Can we use the UTP-CAT6 cable as internal speaker wire? (nor CAT5)

3 sizes of Cat6 , 2 links methods , measure , conclusion , donations

an example of Category 6 cable, UTP

Category 6 cable?

  NONE ETHERNET CABLE CAN BE USED FOR POWER SUPPLY, NEVER FOR 115V OR 230V SUPPLY CABLE.

  After this we must first focalise on 1 cable among the 100 and more used in the Ethernet links. We speak about the Category 6, UTP, Solid Conductor, Plenum (CMP), not others. Only for example see this .pdf, or one of the better, the 7927a.

  Be careful, we are speaking about registered and copyrighted cables similar of this one! Buy only cables with E-Spline Center Member, not a cheep clone.

  So many, too many websites describe DIY construction of speaker cables with CAT5, NOT good, too thin with wires, too much capacitance between conductors. Also, the absence of the cross separator in the centre means that as you bend the cable it loses "configuration", please DO NOT use it.

3 size of Category 6 cable

  Select among others the form of cable, on the figure above, unshielded, without the wire n.9 for earth, with only one jacket, we can make a pass in some cable sellers to find the size of wires.

There are 3 sizes:

• 25 AWG, 0.163 mm², for patch cord, stranded (poor for us)
• 24 AWG, 0.205 mm², solid cores, plain cable (good but, see figure below)
• 23 AWG, 0.259 mm², solid cores, plain, (better)

  There are some urban legends about the Cat6-Awg22, but this size is out of standard format for Ethernet cables. Really exist one awg22 but is for CAT7 to obtain long path at 10Gbits, a completely different cable, full shielded, etc. Or you can buy some fake as cat6-solid-wire-bulk-cable-gay-cat6-22awg, but if you read accurately the specifications this is an awg24!

see colors, with blue and green in opposition

Speaker cables?

  Probably there are 10 books and 46.900.000 pages on Google with text on speaker cables, can we write more? Fortunately Wikipedia exist and I can suggest reading this page. Or the beautiful Wirebusters of Roger Russel.

  Remember the cable NOT SOUND but an electrically wrong cable con IMPAIRS the sound (probably a very bad choice can destroy the source with parasitic oscillation, or similar one).

What's a best speaker cable must have?

• low resistance, better if constant on the length; lower of 0.01ohm/m
• low capacitance, better if not influenced by bending, or twist; lower of 100pF/m
• low inductance, better if not influenced by cable bending or proximity; lower of 0.5µH/m
• high quality, and constant, conductors materials; as Al, Ag or Cu
• to reduce the skin-effect, some wires in place of one with same size
• proper impedance similar to load, to avoid the same problem of antenna link, power transmitter, etc.
• none chemical interaction of the wires with the insulation, after years and years

  After this the CAT6, 23AWG have all of previous characteristics, so it is a very good wire for cabling inside a speaker. Into a speaker we have bending, sometimes the cables are bound together and twisted, but are short, probably none speaker have a cable 1m long inside.

Two method to link wires

  If you have 8 wires, with 8 colors, and must obtain only 2 there are more and more methods. But the CAT6 have a plastic cross inside and it is the difference, superiority, among other CAT cables. We must use this feature to build our cable.

better description of colors

First we must de-twist the 4 cables for 30 or 40 mm to obtain 8 single wires, and cut the plastic cross leaving 5 mm out. After look at figure 1, above, there are only 2 valid methods, and 1 stupid, to link wires:

1. in cross mode, whitebrown+brown+whiteorange+orange to (-); and of course whiteblue+blue+whitegreen+green to (+)
2. all whites together to obtain the negative {or whitebrown+whiteblue+whiteorange+withgreen to (-)}; and of course all colors together to obtain the positive {or brown+blue+orange+green to (+)}
3. the stupid link, whitebrown+brown+whitegreen+green to (-); and whiteblue+blue+whiteorange+orange to (+)

  The first use the plastic cross to build a cable similar to famous Monster Cable 304 XLN, or Van den Hul The SuperNova, or Cardas Quadlink.

  The second trial to minimize the inductance, but probably the capacitance rising.

  The stupid link builds a simple cable with one wire of 1mm² for side.

Measured cable

  To check this type of cable I use 4 meter of the "QUBIX by CCS R6UT4Y23 U/UTP 4P 23AWG 100Ohm CAT.6 ISO/IEC 11801 EN 50288-6-1 CMX 75ºC 575 47/11", see the following photo

4m of Qubix Cat6, UTP, 100ohm, 4x2x23awg, used for the following measures

  Why 4 meters of cable in place of 1? Probably 1m have so little R, L, and C to fall outside the limits of many and many instruments. 10 meter is probably too long, and with some other effects, act as radio antenna, or similar one.

Measured R

  First the resistance, using 4 wires of 23awg for one pole we obtain 0.259x4 = 1.036 mm², seem too little for a speaker cable, but we use only "inside" the speaker.

  The Agilent 34401a, 6+1/2 digit multimeter have the function NULL to remove the resistance of leads, so with 2 banana plugs and 5 cm of heavy cable is possible to remove the resistance of plugs and socket, after we can tighten the Cat6 on the banana and wrap the other side. See the figure below.

measured R for 4m of CAT6, UTP, in withes-mode, and of course in CC

  So 4m of our cat6 show 0.140 ohm. If you like to repeat the measure with other AWG remember to use almost 4 or 5 meters, solder one of the sides of the cable and use a meter with NULL function (or with 4 wires leads).

  I test the 3 previous link methods but, as expected, all give the same ohms, from 0.142 to 0.143, probably into the error of instrument.

Measures C

  To measure capacitance probably others use a simple LCR meter, but all of those instruments use 1 single frequency or 2 for large scale.

  Accounting this cable is produced to be used in MHz range and we use in Hz-KHz range, probably is better make a frequency scan.

from Italy, the incredible ZRLC meter of Nuova Elettronica, kit LX-1746

  This is an incredible complex measure instrument, with more and more calibration, but probably all the work is done by software, from PhD. Alfredo Accattatis, today at Rome3 University. You can find description of Visual Analyser Project, and software at Sillanumsoft.org.

  For calibration you must find some R, L, C with certified values "near" the values to be measured, almost 1% or better 0.5% of tolerance. Mouser, RS, Distrelect have, but expensive.

  Unfortunately at time of writing, march 2017, only the 2011xe version of Visual Analyser work well with the LX-1746, after calibration I measure the following.

2 different links methods (see text) for 4m of UTP, CAT6-23awg. The estimated L.O.D. vary from 2 to 4 pF for my LX1746

  As expected the cross configuration (n.1 in previous) have about half of capacitance of "all whites" methods. A value of 400pF for 4m of cables is interesting (and coherent with the data sheet of producer) for a cable inside the speaker.

Re-measures R

  Having the LX-1746 probably is better check if the 2 different methods, cross vs whites, show different resistance. Theoretically we must not measure differences, almost at so low frequency.

frequency scan for 4m of UTP, CAT6-23awg. Measured R is in accord with Agilent meter. The L.O.D. can be estimated at 0.1 ohm

Measures L

  To measure inductance I use the same LCR-USB meter. For calibration, is difficult find inductance for low frequency and with 2% or 5% tolerance, my lower value is 10µH, 5% so probably the is some errors on 1µH measure!

L (µH) for 4m of UTP, CAT6-23awg, the low and high Hz values suffer of errors from measuring alligators. LOD of 0.3 µH for my LX1746

  I use the leads and alligators supplied with instruments, probably with a shielded cable we can obtain better results at high and low frequency. Contrary as expected the cross configuration (n.1 in previous) have not double values of "all whites" methods. The values are very low for a speaker cables, good.

  To repeat these measures of R and L remember to solder one side of the cable (not necessary with Pb-Sn-Ag alloy!).

Conclusion

  With the aids of XRLC meter and Visual Analyser software we can conclude with some statements:

1. the CAT6 cable can be used as internal speaker cable
2. the CAT6, better if 23AWG is a top quality cable as internal speaker wire, following the obtained measures
3. the best method to link the 8 wires is cross, or type 1 in previous. Low pF and only a little more µH of other links method
4. probably the CAT6 cable can be used as external cable in biwiring only IF the amplifier is just behind the speaker, up to 1m length for high and 1m for low frequency
5. there is Cu and Cu, but this cable, really inexpensive, have top quality copper, have best and stable insulation material inside. The quality is often better of some expensive and/or fake cables
6. unfortunately, CAT6 and CAT5 cables CANNOT be used as speaker cables since the cable is often 3 metres or more long. The capacity is too, too high and the resistance is also high for only 3 metres.

  If you like you can download the CAT6-AWG23-4m-speaker.XLS file with all values and compare with your measures.

  A problem! The solid core cut itself when bending if you engrave or scratch the copper surface when remove the insulation (as a glass). You can use the thumb nail or some plastic scissor for this.

Donations if you have a Bitcoin wallet

  If you have a nice fat wallet you can send a few cents to this code 1ETv1mJTZTB7EiXwZkucF2BTA512Rkaw6 maybe with a message (be careful to the transaction cost, send 0.1 and pay 0.01 is not a good idea).

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Donations if you have not a Bitcoin wallet

  If you like this work and measures you can make a small donation of Bitcoin. You do not need a wallet to make a donation, indeed even those who have Bitcoin wallet is better to pass for a web site that "gift" currency since this does not have a transaction cost.

  To make a donation you must use some of your web-time on a Bitcoin Faucet, please go to Kickasstraffic.com, enter my code 1ETv1mJTZTB7EiXwZkucF2BTA512Rkaw6 into empty cell and press "Start Earning", a new sub-page appear, do not touch other then the last 2 buttons in lower right corner "Surf Ads" and "Active Window Ads".

  If appear a tweet asking to register use the lower right corner button "Close", solve the Captcha and proceed. Of course any next page if different but I suggest you to stay more time possible reading pages and advertisement to produce Bitcoin (1/100000 I suppose) for me.

  Be careful, do not use roulette, dices, casino and other stealing web site, as claim of supposed infection. We use Kaspersky Free Antivirus by 2 years without problems.

1ETv1mJTZTB7EiXwZkucF2BTA512Rkaw6    <== my code , Thank you.

           
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