedure, namely the direct connection of the manufactured speaker cables to the speakers and amplifier.
Connecting the cable
Fundamental to the sound quality of the path using our cables is their mutual orientation, or more precisely, compliance with the direction of connecting the cable to the corresponding terminals of the amplifier and speakers.
To do this, a blue-brown cable is used to connect the corresponding “-” terminals of the amplifier and the speakers, and the beginning of the cable (blue heat shrink) is connected from the amplifier side. And the green-orange cable is used to connect the corresponding “+” terminals of the amplifier and speakers, and the end of the cable (black heat shrink) is connected to the amplifier side. After the connection procedure, you can almost immediately evaluate the result of our work and the changes in the sound of the path. This is due to the fact that an acoustic cable made using the method described above requires virtually no break-in time.
Due to the fact that the best direction for connecting a manufactured cable cannot be predicted in advance due to differences in organization technological process manufacturing cables from various manufacturers utp/stp cat. 5e, then it is recommended to check the reverse connection of our cable and choose the best one from them. To do this, it is enough, without turning the cables over, to reconnect the green-orange cables to the corresponding “-” terminals of the amplifier and speakers, and the blue-brown cables to the corresponding “+” terminals of the amplifier and speakers.
Type of finished cable
Good luck in your endeavors. I hope that the obtained result will allow you to raise the bar for the sound of your tract to a new height.
Good afternoon, lovers of good sound! All sorts of wires are sold in markets and specialized stores. The counters of audio stores are littered with all sorts of acoustic wires of different brands, diameters and lengths.
Have you ever thought about why branded speaker wire is so very expensive? Everything is very simple. The fact is that this speaker cable already contains quite a lot of advertising “marketing features” and only a relatively small percentage of technology!
So you want good sound for very, very little money? If yes, then this article is for you!
If prepared correctly, we will get an excellent sound + minimum investment of your funds.
So, let's begin, take a twisted pair, remove the most important insulation, then we get eight thin wires. The main thing is to make sure that they copper, not some kind of iron. Yes, there are such people. Now carefully remove the insulation from these “small wires”. Once this insulation is removed, Take this green “GOI paste” and a soft cloth and clean the copper wire. The most important condition so that the wiring is mirror-like and very smooth. It is better to carry out this work wearing special fabric gloves. Otherwise there will be copper oxide. And all your work will then go down the drain. You need to ensure sterility, because you are making the wire with your own hands.
Once the copper wires are cleaned and polished to a mirror-crystal shine. We take a simple medical bandage (sterile) and then connect all your wires together and wrap it with a bandage, and then wrap it with electrical tape.
However, I will explain why it is necessary to clean and polish these twisted pair copper wires to a shine and wrap the wire with a simple bandage.
It’s simple: the HF and MF come from above along this copper wire, and the cleaner, more mirror-like and smoother these wirings are, the higher quality and without artificial embellishments we will get the mid and high frequencies.
It is necessary to wrap copper wires in order to improve the insulation, since cotton insulation has everything necessary for current to move very quickly. (However, you can also take paper).
By the way, electrical tape is simple external insulation so that the bandage does not fray at all over time 
.
Good luck with all possible combinations!
I hope this explanation helped. Please leave comments below so I can get back to you. Don't be afraid of me and join me