Update...
Well I decided I really want to get into some floor standing speakers, and I was planning to buy one of these, based on recommendations here:
Von Schweikert VR-2
Soliloquy 5.3i, 6.2i, 6.3i
Spendor s6e, s8e
Joseph Audio RM25si
Paradigm Studio 100 v2s
ProAc (dunno)...
...but I ended up buying a pair of Tyler Taylo 7Us. They certainly look like a nice speaker, and I think it was a good price and close enough to pick up, so I bought 'em. (Unheard
, but I read good things...
) I'll be picking them up later this week.
* * *
I'm going to try making some speaker wire from stripped CAT5 cable. I've got several hundred feet of left-over Cat5e, and lucky me, it's polyolefin insulated solid core. I read that FEP (i.e. Teflon, e.g.
Belden 1585A) is a better choice, but that polyolefin works ok too. (PVC or stranded wires are not recommended, apparently).
I found good info
here,
here and
here. I'm going to build my own variation of a bi-wire setup like this:
bass: (2x) Litz braids of 4 twisted pairs (16 x 24 awg = ~12 awg)
(skyskraper: "far left over the two in the middle and then under the right. repeat to infinity.") treble: (1x) Litz braid from 4 twisted pairs (8 x 24 awg = ~18 awg)
...above 3 braided together (simple braid),
covered with
TechFlex PET2-C,
TechFlex 3-to-1 heat shrink on the ends to hold the weave in place, and
terminated with Ratshack #316A blade ends and a bit of Kester 63/37.
From what I read, this
should work pretty well. In any case, it'll keep me busy for a bit...
- Dave
[edit: added some links]