Neat wiring tip

[DAVID_L_PERRY]

Whilst I was getting the wires ready for my wedgehorn last night I thought I would take a couple of shots of how I twist wire to get things a little neater inside the cabs. I use the same thing for speaker cables in hard wired amp racks as well.

This is a tip for making twisted power cables so that the inside of your cabs look neater if using separate cable, and I was also told that twisting speaker cables is good practice in cabs anyway...

This is the end result:-


You start off by cutting two lengths of your cable to be used for internal speaker wiring from two looms:-


Next attach one end of the wires into the chuck of your cordless drill/power driver and the other ends into the jaws of a bench vice (a G clamp will work on a bench if you don't have a vice)


Pull the cables tight and then operate the drill. The cables will twist together forming a tight length of paired cables that can be cut to size:-




Neat and tidy, tidy and neat
Dave

[David Carter]

Great tip. Thanks for sharing. It certainly does make for less of a mess inside the cab.

[Tim A]

I've been using a drill to twist my wires for a long time, but slightly different and quicker:

Simply grasp the wires between your fingers and thumb, run the drill slowly and slide your hand away from the drill. It takes only once or twice to get the feel, and you'll be making perfect twists without the vice.

[Harley]

I've been using a drill to twist my wires for a long time,

Does that help get some really curly notes from your lead breaks Tim

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

It looks pretty, but it's not a good idea. Twisting the wires increases the actual wire length for a given run, increasing resistance. Inside a cab it would be minimal, but on a 20 foot cable run it would be significant. More important, the twisted pair will have higher inductance and capacitance, and that is even more detremental to performance than higher resistance.
Twisted pairs for interconnects help reject noise, but noise pick up in speaker cables is a non-factor. Inside the cab as far as inductance and capacitance go their effects are minimized by keeping the + and - wires separated.

[Mark Coward]

I like the red & black zip cord, it's kind of pricey from PE but then you don't need much inside the box.

[DAVID_L_PERRY]

Inside the cab as far as inductance and capacitance go their effects are minimized by keeping the + and - wires separated.

Thats interesting stuff bill. contrary to what I was told in the past, but then most stuff here is

Keep in mind that the length of runs we are talking about here for speaker builds are tiny, probably the longest run is about 12-24" Cant imagine it makes any practical difference ?

You will be telling my to buy expensive speaker cables and spikes for my Home Stereo speakers next....

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

Inside the cab as far as inductance and capacitance go their effects are minimized by keeping the + and - wires separated.

Thats interesting stuff bill. contrary to what I was told in the past, but then most stuff here is

Keep in mind that the length of runs we are talking about here for speaker builds are tiny, probably the longest run is about 12-24" Cant imagine it makes any practical difference ?

You will be telling my to buy expensive speaker cables and spikes for my Home Stereo speakers next....

As I said before, twisted pairs do help as far as noise rejection is concerned with interconnects, or mic lines or for that matter all low level applications into higher impedance loads. But at the levels and impedances speakers operate at noise rejection isn't a factor, while capacitance and inductance are, and those are made worse with twisted pairs. As is often the case what works well in one application can be assumed to work well in another where it's not the case. The last thing I'd recommend is either expensive cables or spikes. Snakeoil both.

[DJ Big Ronn]

Back in the day, we would refer to the gold plated expensive stuff as car audio jewelry. I suppose the same would apply to prosound.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

Back in the day, we would refer to the gold plated expensive stuff as car audio jewelry. I suppose the same would apply to prosound.

Gold has the benefit of not corroding, but more often than not you're right about it being more of a eye-candy.

[gdougherty]

Back in the day, we would refer to the gold plated expensive stuff as car audio jewelry. I suppose the same would apply to prosound.

General rule of thumb I'd heard is that transfer from one metal type to another is an imperfect interaction. The fewer the changes you can make, the better.

[LelandCrooks]

Gold plated connectors have some benefit in a home or permanent install setting. When you not plugging and unplugging stuff all the time the contacts can corrode. With stuff you're hooking and unhooking, you grind the corrosion off anyway. And the gold plating. No point in paying for it.

Just buy decent cables. My HT cables at home are gold plated and cost all of $6 a set. Including the hdmi cable.

[Nordskov]

The last thing I'd recommend is either expensive cables or spikes. Snakeoil both.

Does snakeoil come in gallons or smaller amounts?
Or does it depend on the availability at the retailer.
Commercial manufacturers having large supplies, ...and hardly found other places like BFM.

[David Robinson]

General rule of thumb I'd heard is that transfer from one metal type to another is an imperfect interaction. The fewer the changes you can make, the better.

An pseudo-topical aside: Dissimilar metals and electrical current aren't a good combination. In my auto parts days, we'd see alternators come back as defects with burnt battery (positive) posts. More often than not, the DIYer/shadetree mechanic had replaced the original ring terminal with a cheap aluminum one. The dissimilarity between aluminum ring, the copper wire, and the steel battery post coupled with the current and weather led to rapid oxidation. The aluminum would erode, get loose, and arcing ensued. The arcing would melt the insulator between the battery post and the alternator housing and before you could say Nikola Tesla, you had a toasted alternator.

[Sydney]

Plain copper wire and Nickel Chrome plated connectors are find as long as they are cleaned once in a while. Skin oils are corrosive, as are atmospheric pollutants.

In Chemistry the electromotive series indicates the relative tendency to be oxidized, Aluminum is near the top of the easily oxidized elements - Gold Silver Platinum are near the bottom.
The periodic table, in it's elegance shows the elements like aluminum share placement in the Groups 1 and 2 ( with highly reactive metals like Sodium ) and the "more stable" elements are in groups in the center.
For a brief period aluminum was used in home residential wiring instead of copper. Because of it's rate of thermal expansion and contraction and it's ease of oxidation it created serious problems.
Aluminum wire in service entrances is coated with Anti-oxide paste at the terminals.