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Speaker cable.


stewblack
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A friend of mine who runs and builds his own PA uses ordinary two core mains cable (6 amp I think) (or was it 5? - anyway I digress) as speaker cable. Now before anyone shouts about only using the best cabling if you want the best sound, yes I know and fully understand that principle and only use obbm's finest on my bass rig. But I just wondered if he has hit upon a reasonably priced alternative to expensive speaker leads for monitor cabs that sort of thing. Is it essentially the same thing as speaker cable?
I don't mind how technically baffling the response. I am here to learn.
:)

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I use reasonable quality stuff on my rig but have heard of this method, by all accounts it works a treat. In one venue that I regularly work with I've got about £200 worth of cables that just lives in the ceiling - If I found the need to use these cables elsewhere (i.e. if I ever get the PA hire sideline organised) then I would be happy to replace them with mains cable.

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[quote name='colda' post='78676' date='Oct 24 2007, 09:31 AM']I use reasonable quality stuff on my rig but have heard of this method, by all accounts it works a treat. In one venue that I regularly work with I've got about £200 worth of cables that just lives in the ceiling - If I found the need to use these cables elsewhere (i.e. if I ever get the PA hire sideline organised) then I would be happy to replace them with mains cable.[/quote]
5 or 6 amp?

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Stew, I've used a variety of mains cable as speaker leads. Occasionally I do a small PA rig for after-dinner speeches and for that I use orange lawn-mower power cable. Orange so I know exactly what it is, as it has jack plugs on each end. This is 0.75 sq.mm. cross section. In fact I've used it for higher power speakers as well. In the days when I was designing and building TV and radio studios and OB Trucks we always used mains cable as speaker cable but amps were never much above 50-watts.

For reference:

0.75 sq.mm. = 6-amps
1.0 sq.mm. = 10-amps
1.5 sq.mm. = 16-amps
2.5 sq.mm. = 25-amps


On thing you need to consider is just how much wear and tear the cable will be subjected to. If it's for a band PA that will be set-up and taken down regularly then the cable itself ideally needs to be very robust and flexible and I would suggest that you use rubber covered flexible. This is designed for floor extensions. Do not use pvc cable as it is very infexible and has a memory, so it will take time to change shape having been coiled up, and will be difficult to lay out flat. You can get this sort of cable at any electrical stockists.

I've just been looking at the web site of tlc-direct.co.uk. Interestingly a 100-metre reel of their 2.5 sq.mm rubber covered is about the same price as I pay for a 100-metre reel of Klotz 2.5 sq.mm. but the Klotz is a much better cable as it is finer stranded and therefore has a better frequency response. Remember that mains cable is deigned for a single frequency, 50Hz.

In the end you pays your money and you makes your choice. If it's cheap enough then get some and try it. I doubt that it'll do any harm and you might have found an economic solution.

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[quote name='obbm' post='78706' date='Oct 24 2007, 10:21 AM']Stew, I've used a variety of mains cable as speaker leads. Occasionally I do a small PA rig for after-dinner speeches and for that I use orange lawn-mower power cable. Orange so I know exactly what it is, as it has jack plugs on each end. This is 0.75 sq.mm. cross section. In fact I've used it for higher power speakers as well. In the days when I was designing and building TV and radio studios and OB Trucks we always used mains cable as speaker cable but amps were never much above 50-watts.[/quote]
Cheers obbm - wasn't planning to build my own gigging leads - that's what you're there for!! But I was intrigued by this guy using mains cable as I always thought he knew what he was about. Now you've confirmed it.
Anyhoo, an order will be coming your way as soon as I get my paypal account up and running. Honestly how much longer will it take? Every one else's seems to be there instantly.

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  • 3 weeks later...

[quote name='obbm' post='78706' date='Oct 24 2007, 09:21 AM']I've just been looking at the web site of tlc-direct.co.uk. Interestingly a 100-metre reel of their 2.5 sq.mm rubber covered is about the same price as I pay for a 100-metre reel of Klotz 2.5 sq.mm. but the Klotz is a much better cable as it is finer stranded and therefore has a better frequency response. Remember that mains cable is deigned for a single frequency, 50Hz.[/quote]

Don't understand that. Surely the only significant effect that having more and finer strands would have is to make the cable more flexible? After all, to affect the frequency response, it would have to significantly change the capacitive load that the cable presents, which is negligible (I don't think there would be any inductive component in the load). The resistive load would be about the same for the same cross-section, and should be very very low anyway.

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[quote name='tauzero' post='88320' date='Nov 14 2007, 11:36 AM']Don't understand that. Surely the only significant effect that having more and finer strands would have is to make the cable more flexible? After all, to affect the frequency response, it would have to significantly change the capacitive load that the cable presents, which is negligible (I don't think there would be any inductive component in the load). The resistive load would be about the same for the same cross-section, and should be very very low anyway.[/quote]

Some audiophools will tell you that finer strands show less 'skin effect' but it can be shown that skin effect is vanishingly small on mains cable up to over 1MHz, ie 50 times higher than any frequency we're concerned with.

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A soundman friend of mine runs a d&b Technologies PA rig, and the cables that came with it are 5-core 2.5mm Pirelli mains flex, the sort of thing that's used to wire up large 3-phase equipment. If a company like d&b are using mains cable, then it ought to be OK for us mere mortals :)

Andy

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