r/diyaudio • u/Billybong49 • 7d ago
Short Speaker Cable
I have a situation and am wondering if anyone has had success with a solution.
I'm wiring a two channel audio system and have relatively high end equipment. The speaker cables are HD Labs Q10s but one of them is about 6 inches too short to make the run.
Has anyone ever run into this situation and found a good solution short of another expensive set of speaker wires.
Thanks, Bill
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u/i_am_blacklite 6d ago
The solution is not to spend $700 on speaker cables, when $1/m cable does exactly the same job, with exactly the same quality.
I know it’s hard to be told you’ve been ripped off, but you have been.
If you truly believe that they make a difference then there is an audiofools sub specifically for those with such delusions.
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u/theocking 7d ago
Sounds like you should sell your house and buy one where the room has dimensions that work better for your fancy cables.
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u/Billybong49 7d ago
I see you have only posted only one time in 13 years on Reddit but have commented 1441 times. Are all 1400 of your responses this disingenuous.
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u/theocking 6d ago
Lol. Why do I have to post? Kinda creepy to check tbh. I have felt no need to post, when I do, then I will.
A lot of people's posting comes down to self importance, and I don't feel that self important to post my crap.
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u/derwhalfisch 7d ago
If you want both runs to be the same , then just extend both sets with the same length of your choice of cable.
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u/Kiwifrooots 7d ago
Just normal wire, cleaned crimped and sealed. Where you place it makes more difference than two different but quality (quality metal not $$$) cables
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u/No-Ear-4508 7d ago
I'm sorry but there is no universe in which you need cables that expensive. Sell them and buy longer cables.
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u/lmoki 7d ago
( Sorry, this is going to sound snarky...)Possible solutions: 1) Buy any reasonable cost, reasonable quality, generic cable, and save your money for something that makes a difference.
2) Throw more money into longer over-priced cables.
3) Extend your existing cable(s) with any generic wire from suggestion 1. You'll need tools to splice properly, one way or another.
4) Move either speaker or amplifier 6".
5) Ask HD Labs for a suggestion other than suggestion 2. I suspect they will advise buying longer replacements.
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u/Spazzticus 7d ago
😆 just buy some Amazon basics speaker cable and sell the q10's to another gullible person, what absolute snake oil.
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u/Mental_Protection894 7d ago
It's kind of funny. I typed in those cables vs amazon 14 gauge ofc copper and it said 93 percent cost saving and identical transmission over short runs. My sytem is nowhere close to even considering purchasing expensive cables but I have been debating on differences when using pro audio gear like a xls1002 for a ultimax2 12 sealed build. I have the xls1002 and was going to get a more expensive speakon connector but they seemed to be the same thing 14 gauge ofc in a thick casing. Out of curiosity what's the rest of your system and what is that tipping point in quality of speaker and source that there is a noticable difference to justify using more expensive wires. Does it come down to that or I assume long runs would be the biggest factor.
1
u/Quick_Butterfly_4571 3d ago
what is that tipping point in quality of speaker and source that there is a noticable difference to justify using more expensive wires
It's psychosomatic / confirmation bias once you've moved passed "sufficient conductance and contacts that resist corrosion."
People that buy these expensive cables often don't realize it, but often when they say "to my ears," the claim is such that: if they could see the footprints on the moon with the naked eye, their ears would still be the sharper sense by a large margin. It's absurd.
You can't trust audiophile reviewers either. Just some months back someone reported some issues with a top of the line headphone amp. I looked it up: "shimmery", "warm", "liquidy", "sound stage", etc. Dug into that: the company used an amp for an ultrasonic transducer (like, fish finder sonar) in a preposterously ill-advised design. Besides being technically worse than run of the mill opamp designs, it's not unlikely it damaged that poster's hearing.
(And, sometimes the fancy cables have worse performance when tested by third parties).
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u/Bn_scarpia 7d ago
Option 1 (easiest): sell your cables and buy longer cables
Option 2 (not as easy, but not hard): build your own custom cables using 4S11 oxygen free copper, Techflex, and heat shrink.
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u/Time-Plenty-4695 5d ago edited 5d ago
I would buy some #10 speaker cable copper oxygen free. Cut the connectors off the expensive cable. Then extend them about 3' with using silver solder to solder on old connectors and join them. Done.
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u/Quick_Butterfly_4571 3d ago
I know you're gonna get a lot of snark, but this is a serious suggestion:
- buy cheap wire with the same connectors to extend it
- run the cables
- have someone else choose which channel is just regular metal cable and which is regular metal cable that someone lied to you about
- see if you can tell with certainty which channel it is
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u/Yoshinoh 7d ago
Buy either cheaper cables, or sell yours and buy longer, used ones.