Subwoofer Cable

Soldato
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I'm running cables in my house at the moment, and want to run some subwoofer cable in the wall, with sockets at either end.

Now, I'm running Webro WF100 for the TV, can I run this for the subwoofer, or do I need a specific grade of cable? It'll be around a 5-10m run.
 
Associate
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i did a test last weekend on a 10m cheap as chips cable (cheapest i could find with an rca connector at both ends c. £2.50) against a £60 v. thick cable and a mate and i could not discern any difference on the subwoofer track (all otherspeakers were silenced). We tested pop and rock and gladiator film.
tested on a b&w asw610 and something called a raelstorm or some such ..apparenty it was expensive a few years back
 
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Soldato
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I'd bung a phono cable on each end of a short length 1st to see if it'll work. if it does I can't see why not, though if it was me I would buy decent quality Subwoofer cable.

But what spec IS decent quality sub coax? I don't want terminated cable, as it's going to be terminated at wall plates.

I can't find any sites other than http://www.ehow.co.uk/way_5819144_diy-coaxial-subwoofer-cable.html which suggests RG6 is the usual cable; WF100 is better cable.

I've a QED subwoofer cable which is a lot thinner than the WF100 I have.
 
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speaker cable quality is 98% hog wash. do your own comparison if you dont have money to burn.

the rich buy dearest cos they want to be sure,
the poor can't afford to be that insecure

buy a cheap one, confirm it has done a good job and youve lost very little if you then decide you needed more expensive piece of mind.
 

Deleted member 651465

D

Deleted member 651465

Holy thread revival Batman!

@jellybeard999 Did you ever use the WF100 for the subwoofer cable?

Im currently wiring my parent’s house and have excess WF100 which I’m planning on using for the sub.
 

Deleted member 651465

D

Deleted member 651465

Thanks! I’d be interested to know what connectors you used and if you put a faceplate on the wall originally?
 
Soldato
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The key attributes for sub cable are shielding and flexibility. WF100 is really well shielded; much better than a lot of the dedicated sub leads on sale. However, it's very stiff. That makes it more difficult to handle, especially trying to bend it in the restricted space inside a single gang back-box. However, if you can do that without kinking the cable then it'll work really well and for relatively little money.

Shielding is really very important with low level signal cables, and particularly where you want the sub to be quiet (no hiss/hum) when awake but not playing, and also where you want the sub to wake from auto-standby reliably. These are areas where poorly shielded cables fall down. Having well shielded cable and then soldering it to the tags on the back of a phono wall plate is like having a great burglar alarm but then leaving the front door open. It compromises the effectiveness.

If the back-box is metal and the phono wall plate is metal too then they can act as an extension of the shielding which isn't so bad. But if you're mounting in to plasterboard with a plastic dry lining box and the faceplate is plastic too then the solder tags at each end of the cable run are potential weak points. Whether it becomes a problem depends then on how electrically noisy the room and house are. Lots of devices now use switch mode power supplies. They can be quite "dirty". There's also all the energy flying about in the form of radio transmissions from Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, normal radio, PLTs etc.

One answer is a wall plate with a phono socket back-to-back, but that then leaves you with the problem of how to terminate WF100 with a phono plug. It's do-able, but the catch is the length of the connection behind the wall plate; it fouls even the deepest back-boxes. A better solution is a wall plate with an F-type back-to-back. I know what you're thinking "This isn't an audio connector" but honestly, that doesn't matter. F-types work just as well for audio and much better than solder tag connectors. That's not the end of the story though...

Terminating WF100 with a screw-on F plug is a piece of cake. What's more, it maintains perfect shielding all the way to the tip of the lead. The other advantage is there's a nice littlie line-up of F-type adapters. This includes 90 degree F connectors and F-to-phono adapters. This makes the back of the wall panel connection much easier, and you could also use the same right-angle plug at the socket front to have the sub cable go down the wall rather than sticking straight out. You also get to use WF100 all the way to the sub for great shielding performance.
 
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