Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Advice on making own SpeakerLink cable

Hi all,

I just purchased some 5200SEs. More on that in a future post. For now I am going to make a SpeakerLink cable using supra cat 8 wire and telegartner RJ45s.

What I am curious about is has anyone tried different possibilities for the braided shield, options are:

- Braid to connector both ends
- Braid on one end only
- Don't use the braid at all.

Not sure how much a difference any of this makes... The standard cat 5 UTP cable sound fine...

Thanks,
Ian S

I have tested a number of Ethernet Cables:

Audioquest
Chord
Meridian SpeakerLink
No name UTP
No name STP

Audioquest and Chord are expensive.

I could hear an improvement if the Cable was unshielded or not but all shielded Cables sounded very good.

Thanks for confirming That shielded is the way to go.

Hi,

If you are interested in making your own SpeakerLink cable, you may want to review this thread.

SpeakerLink used as Digital Out

Based on this information, I had once made (not myself, but asked one of the professional cable makers to make one for me).

My own cable that had some serious shielding and high-end material (silver&gold) only on 7th and 8th cables, as these were the ones that carry signal for sound ... and I believe it worked quite well. But of course, I was trying to connect my MS200 - Reviver - DSP6000.2 (Legacy) and I am not sure if other application of SpeakerLink cables works the same way.

You may want to dig around this forum for more info.

Hope this helps~

Out of interest, is your main motivation the satisfaction of making the cables or an attempt at improving SQ?

You would probably gain far more from room treatment than from any cable tweaks.

Meridian specify a minimum standard of Cat 5/6 STP.

Having BTDT with this, my experience is it does make a difference between shielded cables, but nothing huge.

In the end, I've come back to Meridian's own 'flat' Speakerlink as the best all round sounding cable for this application. I know they did listening tests of a bunch of cables at the time and chose that for its sound quality as well as technical merits.

Speakerlink Datasheet
Photos, etc.

It also has the benefit of being very flexible and easy to hide.

I do wish they would make a 2.5 or 3 metre length, though, as the gap between 1m and 5m is probably where the most common length needed for SL -> Speaker runs lie in the average British lounge.

Good questions.

In safety critical applications where ground resistance may vary between individual elements of a common network, it has been proven that overall screening continuity may not be advisable.

The use of the so called "Labyrinth Principle" providing overall screening connection at only one end of a connection and providing ground disconnection between different elements of a network may be beneficial.

However, I do not think that this applies here.
Hector

How's the pricing on the M flat cable? I need a longer run to go from the router to my nucleus and when I asked on another forum what would be suitable for a 20' run I was told to go wireless! With luck some will be on sale at axpona tomorrow.

Meridian flat cable come in pre terminated lengths.5m is $300.00 and 10m is $400.00 msrp

Ian,

Have you made custom built SL using supra cat8? If so, can you share how you like the SQ.

Thank you.

Hi Cujo,

The custom SpeakerLink cable you built what cable brand were you using? Is it bulk cable? Can you share how I can buy one?

I’d appreciate if you can PM me for the source of your purchase.
Thanks!