oxygen free speaker cable, suitable for car use?

hi,
daft question time again!

having just torn my workshop apart i've finally found my box with old amps, 3 way crossover etc. great but, no speaker wire.

despite doing this installation on a shoestring budget -got a holiday next week to pay for! - i want the best sound i can form what i have, in among all my bits and bobs i did find about 20ft of what i think is called 'oxygen free' speaker cable, I used it on my old roger audio stack system (why oh why did i sell it all... 25yr old and better than any modern stuff i'd had!) and it was fine but, is it suitable for using in the car?

i know the cable itself was extremely expensive at the time and is very good cable, i'm just not sure.

the crossover i plan to use is a kenwood item which requires the wires to be soldered to the terminals so, to make it easier to remove the sub (when the space is needed) i plan to solder short sections with gold phono connectors, is this all acceptable?

probably fine to use, just being cautious!

cheers,
Hugh

To me, "oxygen free" and "extremely expensive" both scream "snake oil".

Yes. It'll be fine. But you might want to sell it to someone who's looking for new and interesting ways to dispose of extra cash, use some of the proceeds to buy yourself some zip cable, and use the other 99% of it to fund your holiday.

ok, so extremely expensive was a strong term, i do remember it being about 5x the price of the stuff i used to usse though!!

if ya'll don't mind me asking, whats the supposed advantage of this cable then, and how how does it not short?

Hugh

It is slightly higher conductivity than regular copper wire but unless you've actually got test equipment connected to your cables, you're not going to be able to tell any difference since it is less than 1%.

I assume it has some sort of enamel layer.

thank you, no major advantage in using it then! well.. none other than i've got it and can use it!!

Are you intending to use what's in the photo per speaker (i.e. a + and -)? If so, I can't see how it can't short. I would assume that it's some sort of audiophile nonsense about having copper and whatever the silver material and that provides some sort of "best of worlds" bollocks.

From the photo there doesn't appear to be any sort of insulation and I'll be surprised if it worked previously with the two metal types split to provide the current path to and from the speaker.

The concept of oxygen free copper is that has basically the lowest resistance possible. In terms of speaker wiring it's unlikely to make noticeable difference and to some extent it's snake oil. But people believe just like they believe a $1000 power cord magically makes a home stereo sound better or a wooden volume control knob improves the sound.

hi Shonky,

one wire per speaker, seperate the colours and connect up!

i dunno how this stuff works, bought it via a pal who worked at a recording studio, apparently they used it on their monitor speakers.

it worked fine on my Rogers audio set-up, the speakers were also rogers studio monitor speakers rated i think 200w (8" bass, 4" mid + tweeter), absolutely crystal clear audio, i've never found anything as good since and regret selling it!

despite knowing it worked before, i'll run a meter over everything before i power up, just to be sure!

it looks very different to anything that maplins have on the shelf, when i bought this i'd never heard of oxygen free, now every audio shop i visited today had at least three choices of it!

thank for the info though.

Hugh


oh yeah, it doesn't solder, tried to solder it direct to the sub connections but it wouldn't have it!

ok, sussed the cable! the green and copper coloures strands are all coated, once the strands are separated into their respective colour, the coasting needs scraping off, i've done it with a blade and sandpaper, either way works but it's a bit time consuming! minimal loss over 3ft of cable so seems fine.

i might experiment with different ways of removing the coating, must be a quicker way! flame doesn't work, just makes em black and i still need to then clean them!

i'll leave it on the sub but won't bother with iton anything else.

the full installation will have to wait now as the empef won't fit in the hole!! i'll make another facia at some point so it will slide in. would rather do it proper when time allows than bodge it now!


Hugh

Weird. If you don't get the coating removed from each individual strand, you're not going to be transmitting the signal using the whole cable.

You might want to search around for how to strip magnet wire, which is what those strands appear to be.

Just buy some new, cheap, speaker cable. It will sound just the same and save you a lot of hassle.

just what i was thinking, took a little while to clean it off to my satisfaction. i'll have a nose about.




i'm gonna do just that when i fit the speakers and empeg. just putting the amps, sub and crossover etc in for now, then a simple quick route and connect when the new speakers and empeg go in.