Cable Projects

While I have made some cables before, including Speaker, RCA, and XLR, I have not made any lately. As well my earlier attempts were more of a practice. With the system updates coming this summer (2026), I decided to make some new cables, as I will re-arranging the system on the new rack, and getting the new speakers. Gnerally making some custom length cables.

I wanted to make a set of "good" cables, that were neither flashy, nor overly expensive. With good results from the Duelund speaker cables, in the past, I wanted to create a pair of cables using tinned copper stranded wire. No techflex, and minimal markings. Just bare cable exterior, and enough shrink wrap to tell right from left, and directionality.

Somewhere between 1 and 2 meters in length, check. I did choose to use shielded cable, and would only connect the shield to ground at the source end. That required being able to mark the cables right and left, and which end was either the source, or the destination. I put an extra piece of clear shrink wrap on the source end. The same cable will be used for RCA, XLR, and Phono cables. The shielding was different for all 3 of these cable types.

After some searching, I picked the Duelund 12g speaker wire and the Belden 8402 interconnect cable. The Duelund was purchased as a 2 conductor set, meaning 2 individual wires, each covered with waxed cotton, together in another layer of waxed cotton. The Beldon cable has 2 conductors of stranded, tinned, copper wire, surrounded with a cotton stuffing, and stranded wire shielding. Other options would include coaxial cable, or "quad" cable with 4 conductors +/- shielding. The quad is great for interference rejection, but much harder to work with, to me. My reading said to avoid bulk cable with foil shielding.

Duelund Dual DCA12GA Series (2x12) ($33/meter)

Belden 8402 20 AWG stranded (26x34) high-conductivity TC conductors, EPDM rubber insulation, rayon braid, TC braid shield (85% coverage), cotton wrap, CSPE - Brown Chlorosulphonated Polyethylene jacket.    (dimension 0.263" O.D. (6.7mm)) (price was $5.30 per foot, with a 10 foot minimum)

Plug options. Again, I did not go overboard on this build. Standard, simple plug, no exotics.

KLEI Classic Harmony Banana Plugs ($99/set) (I had obtained this set a few years ago, but did not update the cables at that time)

Switchcraft 3502ABAU Long Handle RCA Plug (Male), Gold Plug, Black Handle ( 4 each @ $6.20 )

Switchcraft AAA3MZ XLR plugs - silver (AAA3FZ for the female) (5 pair @ 12.75)

Shrink Wrap - 3/8 inch red and black, and 1/2 inch clear (clear marks the source)

Fairly easy projects, as long as you do your research, stay calm, and take your time. Teasing out the connectors, shield, and stuffing materials is a bit tedious. And, in general, this is a small thing, with limited space to work in. Also, its worth the 5-10 minutes to break out the digital multimeter, and confirm both that the connections are solid from pin to pin, and shell to shell, AND, that there is no short in the cable. Testing the pin to the ground should show open circuit.