[jrocks29ms@gmail.com]

Hey ya’ll,
I’m wondering what the actual length of the speaker cable would be if you unwound it. How much is lost by the spiral braiding?

Say for a 8 foot cable.

[NoahH]

Depends how much you compressed it and the crossing angle of the wires. If you compressed it to a 90 degree crossing (mine is pretty close to that, then it is just triangle inequality to get it.

90 degree crossing implies the wire is angled 45 degrees off o a straight line. The straight line distance is 8 feet. That means sqrt(8^2 + 8^2) or sqrt(128), which is just over 11 feet.

That is per strand of course.

[Freo-1]

This B-24?   (Just kidding)


 

[Tyson]

Depends how much you compressed it and the crossing angle of the wires. If you compressed it to a 90 degree crossing (mine is pretty close to that, then it is just triangle inequality to get it.

90 degree crossing implies the wire is angled 45 degrees off o a straight line. The straight line distance is 8 feet. That means sqrt(8^2 + 8^2) or sqrt(128), which is just over 11 feet.

That is per strand of course.

You are right, 11 feet get you around 8 feet if you compress it a lot.  And it sounds best the more it's compressed (IME).

[jrocks29ms@gmail.com]

So I was inspired to do some measurements with the spare 2 feet of cable I had lying around 26.5” measured 30.5” after unwinding and straightening.
Roughly 115%.
8’ then is roughly 9.2’

[NoahH]

So I was inspired to do some measurements with the spare 2 feet of cable I had lying around 26.5” measured 30.5” after unwinding and straightening.
Roughly 115%.
8’ then is roughly 9.2’

How do you define 2' here? Was it compressed with rope in it already, or no core and pulled straight?

[Hobbsmeerkat]

Out of curiosity, what would the point be of un-braiding the strands?
Simply to gain more length?

The braided geometry is important to the filtering and RF rejection, and removing the braid removes those benefits.

[corndog71]

You could make a nice pair of interconnects with that spare wire.  3-wire or 4-wire braids.

[mick wolfe]

Out of curiosity, what would the point be of un-braiding the strands?
Simply to gain more length?

The braided geometry is important to the filtering and RF rejection, and removing the braid removes those benefits.

Exactly. Braiding has a design benefit that far outweighs fretting over a couple extra feet of wire.

[jrocks29ms@gmail.com]

Y’all misunderstand I unbraided some spare cable I had left over from my speaker cable build. I was curious what percentage of length was added per foot by the braid.

[jrocks29ms@gmail.com]

Noah- The 2 feet had at one point had the rope inserted into it. It was cut. The diameter of the two feet was roughly the same as a constructed cable with the rope inside it. Again the actual length of the strands of a constructed B-24 cable is roughly 115% of the total length. (There will be some variance in the total depending on how long your termination legs are.

[Danny Richie]

When we feed a rope through the core it takes up another 20% of the length. I am sure the braiding itself sucks up close to that too.

[jrocks29ms@gmail.com]

The measurements of the braided wire had already had the rope placed inside it. So it was stretched to that diameter and maintained it after it was removed.
So the approximate 115% longer measurements are valid compared to the length of the speaker cable, but only once the rope is inside. This is the comparable length considering both the braid, and the increased diameter to accommodate the rope.