# DIY headphone cable



## gavinbirss

Hello,

 Has any one joined the CAT-5 speaker cable craze out there.

 I was thinking that a CAT-5 cable with stranded wire would make and ideal diy headphone cable for single entry headphones.

 The down side may be the weight.

 One might use four wires for ground and two for signal. The trick may be to use one out of each four pairs as ground and the remaining 2 wires per channel.

 I guess I will only try this when my cable breaks or if I am really bored.

 Gavin


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## blip

I haven't heard about CAT 5 being used... but you're right, it does sound like a decent idea!


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## JMT

Don't know about CAT-5 cable, but I built a couple of replacement cables for HD-590s using some Canare Microphone cable that seemed to work out pretty well. Since I don't own the HD-590 I am going by what the owners told me.


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## Ebonyks

I've used cat 5 on my beyerdyanmic 931's, and i remember it being colored, but sounded good


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## OogeleyBoogeley

i have used CAT5 cable in my speakers (cheaper optimus), and i think they sound great, compared to the crappy cable you buy elsewhere. my dad also uses them to power his klipsch klf-20's, with an antique sound labs amp. i also experimented with making an interconnect out of the stuff (extra laying around). i think it sounds fine, but i have never used it for my headphone cable.

 -dan


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## 4fatcatz

Just some of my experiences with cat5 cable and audio.

 1) Used various brading schemes for bi-wiring my Meadowlark
 Kestral II's...Not a bad cable at all. Ever so slightly lean but
 detailed without harshness. I lived with them for several
 months. Which is long for any audiophile.

 2) Same cat5 cable as above but used as a 3 ft pair of interconnects between my Rogue preamp and Rogue monoblock
 power amps....Bad, lack of bass. Cable had to much capacitance
 which caused the highs to roll off. Lasted about 3 or 4 hours
 in this mode.

 I quess you'll never know unless you try it but keep in mind
 this cable seems to have a high capacitance over longer runs.
 Keep us posted on your projects. Sometimes the greatest joy of any hobby is when things that arent supposed to work do.


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## hackeron

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *4fatcatz* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Just some of my experiences with cat5 cable and audio.

 1) Used various brading schemes for bi-wiring my Meadowlark
 Kestral II's...Not a bad cable at all. Ever so slightly lean but
 detailed without harshness. I lived with them for several
 months. Which is long for any audiophile.

 2) Same cat5 cable as above but used as a 3 ft pair of interconnects between my Rogue preamp and Rogue monoblock
 power amps....Bad, lack of bass. Cable had to much capacitance
 which caused the highs to roll off. Lasted about 3 or 4 hours
 in this mode.

 I quess you'll never know unless you try it but keep in mind
 this cable seems to have a high capacitance over longer runs.
 Keep us posted on your projects. Sometimes the greatest joy of any hobby is when things that arent supposed to work do._

 

Hmm, I'm thinking of doing something similar. When you used a cat5 between your Rogue preamp and monoblock, can you give some details what you did?

 Did you match the impadance of the cat5 to the impedance of your connectors? (100 ohms I believe).

 Also, how many pairs did you use? -- If I understand correctly, cat5 starts out at 24awg but loses 3 awg for every parallel wire - so ideally you want to use 2 pairs to get around 18awg to ensure there is no highs roll off and strong bass.

 Then if you are running close to AC or any transformer or other cable that have generate interference, you need to use a shield - I was thinking of using an FTP cable (cat-5 with a foil shield).


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## nickosha

I realized yesterday that I needed a 1ft interconnect so I was thinking about using some cat5 I have laying around. Using 1 of each pair for ground sounds like a good idea, but if anyone knows any guides or "best" ways of making it, it would be much appreciated.


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## FallenAngel

Not Cat5, Cat3 as Cat5 has different twisting intervals. I have used Cat3 speaker cables, they're actually quite nice but take a few days burn-in. I think I enjoyed them quite a bit.

 I would never use ethernet cable for anything except speaker wires.


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## hackeron

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *FallenAngel* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Not Cat5, Cat3 as Cat5 has different twisting intervals. I have used Cat3 speaker cables, they're actually quite nice but take a few days burn-in. I think I enjoyed them quite a bit.

 I would never use ethernet cable for anything except speaker wires._

 

What's wrong with cat5?


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## NightOwl

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *hackeron* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_What's wrong with cat5?_

 

As 4fatcatz said, the capacitance is high and may cause high frequency roll off. Using 2 pairs would actually increase the capacitance. The reduction in resistance would only benefit speaker cables. The increased capacitance has much less effect on speaker cables.
 As FallenAngel said, each of the four twisted pairs has a different twist length. This is good for reducing cross talk, but the pairs with the longer twist are more susceptible to rfi.
 The characteristic impedance of the cable is 100 ohms. I don't know if this would have an audible effect on single ended analogue signals, but it's not ideal for digital or balanced.
 They well may exist, but I'm not aware of any 100 ohm connectors.
 Most people that have tried Cat5 as an interconnect and written about it haven't liked it. YMMV.
 It _is_ highly recommended (with multiple pairs and much braiding) for use as a diy speaker cable.


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## NightOwl

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *gavinbirss* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Hello,

 Has any one joined the CAT-5 speaker cable craze out there.

 I was thinking that a CAT-5 cable with stranded wire would make and ideal diy headphone cable for single entry headphones.

 The down side may be the weight.

 One might use four wires for ground and two for signal. The trick may be to use one out of each four pairs as ground and the remaining 2 wires per channel.

 I guess I will only try this when my cable breaks or if I am really bored.

 Gavin




_

 

Using it the way you describe might lead to crosstalk and the introduction of rfi. I'd be inclined to take the Cat5 apart and try a single twisted pair (with the same twist length for each pair) for each channel.


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## Eric1110

I'm going for it. I'm going to try to recable with cat 5. The cable so far seems heavy.

 I'll let you know how it goes.


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## Eric1110

Ok. I just finished using Cat 5 cable recable my iGrado's. I can't believe how small the stock wire is on these headphones.

 So I used humble 0.21 cents (Canadian) a foot Cat 5 cable, i did use braided shielding but that shouldn't be need if you hook the twisted pairs up correctly. The braided shielding does add a lot of weight and expense to the cables. The whole thing is covered in nylon braid. I love the look. I almost want to recable my MS2s this way. 

 I am shocked! The improvement in bass and detail is amazing. It like the headphones are more agile with the music. I have to go listen.


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## ting.mike

I actually built a HD25-1 cable using AMP CAT6 cable (better spec than CAT5), and I like it so much more than the Headphile V2 cable. The soundstage increased considerably, and the presentation is much more neutral (vs. the front mids on the Headphile). 

 So, yes, CAT5 is a good idea. CAT6 is better though.


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## Bow to Ed

Hi all,
   
  I have looked into doing this with shredded CAT5 cable. I have, however, made an audio interconnect that's about 9" long terminated in two 3.5mm connectors. It picks up an annoying level of noise especially when I place my hand next to it. Still, that's a low-level signal wire sitting on a high-impedance input (1M resistor to ground and into the input of an op amp). I tried doing this mod with a pair of no-name headphones but ended up destroying the drivers with an over-zealous soldering iron.
   
  http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10001_10001_173164_-1
   
  Recently I re-cabled my Skullcandy GI headphones [1]. I used the wire listed in the above link, which is tin plated copper with PVC insulation, 100 feet for $10. When I made the wires, I placed the raw wire in a drill and tightened it to about 6 or 8 turns per inch. I haven't measured resistance or capacitance per foot here. This wire is not liquid-flexible but it is more so than the solid CAT5 UTP. Since it's a headphone cable (located in a low-impedance section of the amplifier) then the noise pickup is non-existent. I would highly recommend this wire for a re-cabling, especially if you are confident in your soldering skills or aren't afraid of ruining your cans. I hear more details in the audio than I did when the headphones used the multi-stranded magnet wire and I like the low frequency response I hear now. Maybe it's real and maybe not.
  
  Also, if you're trying to experiment with speaker cables, you could make flat cable using eight lengths of UTP. This 24 AWG wire has 0.205 square mm of cross-section area. With 16 AWG having an area of 1.31 square mm, eight pairs of wire overshoots that slightly, and can be laid flat, clamped every four to six inches with a plastic or wood clamp.
   
  I'm not claiming to be a transmission line expert or a master of audio engineering. I've tried something, it worked for me, I'm reporting my findings so someone else can give it a shot. Yes, I know that lengths of CAT5 cable can often be found for free in the trash.
   
  Ed


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## psonoda

Ok. So I am going to try to make a pair. I am using about 10 feet of cat 5. Actually two pieces so I have 4 conductors for each positive and negative. I am making a balanced cable for my HD 700. When I finish the cable I will try to measure the resistance, inductance and capacitance compared to stock cable.


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## wric01

psonoda said:


> Ok. So I am going to try to make a pair. I am using about 10 feet of cat 5. Actually two pieces so I have 4 conductors for each positive and negative. I am making a balanced cable for my HD 700. When I finish the cable I will try to measure the resistance, inductance and capacitance compared to stock cable.


How does it sound? i'm thinking making one too but rather than 4 conductors just one conductor each signal.


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## HiGHFLYiN9

There's different grades of Cat5 just like coax or lamp cord. The PTFE dielectric 24AWG Cat5 is usually pricier and more sought after for audio purposes. It works well as low-cost internal hookup wire for low-level power or signal. Bottlehead uses it in some of their pre-amps. I personally prefer other wire for audio purposes, but you could certainly do a lot worse. Many large gauge speaker cables come with PVC dielectric so the Ethernet cable should sound better.

Remember that doubling the amount of wiring increases the gauge size by 3. For example, 2 runs of 24 gauge in parallel would be the equivalent of 21 gauge, 4 runs would be 18 gauge, 8 runs would be 15 gauge, and so on. For a speaker cable with a + and - connection, you'd have to double this (a 15 equiv. gauge speaker cable would require 16 runs of 24 gauge, 8 for positive and 8 for negative). 

Typically speaker cables are anywhere from 9-18 gauge, more commonly 14-16.


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