Members GUITKRAZY Posted June 15, 2007 Members Share Posted June 15, 2007 I build all of my instrument cables- I buy bulk Cable and have the 1/4" ends- I am in need of replacing my Monitor speaker cables(I need to get two 25' cables)- and I have 50' of Microphone Cable (that I really do not have a use for) It is three conductor (2 shielded wires and a braided ground) I am wondering- If I used the two shielded cables (Positive and grnd) and just bypassed the braid- could I use that as speaker cable? I am powering the monitors off of my Mackie 408 (250w) Please let me know what you think! Thanks as always! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members W. M. Hellinger Posted June 15, 2007 Members Share Posted June 15, 2007 I build all of my instrument cables- I buy bulk Cable and have the 1/4" ends- I am in need of replacing my Monitor speaker cables(I need to get two 25' cables)- and I have 50' of Microphone Cable (that I really do not have a use for) It is three conductor (2 shielded wires and a braided ground) I am wondering- If I used the two shielded cables (Positive and grnd) and just bypassed the braid- could I use that as speaker cable? I am powering the monitors off of my Mackie 408 (250w) Please let me know what you think! Thanks as always! Probably a bad idea. Your mic cable is possibly approx. 22 gauge. 22 gauge cable is suitable for somewhat less than 5 amps of current depending on the type of conductors, insulation, etc... I believe 5 amps of current carrying capacity is good for about 225 watts with an 8 ohm speaker load. 25ft. 22ga. two conductor cables will have approx. 3.5 ohms resistance, which will increase an 8 ohm speaker load to approx. 11.5 ohms as far as the amp is concerned, which will make your 250w Mackie perform like an 175w amplifier. If the mic cable is 24 ga., then I believe the current carrying capacity will be about 100 watts with 8 ohm speakers and would add about 5 ohms resistance per 25ft... which means your 250w Mackie could possibly melt the mic cable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GUITKRAZY Posted June 15, 2007 Author Members Share Posted June 15, 2007 Thanks- The more I thought about it- I realized the gauge is definately much lighter than what speaker cables are- Oh well, I guess I will have to buy some speaker cable! Thanks again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TimmyP Posted June 16, 2007 Members Share Posted June 16, 2007 In addition, some amps will go nuts when driving speaker cables of such high capacitance. Get raw cable from http://www.cameltraders.com/search.php?type=40&manufacturer=&keyword=, or ready-made cables from audiopile.net Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author Craig Vecchione Posted June 16, 2007 CMS Author Share Posted June 16, 2007 Thanks- The more I thought about it- I realized the gauge is definately much lighter than what speaker cables are- Oh well, I guess I will have to buy some speaker cable! Thanks again! Just get some 16/2 SJOW at Home Depot. I think the jacket will fit most 1/4" plug barrels, and definitely fits the 'jumbo' type barrels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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