DIY cables ????'s

[yousuredo2]

I did a search but didnt realy find anything...

I am not realy wanting to have the best/thickest wires...
Just some decent wires...

And I would like to make some of my own for two reasons.

1- make shorter wire to go from one componet to another, to elimenate excess wire...
2-to have matched wires, (all the same quality & size)...I have alot of 3ft., 6ft., ect RCA cables

I aint going to spend a week Braiding some little bitty wires(not for me, sorry)
I just want to Clean up my rack and hopefully correct any wrongs at the same time...
also what is the best way to route the wires, (power wires seperate from audio/video ect...)

thanx again, for my helping a newbie out...
chris
can you point me in the correct direction...

~~~~~~edit~~~~~~
a few more questions...
-a good guage for speaker wires ?
-Two sets of wire for a larger guage=good or bad ?
-Does the Length need to be the same(L&R) ?
-Does the speaker/rca wires need any extra sheilding ?

[BobEllis]

Why not head over to Parts Express and pick up some RCA plugs and guitar/instrument cable, such as p/n 100-295. there are less expensive cables with less shield coverage, but any should work well and be quite flexible. Some prefer Belden 1691, but that can be hard to come by in under 500' lengths.

The p/n 091-1265 plastic bodied Dayton plugs are well built and reasonably priced. Spend more if looks matter. The catch with good quality plugs, at least in my experience, is they tend to wreck the cheap jacks used on low to mid-fi gear. The pin contacts on many of these is just a V of metal that the solid pin pushes apart so that after a few connect/disconnect cycles it no longer makes good contact. Your mileage may vary, but be ready to replace jacks. (good luck on a full featured receiver, its way to tight to get anything in there)

If you want to doll up your cables pick up some tech-flex and heat shrink, too. My kid likes the chrome techflex on his computer cables.

~~~~~~edit~~~~~~
a few more questions...
-a good guage for speaker wires ?
-Two sets of wire for a larger guage=good or bad ?
-Does the Length need to be the same(L&R) ?
-Does the speaker/rca wires need any extra sheilding ?

1. Big (small number) the longer the cable the bigger it should be. 12 gauge is enough for all but longer than most home use runs.
2. Neutral - but creates the possibility of crossed connections shorting the amp (a bag thing )
3. No - a common misconception though.
4. Speaker wires - no. RCA's unlikely, but if you live in a high noise environment like near a radio transmitter or microwave relay tower it may help.

[Lex]

since we are cable company sponsored, we really don't allow DIY cable discussions to go to deeply here, for one, it can introduce friction between elements here. For the most part, long time HTG members understand this relationship between CATCables.com and this forum being owned under the same common name, MatrixAV.US.

So goodluck to you. FYI, we make custom length sizes all the time for people to avoid cable clutter.

You have a suggestion there, so without this turning into some long exaustive thread, it's really all you need.


Doug
Owner