Speaker cables?

BeardyAndy

I need to stop spending money on pedals i never use and invest in some new leads!

What I really want is a quality speaker cable, only needs to be short to get from head to cab, but with right angle jacks. Cant see anything other than the budget ones, am i missing something? Why can i buy any number of "boutique" instrument cables with angled jacks but not speaker?

There was someone on here a while back starting up making very nice cables but I can't for the life of me remember who it was!

pintspiller

I think there's a couple on here, but the only one I tried was @robinbowes and I thought price and quality were good.

ICBM

Two Neutrik NP2RXs and a metre of 2-core mains cable is all you need.

Caffeine_Vampire

@PracticalPatch ;

ecc83

"GIVE a man a fish...." Learn to solder! Speaker cables on jack plugs are about the easiest jobs to start on.

Yes, the initial investment is quite high but a very good Solder Station can be had for around a nifty. Check out "Dura Tool" at CPC etc. Some solder (Lead/Tin 60/40 if you can get it unless you want to start selling cables!) and a some very basic tools, pliers, wire cutters that you might already have. A 50mm vice that clamps to a table is invaluable.

Now I might get some stick for this but if you buy some HD ~6mm OD balanced mic cable you can use that for both guitar leads, patch cables AND speakers. Or get some cut Orange garden flex from B&Q.

Dave.

fretmeister

Most boutique cables are bollocks.
As long as the actual cable will take the required current and is constructed properly you are all good.

viz

ICBM said:

Two Neutrik NP2RXs and a metre of 2-core mains cable is all you need.

Lawnmower cable is the guitarist’s cable of choice. For some reason. 

Caffeine_Vampire

viz said:

ICBM said:

Two Neutrik NP2RXs and a metre of 2-core mains cable is all you need.

Lawnmower cable is the guitarist’s cable of choice. For some reason. 

It cuts through any mix.

BeardyAndy

ecc83 said:

"GIVE a man a fish...." Learn to solder! Speaker cables on jack plugs are about the easiest jobs to start on.

Yes, the initial investment is quite high but a very good Solder Station can be had for around a nifty. Check out "Dura Tool" at CPC etc. Some solder (Lead/Tin 60/40 if you can get it unless you want to start selling cables!) and a some very basic tools, pliers, wire cutters that you might already have. A 50mm vice that clamps to a table is invaluable.

Now I might get some stick for this but if you buy some HD ~6mm OD balanced mic cable you can use that for both guitar leads, patch cables AND speakers. Or get some cut Orange garden flex from B&Q.

Dave.

i am fairly handy with an iron, just would rather pay for a good one than mess about making one. I've remembered who it was now anyway, @loadedforbearaudio . 

ICBM

Caffeine_Vampire said:

viz said:

Lawnmower cable is the guitarist’s cable of choice. For some reason. 

It cuts through any mix.

I use old vacuum cleaner power cable - but you have to connect it the right way round or you get tone suck.












One of the above statements may be true .

Actually I use it because it's free, and it's grey - I don't like black because it's too easy to confuse with an instrument cable. I don't really like orange cable, but if I used Orange amps I would .

John_A

https://www.designacable.com/studio-leads-4/passive-speaker/2-pole-speaker-leads/touring-angled-jack-to-jack-speaker-lead-black-van-damme-cable-guitar-amp-cab-2x1-5mm-conductors.html

normula1

I use the cable from the irons my wife gender neutral household supervisor gets through on a regular basis as it generally looks quite pretty and nothing like my other leads.

robinbowes

ICBM said:

Two Neutrik NP2RXs and a metre of 2-core mains cable is all you need.

This.

I build them to order, but I don't make any extravagant claims.

I use Van Damme speaker cable, but decent jacks are the important thing.

R.

thomasw88

normula1 said:

I use the cable from the irons my wife gender neutral household supervisor gets through on a regular basis as it generally looks quite pretty and nothing like my other leads.

We've had one iron in the last 15 years.  What's she doing with them dude?

sev112

Anyone care to educate me as to why lawnmower and steam iron cable are the same as a speaker cable

the former would seem to transit current at 240v, whereas I don’t imagine such a current is flowing through to a speaker.  
Is it just extremely over designed when used as a speaker cable and therefore quality is maintained, lots of current headroom if you like?

Jonathangus

I think it's just that guitar cable isn't up to the job, and mains cable is cheaper than speaker cable.  Plus they look different from your guitar leads so you don't inadvertently connect your head and cab with a guitar lead.

robinbowes

sev112 said:

Anyone care to educate me as to why lawnmower and steam iron cable are the same as a speaker cable

the former would seem to transit current at 240v, whereas I don’t imagine such a current is flowing through to a speaker.  
Is it just extremely over designed when used as a speaker cable and therefore quality is maintained, lots of current headroom if you like?

It's all about current handling.

Speaker output is relatively high current, which is why signal cable is not suitable.

Mains cable is designed for higher current handling and so works just fine.

R.

TheBigDipper

robinbowes said:

sev112 said:

Anyone care to educate me as to why lawnmower and steam iron cable are the same as a speaker cable

the former would seem to transit current at 240v, whereas I don’t imagine such a current is flowing through to a speaker.  
Is it just extremely over designed when used as a speaker cable and therefore quality is maintained, lots of current headroom if you like?

It's all about current handling.

Speaker output is relatively high current, which is why signal cable is not suitable.

Mains cable is designed for higher current handling and so works just fine.

R.

And by current, you mean amps rather than volts, don't you? I was once told that I should think of electricity flow as being like a waterfall. The voltage was the waterfall height and the amperage was the amount of water flowing over it. A high waterfall with a trickle of water isn't anything like as dangerous (or cable-melting) as a lower waterfall with a huge amount of water coming over. 

Feel free to enlighten me and shoot this down if it's wrong - I'm just repeating what I've been told. 

ecc83

sev112 said:

Anyone care to educate me as to why lawnmower and steam iron cable are the same as a speaker cable

the former would seem to transit current at 240v, whereas I don’t imagine such a current is flowing through to a speaker.  
Is it just extremely over designed when used as a speaker cable and therefore quality is maintained, lots of current headroom if you like?

They are all suitably rated for speaker use. To be pedantic 240V does not "flow through" a cable it is the current in amps that 'moves'. Worse case speaker load would perhaps be 100W into 4 Ohms and here the current is a theoretical 5 amps. Same as a 1000W iron would pull and garden cable is generally rated at 6A.

But 100W into 4R 'guitar' would not be anything like 5A integrated over say ten seconds, just as well because many jacks are not rated that high! Anyone ever found a hot speaker plug?

In fact you could almost certainly get away with a regular, screened guitar lead even for the above scenario (maybe not a curly one!) and definitely for fewer watts and higher impedances.

Dave.

robinbowes

TheBigDipper said:

robinbowes said:

sev112 said:

Anyone care to educate me as to why lawnmower and steam iron cable are the same as a speaker cable

the former would seem to transit current at 240v, whereas I don’t imagine such a current is flowing through to a speaker.  
Is it just extremely over designed when used as a speaker cable and therefore quality is maintained, lots of current headroom if you like?

It's all about current handling.

Speaker output is relatively high current, which is why signal cable is not suitable.

Mains cable is designed for higher current handling and so works just fine.

R.

And by current, you mean amps rather than volts, don't you? I was once told that I should think of electricity flow as being like a waterfall. The voltage was the waterfall height and the amperage was the amount of water flowing over it. A high waterfall with a trickle of water isn't anything like as dangerous (or cable-melting) as a lower waterfall with a huge amount of water coming over. 

Feel free to enlighten me and shoot this down if it's wrong - I'm just repeating what I've been told. 

Yes, current == amps.

https://chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Analytical_Chemistry/Supplemental_Modules_(Analytical_Chemistry)/Electrochemistry/Voltage%2C_Amperage_and_Resistance_Basics

ICBM

ecc83 said:

But 100W into 4R 'guitar' would not be anything like 5A integrated over say ten seconds, just as well because many jacks are not rated that high! Anyone ever found a hot speaker plug?

You might be surprised, if some nutter is cranking out a fully overdriven Status Quo rhythm chord part... not much breathing space in there!

I have come across hot plugs, but only when used for bass at about 300W. Obviously 1/4" jacks shouldn't be used for that, but they are!

ecc83 said:

In fact you could almost certainly get away with a regular, screened guitar lead even for the above scenario (maybe not a curly one!) and definitely for fewer watts and higher impedances.

The only time I've seen one fail was a curly lead which had been used between a 100W (valve) bass head and a 4-ohm cab - luckily it melted and shorted rather than burning out, so it then just took out the HT fuse in the amp... no other damage. The owner didn't realise why, he thought the amp had blown up so badly it had melted the cable - he brought it to show me, which was a good thing as I then realised the cause of the problem and was able to educate him and sell him a nice heavy-duty speaker cable .