Twisted Pair Audio
Feb/100
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Can you make your high end audio speaker cables longer by twisting two pairs together?
I'm moving my speaker to a new location and it seems the lenght of cable is just a little short. I was considering buying a few more feet and just twisting the cables together. Is this okay? If I do do this is there a best way to go about it or should I just buy a whole new cable length?
It is far better to simply pick up the proper length of cable.
Speaker cable is not a very technical thing. The terminations, however, are. This is where your problems happen. You never want to have extra terminations in the path, ESPECIALLY on long runs.
Not only is it likely to cause more audible problems, it is plainly unsafe. I'll tell you why.
You are making a longer run. You are not running the cable through a wall, because if you were, you wouldn't be considering this. This means you are running the cable in the living space of the room, possibly behind furniture, where dust collects, and people tend to clean by shoving vacuum attachments in the offending space. It is also likely you have a carpet in that room, and will simply drape the cable across it.
This is NOT where you want a bunch of electrical tape as the only protection from a short. Electrical tape is useful for odd crafts and things around the house, or for quick emergency repairs, but it is NOT cool to use this as your primary means of insulation. This is a hack job, and hack jobs are never cool.
Go down to the store and buy the right length of speaker cable. Or order it online and pay far less for a better cable than the store carries. Bluejeans Cable on the net has great cable stock at great prices, and it is American made.
Don't be lazy about things like this. Keep the cable you have, as you may need it again in the future, and purchase the proper length for your current needs. Always go one gauge larger than you think you need, just to be safe. The minimum is simply not enough, and you want to exceed that minimum. This is because you aren't going to sit down and calculate it properly. You should, but you aren't going to.
If you decide in the future that you simply MUST connect two speaker cables for one reason or another (and there is never a good reason to do this), split the two cables down the middle a ways, so you now have four wires to connect. Strip the insulation off of all four wires between 1/2 inch and an inch back, more for a heavier gauge, less for a lighter gauge.
Slide a length of larger heat shrink tubing (large enough to cover everything tightly when shrunk, and long enough to keep it all paired together properly) over one of the cables, so it is passed over both of the wires that make up that cable. Pull it out of the way down the cable.
Pass two further lengths of this tubing over that same cable, but shorter lengths, no longer than one inch.
Now take two lengths of smaller heat shrink tubing (small enough to tightly cling to a single wire when shrunk, but large enough to cover a joint between two wires), and pass them down over two of the four wires, and pull them out of the way.
Now, depending on your level of skill, either splice the respective wires with a very tight weave, or lay them right alongside each other tightly. Do not twist them together. Solder them by heating the wire and letting the solder wick into the joint. Make sure you have a silvery joint. If it is dull, you have burned the joint, and it will not work properly.
Now shrink the two lengths of smaller tubing over the two joints with a heat gun or a carefully placed lighter. Have patience, and do not burn the tubing. Then, shrink the two larger lengths of tubing away from the joint, but close enough to be covered by the lengthy piece of heat shrink tubing with a half inch extra on either side. Then, shrink the long piece of tubing over the entire assembly, making it one cable again.
What you have now, is a proper joint, with a high degree of electrical contact. Furthermore, the joint is properly protected, and stress-relieved so it will not fail easily even with rough handling.
Read all of that several times while looking at two cables until you get it. That is the way this is properly done. If you feel like you absolutely have to use electrical tape, place the tape over all of this.
If you want to go completely over the top, and earn extra credit for creativity and ridiculous nature, and in the process, learn just the sorts of silly (and slightly logical things) those million dollar cable manufacturers do for all that money:
Place another tube of heat shrink over that joint. Then, take a rubber coated spring, and wind it tighter at the ends, so that it fits tightly over the stress relieving bits of tubing at either end of the joint. Fit this over the joint, and shrink a piece of tubing over this as well. Kudos if the heat shrink tubing is some fancy color, like blue or red.
Congratulations, you have just created a high end audio cable. 
Now go charge someone 500 dollars for it.
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