Alright friends, time for another fun and easy audiophile craft project! 🙂
Among the cables we use in audio, I would argue it's most fun fooling around with speaker cables as a DIY project. This is not necessarily because it "sounds different" (after all, this recent blind test didn't show a difference between $27 12AWG OFC zip cord and a $20k Gryphon set as discussed here, right?).
No friends, within reason, speaker cables have never really been proven to sound all that different from each other unless there are clear effects designed into them (stuff like the MIT cables with "articulation control" filter box come to mind). Rather, these are "fun" to make if you have time because you and your visitors can see the cables. A nice looking, relatively thick set can look impressive compared to generic thin wires. While we might measure and find good numbers, or subjectively hear nice-sounding music regardless, appearances cannot be underestimated in the world of the audiophile; after all that's been said and done, we don't need to pretend that it's all for improving sound quality, right? 😉
And so, for fun and curiosity, I found the Canare 4S11G which is the Oxygen-Free Copper (OFC) variant of the well-known 4S11. Many cables claim to be OFC, but the conductor here is certified Japanese Industrial Standard JIS-H-3510.
I reached out to AVshop.ca here in Canada and grabbed 25' (CAD$3.16/ft or just less than USD$2.50/ft) of this wire to play around with. Here's the result of a little DIY, what I'll call my "RED DRAGON" speaker cables. Because red is cool and dragons are auspicious and marketing departments seem to think "mythical creatures" cables 😯 appeal to audiophiles: