cat5 speaker wire.. myth?

[pimpnyou204 10+ year member]

I was talking to a friend of mine who has run cat5 (internet cable) for his speakers. From what i understand he cut the connectors off obviously and i beleive he ran 2 lines for each speaker (+ & -) since the wire is so thin..

Now he told me that changing the wire he didnt notice the sound to be any louder but he said the clearness was much better bcuz of the fact that its 5 wires and its twisted. I wanted to listen to it but at the time he didnt have the amp hooked so obviously i couldnt try it out.

But what im asking is.. do you think theres any truth to this or has anyone tryed it or could wire up a few speakers and try it?

Click to read more...

 

[djman37 5,000+ posts]

most people run all 8, 4 for + and 4 for -. color for + and white/color for -.

 

[bubbagumper6 5,000+ posts]

That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard...decent speaker wire is like 10 bucks a roll...

 

[Stephen_c 10+ year member]

most people run all 8, 4 for + and 4 for -. color for + and white/color for -.

all the wires are twisted at a different rate = different lengths. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

It works fine, provided you use enough conductors as you said. Some people just do this:

http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/triple_t_e.html

Whether or not there's a sonic difference would be a question for an ABX test.

 

[pimpnyou204 10+ year member]

most people run all 8, 4 for + and 4 for -. color for + and white/color for -.

sorry im not following what you mean.. cat5 has 5 wires im pretty sure.

 

[Ctesibius 10+ year member]

Yes, you can use cat5 for speaker wire.

Can it sound "different"? It can if you use too little and increase resistance to the point that it audibly affects the sound. Just the same as using any other wire of insufficient gauge.

Other than that, there is nothing that intrinsically gives cat5 a "better" sound.

 

[tEh ShOcKeR]

sorry im not following what you mean.. cat5 has 5 wires im pretty sure.

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif

Cat5 is Category 5, not 5 wires.

 

[Rich B 5,000+ posts]

Cat 5 is a pain in the *ss to work with.

 

[Tehgregzor 10+ year member]

Its already been proven coat hangers sound the same as monster cable..... IE there is no quality change between different types of wires.

 

[smoka 10+ year member]

Twisted wire is normally used for low voltage data transmition. Speakers are relatively high power so they won't have any benefit of the twisted wires.