Have a look at these Beauties!!!! How to make your OWN "High End" Cables!!! - Page 89

check it out, mine looked big, cl 2 in wall 12 awg cable.. that the one you got?

can you post a pic of your 12 gauge cl2, that is the one I have also.. I'll run down to my basement and take a few pics...

Took some snap shots with my phone..sorry for the clarity.. It says cl2 12 gauge on the wire..







I've used the clear jacket audio cable in 12 gauge and it was way thicker than the monoprice cable... Does your cable look like this?
Edited by DrZaus - 3/9/13 at 5:46am

looks bigger than my cable .... thought mono price was black and red inside... yours is blue and white they dont have a pic of that on the web site?



i just bought a 100 ft roll..

It's black and red.. it looks big because it's a 500 foot spool.. looks different because flash from phone..

i think you will be ok with your cable then .. what are you doing with 500ft.. ? building in wall home theater?

did you get some bananas or spades?

cheers..

I have been reading through this thread for the last couple of days and it has inspired me to attempt to make my own cables. I saw that some of you decided to make your own sub cables as well and was wondering what approach you may have taken to complete this. Did you just slide techflex over your existing sub cables or build your own using rg6 cable?

Yes, I have 2, 500 ft spools I'm having my basement refinished and in wall wiring for 1st floor of home if I have the time.... I'll be running lines to 7 speakers in ht room alone for now other speakers in the outside of room for my son (dedicated tv for all gaming systems) going to use the Yamaha RX-A3020 3 zone receiver for sound.. double wires for each speaker.. (just in case of 1 set gets damaged) room for ht is 17 by 30 feet.. I picked up some banana plugs from GL audio and the forum suggested version 4..

I'll need to get the links for the covers and the heatshrink material from you experts

Anyone have problems with the techflex from Furryletters? The gold accent in the above picture is coming apart for me - it seems to naturally result in gold strands sticking out. I wanted to check if anyone else has ordered this same TechFlex from FurryLetters on eBay and if they had problems. I really liked the gold accent in the black, but will go to all black if it is gong to look like this (i.e. strands of gold sticking out all over the place).

Also, I found that the 3/8 doesn't fit too well with the Monoprice InWall 12AWG wire. I think 1/2" is a better fit. I can see the white through the 3/8" techflex, and am guessing the 1/2" is a much better fit.

I think I remember others complaining about the cables with a strand of gold having issues in the past.

Also, I am not sure of the logic there since 1/2" is bigger than 3/8", so it seems to me that you would see more white with bigger techflex, but then again I have never worked with the stuff.

i can see no white at all.. with the cl2 12 awg from monoprice and the 3/8 tech flex in carbon or blue colours from parts express.. 1/2 techflex seems like it would be lose fit.. i would rather have a snug
tight fit!!!!

tobad about your gold coming out..

cheers

i used parts express.com.. whats your longest run in your set up? nice size room to work with..

my longest run is 50 ft so im thinking of using 10 awg..

cheers..

I have the exact Techflex...and have zero issues with the gold coming out

So here is what I have after assembling - you can see the gold coming out of the techflex (little gold strands), as well as white showing through the 3/8.

So am I doing something wrong when assembling? I simply am scrunching up the techflex over the start of the wire, and then pulling it down the length (being pretty gentle doing this as well). Is this not the way to do it? Do I need to do anything special?

Also, I confirmed on my order from Furryletters that this is 3/8" (per the eBay order at least), and my order from Monoprice says "250ft 12AWG CL2 Rated 2-Conductor Loud Speaker Cable."

That is a cryin' shame!

Al

send pic to the furry guy ask for replacement cant hurt to ask..

cheers..

could that be 1/4 inch i wonder?

I'm in the same scenario.. 12 gauge is fine, I kept 10 gauge for heavy car applications.. 10 gauge in-wall speaker is only used in heavy amlipfiers.. I'm going to run 12 gauge with the Emotiva 5x400 watts with my 12 gauge.. 10 gauge of additianl wire for cost a pretty penny and you won't hear much of a difference unless you put additional THX surroundings..

I've always used 12 gauge wire.. I'm happy with it..

Good point, it might actually be 1/4 he sent by mistake. I did measure the width of the techflex (unexpanded, just as it came) and the width is 3/8". But I'm not sure if that means anything.

I am going to send him an e-mail with pictures and see what he thinks.
Edited by onyx00 - 3/12/13 at 9:47am

it looks to tight to be 3/8.. guess thats why you where asking about 1/2 .. u thought you had 3/8 i bet its 1/4

hope he helps you out..

cheers..

That is why I recommend spending the extra $$$ for the KnuKonceptz KL3 Kable. It is $0.75 a foot ( $69 for 100 foot ) but is perfectly round. The wires are molded inside a rubber conduit. There are no wire twists present and TechFlex doesn't appear uneven over it.

From the way the strands are spread apart, that does look like 3/8". 1/4" would give you a tighter wind but use up more TechFlex. I used 1/2" for my 12/2 and it was fine as long as I made sure it was pulled tight instead of loose around the cable. I bought the Carbon, which has clear strands in it anyway. The white cable makes it appear as a light gray rather than a carbon though. The KnuKonceptz 12/2, at 0.365", might be thicker than the Monoprice 12/2 though.

Yes. Monoprice 12/2 IS thinner than KnuKonceptz 12/2. 7.8mm for Monoprice vs. 9.25mm for KnuKonceptz.
Edited by jevans64 - 3/12/13 at 10:27pm

Here's a pic of the Sewell Deadbolts vs the Monoprice. I love the Sewell Dealbolts excellent quality.

its nice how the legs tuck in too your bananas too vs the monoprice one u can see the wireif you move the cables around atleast i did..

right at the plugs no place to tuck in eh..

cheers

its was an article i read in this thread a few pages back.. that said about 40 ft for 12 gauge.. i believe...

cheers..

Yes. I like that the speaker wire pant legs go into the banana plug so the speaker wire won't be visible.

Ordered some small Paradigm speakers with 110 watt avr, short wire runs, less than 10 feet. Everything the dealer says seems to go against what I think I know. They are not dummies and they build some very expensive theaters. They want to use 16 gauge wire because they think the 12 gauge emphasizes mid range. Guess I'll let them install 16 gauge sloppy temporary and build my own 12 gauge. So, 16 or 12? That monoprice website is pointing to high gauge for short runs...Thanks to all for building this great thread

I go with 12 gauge for short and long runs!

I would consider finding a new dealer

what paradigm speakers did you buy ?

sure i go with gus gus 12 awg for a few bucks more i would even do 10.. cause you can!

if the dealer says 12 awg emphasizes mid range does he LOL.. seems like a dummie to me after saying that..

cheers

heres the table the has me thinking of going to 10 awg for 50 ft run.. from the article a few pages back i think gus posted that.. cant remember..

Tabulated below are the recommended cable distances (+20%) one should use for various speaker cable gauges and speaker loads.


Speaker Impedance

8 Ohm Load

4 Ohm Load



Wire Gauge

Distance (ft)

Distance (ft)

18 AWG

10

5


16 AWG

20

10

14 AWG

35

18


12 AWG

60


30


10 AWG

100

50


Table 1. Recommended Cable Distances vs Gauge

just wanted to post this recommendation for you

its from the same article



Let me make it clear that the cable length guidelines I set forth here are done so for audiophiles whom are particularly critical on system performance and transparency. For casual listeners or installers setting up distribution whole house audio, you can certainly run cable lengths much longer than I recommend in Table 1. The degree of audibility of running cables longer than these lengths depends on the quality of electronics and loudspeakers, neutrality of the room, and sensitivity of the listener.


I personally run 10AWG speaker cable for all of my audio systems in the Audioholics Showcase home. The only issue here is this cable tends to be hard to work with and terminate. 14/4 cable is another good choice that is easier to terminate and has an effective gauge of 11 AWG. Choosing quality cables from reputable sources such as Blue Jeans Cable and Impact Acoustics is a good idea. I always recommend you avoid snake oil when purchasing cables otherwise you will likely find yourself spending more money than you should because of nebulous claims and fancy packaging while at the same time buying higher gauge cables as most of the exotic cables tend to be.


Use the recommendations in this article as a guideline and NOT a biblical source. There is no magic number when choosing what gauge to use over a specific distance since the system dynamics are often too complex. But, if you’re choosing between two cable gauges, I usually recommend going for the lower one (all other things being equal) to ensure your cables won’t be the chink in your audio chain for pursuing audiophile nirvana.

think i will go 10 awg going forward..

cheers